Synergistic Software was a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Founded in 1978, the company published some of the earliest available games and applications for the

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 ...

family of computers. They continued developing games for various platforms into the late 1990s.

History

Synergistic was founded in 1978 by Robert Clardy and Ann Dickens Clardy. They developed the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

''-inspired ''Dungeon Campaign / Wilderness Campaign'' game, which was later expanded and repackaged as '' Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure''. Synergistic also published a number of business applications, including a word processor and simple database program, called ''The Modifiable Database''. Synergistic was acquired by

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...

in 1996. They maintained their identity as an independent development group within Sierra until the studio was closed on February 22, 1999.

Software

''Campaign-Adventure'' series #''

Dungeon Campaign A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

'' (1978) #''

Wilderness Campaign The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, in the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Unio ...

'' (1979) #'' Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure'' (1980) #'' Apventure to Atlantis'' (1982) ''World Builders'' engine series #'' War in Middle Earth'' (1988) #'' Spirit of Excalibur'' (1990) #''

Vengeance of Excalibur ''Vengeance of Excalibur'' is a 1991 role-playing video game developed by Synergistic Software and distributed by Virgin Interactive, Virgin Games. It is a sequel for Synergistic's 1990 title ''Spirit of Excalibur'', set in Spain around the turn of ...

'' (1991) #'' Conan: The Cimmerian'' (1991) #'' Warriors of Legend'' (1993) Non-games *''Higher Text II'' (1980) *''Data Reporter'' (1981) Other games *''

Escape from Arcturus ''Escape from Arcturus'' is a 1981 video game published by Synergistic Software. Gameplay ''Escape from Arcturus'' is a game in which the player can either try to survive as long as possible while defending against unstoppable hostile alien bas ...

'' (1981) *'' Bolo'' (1982) *''

Crisis Mountain ''Crisis Mountain'' is a platform game written by David H. Schroeder for the Apple II and published by Synergistic Software in 1982. A port to the Atari 8-bit family was released in 1983. Creative Software published cartridge versions for the ...

'' (1982) *'' Probe One: The Transmitter'' (1982) *''

Microbe A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

'' (1983) *''

The Fool's Errand ''The Fool's Errand'' is a 1987 computer game by Cliff Johnson. It is a meta-puzzle game with storytelling, visual puzzles, and a cryptic treasure map. It is the tale of a wandering Fool who seeks his fortune in the Land of Tarot and braves ...

'' (1986), MS-DOS port *''

Pitstop II ''Pitstop II'' is a 1984 sequel to the 1983 racing game '' Pitstop'', both of which were published by Epyx. Ported to more platforms than the original, ''Pitstop II'' was released for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, and as a self-booting d ...

'' (1984), Atari 8-bit port *''

Thexder is a run-and-gun platform game from Game Arts, originally released for the NEC PC-8801 in 1985. It was subsequently ported to many other systems, including the Famicom. Gameplay In ''Thexder'', the player controls a fighter robot that is a ...

'' (1985), MS-DOS port *'' Rockford'' (1988) *'' SideWinder'' (1988) *''

Silpheed is a video game developed by Game Arts and designed by Takeshi Miyaji. It made its debut on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1986, and was ported to the Fujitsu FM-7 and DOS formats soon after. It was later remade for the Sega CD and has a sequel call ...

'' (1988), MS-DOS & Apple IIGS ports *'' The Third Courier'' (1989) *'' Low Blow'' (1990) *''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...

'' (1993) *''

Homey D. Clown This is a list of sketches on ''In Living Color''. Recurring sketches A * Al MacAfee – A parody of Joe Louis Clark, David Alan Grier plays a strict, yet clueless shop teacher with a bad hip. He is known for working as a Hall Monitor and us ...

'' (1993) *''

Spectre Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to: Religion and spirituality * Vision (spirituality) * Apparitional experience * Ghost Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...

'' (1994) *''Triple Play '97'' (1996) *'' Birthright - The Gorgon's Alliance'' (1996) *'' Diablo: Hellfire'' (1997)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Synergistic Software
at MobyGames Defunct companies based in Washington (state) Sierra Entertainment Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Companies based in Bellevue, Washington Video game companies established in 1978 Video game companies disestablished in 1999 1978 establishments in Washington (state) 1999 disestablishments in Washington (state)