Short answers, pulled from the story.
Simulations Publications, Inc., known as SPI, was an American publisher of board wargames and related magazines in the 1970s and early 1980s. Its flagship publication was Strategy & Tactics, and each issue typically included a complete wargame with a map, a rulebook, and a sheet of die cut counters.
Jim Dunnigan founded Simulations Publications in 1969 with Redmond A. Simonsen as co-founder, originally to keep the financially troubled magazine Strategy & Tactics in publication, which Dunnigan had acquired from its founder Christopher Wagner. The company quickly became a game publisher in its own right, with staff including designer Al Nofi.
SPI ran out of cash in early 1982 after negotiating a promissory note loan from TSR, reported at the time as $225,000 though other records list it as $400,000, secured against SPI's own assets. Less than two weeks after SPI used the money to pay its venture capitalists, TSR called in the loan, and SPI had to hand over its entire inventory.
TSR began selling SPI's inventory in 1982 and formally acquired SPI's trademarks and copyrights, but not its debts, in 1983. TSR continued a form of the SPI operation until 1987, releasing stranded titles and reboxing older SPI games, while most SPI designers resigned and moved to Avalon Hill's new Victory Games subsidiary.
The Dallas role-playing game was created through a 1980 arrangement between SPI and Lorimar Productions, based on the soap opera Dallas. SPI printed 80,000 copies, and co-founder Redmond A. Simonsen later said the run was "79,999 too many."
SPI's Strategy & Tactics won the Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977. SPI games also won Charles S. Roberts and H. G. Wells Awards across categories including fantasy board games, 20th century games, and roleplaying rules between 1977 and 1980.