A microgame is a board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 or wargame

Wargaming

A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...

 packaged in a small set. Microgames enjoyed popularity during the 1980s. The term generally refers to board games or wargames which were packaged and sold with instructions and maps or playing surfaces printed in a booklet format, or as one large sheet folded until it became "pocket sized" (approximately 4×7 inches). Game pieces (also known as chits

Chit (board wargames)

Chits are a type of wargame counter that are generally not directly representational but used for the following purposes:* Tracking, being placed on a numeric runner to indicate turn status, as in some rule variants for Squad Leader...

 or counters

Counter (board wargames)

Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...

) were printed on one or more sheets of thick paper which the player sometimes had to cut for themselves. Other microgames had fully die-cut cardboard sheets like those included with most board wargames. Steve Jackson Games used the Pocket Box

Pocket Box

thumb|An empty pocket boxA pocket box is a small box or pocket-sized container, so named to emphasise its portability.In the 1980's pocket box was used by Steve Jackson Games to describe the plastic boxes designed to hold a rulebook and related game components. They replaced ziplock bags...

 to package many of their games in this format.

While small scale wargames and board games had existed before they began publishing, Metagaming Concepts

Metagaming Concepts

Metagaming Concepts was a publisher of board games from 1975 to 1983 owned by Howard Thompson. Metagaming created and popularized the microgame format. It specialized in science fiction wargames; titles included Ogre, G.E.V., Godsfire, Stellar Conquest and WarpWar...

 first used the term "MicroGame" when they released Ogre

Ogre (game)

Ogre is a board wargame first released in 1977 as the first Metagaming Concepts Microgame, designed by Steve Jackson.Its basic premise is that it is an asymmetric-forces gameset in the late 21st century....

, MicroGame #1 in 1977.

Some publishers of microgames include:

• Cheapass Games
  Cheapass Games
  Cheapass Games is a game company founded and run by game designer James Ernest, based in Seattle, Washington. Cheapass Games operates on the philosophy that most game owners have plenty of dice, counters, play money, etc., so there is no need to bundle all of these components with every game that...
  
  
• Fat Messiah Games
• Game Designers' Workshop
  Game Designers' Workshop
  Game Designers' Workshop was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers.-History:Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973...
  
   (defunct)
• Metagaming Concepts
  Metagaming Concepts
  Metagaming Concepts was a publisher of board games from 1975 to 1983 owned by Howard Thompson. Metagaming created and popularized the microgame format. It specialized in science fiction wargames; titles included Ogre, G.E.V., Godsfire, Stellar Conquest and WarpWar...
  
   (defunct)
• Microgame Design Group (defunct)
• Operational Studies Group
  Operational Studies Group
  Operational Studies Group, also known as OSG, is a publisher of tabletop wargames mostly devoted to the wars of Napoleon I. Some of their more notable games include Napoleon at Leipzig, Napoleon at Bay and Bonaparte in Italy. OSG is a leader in the design and production of Napoleonic Wargames...
  
  
• Simulations Publications, Inc. (defunct)
• Steve Jackson Games
  Steve Jackson Games
  Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
  
  
• Task Force Games
  Task Force Games
  Task Force Games was a game company started in 1979 by Allen Eldridge and Stephen Cole. Mr. Cole left the company in the early 1980's, but continued to design the company's best selling Star Fleet Battles game. Mr. Eldridge sold the company to New World Computing in 1988...
  
   (defunct)
• Tri Tac Games
  Tri Tac Games
  Tri Tac Games is a publisher of role-playing games based in Pontiac, Michigan. The company is built primarily on the work of Richard Tucholka, its founder and president.-Company history:Tri Tac Games was founded in 1978 as "Tacky Tack Games"...
  
  
• TSR, Inc.
  TSR, Inc.
  Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
  
  (defunct)