SimEarth
| SimEarth: The Living Planet | |
|---|---|
video game packaging for SimEarth
|
|
| Developer(s) |
Maxis Tomcat System (SNES Version) Game Arts (Mega CD Version) |
| Publisher(s) |
Maxis FCI (SNES Version) Sega (Mega CD Version) |
| Designer(s) | Will Wright (SimCity series) |
| Platform(s) | IBM PC, Commodore Amiga, TurboGrafx-16 / TurboDuo, Apple Macintosh, X68000, Sega Mega-CD, Super NES, Virtual Console, Windows |
| Release date(s) |
1990 SNES 1992 Virtual Console |
| Genre(s) | Life Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
SimEarth: The Living Planet is the second life simulation video game designed by Will Wright, in which the player controls the development of a planet. The game was published in 1990 by Maxis. Versions were made for the Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, IBM PC, SNES, Sega Mega-CD and TurboGrafx-16. It was also subsequently re-released on the Wii Virtual Console.
In SimEarth, the player can vary a planet's atmosphere, temperature, landmasses, etc., then place various forms of life on the planet and watch them evolve. Since it is a software toy, the game does not have any required goals. The big (and difficult) challenge is to evolve sentient life and an advanced civilization. The development stages of the planet can be restored and repeated, until the planet "dies" ten billion years after its creation, the estimated time when the Sun will become a red giant and kill off all of the planet's life.
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.
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Wikipedia