[1]: 78–79 In the early 1980s, some speculate that the company started to run into financial trouble, partially because of the generally poor economic situation at that time, and because of the split with one of his main game designers, Steve Jackson.
[citation needed] Thompson was not satisfied with the work done on The Fantasy Trip by Jackson, stating that it was too complex and had taken too long.
[3] Thompson decided that packaging the game in a box would be too expensive, so he split The Fantasy Trip into four books, publishing them individually in 1980 as Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, In the Labyrinth, and Tollenkar's Lair; while the game was getting prepared, Thompson altered his production methods and thus Jackson was now unable to see the final proofs like he had on earlier releases.
However, Thompson sought legal action against SJG for the rights to a short wargame called One-Page Bulge, and the lawsuit was settled with an agreement reached on November 26, 1981 giving Jackson full rights to One-Page Bulge, and to Ogre and G.E.V.
[1]: 80 On 1 January 1982, Thompson created Games Research Group, Inc., which was initially part of Metagaming.