The company was founded by
Joel Billings, a
wargame enthusiast, who in the summer of 1979 saw the possibility of using the new home computers such as the
TRS-80 for wargames. While unsuccessfully approaching
Avalon Hill and
Automated Simulations to publish wargames, he hired
programmers John Lyons, who wrote
Computer Bismarck—later claimed to have been the first "serious wargame" published for a
microcomputer—and
Ed Williger, who wrote
Computer Ambush. Both games were written in
BASIC as were many of SSI's early games. Although Billings expected that he and Lyon would write the first version of
Computer Bismarck on a
North Star computer,
Apple Computer executive
Trip Hawkins, who would later found
Electronic Arts, persuaded Billings to switch to the
Apple II because of its graphics. In 1982 SSI launched its
RapidFire line. Although the name implies action titles, it was in fact simply a branding of games being written by third party authors. The initial series consisted of
Cytron Masters,
The Cosmic Balance and
Galactic Gladiators. Later titles included
Epidemic!, a real time strategy title dealing with a global plague,
Queen of Hearts,
Cosmic Balance II,
Broadsides and others. The branding effort did not last very long, and appeared to have been ended in either 1983 or 1984. Chris Smith reviewed SSI's
RapidFire Line in
The Space Gamer No. 59. Smith commented that " RapidFire is a game line that deserves any award it can be nominated for. It is the best line of computer games I've ever seen, and the programs rate high on an individual basis also." By fiscal 1987 the company had $5 million in sales, and had released 89 games in its first eight years. SSI had expanded into
role-playing games in 1984 with titles such as ''
Wizard's Crown, Questron and the Phantasie series. In 1987, SSI acquired the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) license from TSR and subsequently published 30 titles in that series, starting with Pool of Radiance in 1988 and including War of the Lance'' in 1989 (Apple II) and 1990 (MS-DOS & Commodore 64). The TSR products formed the core of games released using the
Gold Box engine. By 1992,
Computer Gaming World stated that SSI "is no longer known as, primarily, a wargame company [but] continues to publish its share of wargames". In 1994, the company released
Panzer General. Panzer General was a very approachable and easy-to-play game that nevertheless had some gameplay depth and the sense of continuity and goals. It was followed by three other games based on slightly modified versions of the basic engine, including
Allied General and
Pacific General, the latter arguably being the most balanced. Non-historical games based on the same system were also released,
Star General and
Fantasy General. These were later referred to collectively as the
5-Star General Series. As the newer versions were released over a three-year period they increasingly became outdated in terms of improving computer hardware. In 1997 it released a new version,
Panzer General II, with hand-painted maps and icons. It was very popular, selling well over 100,000 copies in its first release, and is still modded and played today. ''
People's General was based on the same engine. In 1999 Panzer General 3D Assault introduced a true 3D engine, but gameplay was not particularly notable. A final attempt in 2000 was Panzer General III: Scorched Earth''. SSI was acquired by
Mindscape in 1994, spent some time as part of
Mattel, and finally became part of
Ubisoft in March 2001, which retired the brand a few years later. ==List of games==