Steve Jackson Games

Steve Jackson Games creates science fiction based wargames and strategy games. It was founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson.

Their best-known games include:

• INWO, Illuminati New World Order, the trading card game of world domination
• GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing System
• The original Illuminati game on which INWO was based
• TOON[?], the cartoon roleplaying game
• Car Wars, about battle on the highways
• O.G.R.E.[?], the classic simulation of future war

On March 1, 1990, because of a misunderstanding about a game under development, SJG's offices in Austin, Texas were raided by the U.S. Secret Service. The raid was part of a nationwide investigation of data piracy. More than three years later, a federal court awarded damages and attorneys' fees of US$50,000 to SJ Games, ruling that the raid had been careless, illegal, and completely unjustified. Cyberpunk popularizer Bruce Sterling discussed the affair in his book The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. The case also motivated the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.