From the introduction: "Wargaming has had a remarkable four decades. Commercial wargames first appeared in the late 1950s, although commercial miniatures and naval gaming date back to the end of the 19th century. Board wargaming had something of a golden age in the 1970s, before being replaced by fantasy role playing games (RPGs) and computer games in the 1980s. In the 1990s computer wargames were covered in glitz, simplified and made into a mass market product. Many of the 70s era grognards don't recognize these games as wargames, but they are. And simple, glitzy wargames are the future. Not entirely, of course, there is also developing a via web based market for lower budget, but more accurate and detailed historical wargames. We'll never get back to the 70s, but with wargames established as a permanent part of the commercial gaming landscape, we can expect an unending stream of new and innovative ideas." The first edition was published in 1980 by William Morrow. The second edition was published in 1992, also by William Morrow (under various imprints, it appears). The third edition (titled just "Wargames Handbook") was published in 2000 by iUniverse.