SimEarth
| Developer: Maxis | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Ocean | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Simulation | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
Take part in the “life” of a planet, from its geological formation to the development of advanced civilisations (with the kind participation of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey!).
As in Sim City, you choose between a free play mode and scenarios. For example, you’re tasked with “terraforming” Mars or Venus within a given time, or accelerating the evolution of a civilisation, or even solving ecological/energy/geopolitical problems of our contemporary era. Ambitious, isn’t it?
In practice, you’ll spend your time clicking everywhere and observing the effects on ecosystems. You’ll “witness” mass extinctions, followed, with a bit of luck, by sudden appearances of new species.
You could even indulge in a little sadism by sending them little disasters (meteor strikes, volcanic eruptions, epidemics, tidal waves…) and then sit back comfortably while the little critters frolic in the foam and ashes. It’s for science!
Be warned, the rather cold presentation, laden with windows and graphs, is somewhat off-putting. In any case, I think we knew what to expect when buying the game. Its complexity makes it suitable for enthusiasts of natural sciences and astronomy. Personally, if only I had the time to invest in it, I’m sure I would find my happiness there.
Don’t expect to dive into this without seriously studying the manual. You can get it here and there (in English).
There exists a high-resolution version (on emulator, move the “Refresh” slider one notch in the “Display” tab to remove the unpleasant flickering). In any case, this type of game is better rendered on PC (original version), so I advise you to download it as abandonware.
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