Career
Ratner lived in New Jersey until he joined the Army in 1972. Dissatisfaction with existing games, such as Star Guard and Traveller, and his military experience led to the creation of Space Marines. In 1977 Mark formed Games primarily to market Space Marines. published 3 titles.
Space Marines (a science-fiction wargame), Gi"ac My (a Vietnam wargame), and Orbit War (an interplanetary combat wargame).
Mark was the author of Space Marines and he collaborated with Fitzhugh MacCrae and Bruce Lutz on Gi"ac My. After selling rights to FGU, Mark wrote a second edition of Space Marines.
Scott Bizar wanted to produce a science-fiction role-playing game, and asked Edward East. Simbalist, Philosophy McGregor, and Ratner to develop lieutenant Prior to publication the three had never met and the development was done by correspondence.
However the collaboration with Mark turned out to be mostly Editor drawing on the material in Space Marines.
While Mark was listed as an author for Space Opera and the Space Opera supplement "Ground & Air Equipment", he had very little input into the final product and seriously considered asking for his name to be removed from Space Opera entirely. Mark spent much of the 1980s as a college professor His degrees include Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Civil Engineering, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil/Structural Engineering.
Books written or co-authored by A.
