Redmond A. Simonsen

Simonsen was born and raised in Inwood, Manhattan, the second son of Astri Nordlie Simonsen and August Emil Simonsen, an immigrant from Norway. His father was a high ironworker who died in a fall from a building; his mother then worked as a domestic and raised her three children August, Lois, and Redmond. Simonsen attended the Stuyvesant High School from 1956-1960. He served two tours in the United States Air Force, and was accepted for enrollment at Cooper Union, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1964. Subsequent work as a graphic artist included designing the book jacket for Is Paris Burning? (1965), album covers for London Records, and KOOL cigarette advertisements. He also worked as a photographer, and sold pictures to TIME, Newsweek and The New York Times. == Strategy & Tactics and SPI==

Main articles: Strategy & Tactics and Simulation Publications, Inc. Redmond Simonsen was the graphic designer on the wargaming hobby fanzine Strategy & Tactics. Dunnigan and Simonsen's newly incorporated SPI began publish non-magazine games as well. At that time the main wargame publisher, Avalon Hill, released only one or two new games a year. The response was overwhelming. the company experienced exponential growth. By the mid-'70s SPI's revenues exceeded $2 million annually, with up to forty employees. Simonsen acted as founding editor for SPI's Ares Magazine, a fantasy/science fiction game magazine following the same approach as Strategy & Tactics, until replaced during the TSR takeover. Simonsen also wrote fictional backgrounds for various SPI games, notably for StarForce and Battlefleet Mars, often with humorous elements hidden in the text. == Physical systems design ==

It was at SPI that Simonsen coined the term "physical systems design" to describe the application of graphic design concepts to board games. He defined it as follows: In 1969 however, Simonsen's ability to implement such graphic engineering was limited by SPI's starting capital, which was only "a hundred dollars" The role of "game developer" was unknown in the games industry at the time. Simonsen invented the role as "A professional who was responsible for turning the designer's prototype into a 'camera-ready' product. Thus, he was responsible for managing playtests, editing and writing rules and play aids, preparing sketches and other graphical elements, and ensuring that the 'house style' was preserved across several games." == After SPI==

Marketing lapses as well as financial mismanagement led to declining real income for SPI, Along with former SPI designer Brad Hessel, he founded Ares Development Corporation to produce video games. Simonsen had already successfully "ported" the board game The Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora to the Apple II, creating one of the first real-time strategy games. A multi-game contract with Texas Instruments fell through when they pulled out of the home computer market in 1984. Simonsen then moved to Richardson, Texas where, with Jerry Robinson, he co-founded Microbotics, manufacturers of peripherals for the Amiga platform of home computers. Around 1992 Microbotics closed and he retired from active work, becoming a gaming network moderator for BIX and other places. In 1993 Simonsen contributed to Master of Orion: The Official Strategy Guide (Prima Publishing, 1993), devising a naming-convention for ships. By 1998 he had retired completely and spent his time drawing, writing computer programs and science fiction short stories. Simonsen suffered a heart attack in 2004 and two more in early 2005 which led to his hospitalization and death in Garland, Texas, on March 9, 2005, at the age of 62. ==Awards and honors==

Three years after his death, Flying Buffalo featured Simonsen as the King of Clubs in the 2008 iteration of their Famous Game Designer Trading Cards. == Notes ==