Sierra Games

D-Day: The Beginning of the End

Last updated: October 19, 2026

Overview

D-Day: The Beginning of the End is a World War II wargame developed and published by Impressions for DOS and the Amiga in 1994.12 It covers the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 and the campaign that followed across Western Europe. One or two players command the Allied or German forces on a turn-based campaign map, and individual battles can be fought out in Impressions’ “Micro Miniatures” system.13 Electronic Games noted that Impressions completed it “just in time for the 50th anniversary” of the landings.4

The game was designed by Edward Grabowski with Christopher Bamford and Edward Pugsley. It was built on the engine of Grabowski’s 1993 Civil War game The Blue & The Gray.153 Impressions, founded by David Lester, was acquired by Sierra On-Line in 1995, the year after the game’s release.67

Reviews varied widely. Electronic Games graded it “B”, Computer Gaming World gave it three stars out of five, and Amiga scores ran from 51% in Amiga Power to 85% in Amiga Action.342

Story Summary

As a wargame, D-Day has no narrative beyond its history. In the standard game, play begins on June 6, 1944 with a historically accurate setup of Allied and German forces, and runs until the Russian Army reaches Berlin on May 3, 1945.3 Impressions’ advertising promised “real-time animated battles within turn-based strategic campaigns from June 1944 through the end of the war”.9 During play, a historical events feature shows a VGA image and a few paragraphs of background on the campaign being recreated.3

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Units are selected with a right-click and given a destination with a left-click. Most other commands are made through menus.310 Allied units are shown in green and German units in field grey, using about 14 different counters.3 Several reviewers disliked the buttons. Computer Gaming World said that Windows users would find “the stiff operation of the D-Day interface to be somewhat disconcerting”. Amiga Format complained that there was “no visual or aural feedback informing you that you’ve actually pressed the button”, and Amiga Power called the controls “sluggish and unfriendly”.38

Structure and Progression

The game offers a standard game and three historical scenarios. In each scenario, the starting conditions can be changed.310

  • Race to Berlin: Similar to the standard game, but lets the player reduce Allied economic strength, build more German Panzer divisions or move the landings elsewhere.3
  • Normandy Breakout: The Allied breakthrough from Normandy in July 1944.3
  • Battle of the Bulge: Hitler’s last western offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944.3

Daily turns include day and night phases and use three map levels. Resource points are allocated to new planes, troops and tanks on the reinforcement screen, divisions move on the campaign map, and battles take place on the Micro Miniatures level.3 Two players can share one computer.310

Puzzles and Mechanics

The rules were refined from those of The Blue & The Gray. Computer Gaming World noted “several minor performance tweaks and interface enhancements, including zones of control and temporary unit disruption”.3 Optional rules raise the difficulty:13

  • Fog of war: Realistic sighting and troop reports.3
  • Supply: The player must keep each division supplied.3
  • Personalities: Generals such as George S. Patton may “take liberties with your orders and attack when the mood strikes them”. MobyGames notes that at higher difficulty levels “the more ambitious or arrogant generals attempt their own plans”.13

Battles can be resolved with an autoplay option or a “QuickFight” option that places the units next to each other at the start of a battle.3 Units cannot be given orders that last more than one turn, so every unit has to be moved by hand each turn.310 Amiga Power objected that the game begins with “all the units poised to land in Normandy”, rather than letting the player plan the invasion.8

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

PublicationPlatformScore
Amiga Action #60 (August 1994), Steve McNallyAmiga85%2
Génération 4 #68 (July 1994)DOS84%111
Amiga Dream #10 (September 1994)Amiga81%2
CU Amiga (September 1994), Matt BroughtonAmiga74%82
The One #72 (September 1994), Matt BroughtonAmiga72%2
PC Gamer (August 1994)DOS71%1
MikroBitti (September 1994)DOS70%1
Amiga Games (September 1994), Markus GeltenpothAmiga66%2
Amiga Joker (August 1994), Michael SchnelleAmiga63%82
Computer Gaming World #122 (September 1994), Jeff JamesDOS3/513
Computer and Video Games (September 1994)DOS61%1
Amiga Format #63 (September 1994), Steve McGillAmiga54%82
Amiga Power #40 (August 1994), Jonathan DaviesAmiga51%82
Power Play (1994)DOS38%112
Electronic Games (August 1994), Joyce WorleyDOSB4

