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Gary Grigsby | |
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Occupation(s) | Computer wargame designer and programmer |
Years active | 1979–present |
Part of a series on |
Wargames |
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Gary Grigsby is a designer and programmer of computer wargames. In 1997, he was described as "one of the founding fathers of strategy war games for the PC." [1] Computer Games Magazine later dubbed him "as much of an institution in his niche of computer gaming as Sid Meier, Will Wright, or John Carmack are in theirs." [2]
Gary Grigsby purchased a TRS-80 computer in May 1979, [3] to write wargames, but did not know how to approach the two publishers of computer wargames, Strategic Simulations (SSI) and Avalon Hill. In February 1982 he called SSI to complain about a bug in its Torpedo Fire ; during the conversation Joel Billings encouraged Grigsby to submit his designs. That year Guadalcanal Campaign , written in BASIC, became his first game for SSI, [4] and was nominated for "Best Adventure Game for Home Computer" at the 1983 Origins Game Fair. [5] Through 1997 he created for SSI several titles that are considered classics of the wargame genre, including Kampfgruppe , USAAF, War in Russia and the Steel Panthers series. Two games, Battle of Britain and 12 O'clock High, were done for TalonSoft in the late 90s. In 2001 Grigsby started a game development company called 2 By 3 Games with Billings and Keith Brors. [6] Their latest Grigsby-designed title, Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2, was released by Matrix Games in 2021.