[size=3][b]Maxis' Sim Series 1989-1998[/b][/size]
This is the combination of my two previous uploads, and a few newer versions of some of them. AND the full version of SimGolf thanks to Silversun! Users who previously downloaded these torrents will not need to download all these files :-)
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[b]SimCity (1989)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simcity.jpg[/img]
SimCity was originally developed by game designer Will Wright. The inspiration for SimCity came from a feature of the game Raid on Bungeling Bay that allowed players to create their own maps. Wright soon found he enjoyed creating maps more than playing the actual game, and SimCity was born.
The game sparked a new paradigm in computer gaming by creating a game that could neither be won nor lost. This was not immediately recognized by the game publishers, who did not foresee the possibility of successfully marketing and selling such a game. Brøderbund declined to publish the title when Wright proposed it, and he pitched it to a range of major game publishers without success. Finally, founder Jeff Braun of then-tiny Maxis agreed to publish SimCity as one of two initial games for the company.
Wright and Braun returned to Brøderbund to formally clear the rights to the game in 1988, when SimCity was near completion. Broderbund executives Gary Carlston and Don Daglow saw that the title was infectious and fun, and signed Maxis to a distribution deal for both of its initial games.
The subsequent success of SimCity speaks for itself: "Sim" games of all types were spawned with Will Wright and Maxis developing a myriad of titles including SimEarth, SimFarm, SimTown, Streets of SimCity, SimCopter, SimAnt, SimLife, SimIsle, SimPark, SimSafari, SimThemePark, The Sims and SimMars, which was never released. They also obtained licenses for some titles developed in Japan, such as SimTower and Let's Take The A-Train (just called A-Train outside of Japan). The most recent development is The Sims, and its sequel, The Sims 2.
SimCity is predominantly a single-player game (the exception being a "Network Edition" of SimCity 2000, and an obscure Unix port of the original SimCity). SimCity 4 also makes an attempt at multiplayer gaming with the ability to share regional maps and cities with other players, allowing players to collaborate, but not play in real time.
In 1990, SimCity won the Origins Award for "Best Military or Strategy Computer Game" of 1989.
[img]http://www.jaky.sulinet.hu/stafeta/simcity1.gif[/img]
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[b]SimEarth (1990)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simearth.jpg[/img]
SimEarth: The Living Planet is a simulation computer game designed by Will Wright and published in 1990 by Maxis, in which the player controls the development of an entire planet. The player can vary its atmosphere, temperature, landmasses, etc, then place various forms of life on the planet and watch them evolve. Although as a software toy, the game does not have any required goals, the big (and difficult) challenge is to evolve intelligent life and an advanced civilization. Although the game was much admired when it came out, it was not a big seller compared to its hit predecessor SimCity.
The game models the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock (who assisted with the design and wrote an introduction to the manual), and one of the options available to the player is the simplified "Daisyworld" model.
The player's control of the planet in the game is quite comprehensive; display panels allow the player to regulate everything from atmospheric gases, with percentages to three decimal places, to the rate of continental drift. The list of natural disasters ranges hurricanes to population-dependent plagues.
An interesting feature of the game is that most phyla of multicellular organisms are on an equal footing, and thus it is possible to evolve intelligent molluscs and the like. In addition to the familiar types, the long-extinct "trichordates" are included, because "we felt sorry for them, and are giving them a chance for survival in SimEarth". (A small number of mysterious fossils seem to exhibit trilateral symmetry, but this is controversial; see Vendian faunas, in particular Tribrachidium.)
As an "Easter egg", machine life can appear in the game if a city of the highest technology level (nano technology) is destroyed by a nuclear explosion. Machine life can thrive in any biome or environmental conditions, generally out-competing any other life forms present, and can itself eventually evolve intelligence and build cities.
Despite the humor, both in game and manual, game play itself can be somewhat mystifying; species may thrive or die out for no apparent reason. Mass extinctions, however, are often followed by periods of renewed evolutionary diversification, allowing the player to experiment with new sets of species and ecosystems. The open-ended nature of the game and the lack of a clear end-point may help explain its lack of popularity, since players prefer to feel in control of events.
[img]http://www.cyodine.com/virtuallife/SSSimEarth1.gif[/img]
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[b]SimAnt (1991)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simant.jpg[/img]
The game is essentially a simulation of an ant colony. The game consists of three modes: a Quick Game, a Full Game, and an Experimental Game. It was released for the IBM PC, Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The later version also added eight scenarios, where the goal in each is to eliminate the enemy red ants in various locales, each with different hazards. However, this version of the game lacks the Experimental Game.
