Strategic Studies Group

Strategic Studies Group, commonly known as 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.[1] Ian was proprietor of a military books store and Roger 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, Atari, Commodore 64, and IBM PC series of computers.

Titles included Reach for the Stars, Battlefront, Battles in Normandy, Halls of Montezuma, Europe Ablaze, MacArthur's War, Carriers at War, (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, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and Macintosh 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 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 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 unique contribution of SSG to computer gaming history in Australia. Helen Stuckey examined the contribution of the Run5 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
Year Title Developer Genre Platform(s)
1983 Reach for the Stars: The Conquest of the Galaxy SSG 4X Apple II, Amiga, C64, DOS, Mac OS
1984 Carriers at War 1941-1945: Fleet Carrier Operations in the Pacific Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1985 Europe Ablaze Roger Keating, Ian Trout, Eric Baker Wargame Apple II, C64
Canceled The Road to Appotmattox SSG Grand Strategy Apple II, C64
1986 Battlefront Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64
1988 Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume I SSG Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1987 Russia: The Great War in the East 1941-1945 Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64
1988 Halls of Montezuma Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, Amiga, C64, DOS
1987 Battles in Normandy Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64
1988 Rommel: Battles for North Africa Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1988 MacArthur's War: Battles for Korea SSG Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1989 Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume II Roger Keating, Ian Trout, Malcolm Power Wargame Apple II, DOS, C64
1988 Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume III SSG Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1989 Panzer Battles Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame Apple II, C64, DOS
1989 Gold of the Americas SSG Wargame Amiga, DOS, Atari ST
1989 Fire King Micro Forté RPG C64, DOS
1990 Warlords SSG Turn-based Strategy Amiga, DOS, Macintosh
1992 Carriers at War SSG Wargame DOS
1992 Carriers at War II Roger Keating, Ian Trout Wargame DOS, Macintosh
1993 Carriers at War: Construction Kit SSG Wargame DOS
1993 Warlords II SSG Turn-based Strategy DOS, Macintosh, Windows Mobile
1994 Warlords II Scenario Builder SSG Turn-based Strategy DOS
1995 Warlords II Deluxe SSG Turn-based Strategy DOS, Macintosh
1996 The Complete Carriers at War: Fleet Carrier Operations in World War II SSG Wargame DOS
1997 Ardennes Offensive SSG Wargame Windows
1997 Warlords III: Reign of Heroes SSG Turn-based Strategy Windows
1998 Warlords III: Darklords Rising SSG Turn-based Strategy Windows
2000 Reach for the Stars SSG 4X Windows
2000 Warlords: Battlecry SSG RTS Windows
Canceled Dungeon SSG Windows
2002 Warlords: Battlecry II SSG RTS Windows
2003 Korsun Pocket SSG Wargame Windows
2003 Korsun Pocket: Across the Dnepr SSG Wargame Windows
2004 Battles in Normandy SSG Wargame Windows
2005 Battles in Italy SSG Wargame Windows
2007 Battlefront SSG Wargame Windows
2008 Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets SSG Wargame Windows
2010 Across the Dnepr 2 SSG Wargame Windows
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References
  1. Chatteur, Fiona (2014). "Computer Graphics Through the Screen of Strategic Studies Group". Born Digital and Cultural Heritage Conference: 1.
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