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Simutronics
David Whatley -President and CEO
David Whatley's passion for online gaming led him to found Simutronics in 1987. David -- chief designer of most of the company's games -- has won numerous awards, including Computer Gaming World's "Online Game of the Year" award for CyberStrike. David is the mastermind behind Simutronics' technology and game designs and has built a team of talented people who are taking Simutronics to new heights.
Neil Harris-Executive Vice President
Responsible for marketing, business development, and finance, Neil is the driving force behind the company's key partnerships and business strategies. Prior to joining Simutronics in 1993, Neil spent five years with General Electric as marketing director for its GEnie online service. He also spent eight years with Commodore and Atari, where he was a key management figure in the launches of the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and Atari computer systems. He has served on the boards of a number of industry groups including the Interactive Services Association, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and the New Media Society of Washington.
Simutronics runs many popular MUDs. Their flagship product, GemStone IV, has been running for around 15 years. GemStone was on General Electric's ISP GEnie for a number of years before moving to AOL and Prodigy before Simutronic's moved to their own domain: play.net.
- DragonRealms is a medieval fantasy MUD set in the world of Elanthia. It was developed from 1992-1995 and released in February of 1996. It was originally intended for the Ziff-Davis online service. When Ziff-Davis failed to create said service, DragonRealms was offered instead on GEnie and later AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. While in development, the DR team called its as yet unnamed game many things. The most popular name, though, was "Project Bob".
The game was built from a design put forth by Simutronics founder David Whatley and his penguin-hating sidekick John Donham. It was implemented by a team of off-site and on-site employees who included Eric Slick, Tina Hill, Elonka Dunin, Stephanie Shaver, David Dean, Barbara "Babs" Halberg, Jim Penrose (aka Moonshadow & Elvanion) and now-GemStone IV producer Melissa Meyer. Like its sister product, GemStone IV, DragonRealms is one of the longest-running and most popular online text games in existence. It is currently produced by Eric "Bubba" Latham.
During the first half of 2004, the staff of Simutronics and DragonRealms engaged in a major overhaul of the system to make it work with the newer game engine (IFE2). This project was dubbed "DR2" but, unlike GemStone IV, the actual name of the game was not changed.
- Modus operandi (sometimes used in the abbreviated form MO) is a Latin phrase, approximately translatable as "mode of operation", used in police work to describe a criminal's characteristic patterns and style of work.
It can be used to narrow down an investigation amongst a group of criminals with differing MOs. For example, a burglar may always use a back window, broken with a rock. If a group of known criminals are suspected to have committed a burglary, then the characteristic modus operandi can be used to identify the burglar.
A criminal's MO can also be used in profiling, where the MO can give vital clues to a criminal's psychology.
- Alliance of Heroes, Formerly Hercules & Xena, this adventure based MUD is set in the Hercules & Xena universe.
- CyberStrike, Simutronics only graphical game in production.
- Hero's Journey, an upcoming graphical MMORPG similar to Everquest.
- GemStone IV is a text-based medieval fantasy MMORPG set in the fictional world of Elanthia. GemStone is one of the longest-running online games in existence, having started in the early 1990s and outlasted many competitors. The game was developed by Simutronics Corporation and its latest iteration was released in late 2003.
GemStone was originally offered on the GEnie service. It quickly buried the competition (which included Dragon's Gate, Federation, and Hundred Years War). The game is built on a proprietary engine, the IFE. Its product managers over the years have been Elonka Dunin, Suz Dodd, and Melissa Meyer.
GemStone spawned DragonRealms in 1996. In addition to being on GEnie, it was also on AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. It is now available exclusively on the World Wide Web.
As one of the longest-running internet games, there is a substantial base of players from the 90s who felt disenfranchised by the lack of emphasis now placed on roleplaying in GemStone. As a way of placating those players, a service, called GemStone IV Platinum is available. It is an exact replica of GemStone IV's world, with some minor changes as well as an enforced roleplaying environment, for the price of $49.95US per month.
Simutronics TimeLine
This timeline I think was made by simu- Elonka. I'm not really sure on that because I couldn't find the creator of the page off the net.
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1987 |
GemStone (I) demoed to GEnie under Simutronics' pre-incorporation name "Crystal Blade."
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October 23, 1987 |
Simutronics incorporated in Virginia.
