Computer Bismarck

Naval computer wargame

Computer Bismarck is a computer wargame developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) in 1980. The game is based on the last battle of the battleship Bismarck, in which British Armed Forces pursue the German Bismarck in 1941. It is SSI's first game, and features turn based gameplay and two dimensional graphics. The development staff consisted of two programmers, Joel Billings and John Lyons, who programmed the game in BASIC. Originally developed for the TRS 80, an Apple II version was also created two months into the process. After meeting with other wargame developers, Billings decided to publish the game as well. To help accomplish this, he hired Louis Saekow to create the box art. The first commercially published computer war game, Computer Bismarck sold well and contributed to SSI's success. Though it received a mixed reception, the game is credited in part for legitimizing war games and computer games.

The game is a simulation of the German battleship Bismarcks last battle in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On May 24, 1941, Bismarck and German cruiser Prinz Eugen sank the British and damaged at the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Following the battle, British Royal Navy ships and aircraft pursued Bismarck for two days. After being crippled by a torpedo bomber on the evening of May 26, Bismarck was sunk the following morning.

Computer Bismarck is a turn based computer wargame in which players control British forces against the battleship Bismarck and other German units. The German forces can be controlled by either a computer opponent (named "Otto von Computer") or a second player. While between his undergraduate and graduate education, Billings met an IBM programmer and discussed computers. The game was originally developed for the Tandy Corporation's TRS 80. Two months into development, Billings met with Trip Hawkins, then a marketing manager at Apple Computer, via a venture capitalist, who convinced Billings to develop the game for the Apple II;

In 1980, Peter Ansoff of BYTE magazine called Computer Bismarck a "milestone in the development of commercial war games", and approved of the quality of the documentation and the option to play against the computer, but disapproved of the game. Acknowledging that "it is perhaps unfair to expect the first published [computer war game] to be a fully developed product", he criticized Computer Bismarck for overly faithfully copying the mechanics of the Bismarck board game, including those that worked efficiently on a board but less so on a computer. Ansoff also noted that the computer game "perpetuates the [board game's] irritating system of ship movement rates", and concluded that "the failings of Computer Bismarck can be summarized by saying that it does not take advantage of the possibilities offered by the computer". Moves magazine reviewer Ian Chadwick called it "engrossing" and praised the simulation's accuracy. While noting the excessive amount of time required to play a single game, Chadwick noted that Computer Bismarck requires patience and some gameplay changes could have reduced this time. He called the graphics "poorly drawn", but conceded that good visuals are not necessary. The game was better received by other critics. Neil Shapiro of Popular Mechanics that year praised the game's detail and ability to recreate the complex maneuvering involved in the real battle. He referred to it as unique and "fantastic". In Creative Computing, Randy Heuer cautioned that the game "is probably not for everyone. The point which I probably cannot emphasize enough is that it is an extremely complex simulation However, for those ready for a [challenge] I enthusiastically recommend Computer Bismarck". Reviewing Computer Bismarck in The Space Gamer magazine, Joseph T. Suchar called the game "superb" and stated that "it has so many strategic options for both sides that it is unlikely to be optimized." United States Navy defense researcher Peter Perla in 1990 considered war games like Computer Bismarck a step above earlier war themed video games that relied on arcade style action. He praised the addition of a computer controlled opponent that such games provide to solitaire players. Perla attributes SSI's success to the release of its early wargames, specifically citing Computer Bismarck. Computer Gaming Worlds Bob Proctor in 1988 agreed that Computer Bismarck contributed to SSI's success, commenting that the title earned the company a good profit. He also stated that it encouraged game enthusiasts to submit their own games to SSI, which he believed helped further the company's success. Describing it as the first "serious wargame for a microcomputer", Proctor credited Computer Bismarck with helping to legitimize war games and computer games in general. He stated that the professional packaging demonstrated SSI's seriousness to produce quality products; One of SSI's later games, Pursuit of the Graf Spee, uses an altered version of Computer Bismarcks core system. In December 2013 the International Center for the History of Electronic Games received a software donation of several SSI games, including Computer Bismarck with the source code for preservation.