SimCity

SimCity File:Simcity icon.png This activity was fun see more templates or propose new

The SimCity logo

SimCity is one of the oldest and grandest of Maxis games. A Linux port by Don Hopkins is being released by Electronic Arts under the GPL for distribution on the XO. (See Don Hopkin's [ http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal blog] for more background.)

Sources

Screenshot from the game

latest stable XO activity bundles : SimCity-1.xo. SimCity-2.xo.

NB: installation of activity bundles is broken in Sugar for the moment, and will produce odd results. It is not clear to me how to suggest that you get a working copy of SimCity just yet.

History

Screenshot from the game

The OLPC version of SimCity came from the original SimCity, through a complex lineage.

Don Hopkins breaks it down like so:

I ported the Mac version of SimCity to SunOS Unix running the NeWS window system about 15 years ago, writing the user interface in PostScript. And a year or so later I ported it to various versions of Unix running X-Windows, using the TCL/Tk scripting language and gui toolkit. Several years later when Linux became viable, it was fairly straightforward to port that code to Linux, and then to port that to the OLPC...

More information

• OLPC SimCity Demo
• SimCity for OLPC (One Laptop Per Child): Applying Papert's Ideas About Constructionist Education and Teaching Kids to Program
• GPL Open Source Code of "OLPC SimCity" to be called "Micropolis"
• History and Future of OLPC SimCity / Micropolis
• SimCity Info
• Video Tape Transcript of Toronto Usenix Symposium Keynote Address
• Video Tape Transcript of HyperLook SimCity Demo
• HyperLook SimCity Demo Video
• Video Tape Transcript of X11 SimCity Demo
• X11 SimCity Demo Video
• Linux SimCityNet Demo Video
• Cellular Automata in SimCityNet on Unix Video
• Unix World 1993 Review of SimCity
• Multi-Player SimCity for X11 Announcement
• SimCityNet: a Cooperative Multi User City Simulation
• SimCity-For-X11.gif : Screen shot of SimCity running on X11.
• SimCity-Indigo.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an SGI Indigo.
• SimCity-NCD.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an NCD X Terminal.
• SimCity-Sun.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an Sun.
• HyperLook-SimCity.gif : SimCity HyperLook Edition. SimCity running on HyperLook, a user interface development environment for the NeWS window system.

Ideas

"The goal is to enable the open source community to renovate SimCity and take it in new educational directions" [1]

• Simutrans and Lincity graphics could be used to enhance SimCity where appropriate.

Game examples

• A SimCity-based engine could be used for games along the lines of
  • Genius Politik: The player is a politician and has to mediate between different political currents and make decisions about city planning and urban management, following proper political procedure instead of a "point and click" decision-making process. (Citizenship education)
  • Genius - Task Force Biologie: The player is a biologist and works for the UN to restore lost biotopes around the world.

The player could be required to take care of the education of children (e.g. to co-finance schools, to address school issues and to buy OLPC laptops) and to participate in the education and upbringing of his or her own children in the game. (In a game like Task Force Biologie the player could, for instance, need the school to be able to employ qualified biologists later on) This would add a further level of complexity to the game: The player would have to decide whether to attend to private issues or issues of professional life. An in-game calendar application could frequently show conflicting appointments and allow the player to choose. The selection of appointments could also lead to a different social environment: The player would only be able to contact people he had previously met somewhere.

See also

• Model farm simulator
• Book and game

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