Strategic Studies Group (SSG) is an Australian software development company that makes primarily

strategy wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

s. The company was founded by strategy game enthusiasts Ian Trout and

Roger Keating Roger Keating is an Australian computer game designer. Along with Ian Trout, Keating co-founded of the video game company Strategic Studies Group, which is known for its strategic war and fantasy games with artificial intelligence. Keating and ...

. Trout was proprietor of a military books store and Keating had had several of his games published by

Strategic Simulations Inc Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official comput ...

. 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-m ...

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, 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 team ...

series of computers. Titles included '' Reach for the Stars'', '' Battlefront'', ''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 ''Gold of the Americas: The Conquest of the New World'' is a 1989 video game published by Strategic Studies Group. Gameplay ''Gold of the Americas'' is a game in which a strategy game involves imperial expansion and exploration in the New World. ...

'', 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 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 significantly improved graphi ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

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 ST ...

and

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

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, another Australian games developer. SSG also produced the ''

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

'' series of fantasy turn-based games. In a mutually friendly decision in 2003, ''Warlords'' designer Steve Fawkner broke away from Strategic Studies Group and started

Infinite Interactive Infinity Plus Two, previously Infinite Interactive, is a video game developer with headquarters in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded by Steve Fawkner in 1989. After a long alliance with SSG, resulting in the developmen ...

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

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

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