| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | 1961 |
| Release Notes | First widely-marketed edition |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: In 1960, Games Research acquired the rights to Diplomacy and brought about the first major (meaning widespread) release of the game. The box was redesigned from Calhamer’s self-published version, but I am not aware of any differences among the map or rules between this version and Calhamer’s 1959 version. There is a plastic cover over the compartments that hold the wooden pieces, to prevent them from getting scattered in the box when transported. This edition came with a sheet that looks like a hand-typed sheet which had a summary of the rules of Diplomacy, and is dated 1960. The first Games Research edition was not released until 1961, which is the copyright date on the rulebook.Prior to Games Research buying the rights to Diplomacy, Calhammer had had 5000 gameboards printed up for the sets he was marketing. He had used up roughly 400 of them when Games Research purchased the rights to Diplomacy. The remaining gameboards were transferred to Games Research, so the first sets they sold contained a gameboard that is marked with “Copyright 1959, Allan B. Calhamer” in the legend in the lower right corner.The cardboard insert in the box for this edition was a light blue. Although there is no image of this set, it looks essentially the same as the next one below other than the color of the insert (which is white in the next variation). | |
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| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1961 and 1970) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This variation is the same as the previous one except that the color of the cardboard insert in the game box has been changed from blue to white. | |
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| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | Unknown (between 1961 and 1970) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: Once Games Research ran out of the gameboards that Calhamer had transferred to them, they printed up their own gameboards which were marked “Copyright 1961, Games Research Inc.” in the legend in the lower right corner. Otherwise, this variation is identical to the previous one. | |
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| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | 1970 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: As a result of a growing play-by-mail Diplomacy hobby, and due to efforts of Fred Davis, Jr. and Rod Walker, starting in 1970 a PBM information flyer was added to Diplomacy games being sold. The flyer in this variation included contact names and addresses for people interested in getting into PBM Diplomacy. This addition shows the influence of the hobby on Avalon Hill, though it also made sense as a business decision; endorsing and encouraging the play-by-mail Diplomacy hobby was a good way to sell more games. The copy of the game that I came across did not have a diplomacy rules summary sheet, so I am not sure if this variation came with one or not. | |
| Images: None available, but similar to the previous set. |
| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | 1972 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: The original rules to the game had a number of ambiguities that left rules open to interpretation (which might vary from one player to another). Some of the more common interpretations were named after prominent players at the time. As a result of feedback from the Diplomacy hobby, in 1971 the rules to Diplomacy were revised. The rulebook in this edition of the game includes the revised rules and has a copyright of 1971 (with a cover that is a slightly darker shade of gray).This edition also includes two other sheets, one having the heading of “INDEX AND SUMMARY OF THE RULES OF DIPLOMACY” (undated) and the other “* PLAY DIPLOMACY BY MAIL *”. In this edition, the rules summary sheet does not have a copyright date as the 1961 edition had. I am not sure whether the two summary sheets are identical. The PBM information sheet is dated 1972, not 1970 as the one in the 1970 edition was. I have not made a comparison of the two PBM sheets, but since the date was updated, I assume they are not the identical (most likely some of the contacts changed). Incidentally, the first time I saw these hand-typed-looking sheets, I thought they had been added by the original owner of the game who might have used them with gamer friends or gotten them from a zine. After seeing them appear in other copies of the game, including one of the Canadian editions, it was clear that they actually came with the game. | |
| Images: None available, but similar to the earlier sets. |
| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | 1974 |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: Starting in 1974, Games research got rid of the two sheets that looked hand-typed (see description of previous set), rewrote the text, and replaced them with sheets that actually looked printed. The Play Diplomacy by Mail sheet can be seen in the image below. The other sheet (not shown in the image below) was now called “Diplomacy Basic Rules” and had a 1974 copyright date. | |
Images: |
| Manufacturer | Games Research, Incorporated |
| Year of Release | Unknown (sometime between 1974 and 1976) |
| Map Style | Topographic contours |
| Pieces | Wooden short thick blocks (armies) long narrow blocks (fleets) |
| Piece Colors (AEFGIRT) | Red, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Black, Green, White, Yellow |
| Description: This is the last edition of Diplomacy that Games Research put out. It has a rulebook copyright 1971 by Games Research and the Basic Rules sheet copyright 1974. Most interestingly, Avalon Hill seems to have sold some copies of this edition when they acquired the rights to Diplomacy from Games Research. See the list of Avalon Hill editions for more details about the Avalon Hill version of this edition. | |
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