Strategic simulations

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Strategic Simulations, Inc.

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1979
resolution 2001
Reason for dissolution Takeover and dissolution by Ubisoft
Seat United StatesUnited States Sunnyvale (California) , USA
Branch Software development

Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was an American developer and publisher of computer games with over 100 titles published since it was founded in 1979 . SSI gained notoriety in particular for its war games such as the Panzer General series and its computer role-playing games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebook .

history

The company was founded by war game fan Joel Billings . He teamed up with several programmers, including John Lyon , the author of Computer Bismarck , and Ed Williger , the developer of Computer Ambush . Like many other SSI games, both games were written in BASIC . Computer Bismarck was released in January 1980 for the Apple II and later for the TRS-80 .

SSI also took up the role-playing genre in 1984 , producing games like Wizard's Crown , Questron and the Fantasy series. In 1987, SSI acquired the exclusive computer game license for the role-playing game rulebook Advanced Dungeons & Dragons from TSR and published thirty AD&D titles over the following years , starting with Pool of Radiance in 1988. Champions of Krynn , Death Knights of Krynn and The Dark Queen followed later of Krynn playing in the world of the Dragon Lance . In 1995 the exclusive agreement between SSI and TSR expired.

The second half of the 1990s until the dissolution of SSI in 2001 were marked by several changes of ownership. In 1994, SSI was bought by Mindscape . Since the takeover by Mindscape, SSI gave up the role-playing game division and instead turned to military simulations and strategy games. The Five Stars Series , of which the best-known component is the Panzer General series, became one of SSI's best-known products during this period . In addition, tactical simulations such as Steel Panthers by Gary Grigsby and various simulation games ( Silent Hunter , Su-27 Flanker , Panzer Commander and Warhammer 40k Chaos Gate ) were created.

In March 1998, Mindscape was acquired by The Learning Company , which in turn was acquired by toy manufacturer Mattel in December of that year . In September 2000 Mattel sold its software division around The Learning Company due to sustained losses to the Gore Technology Group, which in turn passed the computer games division on to the French publisher Ubisoft in March 2001 . Until then, SSI had been retained as an independent brand name until it was finally taken off the market under Ubisoft. The last publications for which SSI was responsible include the submarine simulation Silent Hunter 2 and the D&D role-playing game Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor developed by Stormfront Studios , a sequel to SSI's successful Pool of Radiance and the first title Basis of the rulebook edition 3.0. For these titles, SSI only acted as a label, distribution was taken over by Ubisoft.

In the different countries / continents, SSI games were partly distributed by different publishers. Softgold in Germany, US Gold in Great Britain (also sub-label / cheap label Kixx!), In the USA partly from Event Horizon and from the cheap label WizardWorks, in Australia from ECP (Entertainment & Computer Products, later Electronic Arts ).

In the meantime, many development departments have been outsourced as part of acquisitions and restructuring. The very popular Silent Hunter and Steel Panthers series were not continued by SSI, but instead by Ultimation Inc. and Matrix Games .

In April 2012, the SSI founder Joel Billings handed over some SSI games with source code to the ICHEG Museum for archiving.

Game title

(Selection, chronological) Most of the games appeared for the most common systems of the time (Apple, C64, Amiga, Atari XL / XE / ST; from the mid-1990s mostly DOS and Windows).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Allen Rausch: SSI's "Gold Box" Series ( English ) In: GameSpy . News Corp . August 16, 2004. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
  2. ↑ Mindscape : Mindscape, Inc. Acquires Strategic Simulations, Inc .; Acquisition Strengthens Entertainment Development Efforts ( English ) In: Press Release . The Free Library. October 20, 1994. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/07/business/company-news-learning-company-sets-deal-for-mindscape.html
  4. ^ Mattel to buy Learning Company
  5. ^ Mattel To Ditch The Learning Company
  6. ↑ Giancarlo Varanini: Ubi Soft to buy Game Studios ( English ) In: Gamespot . CNET . March 5, 2001. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved on March 28, 2013.
  7. ^ Ubi Soft Acquires The Learning Company's Entertainment Division . GameZone. March 7, 2001. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  8. ^ Museum of Computer Adventure Game History
  9. ↑ Finding aid to SSI Papers (ICHEG / Museumofplay.org)
  10. ↑ Christian Nutt: Strategic Simulations, Inc. founder donates company collection to ICHEG ( English ) Gamasutra . December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  11. ↑ Jon-Paul C. Dyson: The Strategic Simulations, Inc. Collection ( English ) ICHEG . December 16, 2013. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 22, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.icheg.org