The History of SSI Games!
"More like Chess than Pong."
--from the Winter 1981 description of Computer
Bismarck
Once upon a time, each major game publisher
had, or at least seemed to possess, its own unique identity; its games just felt
different from others. Back in the 1980s, SSI's games signified attention
to detail, superlative documentation (especially the background material), boxes
that were nothing short of art, and, most importantly, a high emphasis on
playability. The foundation of this was wargaming, and wargames' influence
expanded to the other genres dabbled in by the company.
Those features combined to cause me, for one, to play just about
every SSI game that came out (for the Atari ST, anyway). If the
box said "Strategic Simulations, Inc.," I would be virtually guaranteed
a very good-usually great, occasionally extraordinary-gaming experience.
That's hardly surprising when one browses through the old catalogs and
looks at the list of names: Dan Bunten, Roger Keating, Paul Murray, David
Landrey, Chuck Kroegel, and, of course, Gary Grigsby. In later (but still
old) catalogs those names were joined by a couple of others: Norm Koger, Jr. and
Westwood.
Sadly, those glory days are in the past. A changing market
has destroyed those halcyon times of lore. Think about it: as late as 1985
SSI's first ever game, Computer Bismarck, published half a decade
earlier, was still in print. In fact, nearly all of SSI's list was still
in print. The Winter 1985 catalog, for example, listed 50 different titles
available for (in varying amounts) four different platforms.
Today, the ethereal fruit-fly life-spanned computer game lifespan has made
such a commitment impossible.
However, in celebration of my favorite era of computing
, I am pleased to put up this page detailing, as much as I can, the complete
list of SSI works. We need to remember history, and that includes computer
gaming history. There have been occasional works detailing the history of
general computing or of video games, but histories of computer gaming are either
a few paragraphs in those works or occasional magazine articles. Let us
remember where computer gaming has been and where it is going!
Currently,
there is no more internal development at SSI. (It halted in November
2000.) SSI continues as a label under new owners, the French software
giant Ubi Soft. I think we can safely say that the SSI of fame pretty much
died with the Mindscape purchase. Yes, there were still great titles (Steel
Panthers, for example), but the glory days were behind it. (Even Panzer
General pre-dated Mindscape!)
In
happier news, SSI founder Joel Billings has founded a new company with Gary
Grigsby and Keith Brors. 2by3 Games (not overly catchy) will be
publishing various Grigsby wargames under the auspices of Matrix Games. The first, Uncommon Valor has already been released to mixed reviews. There
have been some rumblings in the wargaming community about Billings commitment to
wargames. I think such arguments are invalid. Yes, SSI did move away
from wargames in the wake of Pool of Radiance, but if you were selling
250,000 units vs. 50,000 what decision would you make? The fact is that
SSI continued to support wargames long after other former publishers (EA,
Broderbund, etc.) had halted. I, for one, look forward to playing the
first results of this new venture.
As
for this page, it continues in slow but sure construction mode. Who would
think typing in all of those catalog descriptions would take so long?
:-) Look at the Text Table for a quick overview of game
availability, the Alphabetical pages provide more detailed information, and the Games By
Platform pages give timelines of SSI support for all supported platforms. There
are also a few other miscellaneous pages; hopefully, the links are
self-explanatory.
Let me know what you think as well as any suggestions
for improvements. I hope everyone who, like me, has enjoyed classic
SSI games will enjoy this labor of love.
SSI
& TSR: The Original Collaboration
Latest
news!
Future SSI
Games
Text
Table (Original Page)
SSI Game Bibliography
A
Retrospective of 'Games in the Works'
The
First RTS?
The Best
of SSI My
Thoughts on Computer Games of Today
FAQ
Links Still
Available: Old SSI Software Still Being Sold
Back to Top
Personal Pages
My
SSI History Resume
Transcripts
Biography
Click on my picture to find out more about me:
Education Pages
Ancient Egypt
Westward Expansion
Computer History
Back to Top
Please send any feedback to clund@cox.net
Listen to my LAUNCHcast station for only the best music!
This page hosted by 
Get
your own Free Home Page
Atari
8-bit