Strategic Studies Group

Strategic Studies GroupIndustry| Video game industry

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Founder| Ian Trout and Roger Keating
Headquarters|

Australia

Products| Strategy wargames
Website| ssg.com.au

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.[1] 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, Atari, Commodore 64, and IBM PC 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, 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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

In 1989, SSG published Fire King an action role-playing game developed by Micro Forté, another Australian games developer.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

Co-founder Ian Trout died of cancer on 3 August 2011, which left Roger Keating as CEO of the company.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

## List of games developed

Year  | Title  | Developer  | Genre  | Platform(s)

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|
|
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1983  | Reach for the Stars: The Conquest of the Galaxy | Roger Keating, Ian Trout  | 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 | Roger Keating, Ian Trout  | Wargame | Apple II, C64, DOS
1988  | MacArthur's War | 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

## References

1. ↑ Chatteur, Fiona (2014). "Computer Graphics Through the Screen of Strategic Studies Group". Born Digital and Cultural Heritage Conference: 1.

## External links

* Official website
* Strategic Studies Group at MobyGames

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Strategic Studies Group

Warlords|

* Warlords
* Warlords II
* Warlords III
* Warlords Battlecry
* Warlords Battlecry II

Carriers at War|

* Carriers at War
* 1992 remake
* Carriers at War II

Decisive Battles|

* American Civil War Volume 1: Bull Run to Chancellorsville
* Vol. 2
* The Ardennes Offensive
* Korsun Pocket
* Battles in Normandy

Other games|

* Reach for the Stars
* Europe Ablaze
* Battlefront
* Halls of Montezuma
* Russia: The Great War in the East 1941–1945
* Rommel
* Fire King

People|

* Steve Fawkner
* Roger Keating

Related|

* Infinite Interactive
* Puzzle Quest
* Warlords IV
* Warlords Battlecry III

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