Simutronics

Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include GemStone IV and DragonRealms. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri.[2] It became part of the Stillfront Group in 2016.

Simutronics Corp.
TypePrivate company
IndustryVideo games
FoundedSt. Louis, Missouri, U.S. (1987)
HeadquartersSt. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
OwnerStillfront Group[1] (55.06%)
Number of employees
30
WebsiteSimutronics Official Site

The company's flagship product is the text based game, GemStone IV, which went live in November 2003, with predecessor games running back to 1988. GemStone was originally accessed through General Electric's internet service provider GEnie, later becoming accessible through AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe before Simutronics finally moved all their games to their own domain in 1997.

Simutronics products

Multiplayer online games
  • GemStone IV, Simutronics' flagship product, a text-based multiplayer fantasy game, which has seen over one million users over the years. It is the longest-lived commercial MUD game, followed by Avalon: The Legend Lives.[3][4]
  • DragonRealms, a 1996 MUD set in GemStone's Elanthia world, with popularity on online services AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. In comparison with GemStone, DragonRealms's has more skill-based gameplay.[5]
  • CyberStrike, also known as CyberStrike Classic, a graphical futuristic ship combat game. It won the first ever "Online Game of the Year" award from Computer Gaming World magazine in 1993.[6]
  • Hero's Journey,[7] an unreleased graphical MMORPG utilizing the "HeroEngine", an MMO engine developed by Simutronics for the game. The game had been in development since the late 1990s, but its release date was pushed back several times and in March 2009, all remaining developers and game masters assigned to Hero's Journey were laid off or reassigned.[8] Hero's Journey as well as the engine behind it was sold off due to the economic decline in 2008-2009.[9]
  • Dragons of Elanthia (currently in Beta), a multiplayer third-person shooter in which players select different dragons and riders, each with unique abilities, to fight each other.[10]

Mobile games

HeroEngine
Main article: HeroEngine

HeroEngine is a 3D game engine and server technology platform developed specifically for building MMO-style games, based around a system similar to the IFE using the Hero Script Language (HSL). Originally developed for the company's own game Hero's Journey - which never made it to the testing stage - the engine has since been licensed by other companies.[14] Simutronics sold the HeroEngine to Idea Fabrik, Plc. on August 5, 2010.[15]

References
  1. http://www.stillfront.com/site/studios/#simutronics
  2. McCrary, William S. (January 9, 1994). "Games People Play". St. Charles Journal.
  3. "Facts about early Avalon the Legend Lives".
  4. "Raph Koster's Timeline of Online Worlds".
  5. Olivetti, Justin (2011-04-19). "The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: The games". Massively. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
  6. "CGW's Game of the Year Awards" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 111. October 1993. pp. 70–74.
  7. Caelia, Adele (5 June 2007). "Hero's Journey: A Visit to Simutronics". MMORPG.com.
  8. "Hero's Journey: Overview". Global MMO.
  9. "Re: 'Whatever happened to Hero's Journey?'".
  10. "Official Site". dragonsofelanthia.com. 7 December 2013.
  11. Campbell, Nissa (9 September 2011). "Tiny Heroes Review". Touch Arcade.
  12. "Run for Gold! One Epic Knight Launch Date Announced, Sprints for Free onto iOS Devices August 23". Gamasutra. 14 August 2012.
  13. Ward, Brad (5 June 2013). "The 6 most underrated games for Android: May 2013 edition". Android Authority.
  14. "BioWare Licenses Simutronics HeroEngine for MMO Game Project" (Press release). Austin Game Conference 2006: Business Wire. August 8, 2006.CS1 maint: location (link)
  15. Brand, Wolfgang (5 August 2010). "Idea Fabrik Plc purchases HeroEngine technologies".

Sources
  • Austin, Nancy K. (15 October 1999). "Pure Internet Play". Inc. Magazine.
  • Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. ISBN 0-13-101816-7.
  • Kim, Amy Jo (2000). Community Building on the Web. Peachpit Press. ISBN 0-201-87484-9.
  • "Recruiting Strategies: Motivation". Inc. Magazine. 15 October 1999. THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE FORCE: With all the hype that surrounded the opening of Star Wars: Episode I --The Phantom Menace, it's no surprise that the film created a minor truancy problem for some companies. Like numerous other CEOs whose companies made this year's list, David Whatley of Simutronics Corp. (#295), in Rockville, Md., decided to do a preemptive strike. "I thought it would be more cost-effective to see the movie as a group," he says. "It was either that or have people call in sick for a week."
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