SSI Drivers Update

SSI Drivers

Company: SSI

Description: Strategic Stimulations, Inc. or SSI is a company that publishes and develops computer games. Since it was founded in 1979, it has published over 100 titles and is specially noted for a number of war games it has created. Among them is the Panzer General series.

The company was established by Joel Billings, an enthusiast of war games. In the process, he had hired John Lyons and Ed Williger, programmers who are credited for writing Computer Bismarck and Computer Ambush respectively. Both of the games had been written in the programming language BASIC like several of the early SSI games.

Chuck Kroegel joined SSI in 1983 and has co-authored a number of the early SSI produced war games with David Landry. For more than ten years, Kroegel led the company’s product development.

It was in 1982 that Strategic Stimulations, Inc. launched the line RapidFire and although the said name implies an action title, it had simply been a brand of games that were written by a third party author. The first series was comprised of titles such as The Cosmic Balance, Galactic Gladiators, and Cytron Masters.

Epidemic! was a later title that dealt with real-time strategy involving a global plague. Later tiles also included Queen of Hearts and Broadsides. The branding did not last long and may have ended around 1982 or 1983.

In 1984, the company expanded to games that involved role-playing. SSI published titles that included Questron, the Phantasie series, and Wizard’s crown. Eventually, SSI acquired the license from TSR to publish Advanced Dungeons and Dragons or AD&Din 1987.

In the years that followed, 30 AD&D were published beginning in 1988, with the Pool of Radiance. What formed the core of the games that were released via the Gold Box engine were products from TSR.

When Panzer General was released in 1994, SSI was again placed in the forefront of the gaming field. The game was easy to play and had depth. It had continuity and set goals. Three other games that were modified versions of Panzer General followed it as were non-historical games which were based on a similar system.

For the next three years, newer versions were released by SSI but had increasingly become outdated because computer hardware was improving. In 1997, the popular selling Panzer General II was released. It was followed by other games that introduced the 3D engine.

Mindscape acquired SSI in 1994 and spent time as a part of Mattel until it finally became a part Ubisoft in 2001. The brand name has since retired.