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April 1988 |
GemStone ][ opens on GEnie
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september 1988 |
Orb Wars contract with GEnie signed
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1989 |
Imagi*Nation chat environment opens on GEnie, using Simutronics Interactive Fiction Engine (same engine that runs GemStone) |
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December 1, 1989 |
GemStone III Open Beta on GEnie
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Febuary 1, 1990 |
GemStone III officially launches on GEnie
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August 1, 1990 |
GemCon (I) in St. Louis
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August, 1992 |
CyberStrike demoed to GEnie
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Febuary, 1993
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CyberStrike opens on GEnie
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| June, 1993 |
(related news) GEnie drops prices
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| 1993 |
CyberStrike wins award for first "Online Game of the Year" from Computer Gaming World magazine
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Simutronics signs with Time Warner for Modus Operandi
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Development of GSIV (later renamed to DragonRealms) begins
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| June 1993 |
GEnie's peak as online service (115K total customers, 2000 simultaneous users)
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| March 1994 |
Simutronics moves into new office at 800 First Capitol Drive
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| 1994 |
GemStone III converted from Mark III to UNIX
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Simutronics signs contract with Microprose to do online version of Magic: The Gathering
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| November 1994 |
CyberStrike offered retail via Microprose
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| June 1, 1995 |
Modus Operandi goes into beta on GEnie
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| Fall 1995 |
Magic contract with Microprose goes *poof*
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GemStone III De-ICEd, opens on AOL
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| Febuary 1, 1996 |
DragonRealms opens on Genie
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| May 1, 1996 |
Simutronics moves to new office: 1500 Wall Street
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| June 3,1996 |
DragonRealms Open Beta on AOL
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| July 2, 1996 |
Simutronics signs contract with CompuServe
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| July 25, 1996 |
DragonRealms live on AOL
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| October 15, 1996 |
DragonRealms opens on Prodigy
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| December 1, 1996 |
AOL switches to flat-rate pricing
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Simutronics customers' hours per month go from 750,000 -> 2 Million!
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| December 1996 |
GemStone III and DragonRealms are the top two titles (hours/month) in industry
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GemStone III does over 1.4 Million hours in one month, with over 2000 simultaneous users
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| May 29, 1997 |
SimuCon ][ convention takes place near St. Louis airport
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| July 3, 1997 |
Simutronics website opens: http://www.play.net
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| September 4, 1997 |
Simutronics & Universal announce Hercules & Xena game
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| November 1997 |
Sony & Simutronics announce CyberStrike 2
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| April 1998 |
Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes goes live
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| July 1998 |
SimuCon 98 at Adam's Mark Hotel
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| December 1998 |
CyberStrike 2 opens
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| January 24, 1999 |
DragonRealms Province IV released (Maritime Expansion) |
| September 1999 |
SimuCon 99 at King Henry VIII Hotel
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| September 25, 1999 |
First GS3 Radio Broadcast
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| October 1, 1999 |
related news) Prodigy Classic online service shuts down |
| Fall 1999 |
GS3 portal on CompuServe shut down
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| October 15, 1999 |
Simutronics listed as #295 on Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the country
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| December 27, 1999 |
(related news) Genie closes its doors
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| January 2000 |
First GS3 character portrait pack goes into the game (Werlin, Thuunk, Crenshaw, Dazee, Declanne, Dorren, Miah, Witcheaven, Jadow, Iscikella)
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| Febuary 1, 2000 |
GemStone III's 10-year anniversary
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| Febuary 3, 2000 |
First DragonRealms character portrait goes into the game
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| June 15, 2000 |
SimuCon 2000, King Henry VIII Hotel
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| August 28, 2000 |
Simutronics opens Stratics IRC chat rooms
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| September 1, 2000 |
BloodLust opens in DR Platinum
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| October 23, 2000 |
(related news) ex-partner Iron Crown Enterprises files for bankruptcy
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| January 20, 2001 |
VegasCon 2001. Fan-organized, about 400 attendees!
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| June 7-10, 2001 |
SimuCon 2001 at St. Louis Airport Hilton
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| September 5, 2001 |
eScape Web FE goes beta in all IFE games
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| September 11, 2001 |
WTC & Pentagon Attacks
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| September 12, 2001 |
Simutronics Crisis Center Launched
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| October 1, 2001 |
Web 2.0 & eScape go live
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| October 18, 2001 |
Platinum prices drop from $50 to $10 extra
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September 25, 2002 |
DragonRealms Fallen goes live ($5 added subscription, or free for Platinum)
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| Febuary 28,2002 |
Announcement goes out that base price will go up from $9.95 to $12.95 in April. (affects all games except CyberStrike Classic)
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| June 2002 |
SimuCon 2002 at the Hilton, first year with a live band and dancing
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| June 5-8, 2003 |
SimuCon 2003 at the Westport Sheraton, first year with karaoke, Radio Free SimuCon and wireless access. New and improved Hero's Journey engine is demoed to the attendees, and betatest applications distributed
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| June 10, 2003 |
GemStone IV goes into alpha testing
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| June 23, 2003 |
Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes" game officially changes name to "Alliance of Heroes" |
| September 15, 2003 |
GemStone IV begins first phase of beta testing
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| October 6,2003 |
GemStone IV goes into open beta
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| November 21, 2003 |
GemStone IV officially launches, along with new version of play.net website and new StormFront Front End.
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| June 2004 |
SimuCon 2004 at the Westport Sheraton
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| November 2004 |
GemStone IV Paladin Expansion
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| 2005 |
DragonRealms Province V scheduled for release
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