Computer Gaming World’s Jeff James called it “arguably the best Impressions micro-miniatures release to date”. Its editors listed the pros as “Excellent strategic design on the whole, and a detailed miniatures combat system. Superlative documentation”, and the cons as a “Clunky interface, time-consuming game play, and some questionable strategic design decisions (re: Eastern Front)”.3 James argued that the game “almost totally neglects the importance of the eastern and southern fronts”: a German player can move every unit to the Western Front.3

Electronic Games’ Joyce Worley called it “a magnificent simulation” and wrote that “Impressions did a good job of making this complex campaign manageable”.4 Amiga Joker described the game as “ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung” (“a step in the right direction”), saying the faults of its predecessors had been thoroughly removed.8 CU Amiga’s Matt Broughton concluded: “Not exactly Virtual Reality, but pretty good for strategy heads.”8

The British Amiga monthlies Amiga Format and Amiga Power were far less positive. Amiga Format’s Steve McGill wrote: “There’s no doubt that D-Day was one of the most heroic struggles ever. Sadly, getting to grips with the game happens to be one of the most ignoble struggles ever.”8 Amiga Power’s Jonathan Davies said the graphics were “the worst I’ve seen in any wargame - just minute squares with letters in”, and his bottom line was “So boring you’ll spend more time gazing at it while slowly shaking your head than actually playing it.”8

Modern Assessment

AllGame’s Michael L. House rated it 3.5 out of 5. He praised the documentation as “As complete and comprehensive as I’ve ever seen” but warned: “It wouldn’t be unusual for games between humans to last a period of weeks.”110 Home of the Underdogs quotes a synopsis by M. Evan Brooks, which says the game was based on The Blue and The Gray engine “so much so that World War II formations can assume ‘square’”. Brooks concluded: “As a gaming experience, it ranked right up there with its history.” Underdogs itself called it “a thoroughly failed attempt by Impressions to create a ‘serious’ wargame”.13 MobyGames lists a critic average of 64% from 18 ratings, and Lemon Amiga calculates an average of 68% across eight Amiga reviews.12

Development

Origins

D-Day was Edward Grabowski’s follow-up to The Blue & The Gray. Reporting from CES in its March 1994 issue, Computer Gaming World described “Ed Grabowski’s next wargame, tentatively titled D-Day. Based on an improved The Blue & The Gray engine, D-Day includes distinctions between leaders unlike its predecessor.” At that point Impressions was still unsure about modem support.5 Impressions advertised the game from April 1994 as “The Beginning of the End”.14 By June it was billing D-Day as “the latest in Impressions’ Micro-Miniatures series”, one that “even surpasses ‘The Blue & The Gray’ in strategic complexity”.9

Production

MobyGames lists the DOS team as follows:1

  • Design: Edward Grabowski, Christopher Bamford, Edward Pugsley
  • PC code: Edward Grabowski
  • Production: Edward Pugsley, Christopher Bamford
  • Graphics: Erik Casey
  • Music: Jason P. Rinaldi
  • Documentation: Christopher J. Foster, Jennifer Hawthorne

The game shipped with four manuals: a technical supplement and tutorial, a campaign manual, a Micro Miniatures battle manual, and An Overview of Overlord. Electronic Games called the last of these “the excellent history of the battle and events following, by Jennifer Hawthorne”.48 Computer Gaming World listed the DOS version at $59.95, requiring a 286 or better with VGA graphics and a mouse, with no copy protection.3 On the Amiga it cost £34.99 according to Amiga Format and £29.99 according to CU Amiga, and it needed 1 MB of memory.8

Version History

VersionDatePlatformNotes
Original1994DOSFloppy disk; MobyGames also lists a CD-ROM release1
Original1994AmigaTwo disks, 1 MB, hard-disk installable82

