Simulmondo

{{Short description|Italian video game developer (1987–1999)}}

{{Expand Italian|Simulmondo|date=April 2021}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Simulmondo S.r.l.

| logo = Simulmondo logo.png

| type =

| industry = Video games

| founder = Francesco Carlà

| key_people = Francesco Carlà (Founder and CEO), Ivan Venturi (Programmer), {{ill|Riccardo Cangini|it|vertical-align=sup}} (Graphic and Designer)

| products =

| revenue =

| operating_income =

| net_income =

| assets =

| num_employees = 20

| caption =

| company_slogan =

| foundation = 1988{{Cite web |date=1992 |title=Simulmondo: Company profile |url=https://archive.org/details/Simulmondo |access-date=18 August 2022 |website=Internet Archive}}

| location = Bologna, Italy

| homepage = {{URL|http://www.simul.it}}

}}

Simulmondo was an Italian software house from Bologna. Specialized video game developer and publisher, it has produced about 150 videogames for Commodore 64, Amiga, PC and Atari ST.{{Cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2017/06/03/pourquoi-l-italie-n-est-jamais-devenue-championne-des-jeux-video-de-football_5138361_4408996.html|title=Pourquoi l'Italie n'est jamais devenue championne des jeux vidéo de football|last=Audureau|first=William|date=2017-06-03|work=Le Monde.fr|access-date=2017-07-30|language=fr|issn=1950-6244}}{{Cite news|url=http://multiplayer.it/articoli/175985-dylan-dog-horror-luna-park-i-videogiochi-dellincubo.html|title=I videogiochi dell'incubo|work=Multiplayer.it|access-date=2017-07-30|language=it}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.gamesvillage.it/retro/news/5803771/in-sviluppo-pride-run-primo-titolo-dedicato-al-movimento-lgbt/|title=In sviluppo Pride Run, primo titolo dedicato al movimento LGBT • GamesVillage.it|work=GamesVillage.it|access-date=2017-07-30|language=it-IT}}

Originally founded in 1988 by Francesco Carlà and Riccardo Arioti, via an agreement with publisher Ital Video,{{Cite web |last=Gerli |first=Damiano |date=2021-02-27 |title=Once we were giants: the history of Simulmondo - Italy's first software house - Part I |url=https://genesistemple.com/once-we-were-giants-the-history-of-simulmondo-italys-first-software-house-part-i |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=The Genesis Temple |language=en-US}} Simulmondo was among the most important game developers in Italy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, developing mostly titles for home computers.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/company/simulmondo|title=Simulmondo - MobyGames|website=MobyGames|access-date=2017-07-31}}

Simulmondo released games manly for the Amiga, MS-DOS and the Commodore 64 platform. The latest Simulmondo's game, middle 90s, had been released for Windows 95 platform. For the distribution of the games, Simulmondo used an innovative strategy for the time: Simulmondo branched out into an early form of episodic gaming, by publishing short adventures that could be completed in one or two hours and distributed them on newsstands at a price much lower than that of the complete games sold in a normal shop.{{Cite web |last=infogiochi |date=2023-02-19 |title=The history of Simulmondo |url=https://www.neperos.com/article/rqbj9fa75d5e540f |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=Neperos |language=en}} In this way Simulmondo could reduce development costs and maximize profits. Games where usually distributed as tapes or floppys.

Simulmondo's most famous games where licensed videogames based on comic books like Dylan Dog, Spider-Man and Tex Willer.

By 1993 the company had lost many of its original programmers and artists, like Ivan Venturi, and, by the following year, Simulmondo had all but disappeared from the mainstream video games market.{{Cite web |last=Gerli |first=Damiano |date=2021-03-06 |title=Once we were giants: the history of Simulmondo - Italy's first software house - Part II |url=https://genesistemple.com/once-we-were-giants-the-history-of-simulmondo-italys-first-software-house-part-ii |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=The Genesis Temple |language=en-US}} In its final years, the software house developed games for television programs, like interactive games for the kids program Solletico and a football engine for Processo di Biscardi.