In the game, the player plays the role of an ant in a colony of black ants in the garden of a suburban home. The player can change which ant they are (known as the "yellow ant", as it's colored at any time), and the ant controlled by them can order the other ants (by ordering a certain number to follow it, for instance). The player must battle against the red ants. The ultimate aim of the game is to spread throughout the garden, into the house, and finally to drive the human beings out of the house. In this respect, it differed from other 'Sim' games, which largely had no "win" or "lose" situation.
In the Quick Game, the player establishes a black ant colony in a small patch of yard, shown in top-down perspective. While the player establishes the black ant colony, the computer establishes a competing red ant colony in the same patch. Underground ant colonies are depicted in a side view. The player has direct control of a single ant at a time, indicated by a yellow color, and may switch control to a different ant at any time. The player's yellow ant may influence the behavior of other black ants by leaving pheromone trails to destinations such as food and enemy ant colonies. The quick game is won or lost when either the red or black colony in said patch is defeated.
The player's yellow ant may pick up food and rocks, regurgitate food for friendly ants, and attack enemy ants, spiders, caterpillars, and antlions. Natural hazards include human footsteps, spiders, antlions, lawnmowers, and rain, which washes away pheromone trails and can flood the bottom of ant nests.
In the Full Game, the player begins with an ant colony in an overhead view, much like the Quick Game. The region of this overhead view is a single square of a map containing a yard and house, and the player wins by colonizing the entire map. The player spreads to other areas by producing young queens and drones to mate with each other. The full game is won or lost when all colonies in the yard are of one color.
The Experimental Game is similar to the Quick Game, except the player can also control red ants and has access to a set of experimental tools. These tools allow the player to place pheremone trails, rocks, ants, and food.
The boxed game also comes with a thoroughly researched instruction manual, which not only covers game mechanics, but also contains a large amount of information regarding ants and ant societies.
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/wyldink/simant-2.gif[/img]
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[b]A-Train (1992)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/a-train.jpg[/img]
The game places players in command of a railway company. There are no rival companies, the player controls the only one in the city and the game is fairly open-ended. A-Train uses a near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similiar to Maxis's SimCity 2000.
There are two types of transport that the player's company can take: passengers or building materials. The former is more likely to be profitable, but building materials allow the city to grow.
Wherever the building materials are delivered, they can be taken and used to construct buildings for the city. These start with houses, but eventually, as an area grows, roads, and shops and other buildings are built. These can provide extra revenue for a passenger service, but also allowing the city to develop and grow can be seen as a goal in itself.
As well as the buildings built by the computer, in response to the materials being present, the player can construct their own buildings, such as ski resorts and hotels, and make profits from them if the conditions are right.
[img]http://www.juegomania.org/A-Train/fotos/pc/7/7116/Foto%2BA-Train.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimLife (1992)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simlife.jpg[/img]
SimLife is a computer game produced by Maxis in 1992. The concept of the game is to simulate an ecosystem; players may modify the genetics of the plants and animals that inhabit the virtual world. The point of this game is to experiment and create a self sustaining ecosystem.
The producers of SimLife is refer to it as "The Genetic Playground." The game allows users to explore the interaction of life-forms and environments. Users can manipulate the genetics of both plants and animals to determine whether these new species could survive in the Earth's various environments. Players can also create new worlds with distinctive environments to see how certain species (earth's species or their own) fare within them.
SimLife gives players the power to:
[*] Create and modify worlds
[*] Create and modify plants and animals at the genetic level
[*] Design environments and ecosystems;
[*] Study genetics in action
[*] Simulate and control evolution
[*] Change the physics of the universe in your computer
[img]http://www.juegomania.org/SimLife%2BClassic/fotos/pc/6/6425/Foto%2BSimLife%2BClassic.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimCity 2000 (1993)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simcity2000.jpg[/img]
The unexpected and enduring success of the original SimCity, combined with the relative lack of success with other Sim titles, finally motivated the development of a sequel. SC2K was a major extension of the concept; the view was now isometric instead of overhead, land could have different elevations, and underground layers were introduced for water pipes and subways. New types of facilities included hospitals, prisons, schools, libraries, museums, parks, marinas, zoos, stadiums and arcologies. Players could build highways, roads, bus depots, and zone land for seaports and airports. Enacting city ordinances and connecting to neighbouring cities became possible. The budget and finance controls were also much more elaborate.
News came in the form of several pre-written newspaper articles with variable names that could either be called up immediately or could be subscribed on a yearly basis. The newspaper option provided many humorous stories as well as relevent news stories such as new technology or recent disasters. Sim City 2000 is the only game in the series to have this feature.
