A GLOBAL cult wargame conceived in Swindon is leaping from tabletop to tablet – not to mention PC, iPod and Mac.

In Victory at Sea, players take the role of admirals and either re-fight Second World War naval battles or create their own.

The original board game was devised a few years ago by Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing, a Gorse Hill-based firm with a worldwide presence among gaming enthusiasts.

Now it’s being adapted for iOS, Android, PC and Mac by iEvilgames, the gaming arm of another Swindon company, Evil Twin Artworks, which creates business apps. Financial backing is being sought through Kick Starter.

iEvilgames and Evil Twin are run by brothers James and Mark Carroll, with 23-year-old Ben Coombs working as the main programmer.

“We’re working on Victory at Sea now,” said James, 37, who lives in Liden.

“Mark and I are proper all-round gamers. We like board games and card games and have been fans of Mongoose for years.

“It was only a couple of years ago that we found out they were in Swindon.”

Mark, 35, who lives in Rod-bourne, said: “It was only a strange quirk of fate. We were thumbing through our games and noticed one said, ‘Published in Swindon.’ “We’d bought it from America but it was published up the road.

“We contacted Matthew Sprange. We realised he had a lot of properties and that we’d love to take those games and put them in a digital context – put them on the iPhone.”

Like the tabletop original, the electronic version of Victory at Sea uses authentic old plans to reproduce the vessels of the era, ensuring weaponry, armaments and performance are accurate.

That original version has sold thousands of copies across the world, and was an immediate success.

Matthew Sprange said: “We figured we might sell three or four hundred copies in the first six months, but we ended up selling about 4,000 copies in the first two years.”

Investors in the Kick Starter project will receive special vessels, memorabilia and other bonuses once the new version of Victory at Sea is running, and further details can be found at http://kck.st/10rMmly The iEvilgames website is www.ievilgames.com, and Mongoose’s is at www.

mongoosepublishing.com