Computer Gaming World stated that modem play was not supported and hoped that “an upgrade to the program should offer support for modem play”. MobyGames, however, lists modem among the DOS version’s multiplayer options.13

Legacy

D-Day continued Impressions’ Micro Miniatures line of wargames.9 Amiga Joker placed it in the same “Strategic Wargame” series as Rorke’s Drift, which Grabowski had named as the closest ancestor of his Blue & The Gray system.815 The game was later included in Twenty Wargame Classics (1996), a compilation published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and Mindscape. The same set includes Impressions’ Conquest of Japan and Global Domination.116 After Sierra acquired Impressions in 1995, the studio’s historical wargames were published by Sierra, among them Robert E. Lee: Civil War General (1996).617

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

  • Not currently available; no GOG listing was found when this page was written.

Download / Preservation

See Also

References

Footnotes

  1. MobyGames – D-Day: The Beginning of the End – 1994 DOS and Amiga, Impressions developer/publisher, description, DOS credits, specs (floppy, CD-ROM, modem, 1–2 players), critic list (Génération 4, PC Gamer, MikroBitti, CVG, CGW 3/5, Power Play, AllGame 3.5/5), 64% average, Twenty Wargame Classics ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24

  2. Lemon Amiga – D-Day: The Beginning of the End – 1994 Amiga release, two disks, eight magazine scores including Amiga Action 85%, 68% average ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  3. Internet Archive – Computer Gaming World #122 (September 1994) – “Triumph In Miniature” review by Jeff James, pp.110–112: scenarios, map levels, options, interface, Eastern Front criticism, specs, editors’ rating and pros/cons ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26 ↩27

  4. Internet Archive – Electronic Games (August 1994) – review by Joyce Worley, grade B, 50th anniversary, An Overview of Overlord ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. Internet Archive – Computer Gaming World #116 (March 1994) – Alan Emrich’s CES wargame report on D-Day and the improved Blue & Gray engine ↩ ↩2

  6. Wikipedia – Impressions Games – founded by David Lester, sold to Sierra On-Line in 1995, catalogue listing D-Day (1994) and Robert E. Lee: Civil War General (1996) ↩ ↩2

  7. MobyGames – Sierra Entertainment, Inc. – Sierra’s 1995 purchase of Impressions Games ↩

  8. Amiga Reviews – D-Day: The Beginning of the End – Amiga Format #63 (Steve McGill, 54%), Amiga Joker 09/94 (Michael Schnelle, 63%), Amiga Power #40 (Jonathan Davies, 51%), CU Amiga September 1994 (Matt Broughton, 74%), credits, manuals, prices, specs ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16

  9. Internet Archive – Computer Gaming World #119 (June 1994) – Impressions advertisement: Micro-Miniatures series, June 1944 to end of war, compared with The Blue & The Gray ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. AllGame – D-Day: The Beginning of the End review (Wayback, 2014) – review by Michael L. House: scenario editing, two-player and solo play, long games, menus and mouse movement, no long-term orders, documentation ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. Abandonware France – Génération 4 #68, page 133 – scan of the Génération 4 review page ↩

  12. Kultboy – Power Play D-Day test – scan of the Power Play review ↩

  13. Home of the Underdogs – D-Day: The Beginning of The End – quoted M. Evan Brooks synopsis and Underdogs assessment ↩

  14. Internet Archive – Computer Gaming World #117 (April 1994) – Impressions advertisement, “It’s The Beginning of the End” ↩

  15. Internet Archive – Electronic Games (January 1994) – Edward Grabowski interview naming Rorke’s Drift as the closest ancestor of the Blue & Gray system ↩

  16. MobyGames – Twenty Wargame Classics – 1996 SSI/Mindscape compilation including D-Day, Conquest of Japan and Global Domination ↩

  17. MobyGames – Robert E. Lee: Civil War General – 1996 Impressions game published by Sierra On-Line ↩

  18. Internet Archive – D-Day: The Beginning of the End (DOS) – DOS preservation item, Impressions Games ↩

  19. MyAbandonware – D-Day: The Beginning of the End – 1994 DOS, UK release, Impressions publisher and developer, Amiga version ↩

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