From: wrr3118@tamsun.tamu.edu (Rick Russell)
Subject: SimLife - REVIEW
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 18:39:07 GMT

SIMLIFE - The Review

What is it?

While I suppose it begs comparison to other MAXIS products, I'll try
to succintly describe SimLife without using previous MAXIS releases as
my guideline.

SimLife is a program designed to simulate the behavior and activities
of biological organisms inside a [mostly] closed ecosystem. An
organism (or 'orgot' as they are called in SimLife... they're not
organisms, they're SIMULATED organisms) is characterized by a genetic
pattern which is determined by the user. The orgot behaves in a way
appropriate to its genetics and its environment (the 'map'). Orgot
behaviour occurs in finite time steps, called 'ticks'. Ticks are
arranged into 'days', and days into 'years'.

The user can control almost all aspects of the orgots and the
environment. While it would be impossible to create an exhaustive
list of user-adjustable 'knobs' without reproducing the documentation,
here is a non-exhaustive list:

Orgot Control:

Movement (flying, walking, swimming, climbing, frequency and angle of
turns, tenedency to roam when not doing anything else, persistence
when following trails left by prey and/or mates)

Physical characteristics (lifespan, adult size, gestation time for
females/asexuals, number of offspring, offspring size, % female
offspring, weaponry [for attacking prey or defending against
predators], sensory capabilities ['vision', affects ability to follow
trails and find mates], natural stealth [affects prey ability to hide
from predator, and predator ability to sneak up on prey])

Sympathy/Antipathy (flags allow organisms to be attracted or repelled
by other organisms, good for simulating symbiotic or herd
relationships)

Basic survival characteristics (food storage, water storage, health
storage, when to take action as stores get low, mutation probability)

Species genetics (distribution of genetic difference in initial
population, genetic difference necessary to cause speciation, % of
genes inherited from 'father')

Dynamic editing of orgots (direct adjustment of individual or species
genetics during simulation, direct adjustment of orgot variables
[orgot food storage, health, size, weight, water, age])

Environmental Control:

Time parameters (ticks/day, days/year, day length variation over year,
temperature variation over year, rainfall/soil moisture variation over
year, 'speed' of soil and climate change, base lifespan of lifeforms)

Energy parameters (amount of energy necessary for: movement,
gestation; health cost of: toxins, mutagens, pred/prey combat; energy
gained by eating various food sources)

Initial environment parameters (size/height of mountains, average
temp, average moisture, size of rivers/lakes, random placement of
toxins, mutagens, and barriers)

Dynamic editing of environment (manual adjustment of temperature
distribution, rainfall, elevation, open water; manual placement of
orgots, toxins, mutagens and 'magically' unlimited food sources
[UltraFood!]

Predefined 'Disasters' (drought, flood, plague, fire, STDs, etc)

Simulation Control: limits on amount of animal/plant life (to keep
exploding populations from slowing down simulation), speed control
(slow, medium, fast, and ultra-fast), various tools for automatic
pausing of the simulation at critical points, data recording, etc etc.

While there are no doubt several controls missing from the above list,
it's clear that SimLife provides a lot of control options for the
budding ecological engineer.

Operation of the Simulation

SimLife is operated in two basic ways: via one of the provided
scenarios, or in 'experimental' mode. SimLife is not a game per se;
there are never any victory conditions, and the simulation never
'ends'. The scenarios only provide a 'set-up' for a planned exercise,
such as investigating why ratios of males and females are critical to
a population, and the dynamics of a predator/prey system. Experimental
mode provides a blank slate; an user-definable planet with a set of
predesigned 'terrestrial' creatures (elephants and fruitbats and
such).

Rather than cover every aspect of game operation, I provide the
following list of 'pros' and 'cons':

PROS

 - The user interface is excellent. It follows all Macintosh
conventions, and provides multiple levels of data presentation. For
detail, look at the map directly. For general information, use any of
the summary graphs (Mortality, Population, Food Web, Genetics, etc
etc).

 - Considering the complexity of the simulation, simulation speed is
fairly good. SimLife provides a complete selection of speed option to
help optimize the simulation on your platform.

 - SimLife has an excellent hand-holding 30 minute tutorial to
intoduce the game. It covers all of the major features.

 - Control of the simulation is almost total. You can simulate a
phenomenal array of life forms, in a wide array of environments.

CONS

 - Because of the complexity of the simulation, it's bound to run
slow, even on high-end hardware. I've run huge simulations over the
course of several hours, smaller ones can run a few decades in only an
hour. That's on a IIfx with an 8.24 video card.

 - It's hard. Very hard. I have yet to develop a stable ecosystem with
predators, prey, and vegetation. Maybe this is a good thing for
simulation-addicts like myself, but I feel that this complexity might
dismay prospective users.

OPINIONS

Time for the inevitable comparisons. I think it's better than SimEarth
or SimAnt, it's much more of a 'software toy'. No omega-energy, no win
conditions, no arcade-game element. In fact, it's quite like SimEarth,
except the geodynamic systems are eliminated, while the biologic
systems are vastly more complicated. There's no question that it's
more polished than any other MAXIS product. The user interface is
smooth and very professional, and the fundamental algorithms seem more
robust. For example, the map-builder uses fractal mathematics to
generate the terrain and river systems.

Thankfully, MAXIS has finally shaken free of the 'gameplay' stigma.
Like SimCity, SimLife is totally free-form. In execution, it's their
most ambitious and polished product yet. In concept, I still think
SimCity has the edge, but SimLife is still a fantastic product.

Personally, I give SimLife an 8 out 10. Compare that to 9 out of 10
for SimCity, and 7 out of 10 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Of
course, I spent tens (or was it hundreds) of hours running my own
version of LIFE on my Commodore 64 way back when, and I enjoyed it! So
your mileage may vary.

-- 
#      Rick Russell | TAMU Meteorology | wrr3118@tamsun.tamu.edu       # 
#     "I want to Krazy Glue my head to the bottom of a BIIIG           #
#      steel girder!" - Weird Al Yankovic                              #