Lost Classics: SimLife (PC, Mac)
by William Talley, filed in Games, Lost Classics on Oct.16, 2009
A lot of you are probably playing through one of Maxis’s most recent hits, Spore. In that game, you create a species and take it from a single-celled organism all the way to an intergalactic space empire, designing their buildings, armor, and vehicles along the way. It seems huge in scope, and it is. However, Maxis has done a similar game in the past, called SimLife. In SimLife, players are tasked with creating an ecosystem, complete with plants and animals. They can also tinker with the genetics of the world’s plants and animals just to see what they can create, and even alter the climate and topography just to observe its effects on the flora and fauna. As the game’s tagline says. this game is truly the genetic playground. It may seem overwhelming at first, but thankfully, there is a tutorial to help players get started. Players can either take on one of the game’s scenarios, or just experiment in sandbox mode and see what they can create. Like many of Maxis’s older games, SimLife has been unofficially classified as abandonware, but you can still find a copy on amazon by clicking the thumbnail above. Hopefully given Spore’s popularity, Maxis can work on a sequel to this game. Come to think of it, it would make a great add-on for Spore.