Old ssi game catalogs

[jomni]

Six Gun Shootout  ;D

[Grim.Reaper]

Thank you for sharing this, I love reading things like this.  I'd never even heard of that TransWarp upgrade shown on page 12.

Those were good times...looking back they seemed to have a game for everybody that included war, sports, fantasy, etc.  until I saw this, I forgot they did more than war.

[Nefaro]

Thank you for sharing this, I love reading things like this.  I'd never even heard of that TransWarp upgrade shown on page 12.

Blazing fast 256K of RAM!!   :D

I specifically recall the feel of a few of those manuals.  The smooth glossy-ish paper stock it was printed on.   8)  Kampfgruppe was the one I recall most.

[Sir Slash]

I too was an SSI-Head. The Gold Box series, Kampgruppe, and Battles of Napoleon. Along with other games for my Amiga, some good, some...not so good. I remember winning the boss battle at the end of Curse of the Azure Bonds and wanting to tell everyone I knew but most people wouldn't understand. Those were some great good times. I still have many of my old Amiga games, along with the Amiga, somewhere.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Computer ambush was one of my favorite and it was squad base.  Still remember typing in those insanely long text commands to issue orders:)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19463593/Computer-Ambush

I used to play the hell out of that game.  My friends and I would set the time to 20 units (2 seconds) instead of the default 250 just because the turn processing time on my Apple II+ would be about 20 minutes on default.  I always gave Pvt. Cheng the satchel charge and would suicide run him into buildings full of Germans and blow him up.

Someone posted a link to a website that let you play these old games in a Java window but I can't seem to find it now.  Weird.  20+ years on and I still remember the movement and fire syntax from that game. 

[Grim.Reaper]

Computer ambush was one of my favorite and it was squad base.  Still remember typing in those insanely long text commands to issue orders:)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19463593/Computer-Ambush

I used to play the hell out of that game.  My friends and I would set the time to 20 units (2 seconds) instead of the default 250 just because the turn processing time on my Apple II+ would be about 20 minutes on default.  I always gave Pvt. Cheng the satchel charge and would suicide run him into buildings full of Germans and blow him up.

Someone posted a link to a website that let you play these old games in a Java window but I can't seem to find it now.  Weird.  20+ years on and I still remember the movement and fire syntax from that game.

I liked how it appeared each soldier had a background and story.  Made it a little more personal.  It has always escaped me why someone did not take this concept and really try and do something with it in a more modern version.

[jomni]

I liked how it appeared each soldier had a background and story.  Made it a little more personal.  It has always escaped me why someone did not take this concept and really try and do something with it in a more modern version.

Modern Version = Jagged Alliance.

[RedArgo]

That brings back memories.  I think Broadsides was the first game I bought for the Apple II.  I'm suprised they went out of business with the amount of $$$ I gave them over the years. :)

[FarAway Sooner]

I just remember getting out the paper hole punch and turning my single sided high density floppy discs into double sided disks and spending the next 2 days burning additional copies of Pool of Radiance among other games.  That way when the disc went bad it was the copy and not the original.

I had so forgotten that hole punch utility!  And then, a friend introduced me to Disc Doctor, and I was off to making copies of games I never purchased on 5 1/4" floppy discs that were supposed to be only single-sided.  It felt like a time of high-tech crimes to me...

8)

[Oche]

Nice, very nostalgic, thx for sharing.  :'(

[Marty Ward]

Ahh the good old days when you waited months for a new computer wargame to come out.

I think I had 75% of that catalog at one point.

[Grim.Reaper]

Ahh the good old days when you waited months for a new computer wargame to come out.

I think I had 75% of that catalog at one point.

Sadly, I did not have enough money back then to really purchase a lot of the games...think I had a few of the Civil War titles and a few of the US vs Russia titles plus computer ambush and the geopolitical game they had.  Regardless of whether I had a lot of them, I still always reviewed the catalog a million times:)

This is probably kind of stupid, but assuming most of you have seen the movie Wargames with the computer taking over the nuclear missile system.  Not sure if you remember in the early part of the movie, the main character talks about waiting to receive a game catalog from his favorite wargame company.  Every time I see that, I think of it like the SSI catalogs....

[ArizonaTank]

Anyone who wants to complain about the price of games today should look at the price list.  I paid $45 for Kampfgruppe in 1986.  According to the catalog...I got a great deal, retail was $59.

The thing that really strikes me, is how prolific SSI was.  Certainly rivals Matrix games. 

I really hope someday GOG will try to resurrect these.

Fortunately, I have quite a few of them...I managed to buy some shovel ware packs back in the mid-90s

[Grim.Reaper]

Anyone who wants to complain about the price of games today should look at the price list.  I paid $45 for Kampfgruppe in 1986.  According to the catalog...I got a great deal, retail was $59.

This is very true and I was very surprised when I saw this.  I guess we should have no reason to complain about most prices since they are nearly the same from 20 years ago.

[ArizonaTank]

Anyone who wants to complain about the price of games today should look at the price list.  I paid $45 for Kampfgruppe in 1986.  According to the catalog...I got a great deal, retail was $59.

This is very true and I was very surprised when I saw this.  I guess we should have no reason to complain about most prices since they are nearly the same from 20 years ago.

Closer to 30 years....:)  Now I feel old.