Chapter 22. Patton Versus Rommel

I started working on computer games because I wanted to build a better wargame. Wargames had been the focal point of all my early efforts. I thought that I had left all that behind me when I began work on Balance of Power. But as I was finishing up my unwar game, I started casting about for my next project. I liked the people at Mindscape and wanted to do another project with them, but we couldn't seem to agree on anything. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts, which had turned down Balance of Power, expressed an interest in doing a genuine wargame. At the time, there were two acknowledged masters of computer wargame design: Roger Keating and myself. Roger was in Australia, and I was in the Bay Area with EA. That made me the logical choice.

At that time, before Balance of Power had actually been released, I had no idea how successful it would be, and EA's track record for turning out hits was a strong incentive. So I agreed to build a wargame for them. They didn't care what the content was that was my decision but they did know that they wanted it to have "Patton" in the title. "Rommel" would be good, too. Unfortunately, Generals Patton and Rommel never actually confronted each other in battle. Nevertheless, I decided to compromise historicity for marketing by building a wargame about the Allied breakout from Normandy in July and August of 1944. Patton led the American armies, but Rommel was back in Germany recovering from wounds suffered during an American air attack. For the purposes of the game, we simply declared the fantasy that Rommel was not wounded and that he led the German armies.