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I bought a copy of Afterlife from one of the Scholastic catalogues when I was in primary school after already having had a blast with Sim City 2000. I absolute

I bought a copy of Afterlife from one of the Scholastic catalogues when I was in primary school after already having had a blast with Sim City 2000. I absolutely loved the graphics and the theme and everything, but as it turns out, I had absolutely no idea how to play it and never got far enough into it to really appreciate its gameplay. I should probably give it another go as an adult who has a bit more patience for reading through instructions than I did as a kid.

washadjeffmad 16d ago
I played it summer of 2005, the same year I binged Douglas Adams' complete non-HHG works (including 'Last Chance to See' on CD-ROM and the interactive fiction game, 'Bureaucracy'). Afterlife is wonderfully fun and satisfying to experience to completion for the first time, and what it might lack in replayability it more than makes up for with humor and design.
- designium 16d ago
  I still play once a year. But now I can reach full omnibulges and love domes in less than an hour. But I remember spending months to survive until I discovered the cheat code (btw if you use too much, it triggers something that I can’t remember, it can mess up the game as a punishment). The I figured out to let the planet evolve and grow it’s population because then, your afterlife has high demand thus more money, that detail solves the hardest part of the game! The other insight which came much much later, the better capacity per area is given by the top 2x2 and 4x4 multi color. 3x3 top buildings are badass looking but they offer smaller max capacity for souls, we are aiming in reaching 1 billion souls using the least amount of area so you always have free space to build as demand explode.
robertlagrant 16d ago
I'd recommend this. As kids my brother and I could never complete a game on the BBC Micro called Imogen[0]. It was amazing for the time in that your character could transform into three modes (wizard / cat / monkey) and on one screen a fourth mode, and the transformation looked smooth even back then. However - we never completed it. As an adult I found it again and while I completed it fairly easily, it was a nice memory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_(video_game)
designium 16d ago
1. Find a map with the maximum amount of buildable space 2. Start the game with the maximum speed to above 5000 years 3. Build Hell first and only 4. Pause, build the portal already thinking in upgraded form. 5. Build long straight roads, columns spaced 4 from each other, avoid crossing 6. Check the sins demand 7. Usually, the green is the most demanded 8. Don’t touch anything about the planet 9. This is key: using green as example, build 2x2 spaced so the neighbor is diagonal, never adjacent. 10. Build your first wave of buildings, and essentials (dystopias, the trams, etc. I assume you know those things) 11. Open the portal, make a lot of money 12. Upgrade the portal, make more money 13. Max capacity reached, starting to lose souls and money, you adjust the building’s efficiency to white for every building manually until you are rich 14. Buildings start to reach its top version and capacity, lock them 15. Activate the bats , y to their guano are excellent to upgrade the buildings. Also keep other disasters away during a grace period 16. Then keep growing, adjusting buildings efficiency, more portals, more buildings 17. You only need half the Hell, to achieve hell’s Omnibulges 18. Then star heaven 19. Follow heaven best practices and you reach to Love Domes very easily and rich af 20. I would only train later in the game. Build the best training school, make it only accept top 10%, left side, watch and leave 20% no lower because it can cause excess oof demons or angels, unless you want to see the a special ending 21. Endings can be quite fun to achieve (then you want to mess up with the planet)
totetsu 16d ago
It's funny when you boot up these old games you played long ago, how small the view port is, and how I didn't seem to notice that at the time.
dfxm12 16d ago
What I like about sim city 2K is that it is like an arcade sim game. It is super easy to get up and running without too much prior knowledge. You can build a successful city without reading through the manual. I also like that there's no ending. Maybe this makes it "easy", but it promotes setting specific goals for yourself and exploration rather than going through certain expected motions to meet a preset goal. But there are the scenarios for people who like a preset challenge.
- Zardoz84 16d ago
  I played SimCity 2K without reading the manual as a kid.

washadjeffmad 16d ago

I played it summer of 2005, the same year I binged Douglas Adams' complete non-HHG works (including 'Last Chance to See' on CD-ROM and the interactive fiction game, 'Bureaucracy'). Afterlife is wonderfully fun and satisfying to experience to completion for the first time, and what it might lack in replayability it more than makes up for with humor and design.

designium 16d ago
I still play once a year. But now I can reach full omnibulges and love domes in less than an hour. But I remember spending months to survive until I discovered the cheat code (btw if you use too much, it triggers something that I can’t remember, it can mess up the game as a punishment). The I figured out to let the planet evolve and grow it’s population because then, your afterlife has high demand thus more money, that detail solves the hardest part of the game! The other insight which came much much later, the better capacity per area is given by the top 2x2 and 4x4 multi color. 3x3 top buildings are badass looking but they offer smaller max capacity for souls, we are aiming in reaching 1 billion souls using the least amount of area so you always have free space to build as demand explode.

robertlagrant 16d ago

I'd recommend this. As kids my brother and I could never complete a game on the BBC Micro called Imogen[0]. It was amazing for the time in that your character could transform into three modes (wizard / cat / monkey) and on one screen a fourth mode, and the transformation looked smooth even back then. However - we never completed it. As an adult I found it again and while I completed it fairly easily, it was a nice memory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_(video_game)

designium 16d ago

1. Find a map with the maximum amount of buildable space 2. Start the game with the maximum speed to above 5000 years 3. Build Hell first and only 4. Pause, build the portal already thinking in upgraded form. 5. Build long straight roads, columns spaced 4 from each other, avoid crossing 6. Check the sins demand 7. Usually, the green is the most demanded 8. Don’t touch anything about the planet 9. This is key: using green as example, build 2x2 spaced so the neighbor is diagonal, never adjacent. 10. Build your first wave of buildings, and essentials (dystopias, the trams, etc. I assume you know those things) 11. Open the portal, make a lot of money 12. Upgrade the portal, make more money 13. Max capacity reached, starting to lose souls and money, you adjust the building’s efficiency to white for every building manually until you are rich 14. Buildings start to reach its top version and capacity, lock them 15. Activate the bats , y to their guano are excellent to upgrade the buildings. Also keep other disasters away during a grace period 16. Then keep growing, adjusting buildings efficiency, more portals, more buildings 17. You only need half the Hell, to achieve hell’s Omnibulges 18. Then star heaven 19. Follow heaven best practices and you reach to Love Domes very easily and rich af 20. I would only train later in the game. Build the best training school, make it only accept top 10%, left side, watch and leave 20% no lower because it can cause excess oof demons or angels, unless you want to see the a special ending 21. Endings can be quite fun to achieve (then you want to mess up with the planet)

totetsu 16d ago

It's funny when you boot up these old games you played long ago, how small the view port is, and how I didn't seem to notice that at the time.

dfxm12 16d ago

What I like about sim city 2K is that it is like an arcade sim game. It is super easy to get up and running without too much prior knowledge. You can build a successful city without reading through the manual. I also like that there's no ending. Maybe this makes it "easy", but it promotes setting specific goals for yourself and exploration rather than going through certain expected motions to meet a preset goal. But there are the scenarios for people who like a preset challenge.

Zardoz84 16d ago
I played SimCity 2K without reading the manual as a kid.