Joel Billings wanted to work with
Avalon Hill to publish his
computer wargame Computer Bismarck but they turned him down, so instead he decided to found a new company and publish the game himself. Billings started SSI in 1979 just after finishing college, with a $1000 initial investment. The first product was
Computer Bismarck, which he co-wrote. Designed for the
TRS-80 and
Apple II home computers, it is viewed as the first computer war game ever published. It sold 7000 copies, considered reasonably successful for its time. The company was an industry leader for years in
war games and
role-playing video games. In 1987 Billings acquired the rights to the
Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games from
TSR, which led to the creation of the
Gold Box D&D game series, one of the best selling video game franchises of the 1980s and 1990s. After a year of losses tied to delays in the new
Dark Sun game engine, Billings sold the company to
Mindscape in 1994. In 2001 Billings started a game development company called
2 By 3 Games with former SSI
game programmers
Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors. In December 2013, Billings donated several
SSI video games, such as
Computer Bismarck, including the
source code, for preservation to the
ICHEG. == References ==