[[Bullet]] The start screen of the original Simcity proposed to write the name of the game as two separate words.
Next year, the famous Simcity series should be replenished with the next episode from Maxis and Electronic Arts. Three -dimensional graphics, a new engine, an original network mode … But in its basis it will be the same game born out of the love of one person for modeling.
Technique – youth
Amazing one still fate. One solution, one step in the wrong direction can easily turn human life. The famous game designer, millionaire and lover of robots Will Wright was born in January 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia, but soon moved with his mother to a small city of Baton-Rouge in Louisian. Will grew up without a father, his mother (magician and actress) widowed early.
[[Bullet]] The complexity of the selected script depended on the starting capital, which was given to the player.
From an early age, Wright was distinguished by great curiosity. The boy with pleasure collected plastic models of aircraft and ships. He later became interested in space (the passion that many of his colleagues, including the creator, share Doom John Karmak and Author Ultima Richard Garriot). An indelible impression on the young Wright made a fantastic film "2001: Cosmic Odyssey". It seemed incredible that in a few decades the world would change so much. Having bought a ticket at the Pan American box office, you can fly to the moon!
Louisiana University showed that the astronaut Wright does not exist. In college, he behaved almost the same as the founder Apple Steve Jobs. He attended only those courses that were directly interested in him: architecture, economics, military history. Not to look at the marks without tears. And the point is not that Wright received only cola. Not at all. There were five, but Wall was clearly not going to study for the sake of a good diploma.
[Bullet]] The project interface remained surprisingly overloaded throughout the entire time of the existence of a series.
Feeling not at ease, he moved to New York and entered The New School for Social Research-one of the most respected US educational institutions, founded in 1919. It was a very interesting place closely related to Europe (in particular, in 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany, the director of The New School, along with philanthropist Hiram Khale, organized emigration to America who could suffer from the new regime). Here they studied anthropology, economics, politics, sociology, history. Why Wright decided to go there – it is completely incomprehensible. It is a mistake to assume that it was there that the future developer gathered deep knowledge about the structure of modern cities, which helped him create such an amazing game as Simcity. Nothing of the kind. In his few conversations with journalists, Wright honestly admitted that he began to read about the layout of cities only a few years before the release of the game itself.
[Bullet]] The creation of competent infrastructure allowed the city not only to function, but also gradually increase in size.
At this time, Will was interested in applied things. He received a pilot’s license, learned to masterfully drive racing cars, discovered computers and robotics. In his apartment in Greenwich Willidge (the bohemian region of New York, where, for example, the heroes of the television series "Friends" lived), he collected metal monsters and worked with a computer. On the screen of the Wright monitor, as in childhood, collected models. Only these were no longer just banal planes, but more complex mechanisms that turned into dynamic simulations of real processes. It was this amazing discovery that allowed Recit to return to Baton-Rug without a diploma, without the future and without money, but with the clear consciousness that he was in front of him huge undisclosed opportunities that will soon turn his life.
Dubious result
Will Wright created his first game in 1984. It was called Raid on Bungeling Bay and still causes his author to irritate. In fact, it was the most ordinary action movie for Commodore 64. You controlled a helicopter that flew over the islands, bombed buildings, crushed tanks, planes and ships. Then all this looked very cool, but the designer suffered the idea that all his life he would bother with shooters, demanding only a lightning reaction and dexterity of hands from a person. I wanted something more complicated.
From this desire for more thoughtful games and the original idea was born. Working on Raid on Bungeling, Wright came up with a program-editor that allowed you to easily draw a wide variety of cities-with roads, buildings, parks, rivers, bridges. The designer realized that it was much more interesting for him to mess with the construction of cities than flying by helicopter, so he decided to turn the editor into a separate game called Micropolis.
[Bullet]] There were very few scripts in the game, and most of them were connected with some kind of cataclysm.
The project was a city simulator with many nuances and subtleties. Players had to monitor transport interchanges, crime level, air pollution, and construction of sleeping areas. The game allowed not only to build a city, but also monitor how it developed, grew up and evolved. It was impossible to blame artificial intelligence or awkward movement. In this world, everything depended on you. The factory built in the middle of residential buildings caused outrage among citizens. Without normal roads and an established public transport system, the city could not function normally, and without jobs, a raging crowd fell out on the streets.
Working on the game, Wright was inspired not only by his own editor, but also by many books. During the first two years, which the specialist devoted to his new project, he read more than 20 publications regarding the theory of urban planning. He also sunk into his soul the story “Travel Seventh” Stanislav Lem, which was published in the The Mind’s I collection, edited by Douglas Richard Hofstadter in 1982. In this work, the overthrown tyrant again begins to torment others, gaining access to the computer's computer simulation.
[Bullet]] The abundance of graphs and schemes gently suggests that the game was initially conceived as entertainment for architects.
It is not surprising that Wright liked this story. By nature, he is not so much a creator as a contemplator. The very models that he first discovered for himself on a PC allowed from the side to look at how the world around us develops and changes. The older Wright became, the more interesting he was just to watch how completely different games appeared from the laid initial conditions. The reason gives rise to the investigation … the crown of this passion for voyeurism was the series The Sims , And in Micropolis, Wright's contemplative desires were manifested in the ability to observe how the city destroys Thornado, floods, earthquakes and nuclear explosions.
