8 ms·

Maxis’ former “serious games” division (2020)

149 points by Redoubts 5y ago

proggy 5y ago
And, like clockwork, just a few weeks after this article’s publication in mid-2020, a floppy diskette of SimRefinery was found and the game was provided to Ars Technica for further discussion [1]. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game-has-been-discovered-by-an-ars-reader-uploaded-for-all/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- azalemeth 5y ago
  I wrote the very long expository comment in that article (when it came out). I really think that many industrial processes would make surprisingly good (or bad) video games – it's a novel training method at the very least, and I think Sim Refinery was way ahead of its time. There's a fine line between "fun" and "simulation" for many of these things. You're quite right that Ars Technica appears to just package articles from HN and Reddit at times though...
  - justinator 5y ago
    I love looking back at Sim City and thinking, "damn - no 'pandemic' catastrophe!" and feeling that this is one reason why my generation is so ill-equipped to deal with present day. But if there was a Godzilla monster, we'd be fine.
    - pootlab 5y ago
      There's a lot of truth to this.
    - rm_-rf_slash 5y ago
      This is how machine learning works.
    - hnbad 5y ago
      As a kid I always struggled with Sim City because I couldn't make sense of the zoning. Only as an adult I eventually learned that the problem was that Germany (where I'm from) approaches zoning very differently from the US.
      - justinator 5y ago
        Ha! Too true. It is very flawed. In the US mindset, so long as there was a freeway between commercial and residential, you are good. I would enjoy, "Sim livable Small City"
rl3 5y ago
Don Hopkins has written up a wealth of information about SimRefinery on HN before, and it's all terribly interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24163430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24163430
shalmanese 5y ago
This needs a [2020] in the title as significant new information has been unearthed as a consequence of this article as mentioned in other comments in this thread.
- dang 5y ago
  Year added above. Thanks!
psahgal 5y ago
Should this link be replaced with the original source? Ars Technica linked to the original blog post in the first paragraph, and the rest of the article summarizes the original source. Here's the blog post in question: https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/ https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/
- hardlianotion 5y ago
  I really liked the very generous introduction.
_1tan 5y ago
Anyone has more information on Simpower? I even tried getting in touch with ESRI to no avail.
trilinearnz 5y ago
Loving those double-res Sim City 2000 sprites from SimHealth :) Beautiful.
thrower123 5y ago
One of my favorite Sim games, SimTower, started life as an elevator management and scheduling simulation and had a game bolted on afterwards.
leetrout 5y ago
Looks like it was taken down from the archive. :( https://archive.org/details/simrefinery https://archive.org/details/simrefinery
- crtasm 5y ago
  https://archive.org/details/sim-refinery https://archive.org/details/sim-refinery
  - leetrout 5y ago
    Thank you! I swear it didn't show up in the results when i searched for it yesterday (but the manuals did).
ianholtzworth 5y ago
I used to play this game on iphone years back that was the most realistic simulation of how the modern bulk shipping industry worked. Looking through screenshots of SimRefinery you can't help but think there was inspiration drawn from it. I work as a charterer doing quite literally the same thing this game portrays. It always amazed me how well these guys nailed it. https://www.portsofcall.de/ https://www.portsofcall.de/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

149 points by Redoubts 5y ago

And, like clockwork, just a few weeks after this article’s publication in mid-2020, a floppy diskette of SimRefinery was found and the game was provided to Ars Technica for further discussion [1]. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game-has-been-discovered-by-an-ars-reader-uploaded-for-all/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
azalemeth 5y ago
I wrote the very long expository comment in that article (when it came out). I really think that many industrial processes would make surprisingly good (or bad) video games – it's a novel training method at the very least, and I think Sim Refinery was way ahead of its time. There's a fine line between "fun" and "simulation" for many of these things. You're quite right that Ars Technica appears to just package articles from HN and Reddit at times though...
- justinator 5y ago
  I love looking back at Sim City and thinking, "damn - no 'pandemic' catastrophe!" and feeling that this is one reason why my generation is so ill-equipped to deal with present day. But if there was a Godzilla monster, we'd be fine.
  - pootlab 5y ago
    There's a lot of truth to this.
  - rm_-rf_slash 5y ago
    This is how machine learning works.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    As a kid I always struggled with Sim City because I couldn't make sense of the zoning. Only as an adult I eventually learned that the problem was that Germany (where I'm from) approaches zoning very differently from the US.
    - justinator 5y ago
      Ha! Too true. It is very flawed. In the US mindset, so long as there was a freeway between commercial and residential, you are good. I would enjoy, "Sim livable Small City"

rl3 5y ago

Don Hopkins has written up a wealth of information about SimRefinery on HN before, and it's all terribly interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425368 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23425542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24163430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24163430

shalmanese 5y ago

This needs a [2020] in the title as significant new information has been unearthed as a consequence of this article as mentioned in other comments in this thread.

dang 5y ago
Year added above. Thanks!

psahgal 5y ago

Should this link be replaced with the original source? Ars Technica linked to the original blog post in the first paragraph, and the rest of the article summarizes the original source. Here's the blog post in question: https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/ https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/

hardlianotion 5y ago
I really liked the very generous introduction.

_1tan 5y ago

Anyone has more information on Simpower? I even tried getting in touch with ESRI to no avail.

trilinearnz 5y ago

Loving those double-res Sim City 2000 sprites from SimHealth :) Beautiful.

thrower123 5y ago

One of my favorite Sim games, SimTower, started life as an elevator management and scheduling simulation and had a game bolted on afterwards.

leetrout 5y ago

Looks like it was taken down from the archive. :( https://archive.org/details/simrefinery https://archive.org/details/simrefinery

crtasm 5y ago
https://archive.org/details/sim-refinery https://archive.org/details/sim-refinery
- leetrout 5y ago
  Thank you! I swear it didn't show up in the results when i searched for it yesterday (but the manuals did).

ianholtzworth 5y ago

I used to play this game on iphone years back that was the most realistic simulation of how the modern bulk shipping industry worked. Looking through screenshots of SimRefinery you can't help but think there was inspiration drawn from it. I work as a charterer doing quite literally the same thing this game portrays. It always amazed me how well these guys nailed it. https://www.portsofcall.de/ https://www.portsofcall.de/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]