SSI - The Roots of CRPGs @ Bitmob

Bitmob has kicked off a retrospective series written by Reggie Carolipio that looks back at influential companies in the history of CRPGs.  This first entry is about Strategic Simulations Inc:

Their biggest coup was in scoring the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license from pen-and-paper RPG publisher TSR. So named because of the gold-colored paper used to label the boxes, the “Gold Box” series would prove to be one AD&D's biggest splashes on PCs until the arrival of Bioware's Baldur's Gate under the Interplay label almost a decade later.

SSI opened up TSR's worlds to players with fancy graphics, turn-based tactical planning, and all of the nitty gritty details stuffed into every statistic. It would be the biggest impression that AD&D would make on CRPGs in years -- if not for the gameplay, then for the sheer body of work that would follow.