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1993-08-11
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Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: akiy@netcom.com (Jun Akiyama)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: SimLife
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games
Date: 11 Aug 1993 18:03:19 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 451
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <24bc97$d9l@menudo.uh.edu>
Reply-To: akiy@netcom.com (Jun Akiyama)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: game, simulation, commercial
PRODUCT NAME
SimLife, V1.00 Jun 18 1993 14:11:56
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Build your own ecosystem and give life to creatures, designing
animals and plants down to the genetic level. Brought to you from the
makers of SimCity, SimAnt, SimEarth, and SimFarm (well, on other platforms,
anyway).
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Maxis, distributed by Mindscape International
Address: 2 Theatre Square
Suite 230
Orinda, CA 94563-3346
Telephone: (510) 254-9700
FAX: (510) 253-3736
LIST PRICE
The list price as indicated in the Mindscape catalog included with
the game is 34.99 pounds. (Mindscape is a British company.) Exchange rates
as of this writing would make that equivalent to $59.64 (US).
I was able to buy this product from a local store for $39.99 (US).
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
There are two versions of this software: one for AGA
machines (A1200, A4000), and another for all Amiga
computers. (From this point on in the article, unless I
specifically refer to the AGA version or the Standard
version, "SimLife" will refer to both AGA and Standard
versions.)
The AGA version has golden stickers on the box saying "A1200
Enhanced" and "Enhanced version for Amiga 1200/4000 only."
The AGA version requires a machine which can handle AGA
graphics such as the A1200 and the A4000. However, I do not
know if AGA emulator boards (such as the Retina card) would
be able to use this game. The AGA version also requires 2
MB of RAM. A hard drive is recommended.
The Standard version for all Amigas requires a minimum of 1
MB of RAM (although 2 MB is recommended). A hard drive is
recommended.
There is a little ReadMe note on the disk for the AGA
version with the following information:
If you intend to play SimLife in HiRes Mode with
only 2 Megabytes of RAM, you will only be able to
play with Tiny and Small worlds. This is due to
memory constraints. If you fit more memory, you will
be able to play all configurations.
I do not know if the above note also applies to the Standard
version.
If you don't have a hard drive, don't worry. The program
can be decompressed onto three floppy disks. (Disk swapping
is always so much fun, and can often relieve the tension in
any program. Right?)
A warning to those running on slower CPUs -- the game is
quite CPU intensive! Although the game can run on any Amiga
platform, I would not want to see this game running on a
68000-equipped machine as it tends to slow down even on my
A4000. It has no problems running with my 68040, even with
copyback mode on.
Also, the AGA version runs in PAL mode, although this can be
avoided (as explained later).
SOFTWARE
The AGA version requires Workbench 3.0 and above.
The Standard version requires at least Workbench 1.3.
COPY PROTECTION
None. At all. Period. End of sentence. We should give Maxis a
great big huzzah. Really. I did.
The game installs beautifully onto a hard drive, without having to
make any directory assigns. Another huzzah.
The game boots from Workbench, and multitasks well, except for a few
litle problems (see below for details).
The game will save its data (save games, new species, etc.) using a
file requester, so you have the power to place it wherever you wish.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 4000/040
2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM
Kickstart 39.106, Workbench 39.29
INSTALLATION
As mentioned previously, the game is installable onto either the
hard drive or onto three floppies.
As in most Maxis games, SimLife comes in two different resolutions:
hi-res, or low-res. The hi-res version is recommended for those with at
least 2 MB of memory, and a multiscan monitor. (I guess the multiscan
monitor is necessary to eliminate the flicker through DblPAL. The Standard
version, although it does not use DblPAL, may use a flicker fixer instead.)
Installation itself is a breeze. The installation program is
started by booting up Disk 1, after which you will be asked whether you wish
to have hi-res or low-res graphics and to install onto either the hard drive
(in which case it also asks for a directory, creating it if necessary) or
floppy drive. Then follow the on-screen instructions on which of the four
disks the program wants, and after minimal disk-swapping, the game is
installed.
GETTING STARTED
When starting up the game from Workbench, you must not leave any
windows open which have tasks running. The requester saying "Could not
close Workbench. Close all windows and restart!" will pop up. This means,
for example, that you must not have any shells, GNU Emacs windows, nor
ASokoban games running at the time you start the game. After you close
the windows or iconify them, double click on the not-too attractive game
icon, and start the game again. Once you start the game, you will notice a
depth gadget at the top right hand corner; don't bother using it, as I found
it does nothing. Use the Left-Amiga M combination to flip through the
screens to get back to Workbench if you need to multitask. Be forewarned
that the game takes up a lot of CPU cycles, and most everything else will be
pretty slow.
One of the first things you notice when you first boot the hi-res
AGA version is that it's in DblPAL mode. (I don't know what the Standard
version does.) For those people running in PAL, this is not a problem; for
those of us running NTSC, the bottom 25% of the screen is clipped off. I
use the public domain commodity ForceMonitor to promote all PAL screens to
Multiscan:Productivity (my Workbench resolution), and the program seems to
work fine. You might have to press Left-Amiga M to flip the screen
sometimes to bring the SimLife screen to the front. In addition, if you're
using a DblNTSC Workbench and wish to use SimLife AGA in DblNTSC,
ForceMonitor can do that too; just be aware that you'll need to autoscroll a
little bit to see the entire screen. (I also installed the low-res AGA
version, and the screen opens up in PAL mode. Therefore, the same steps as
above will probably have to be taken to open up a full-size screen.)
After installation, the first instinct of all human beings having
used a computer for more than five minutes is to dive into a program without
having read the manual. Usually, only after the user has looked at all the
menu items, pressed all the buttons, and basically gotten confused and
frustrated do they open the manuals. In SimLife, looking at all the menu
items and pressing all the buttons take a really long time, and getting
confused and frustrated takes a very short one. Luckily, Maxis includes a
pretty comprehensive tutorial.
The tutorial world makes the user go through all of the basic
functions of all of the menu items and buttons, so that the user can
understand the 204 page user manual better afterwards. I thought the
tutorial to be very helpful and well organized, although I found the "Click
on window to continue" prompts a bit irritating. (The windows kept
disappearing on me, since you're all wrapped up in placing Lucia's Llamas
all across the land and clicking away, during which the window suddenly pops
up and you inadvertently "Click on the window to continue." Of course,
there's the "Redisplay Current Message" menu item, but it's still annoying,
nonetheless.)
GAME PLAY
The game itself revolves basically around observation. It is no
horrendously thumb-numbing shoot-'em up game, nor is it a mind-wrenching
dungeon-delving adventure. (Only BLAZEMONGER can be both at the same time,
and then some. :-)) Most of the time, I found myself influencing the wor