SimEarth
A life simulation based on the Gaia hypothesis.
SimEarth: The Living Planet is a life simulation game published in 1990 by Maxis, the second such game designed by Will Wright. It incorporates the Gaia hypothesis of planet evolution, with English scientist James Lovelock serving as an advisor. Versions were released for multiple platforms including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and TurboGrafx-16, and it was later re-released under the Maxis Collector Series.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Maxis
- FCI (SNES)
- Sega (Mega CD)
- Hudson Soft (Super CD-ROM²)
- Designer
- Will Wright; Fred Haslam
- Series
- Sim
- Genre
- Life simulation
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
In SimEarth, the player adjusts a planet's atmosphere, temperature, and landmasses, then places lifeforms and observes their evolution. The Random Planet mode is a software toy with no required goals; the main challenge is to evolve sentient life that leaves the planet in an exodus before the Sun becomes a red giant ten billion years after creation. Eight scenarios have specific objectives: three involve managing Earth's evolution (Aquarium, Cambrian Earth, 1990 Earth), four involve terraforming other planets (Mars, Venus, Ice Planet, Dune), and one (Earth 2XXX) involves rescuing life from self-replicating robots and nuclear warfare, with an option to cause a great flood. Daisy World is an additional mode where only daisies exist, changing color with temperature. The game models Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and includes a simplified Daisyworld model. The player controls atmospheric gases to three decimal places, continental drift rate, and lifeform reproduction and mutation. Equipment such as oxygen generators and a monolith (inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey) can be placed to influence development.
Development
Will Wright was introduced to James Lovelock by Stewart Brand, a former editor of CoEvolution Quarterly. Lovelock advised the development team, particularly on geophysical models. Lovelock noted that attempts to model Earth through simple sciences fail due to sensitivity to initial conditions, but Gaia models linking biology and geology are stable. He stated that SimEarth's simulation has a degree of realism despite being a game, and that he had not seen other computer simulations of nature on this scale at the time, as many professional climate models then ignored clouds, the ocean, or biology.
Reception
Computer Gaming World called SimEarth absolutely fascinating, wishing for more SimCity-like visual feedback but finding it superior to its predecessor in scope and replayability. It won the 1991 Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Awards for Best Secondary Education Program and Best Simulation Program. Entertainment Weekly gave the Super NES version an A−, noting the complexity of variables like temperature and precipitation. The One gave the MS-DOS version a 95% score, praising its fun regardless of player knowledge and its near-infinite variations for experimentation, as well as its educational possibilities.
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