Strategic Studies Group (SSG) is an Australian software development company that makes primarily strategy wargames. The company was founded by strategy game enthusiasts Ian Trout and Roger Keating. Trout was proprietor of a military books store and Keating had had several of his games published by Strategic Simulations Inc. The game that launched the company was ''Reach for the Stars'' (1983). This games is credited for having "effectively launched the genre of 4-X space games - explore, expand, exploit, exterminate". Its success was followed by a string of other, mostly historical military games published throughout the 1980s for

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

, Atari, Commodore 64, and

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

series of computers. Titles included '' Reach for the Stars'', ''

Battlefront In a military context, the term front can have several meanings. According to official US Department of Defense and NATO definitions, a front can be "the line of contact of two opposing forces."Leonard, B. (2011). Department of Defense Diction ...

'', ''Battles in Normandy'', '' Halls of Montezuma: A Battle History of the U.S. Marine Corps'', ''Europe Ablaze'', '' MacArthur's War: Battles for Korea'', ''

Carriers at War ''Carriers at War 1941-1945: Fleet Carrier Operations in the Pacific'' is a 1984 computer wargame by Strategic Studies Group for Apple II and Commodore 64. The game was designed by Roger Keating and Ian Trout. A remake, '' Carriers at War'', was ...

'', (in three volumes), ''Rommel'', '' Gold of the Americas'', and ''Decisive Battles of the American Civil War'' (in three volumes, with the first being '' Bull Run to Chancellorsville''). Several of these titles were also released for 16-bit platforms including the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

, Atari ST,

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari S ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

during the late 1980s. From the outset SSG titles were characterised by a challenging level of intelligence ( AI) in the computer opponents provided in the games. Many of the games included scenario editors. For a time SSG published a tie-in magazine, ''Run 5'', that included articles on historical background to the games, game design, game play and data for setting up new or variant scenarios. Subscribers received a disk with the scenario files already created. Published mostly quarterly it ran for 25 issues. In 1989 SSG published '' Fire King'' an action role-playing game developed by

Micro Forte Micro may refer to: Measurement * micro- (μ), a metric prefix denoting a factor of 10−6 Places * Micro, North Carolina, town in U.S. People * DJ Micro, (born Michael Marsicano) an American trance DJ and producer *Chii Tomiya (都宮ちい ...

, another Australian games developer. SSG also produced the '' Warlords'' series of fantasy turn-based games. In a mutually friendly decision in 2003, ''Warlords'' designer

Steve Fawkner Steve Fawkner is an Australian video game designer, programmer, and composer. He created the ''Warlords'' game series in 1989 and more recently the '' Puzzle Quest'' series. Career In 2003, after a long alliance with SSG, he split off to form h ...

broke away from Strategic Studies Group and started Infinite Interactive to publish further ''Warlords'' games. Co-founder Ian Trout died of cancer on 3 August 2011, which left Roger Keating as CEO of the company. On 19 and 20 June 2014 Roger Keating and Gregor Whiley of SSG attended the Born Digital and Cultural Heritage Conference in Melbourne. Two academic papers were presented at the conference, outlining the contribution of SSG to video gaming history in Australia. Helen Stuckey examined the contribution of the Run 5 magazine to the gaming community, while Dr Fiona Chatteur outlined the development of computer graphics through the lens of Strategic Studies Group.

List of games developed

References

External links

*
Strategic Studies Group
at

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{{Warlords series Video game companies of Australia Video game development companies Video game publishers