Gallery 2: Computer Wargames and SSI
The rise of serious computer wargaming, historical scenario design, detailed manuals, orders of battle, and Strategic Simulations Inc.
Gallery Overview
The rise of serious computer wargaming, historical scenario design, detailed manuals, orders of battle, and Strategic Simulations Inc.
Browse this gallery by historical period, game family, company, creator, technology, and preservation topic.
Computer Wargames
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Strategy GalleryGary Grigsby and Operational WargamingCampaign scale, logistics, unit detail, and the evolution of operational computer wargames.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryStrategic Simulations Inc.From a 1979 wargame startup to a defining strategy and computer-role-playing publisher.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryJoel Billings and the Founding of SSIThe entrepreneur who believed personal computers could support serious wargames.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryComputer BismarckA foundational commercial computer wargame centered on the 1941 hunt for the German battleship Bismarck.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryComputer AmbushMan-to-man tactical combat with unusually detailed planning and resolution.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryComputer NapoleonicsOperational and tactical Napoleonic warfare adapted to the home computer.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryTorpedo FireA naval combat simulation built around submarine and surface-ship engagements.Open detailed exhibit
GameKampfgruppeSSI's landmark 1985 Eastern Front operational-tactical wargame.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryBattlegroupA Western Front counterpart that extended the Kampfgruppe design tradition.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryWar in RussiaA vast Eastern Front campaign simulation covering strategy, production, and operations.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryWarshipTactical surface naval warfare in the Pacific.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryMech BrigadeCold War armored warfare at the tactical-operational level.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryWargame Construction SetA toolkit that let players build and share their own wargame scenarios.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryWargame Construction Set II: Tanks!A more specialized construction system for armored warfare.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryPanzer GeneralThe accessible campaign wargame that became SSI’s greatest mainstream strategy success.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryAllied GeneralThe Allied perspective on the Panzer General campaign formula.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryPacific GeneralOperational strategy across the Pacific War.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryFantasy GeneralA fantasy adaptation of the General-series campaign system.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryStar GeneralScience-fiction conquest using the General-series lineage.Open detailed exhibit
Company GallerySteel PanthersA landmark tactical wargame focused on armored and combined-arms combat.Open detailed exhibit
Company GallerySteel Panthers II: Modern BattlesThe Steel Panthers tactical system extended into postwar and modern conflict.Open detailed exhibit
Company GallerySteel Panthers III: Brigade CommandLarger-scale command in the Steel Panthers series.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryImperialismIndustrial-age grand strategy built around economics, diplomacy, and state development.Open detailed exhibit
Company GalleryImperialism II: Age of ExplorationA preindustrial grand strategy game of exploration, trade, colonization, and European rivalry.Open detailed exhibit
Company GallerySSI Preservation ArchiveA curatorial framework for preserving SSI boxes, disks, manuals, maps, catalogs, patches, and oral histories.Open detailed exhibit