Gibsons Games Editions

ManufacturerGibson’s Games
Year of ReleaseUnknown (sometime between 1978 and 1983)
Map StylePolitical
PiecesPlastic bullets (armies) and ships (fleets)
Piece Colors (AEFGIRT)Brown, Pink, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Yellow
Description:
I am not sure in what year Gibson’s Games acquired the U.K. licensing rights to Diplomacy. If anyone has any information about that, please let me know. (And before you suggest that I ask Gibson’s Games, which is still around, I have asked them — three times — and I was not able to get anything definitive.) This edition retained the basic purple box design as the Philmar editions, but this time they added the company name and logo to the box. Otherwise, the box itself appears to be the same as the previous one, including the “(c) 1976 Avalon Hill Game Company, Baltimore, Maryland” on the side of the box. The rulebook is also the same as the one used in earlier Philmar editions, but since Gibson’s acquired rights to the game from Avalon Hill (not Games Research, as Philmar had), the rulebook now indicates a copyright 1971 Avalon Hill. This looks a bit odd because 1971 precedes Avalon Hill’s involvement with Diplomacy. It probably isn’t technically wrong since Avalon Hill acquired Games Research’s copyrights, but it does look a bit out of place when know that Avalon Hill didn’t acquire rights to the game until 1976.There are a couple more differences inside the box. Rather than having a nice tray made of sturdy hard plastic with a lid as the Philmar editions did, this edition has two small flimsy trays made of a very thin plastic, without lids, that sit in indentations in the cardboard insert in the box. Given the flimsiness of the new trays, I assume changes ware made as a cost-cutting measure. The second difference is the rulebook. Whereas the previous rulebook was the folded A4-sized sheet, this edition went back to the earlier style of rulebook, which was a smaller stapled booklet rather than larger folded sheet.The 1995 Gibson’s Games edition is marked with a 1981 copyright date. That date is clearly not the copyright date for the box design for that edition, since it came out years later. Since one would think that the date would refer to something it may refer to the year in which Gibson’s Games released one of its early editions. However, I have not been able to definitively date this set.
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ManufacturerGibson’s Games
Year of Release1983
Map StylePolitical
PiecesPlastic bullets (armies) and ships (fleets)
Piece Colors (AEFGIRT)Brown, Pink, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Yellow
Description:
In 1983, Gibson’s released another edition of Diplomacy that had a rulebook that was once again revised in 1983. Since I assumed that the 1982 revision brought the game in line with Avalon Hill’s 1982 second edition rules, I am not sure what was revised in this edition. An image of the revised rulebook appears below. The gameboard and thin plastic trays are the same as in the last purple box edition shown previously. The pieces in this edition are similar but not exactly the same as those in the last purple box edition. The pieces are still ships and bullets, but have been manufactured using new molds, presumably to use less plastic and reduce costs (the bullets are a bit thinner, longer, and more hollowed out, and the base of the ships is hollowed out instead of being solid.
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ManufacturerGibson’s Games
Year of ReleaseUnknown (between 1983 and 1989)
Map StylePolitical
PiecesPlastic bullets (armies) and ships (fleets)
Piece Colors (AEFGIRT)Brown, Pink, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Yellow
Description:
This variation is nearly identical to the 1983 edition. The only difference that I know of is that the rulebook has been changed. Instead of using the stapled booklet used in all earlier editions in the U.K., they went to a full-page format consisting of a large sheet three times the width of an A4-sized sheet of paper, which is then folded to an A4-sized rulebook (see image below). I have not yet had a chance to compare this rulebook with the 1983 rulebook to see if they actually changed anything in the rulebook, or just the design. Strangely, unlike all previous versions of the rulebook, this one is devoid of identifying information, indicating neither a copyright date nor the Gibson’s Games name. Although there is no image of the box shown below, the box is identical as the one from the 1983 edition.
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ManufacturerGibson’s Games
Year of Release1989
Map StylePolitical
PiecesPlastic bullets (armies) and ships (fleets)
Piece Colors (AEFGIRT)Brown, Pink, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Yellow
Description:
This variation is nearly identical to the previous one. One difference is in the rulebook, which now includes the Gibson’s Games name and has a copyright of 1989, which can be seen (but not really read) in the image below. The 1989 copyright date is rather interesting because the 1983 Gibson’s Games edition had already included the revisions that Avalon Hill made in 1982, and Avalon Hill had not revises their rules since then. The rulebook was revised in an attempt to make the rules more user-friendly. However, the revision unfortunately also had the undesired result of making some of the rules more ambiguous.As a sign of the times, another minor difference between this variation and the previous one is that on the bottom flap of the box lid, this one has a UPC symbol and a CE mark, taking the place of a Gibson’s Games logo in that same spot on the previous one.
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ManufacturerGibson’s Games
Year of Release1995
Map StylePolitical
PiecesPlastic bullets (armies) and ships (fleets)
Piece Colors (AEFGIRT)Brown, Pink, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Yellow
Description:
Gibson’s Games again redesigned the box, shrinking it so that the gameboard came folded in quarters rather than folded in half as with earlier editions. The gameboard and rulebook have not been redesigned, and therefore have the same copyright dates as the previous edition. The rulebook has a minor change of using blue print instead of red, and a different lettering style, for the word DIPLOMACY at the top of the rulebook.Strangely, the bottom of the box has printed on it Copyright 1981 Avalon Hill Game Company, which would date the box earlier than the edition that was shown before this one. However, this edition was the last edition in print by Gibson’s Games, and was definitely still being sold well after the previous one was out of print. It is possible that the copyright date refers to some of the text on the bottom of the box (which would explain why it’s copyright Avalon Hill, not Gibson’s Games), or that the date does not really refer to a part of this game that is copyright 1981 but rather indicates that the game was initially licensed from Avalon Hill in 1981.
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