Frog City PC Games Software

Frog City PC Games Software

Frog City Software, Inc founded in 1995 by brothers Bill and Ted Spieth with Rachel Bernstein and was based in San Francisco.

Frog City's first game, Imperialism, was started in 1994, signed and funded by Strategic Simulations Inc in 1995 and released in 1997. It was a mix between Civilization and Master of Magic but with a supply and demand economy and a computer opponent that adopted the same rules as the player. The game sold about 300,000 copies and became a sleeper hit. The sequel Imperialism II: The Age of Exploration was released in 1999.

Frog City's third released title was the real-time trading simulation Trade Empires in 2001, now published by Eidos. Trade Empires spans 4,000 years and four continents.

The fourth game, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove in 2003, a sequel to a PopTop Software game, and published by Gathering.

Another strategy/RPG title, Spymaster, a thriller about spies in the Cold War was pitched to Gathering / Take-Two Interactive in 2003. Take-Two Interactive subsequently acquired Frog City and the original studio was renamed Sidecar Studios.

Work then began on Snow, a strategy game with Xbox support about drug traffiking and pot and cocaine smuggling in America. Although Snow was shown at E3 in 2005, the studio was closed down in 2006 as part of a reorganisation by Take-Two before completion. Some of the team merged into Firaxis whilst a core of veteran team members remained at Sidecar Studios.