The only process considered to be a 'victory' was the exodus process, where by when 200 'Launch Arcologies' were constructed, they would take off and fly to another planet, reducing the city's population to only those who are not living in the Launch Arcologies, but opening wide areas for redevelopment and adding large sums to the city treasury.
[img]http://www.mujmac.cz/images/SimCity2000.jpg[/img]
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[b]El-Fish (1993)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/el-fish.jpg[/img]
El-Fish (or SimFish) is a fish and fish-tank simulator developed by Russian game developer AnimaTek, with Maxis providing development advice. The game was published by Maxis in 1993.
Each fish in El-Fish has a unique Roe, similar to the genome. This allows the user to catch fish and use selective breeding and mutation to create fish to their own tastes for placing them in virtual aquariums. Once fish were selective, El-Fish would generate up to 256 animation frames so that the fish would appear to swim smoothly around the tank.
The tank simulator is very customizable for this games era. The player can select from a large number of backdrops and tank ornaments for the fish to swim between. The user can also import their own images to use as tank ornaments. El-Fish also includes a fractal based plant generator for creating unique aquarium plants. There were also several "moving objects" that could be added to the tanks which the fish would react to, such as a cat paw, fibcrab, and a small plastic scuba diver. The user could also choose a separate MIDI file to be played for each virtual aquarium, and feed the fish.
The tank simulator could run as a memory-resident program in DOS, making it a screensaver. Multiple tanks could be displayed via El-Fish's slideshow feature.
[img]http://bonusweb.idnes.cz/obrazek/maxis_elfish_scrm03.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimFarm (1993)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simfarm.jpg[/img]
Yet another spin off from the SimCity series, SimFarm developed by Maxis in 1993 challenges players to build and manage a virtual farm.
Mirroring duties on a real farm, SimFarm puts players in charge of building up the land, placing the buildings, buying and selling livestock and planting crops. A weather and season system are in place as well presenting the same kind of challenges found in a real world farm. As with SimCity, there are disasters that can wreak havoc on the player's farm. Tornados, droughts, pests and dust storms are some of events that can disrupt farm crops and harvests.
[img]http://www.will-wright.com/sitepics/simfarm.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimHealth (1994)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simhealth.jpg[/img]
SimHealth, released by Maxis in 1994, is a simulation of the U.S. Healthcare system. Produced with assistance from the Markle Foundation, it is virtually unknown and difficult to find.
An incredibly complex simulation, it was generally regarded as difficult and dry. Armed with none of the tongue-in-cheek humor famous for Maxis games, the only real link to the franchise was the SimCity 2000-inspired user interface. Some also claimed that the game was unfairly biased towards more liberal healthcare programs. It was produced only for DOS, and is almost impossible to locate on the market today, let alone play on a modern operating system.
[img]http://www.lukaswebs.com/emulatronic/capturas/Sim-health1.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimTower (1994)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simtower.jpg[/img]
SimTower was spun off shortly after the release of SimCity 2000. Although published by Maxis, the game was originally developed in Japan and its license was acquired by Maxis. In Japan, it was published under the name of The Tower, and developed by Yoot Saito's company OPeNBooK.
A sequel to SimTower, Yoot Tower was also developed by OPeNBooK and was published by SEGA in the U.S. in 1999.
A clone of SimTower for the PocketPC was released in 2004 under the name of Tower Mogul.
In 2004 the game was ported to the Game Boy Advance under the name The Tower SP.
As the name suggests, the objective is to construct and manage a towering skyscraper and keep its occupants happy. Offices, hotels, and condominiums give tenants places to live and work, while shops and restaurants provide commercial balance. Utilities such as hospitals and recycling centers become necessary as the tower grows in size. The player's progress is based on a star system, similar to how hotels are ranked, with new stars awarded for meeting population milestones and other conditions. Population is measured by the number of individuals currently in the tower; many hotel rooms will cause population to soar during the night. As the tower's rating improves, more facilities can be built by the player. Like other Maxis games, gameplay is not designed linearly, and SimTower does not have a specific end point; however, the primary goal is a population of 15,000, which rewards the player with 'Tower' status.
One of the key activities of the game is effectively managing and building elevators in order to allow occupants to move between floors efficiently. In fact, the original game was a program to test effective elevator layouts. Many users felt a more appropriate title for the game would have been SimElevator.
