Simtex
Appearance
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Industry | Video games |
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Founded | 1988 |
Defunct | 1997 |
Headquarters | Austin, Texas[1] |
Key people | Steve Barcia |
Products | Master of Orion Master of Magic 1830 |

Simtex Sofware was a video game developer established by Steve Barcia in 1988. It created a number of turn-based strategy games for the PC, most notably the first two Master of Orion games. The company closed in 1997.
History
[edit]Spectrum HoloByte acquired SimTex in 1995.[1]
Games
[edit]- Master of Orion (1993)
- Master of Magic (1994)
- 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons (1995)
- Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (1996)
- Mech Lords (renamed Metal Lords during development following FASA dispute) (1995 — unreleased)
- Guardians: Agents of Justice (in development at time of closure — never finished)
The rights to Simtex's games were held by Atari until sold to various parties in a 2013 auction. Wargaming now owns the rights to the Master of Orion series, while Slitherine holds the publishing rights to Master of Magic;[2] it is eXtremePro Group Inc, that owns the full IP, based on trademark records.[3] A third Master of Orion game named Master of Orion III was published by Atari (a subsidiary company of Infogrames) in 2003, having been developed by Quicksilver Software.
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Corporate Background". MicroProse. Archived from the original on December 21, 1996. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
- ^ Brown, Fraser (5 August 2019). "Master of Magic acquired by strategy publisher Slitherine". PC Gamer.
- ^ Sliwinski, Alexander. "More Atari IP auction winners announced, Stardock plans Star Control reboot". Joystiq. Retrieved 13 November 2013.