In 1993, Phil Steinmeyer was a programmer of
business software, something he considered boring, when he began working in the
video game industry. He made
Iron Cross mostly by himself and finished it with
New World Computing. The game was released in 1994 as one of the first
real-time strategy games. Steinmeyer continued working with New World Computing, co-developing
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest (1995) and
Heroes of Might and Magic II (1996). In 1996, he adopted the name PopTop Software for his company and began hiring
artists and
designers for a fully independent project. Wishing to work on a sequel to
Railroad Tycoon, he called
MicroProse and, to his surprise, quickly came to an agreement. At the same time,
The 3DO Company bought New World Computing and ended its third-party publishing business, leaving PopTop Software without a publisher. In January 1998, PopTop Software was one of the founding members of
Gathering of Developers, a developer-centric publisher run by six studios.
Railroad Tycoon II, the first release for Gathering of Developers, was released in November 1998, followed the expansion pack
The Second Century in April 1999. The video game publisher
Take-Two Interactive acquired Gathering of Developers in May 2000. On July 24, it announced the acquisition of PopTop Software. The deal saw a transaction of 559,100
shares in Take-Two Interactive, valued at an estimated . Steinmayer remained as the studio
president. The studio continued working with Gathering of Developers on
Tropico and
Railroad Tycoon 3. Steinmeyer left the studio in late 2004, founded New Crayon Games in May 2005, and developed ''
Bonnie's Bookstore''. On January 25, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced the opening of the publishing label
2K Games, which would henceforth manage most of its studios, including PopTop Software. It released PopTop Software's
Shattered Union in 2005. On March 8, 2006, Take-Two Interactive announced that PopTop Software had been merged into
Firaxis Games, another 2K Games studio. == Games developed ==