Unexpected success
The game was completed in 1985, but for almost four years she just lying on a shelf. Nobody wanted to publish her. It was not so much in the innovative genre as in the uncertainty of game tasks. Will Wright created a simulator, but did not give the players any purpose. To be good or bad, to win or lose – all this did not apply to micropolis. Sitting down at the computer and launching games, you never knew how it all would end. The players themselves decided where to put the point: to build the perfect utopia or bring humanity to the handle.
[[Bullet]] Poverty of graphic means did not prevent maxis from making the game very bright and memorable.
This approach was taken by few. The companies simply refused to publish the game. Everything changed when Will met at a party with Jeff Brown and Ed Kilham. The developer told them about his project and invited them to see the working version. Micropolis swallowed his new friends with his head – they could not break away from the screen. The abundance of details, the incredible complexity of the simulation and the wealth of opportunities stunned. Together with them at that time was the writer Michael Bremer, who proposed the name Simcity for the game.
To publish a game on personal computers, Wright and Brown in 1987 created Maxis. Lama turned out to be an unofficial symbol of the new enterprise. This animal met in the game very often. Will often jokes that the company was voting on the title of new Mastot, and Lama won the honest struggle between the tree -like fern and strip worm.
[[Bullet]] Disaster in Simcity had to not only be considered, but also mock their consequences.
The premiere of Simcity took place in 1989, the game very quickly gained popularity and sold perfectly (for a minute it is one of the best -selling games in history). The creation of Will Wright became part of the world culture, giving rise to a huge population of sequels and an army of imitators. Simcity has visited the cover of Newsweek magazine, and the tax system from Simcity 4 was even used by Senator Herman Kane to form a new tax system “999”.
I do not want to say hackneyed words about the value of Simcity for the genre and about how the game turned many people's eyes over the games. It is pointless to discuss this. Turn on any urban planning simulator – and you will immediately see the ears of Hit Rice. The story of Will and his simulator proves another everyday axiom. To be successful and enjoy life, you do not need to invent the rules, set yourself unrealistic goals and go to them, breaking everything and all. It is enough for everyone to just do what he likes most. Simcity urban utopias still blooming, is the best confirmation of this.
What it was? The first real urban planning simulator. And part -time – the first real sandbox in games.
My car
Long before Will Wright turned into the author of Simcity, he had three passions: space, computers and cars. He engaged in cars with special zeal and even won underground races from one coast of the United States to another.
In 1980, Wright and his navigator were filled with gadgets (night vision glasses, radar, refrigerator) and improved (in particular, put an additional fuel tank) a Mazda RX-7 car and filed a request for participation in US Express – A race that could be born only in a country like the United States.
US Express turned out to be the heir to another iconic event – The Cannonball Run , – on the basis of which the film of the same name was later shot. The organizer of the new tournament was Rick Doherti, who previously won in two Cannonball races. In 1980, he managed to arrange the first race and take part in it with Wright.
Brooklyn was the place of the start, and the racers were supposed to finish in Santa Monica, so the trip was a rather long. In addition, Wright planned a slightly more elongated route to avoid unpleasant meetings with the police. Without violations, of course, there were not. Near Indianapolis they were caught, but Wright and Diergeti came up with a whole story in their defense. Supposedly they wrote an article for an automobile magazine.
Even the intervention of the authorities did not prevent motorists from successfully completing the race first. For everything about everything they needed 33 hours and 9 minutes. This is only an hour and two minutes more than a record set in 1983 by another team. Its result – 32 hours and 7 minutes – became the name for a documentary https://20bet-casino.co.uk/ film shot by Corey Welles. It tells about the last year in the history of US Express. Will Wright participated in the filming, revealing the world the secret of his little -known hobby.
Koyaaniskatsi
A couple of years ago a mysterious video appeared on the Web ( YouTu.Be/ntjqtc-tqpu ) with the devilish name Magnasanti. It began, as expected, chilling blood with music and red titrates on a dark background. However, while watching it turned out that this was not a video at all for the initiation of young Satanists, but an amazing presentation of the creation of the student Vincent with the Philippines.
The future architect created the perfect metropolis in the Simcity 3000 game. It took a year and a half, just to calculate everything on paper and create a theoretical project. Vincent experimented, built, calculated, recorded and remembered on what laws the virtual world lives.
The city plan was based on the Bhavachakra Buddhist concept (“wheel of being”), which describes the infinity of degenerations. In the geometric location of buildings and communications, a slightly modified version of this symbol was used.
Construction lasted from 2007 to 2010 (this does not mean that the unfortunate student corps over his brainchild for three consecutive years; he had many other things, and the project was not easy). The result was a metropolis with 6 million inhabitants, 640 thousand. workers engaged in industry, and 2.5 million workers engaged in trade. The total population is 9172 million people.
No one can leave the city (as, in fact, come). The population is growing very sluggish. Sims do not travel long distances, as they work very close. The entire metropolis is suffocating due to contaminated air. Magnasanti has high unemployment, there are no fire stations, schools or hospitals. All these victims were made in order to increase the population to such incredible sizes.
However, citizens of this virtual city obediently do their work, do not go outside with posters, do not suit revolutions. The totalitarian power supported by the police monitors everything. The total life expectancy in Magnasanti-50-60 years. By the way, the name Magnasanti is formed from the words Magnitude. – size, size) and arcosanti (IT. -Flying fortress city).