[img]http://www.geocities.com/dutchoseth/storage/simtower/simscreen.gif[/img]
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[b]SimIsle (1995)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simisle.jpg[/img]
SimIsle: Mission in the Rain Forest is a simulation/strategy video game published by Maxis in 1995. It ranks among many relatively unsuccessful "Sim games" (from a sales view point) that Maxis produced in the 1990s between the various incarnations of SimCity. Like these dozen or so others, Maxis referred to the title not as a video game but as a "software toy" because it remained faithful to the open ended philosophy of the company.
Before a new game can begin, the game requires that the player choose one of several dozen fictional tropical islands of various shapes and sizes to simulate. Each island is unique in that it has varying amounts of open plains, forests, mountains, natural resources and native peoples. The amount of pre-developed land also varies but most of the islands are largely undeveloped when a new simulation begins. Although each scenario has certain objectives and win/lose conditions, the scenario objectives are always optional (each map can be started with the scenario objectives turned off) and the simulation can continue in free form even after successfully completing the initial task.
The game engine itself has a passing similarity to that of SimCity 2000 (SC2K). For example, the island maps are projected isometricly; however, the terrain graphics are more sophisticated and other graphics are of a slightly different style than SC2K. Another engine similarity is the ability to rotate the map 90° at a time, which allows it to be viewed from four different perspectives. There are also three separate zoom levels, ranging from very far out, allowing the entire map to be visible on screen, to very close in, for viewing very specific details of the island.
Each island map has its own initial situation or quagmire that the player can deal with however he or she sees fit. Of particular note is the scenario where the island's natives have begun growing narcotics and a foreign drug cartel begins operations there as a result. The player can choose to ignore the situation, take a cut of profits or send an agent to shut the operation down. Choosing the last option can, however, result in the assassination of said agent.
[img]http://www.geocities.com/sim6000/simisle.JPG[/img]
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[b]SimTown (1995)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simtown.jpg[/img]
SimTown is a 1995 computer game published by Maxis, much like the best selling SimCity on a smaller scale. SimTown allows the player to construct a town consisting of streets, houses, businesses and parks. SimTown was one of the many 'Sim' spin-offs at the time, and was targeted more towards children.
The game structure of SimTown is similar to SimCity, but on a generally smaller and simplified scale, where players are tasked to create a small town instead. Players are allocated a blank and flat tract of land, where they will be required to place homes, workplaces and civic buildings. In addition, other elements such as roads and flora can be plopped into the town, although they do not appear to have any other practical use besides beautification.
The primary objective in SimTown is to keep the town's citizens happy. This can be achieved by ensuring that water supply, trees, farm crops and the recycling program remain well maintained and well funded, with the allocation of "credits" given at each period of time. The amount of these resources required for the town and the credits awarded will depend on how much has been built in the town. Trees and ponds, for example, may consume a certain amount of water and trees, while most businesses and home will generate an amount of garbage that will have to be dealt with using the recycling program. If these resources are not kept in check, the town may experience negative repercussions, such as the presence of dying trees and dried-up ponds if water supply is not sufficiently provided. This aspect of the game may be compared with the annual or monthly budgets seen in SimCity; however, there are no signs of actual currency used in SimTown aside the credits allocated for the external resources; construction of buildings and landscaping also require no monetary costs.
Like SimCity, SimTown places emphasis in ensuring a balance between the number of residents and jobs is properly regulated and maintained. Each household in a home contains two children, a pet and two adults; the latter may need to find jobs from businesses or civic buildings placed by players. Likewise, businesses and civic buildings require a sufficient number of workers to function properly. If residents are unable to find jobs after a period of time, indications of their long-term unemployment will show when their home becomes run down and is eventually reduced to rubble (and its inhabitants move out). Similarly, if a business or civic building lack enough employees, the buildings will decay and eventually collapse into rubble.
SimTown allows a player to monitor the town's condition with a feature that allows players to create and name a resident, who will provide basic feedback and daily activities through diary entries. A local newspaper is also provided to monitor general conditions of the town. SimTown also awards players with trophies and award ribbons by meeting certain objectives and requirements.
[img]http://www.tav.kiev.ua/pict_game/simtown_big.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimCopter (1996)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simcopter.jpg[/img]
SimCopter is a 1996 computer game from Maxis. This game is a 3D offshoot from Maxis's normal fare, putting the player into a 3D city. Like Streets of SimCity, SimCopter also lets the user import SimCity 2000 maps into the game.
As the name implies, SimCopter puts the player in the role of a helicopter pilot.
