about us

Takamo is the ancient language of space

We started out as a play-by-mail game in the 80’s and now we are building an epic science fiction multiverse rooted in Takamo lore.

Any moment in the Takamo timeline is one part of a whole - a spark in a complex, limitless, gestalt universe. Takamo encapsulates the past, present and future, the whole and the part, the oblivious and the sentient, the base and the exalted. It holds the history of the known and the unknown.

Forging exciting, adventure-driven science fiction since 1982

Retro black ink drawing of two armed scouts in spacesuits and helmets, overlooking an alien installation on a barren world. Artist David Snodgrass.

Pen and ink illustrations from the 1980s evoke the spirit of epic space adventures within the Takamo universe.

Retro black ink illustration of a Phantatwain Scout Class starship launching a stellar probe. Artist Tony Shappaugh.

Retro black ink sketch of cyborg soldiers with starships attacking a planet in the background. By Roger Buchholz.

Pen and ink illustrations from the 1980s evoke the spirit of epic space adventures within the Takamo universe.

Retro black ink drawing of a Lancer Class warship in deep space. Artist David Snodgrass.

1982 Advertisement graphic of a starfighter launching a missile. Graphic artist Bill Hayes.

Briddarri crewman of the Otkrita clan with the signature shaved head and cranial tattoos. Illustration by Roger Buchholz.

Pen and ink illustrations from the 1980s evoke the spirit of epic space adventures within the Takamo universe.

Retro black ink Illustration of aircraft carrier starships passing a planet. Published in the Takamo rulebook in 1983. Artist Tony Shappaugh.

OUR STORY

At the beginning of the PC era, a small group of coders and gamers developed a program for a massive multiplayer play-by-mail science fiction game. We were gameplaying geeks tinkering with IBM's early PCs, DOS 3.0, and dot matrix printers to make our very own universe of interstellar expansion and conquest. We called it Takamo. Released commercially in 1982, it soon had fans across the United States and around the world.

Takamo players chose to be civilization builders, mining companies, interstellar trade conglomerates, or agricultural corporations. If they were more adventurous, they became nomad empires, pirate leagues, bands of smugglers, or one of the dreaded cybernetic races. Players developed their worlds, built vast starship fleets, made alliances, and struggled for survival among the stars.

As the game platform grew, we added forts and marines for planet invasion and defense. We introduced planetary torpedoes, missile ships, starfighters, heavy marines, and guerrillas - everything our players needed to rule their corner of the galaxy.

We offered newsletters, and a magazine filled with articles on gameplay, Takamo fiction, and player empire announcements. All the while we were writing and designing and worldbuilding. We just couldn’t stop, and neither could our fans. They were writing stories, designing starships, and creating characters. The very foundation of Takamo lore is the four decades of articles, narratives, and artwork amassed by an active community of space opera and science fiction enthusiasts. And we are still at it.

Collaborating with creatives around the world, we continue to build a vast multiverse for audiences everywhere.

Our vision is an expansive Takamo Universe canon for creators to tell stories for generations to come.

How it begAn…

Many of the guys and gals who helped us test the early version of the game were patrons of a wonderful hobby shop on the Northeast side of Lincoln, Nebraska called the Great Race and Hobby Place.

In those early days, one of the owners, Thom Walla, helped us recruit playtesters. The recruits attended regular meetings at a local taco joint where the latest weekly turns were distributed and reviewed, and rule changes were announced and explained. While noshing platters of Tex-Mex, players talked about gameplay, applauding or deriding each other’s wins and losses.

Over time the players began to imagine and publish the details of their empires in newsletters published by player factions and later in the official Takamo Newsletter. That was the beginning of the Takamo Universe backstory that has been evolving and expanding for over forty years.