%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Simlife AGA Review                                by Brian Salisbury %%  
%%                                               blakader@csos.orst.edu %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

PRODUCT NAME

			SimLife AGA


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

This is another in the continuing line of 'software toys' from
Maxis ported to the Amiga by Mindscape.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:	        Maxis
	Address:	2 Theatre Square Suite 230
			Orinda, CA 94563-3346

	Telephone:	510-245-9700
	Fax:	        510-253-3736

	Name:	        Mindscape International LTD.
	Address:	Priority House,Charles AVE,Maltings Park,
			Burgess,West Sussex RH15 9PQ

	Telephone:      0444-246333
	Fax:	        0444-248996

LIST PRICE

			I've seen between 35 and 40 dollars


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE
			
			You need an AGA computer to run this program. Amiga 1200
			or Amiga 4000

	SOFTWARE

			None listed



COPY PROTECTION

	None (yea! Maxis!)



MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 1200/14
	60 mb hard drive
	2 mb chip
	1084s monitor



INSTALLATION

It was quite painless, all I did was boot from the first disk
(there are 4 total) and follow the instructions. You also have a choice of
installing a high-res or low-res version. It's recommended to install the
high-res version if you have a multi-sync monitor. And low-res if you don't

I don't. I tried both on my 1084s, I liked the high-res better and the flicker
wasn't that bad.

It was also reccomended that you have more than 2 megs of Ram
, but I got around that(see bugs)
You can install the game to hard or floppy drives.

REVIEW

After installing I had to boot with no start-up to conserve
memory. The game does run a little slow on my 14mhz machine, but not as to
get in the way of game play. If you decide to install the low-res version
, you'll notice an increased speed.

Now, the actual game, there are a couple of ways to look
at the game, first you can play 6 pre-made 'missions', or go into the 
'experimental' mode and play around in you world. (oops, I sound like that
guy who paints on PBS!)

So, now after choosing the game type, you're presented with
a window with various buttons and sliders used create the world, they include
number of mountains, rivers,food sources and average world temperature.

Now the world takes shape(The world is represented in a 2 dimentional window)
The game uses 'layers' to represent levels of information on the World map
such as soil,mountains,water, and so on, and they can be turned off at your
command.

The planet is now complete, time to breathe life on to it!
The game comes with a pre-made zoo with animals and plantsXvA _[
Or, you can create your own plants and animals. There's a lot of detail t9o
plants and even more to animals, from what they eat and how they move and 
9.

As you play there are charts and graphs that can be used to keep track
of your life forms and find out who's dying and why, population, animal 
diversity and more.

I could go on and on but that gives you the basics.


DOCUMENTATION

The manual is in the typical Maxis style, that is, well writen
and witty, with a helpfull tutorial(there's one built into the game as well)
It took me awhile to go through it all, but who said creating life is easy


LIKES AND DISLIKES

I like the fact that you have ,36%:~QP=4toal contral
over your world, everything about the lian be changed to suit your needs

I also liked the general layout of the game, placement and
style of the user interface.

On the other hand, you might at some point think "what's the
point?" Luckily Maxis put in some goals to try and meet.


COMPARISON TO SIMILAR PRODUCTS

This is the first AGA game I've played , so I can't compare
it to anything, except maybe SimFarm for the PC. Both games had a similar
graphical look (buttons and icons)

BUGS

The only problam I ran into was that I couldn't run it from
Workbench(only 2 megs) I had to boot with no start-up, and then execute
a script to assign ENV to ram. I tried playing it without doing this, and I
didn't notice any difference in the game.


VENDER SUPPORT

I've had no reason to contact Maxis(or Mindscape) with any
problems


CONCLUSIONS

All in all, Maxis did a great job with this game, and Mindscape
did a terrific job in porting it the the Amiga! A welcome addition to your
AGA game library. Lets hope for SimCity 2000 AGA!