So, I was playing my advanced copy of Spore the other day, and it got me thinking.
The first game I remember where you had to create a society was a game called Utopia on Intellivision. In this game, you each had an island, and you built hospitals, planted crops, built schools, built fishing boats, etc.
I forget what you “tallied”, but I think you had population, and money, and happiness. . .that kind of thing. You were actively playing against the other player, or a computer, though. I think you coudl agree to team up with the other player, but I forget how that worked.
You were beset by things like typhoons, and pirates.
One nice feature was that you could build a PT boat to fend off pirates, but you could also use it to sink one of your opponent’s fishing boats.
Anyway, what were the origins of games like this? Does anyone remember one before Utopia? Does anyone remember Utopia?
By the way, I’m kidding about Spore. I’ve never actually played one of the sim games, but I was reading an article about it last week and it sounds pretty cool.
I don’t know how far you want to boil it down for it still to be considered any kind of “sim” but I recall a text-based game that I’m sure had its roots in mainframes and early computing devices. It was called Hammurabi, Kingdom, or may go by other names. It was essentially a very basic feudal kingdom sim where you assumed control of taxation rates, determined how much grain to plant, purchased land, and basically tried to make your kingdom grow and flourish on a year-by-year basis. There were certainly no bells or whistles – it was all textual, no graphics – and it all really just came down to balancing your finances against your people’s tax burden and their survival through planting and land acquisition. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Jesus you about gave me a heart attack, I was fairly sure the game wasn’t due out until sometime next year. I’ve been drooling over this game ever since I heard about it!
It seems like there was something before Utopia but I can’t recall…
Wow, **Minefield ** – I hadn’t thought about Hammurabi on the ol’ TRS-80 for a long time. That’s gotta be a contender. The trick will be determining how old the seminal versions were.
Life was more on the order of a digital petri dish, though. You set the parameters in motion, but after that you just sat there and watched the cells multiply and die off. A simulation in the most elemental sense, but not really a game.
It probably depends on the version you played. Insignificant details like the name of the monetary units or the kingdom in which you played (Mesopotamia, Babylon, etc.) tended to change from port to port.
I rememeber Utopia! Had an Intellivision growing up, and I used to play that one all the time. Always sucked when a hurricane came over you and wiped everything out. And I used the PT boat to sink everything I could…
I’m pretty sure I still have the old Intellivision set, along with a bunch of game cartridges, in a box in a closet (probably in a locked closet in a disused lavatory with a sign reading “Beware of the Leopard”) somewhere. Last time I ever tried to hook it up, I don’t think it was working properly (a game would load up, but with distorted video or something).
Another old Utopia fan. I used to play it all the time when I was younger. My friend and I had our own theories and which parts of the island were best for crops, what directions hurricanes would take, etc.
I remember once playing with a different friend and he started slamming me with rebel uprisings. Then he got upset that the button wasn’t working – he thought the icon represented a coal miner or something.
There’s copies of it available on the web but I never tried to play it again. For one thing, it’s a two player game and I’m only one person. For another, I doubt it’ll hold up to my memories of twenty years ago. Still, I’m a little annoyed when I see those nostolgia “plug into the TV” joystick games filled with old Intellivision games and no Utopia.
Adding to the list of old sim style games, there was “Alter Ego” for the Commodore where you led your life from infanthood onwards in a “Choose your own adventure” sort of way. Came in both Male and Female flavors, each sold separately
There was German online game very similiar to the Sims. It was called Cybertown You picked out an avatar, built a house got jobs, had pets, etc.
It was pretty cool. In a very basic way you interacted with other players and did all sorts of things. You could buy & sell furniture, get jobs in the community.
BTW, for anyone that plays the Sims, the pet expansion pack is coming out soon.