There are two modes of play. The free mode lets the player import and fly through cities of their own or any of the 30 cities supplied with the game. However, user cities sometimes need to be designed with SimCopter in mind, and most of the time the player must increase the number of police stations, fire stations, and hospitals to allow for speedier dispatches. The second mode is the heart of the game, the career mode. This puts the player in the shoes of a pilot doing various jobs around the city. These jobs include:
[*] Rescuing sims from burning buildings, runaway trains, and capsized boats
[*] Clearing traffic jams
[*] Aerial firefighting
[*] Catching criminals
[*] Riot control
[*] MEDEVAC
[*] Transporting VIPs
The player starts with a small, weak helicopter, but as they accumulate money they can upgrade their existing helicopter and purchase new ones. Some jobs require certain equipment in order to complete them, and better helicopters offer greater speed, handling, and capacity. By completing jobs, the player earns money and points. When the player has accumulated enough points, the game lets them move on to the next city. The player then has a choice of going into a new city of the same difficulty or advancing to the next level. There are ten levels of difficulty, with new types of jobs being introduced and previous types of jobs increasing in difficulty.
The player is assisted by paramedics and police which will ride in the helicopter and can be deployed when necessary. The player can also dispatch police cars, fire engines, and ambulances.
There are five virtual radio stations that can be listened to while in the helicopter: classical, rock, jazz, techno and a mix station featuring all songs from every other station. The file format of the music is low quality WAV, and if a user wants, they can import their own music into the game as long as the music uses the WAV format as well.
The game became infamous when a designer inserted sprites of near-naked men kissing each other, which was caught shortly after release and edited from future copies. He cited his actions as a response to the "bimbos" within the game. Nevertheless, the designer, Jacques Servin, was fired.
[img]http://www.will-wright.com/sitepics/simcopter.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimGolf (1996)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simgolf.jpg[/img]
SimGolf is a computer game created by Maxis in 1996. The game allows players to design their own golf-courses and play them, much akin to how SimCity 2000 can be used to create cities to play in Streets of SimCity and SimCopter. However, this game was in full 3D.
This game is not to be confused with the similarly titled Sid Meier's SimGolf.
[img]http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/simgolf/screenshots/gameShotId,5541/[/img]
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[b]SimPark (1996)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simpark.jpg[/img]
SimPark is a 1996 computer game by Maxis. The object of the game is to cultivate and manage a successful park. Similar to SimTown, it is targeted more towards children than the average gamer. SimPark attempts to show the importance of ecological balance. It could well be considered a 'lite' version of SimIsle.
Players have to quickly learn how doing (or not doing) various things will affect how their park grows. For instance, if certain flower types aren't planted, the park won't attract bees. If the bees aren't flying around the park, then pollination won't occur, which is an important aspect of keeping the park growing. On top of properly managing the plant and animal population, players are also required to identify the park's plants and animals (gearing this game more towards younger players).
[img]http://www.1ofakind.com/mike/simpark_screen.gif[/img]
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[b]Streets of SimSity (1997)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/streetssim.jpg[/img]
Streets of SimCity is a 1997 racing and vehicular combat computer game published by Maxis. The novelty of this game stemmed mostly from the fact that the player could race cars around cities that had been created in SimCity 2000. The game is in full 3D, which was a departure from Maxis's normal fare. It was almost universally considered a flop. It is one of the few games in the Maxis series that Will Wright did not work on. Despite features such as being able to load cities from SimCity 2000 and an excellent soundtrack, the game was known more for its bugs, including unexpected crashes, issues with vehicles stuck in buildings, people walking backwards and being able to drive through trees.
The game is known to be the black sheep of the "sim" line, since it in no way actually simulates driving with precision. It instead focuses more on the goals of blowing up other enemy cars, winning races, evading cops, and hitting the occasional cow. The game can be controlled with a keyboard, a joystick, or a gamepad. As a result, the game was mostly only popular with SimCity 2000 users, which like SimCopter, allowed players to explore SimCity 2000 cities, created by themselves or otherwise. There is also a network mode in which players can play deathmatches with up to seven other individuals.
[img]http://www.jias.jp/simcity/sos/sos_02b.jpg[/img]
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[b]SimSafari (1998)[/b]
[img]http://www.underground-gamer.com/imagebucket/simsafari.jpg[/img]
SimSafari is a simulation game created by Maxis in which the player must manage an African safari park. It was released on March 15, 1998.
Some of the aspects of the game included populating and preserving various species of plants and animals in a preserve, while the other major aspect was building and successfully operating the tourist amenities. The ultimate goal was to receive a five star rating. The game also including information on the various species, including lifestyles, consumption and other basic facts about the species.
The game was only a mediocre seller, since many gamers found the game a little too easy for their preference.
[img]http://www.linkway.com.br/fernando/jogos/download/simsafari.gif[/img]