Railroad tycoon 3 company logo maker7/2/2023 ![]() MicroProse released the air traffic control game Kennedy Approach, written by Andy Hollis, in 1985. By 1984, the company had begun supporting the Apple II and IBM compatibles. In 1983, MicroProse ported Floyd of the Jungle to the Commodore 64, their first product for that machine. Gregg Tavares's Gunship Design Team flight jacket Hellcat Ace began a series of increasingly sophisticated 8-bit flight simulation games, including Spitfire Ace (1982) and Solo Flight (1983), that defined the company. MicroProse advertised its first batch of games in 1982, under the headline "Experience the MicroProse Challenge!!!" All three were written by Sid Meier for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers: platformer Floyd of the Jungle, 2D shooter Chopper Rescue, and first-person airplane combat game Hellcat Ace. MicroProse became profitable in its second month and had $10 million in sales by 1986. (In 1987 the company agreed to change its name to avoid confusion with MicroPro International, but MicroPro decided to rename itself after its WordStar word processor). They planned to name it Smugger's Software, but chose MicroProse. ![]() Although Meier needed two months to produce Hellcat Ace, Stealey sold 50 copies in his first sales appointment and the game became the first product of their new company. Stealey promised to sell the game if Meier could develop it. After Meier surprised Stealey by repeatedly defeating him when playing Red Baron, he explained that he had analyzed the game's programming to predict future actions and claimed that he could design a better home computer game in one week. In summer 1982, mutual friends who knew of their shared interest in aviation arranged for retired military pilot Bill Stealey and computer programmer Sid Meier to meet in Las Vegas. Cybergun owned the MicroProse brand from 2010 to 2018, which was then acquired by David Lagettie working with Stealey. ![]() The MicroProse brand was licensed to the Legacy Engineering Group for consumer electronics. The brand was revived in 2007 when Interactive Game Group acquired it from Atari Interactive, formerly Infogrames. ![]() MicroProse UK's former main office in Chipping Sodbury was closed in 2002, followed by the company's former headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland, in 2003. In 2001, MicroProse ceased to exist as an entity and Hasbro Interactive sold the MicroProse intellectual properties to Infogrames Entertainment, SA. ![]() In 1998, following an unsuccessful buyout attempt by GT Interactive, the struggling MicroProse (Spectrum HoloByte) became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive and its development studios in Alameda, California, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were closed the following year. Subsequent cuts and corporate policies led to Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds leaving and forming Firaxis Games in 1996, as MicroProse closed its ex- Simtex development studio in Austin, Texas. In 1993, the company lost most of its UK-based personnel and became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the Civilization and X-COM series. MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. ![]()
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