SimEarth

SimEarth is a computer game that simulates an ecosystem. It was designed by Will Wright and published in 1990 by Maxis. The player controls given to the development of a planet. There versions for the Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, IBM PC, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and PC Engine were developed. The latter version was released in 2009 for the Wii Virtual Console.

Although the game was highly praised at its release, SimEarth was compared with the previous SimCity, not a commercial success.

Survey

In SimEarth the player can, among other things set the properties of the atmosphere, temperature, and the land masses of the planet and then colonize different life forms and watch for further development. The game gives no specific mission objectives. The challenging task is to develop intelligent life and an advanced civilization. The stages of development of the planet can be reversed and repeated until the planet is 10 billion years after his creation "dies". After no more than this time, it is believed, the sun will turn into a red giant and die, all life on the planet.

SimEarth simulates the Gaia model to Lynn Margulis and James Lovelock ( who has worked as a counselor in the development of the game and wrote an introduction ), and a game scenario is the simplified " Daisyworld " model.

The control of the simulated planet is very extensive; Control window allow the player to regulate everything from atmospheric gases on the speed of continental drift up to the reproduction and mutation rate of the life forms. In addition, an allusion to those of the players different tools that interfere with the development of the planet receives, such as oxygen generators that enrich the atmosphere with oxygen, or the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the development of the promotes intelligence.

The list of disasters ranging from natural events such as hurricanes and fires to population- dependent events, such as epidemics and pollution. The impact on the planet can be very minor or very broad, depending on the existing circumstances. To increase the proportion of volcanic eruptions of dust particles in the atmosphere and reduce the global temperature; Earthquake under water surfaces can cause tsunamis; the shortage of nuclear fuel can in civilizations that are dependent on nuclear energy, lead to a nuclear war.

All brought about by the players actions have a certain price, which is specified in " energy units " or " Ω - units ". So, for example, 50 units for processing a single terrain field is required; requires 500 units to build a terraforming tool. The energy budget is dependent on the degree of development of the planet and to the difficulty; In the simplest mode, it is unlimited.

Taxa

A feature of the game is that all taxa of multicellular animals given the same conditions, so it is possible, for example, that develop intelligent molluscs. The two unicellular taxa, prokaryotes and eukaryotes (or bacteria and amoebae ) are discussed separately. Some taxa of the game are radially symmetrical animals, whales, and more familiar, such as fish or birds. As an Easter Egg there are also self-replicating machines that can occur when a city of the highest degree of development ( nanotechnology) is destroyed by a nuclear explosion. This machine life form can survive in any habitat and is generally more successful than all other life forms. She is able to develop intelligence and eventually build cities. In addition, there are mutated, carnivorous plants that only occur randomly and can not be settled by the player. A variety of insects favored this development. They also can develop intelligence. In addition to these known types there is the extinct Trichordaten ( Tribrachidien ). In the game manual it says, " they did to us [ developers ] sorry, so we give them a chance to survive in SimEarth ".

Similar games

• SimLife
• Spore