This was followed by Curse of the Azure Bonds (1989), Secret of the Silver Blades (1990), and Pools of Darkness (1991), the games forming one continuous story rooted in the once-glorious city of Phlan, later encompassing the entire Moonsea Reaches and four outer planes: Dalelands, Cormyr, Cormanthyr (where Myth Drannor is located), and Thar. The first game produced in the series was Pool of Radiance, released in 1988. SSI's 1991 catalog cover, showing some of the Gold Box titles Later versions were led by Victor Penman and Ken Humphries. Using Wizard's Crown 's detailed combat system as a base for their work, the development of the Gold Box engine and the original games was managed by SSI's Chuck Kroegel and George MacDonald. TSR significantly participated in the games' development, including designing a tabletop module that the first SSI game would be based on. Īfter winning the AD&D license, the number of SSI's in-house developers increased from seven to 25, including the company's first full-time computer-graphic artists. Although smaller and less technically advanced than other bidders, SSI unexpectedly won the license in 1987 because of its computerized wargaming experience, and instead of releasing a single AD&D game as soon as possible, the company proposed a broad vision of multiple series of games and spinoffs that might become as sophisticated as TSR's tabletop original.

(SSI) president Joel Billings had, along with many other companies, earlier contacted TSR about licensing AD&D, but TSR was not interested at that time.

Ten companies, including Electronic Arts, Ultima creator Origin Systems, and Sierra Entertainment applied for the license. In the mid-1980s TSR, after seeing the success of the Ultima series and other computer role-playing games (CRPGs), offered its popular Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D) property to video game companies. Larry Bird - One on Oneĭungeon Masters Assistant Volume I: Encountersĭungeon Master's Assistant Vol.History Licensing and development Modem Trader, Original Supplier, Phreaker Graphician, Modem Trader, Original Supplier Modem Trader, Organizer, Public Relations Manager, Swapper After 1986 the group continued to be USA only. Some even made real good sense in conjunction with ESI as a cracking group, such as 'Beneath the noble bird, between the proudest words, behind the beauty, cracks appear!'īase country was Canada (Jason, Dan, mr.ESI) but expanded in 1984 to North America (Mitch & By-Tor). It was common to find Rush lyrics inside the scroll texts of ESI intros. 'Rush #1' - Rush is a Canadian rock band which started in the early 70ies. Had first releases on almost all EPYX major games. Cracker Group, Import Group, Fixing Group

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