A deep dive into the trailblazing simulation game SimCity, situating it in the history of games, simulation, and computing. Building SimCity explores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made:
SimCity. As author Chaim Gingold explains, Will Wright, the visionary designer behind the urban planning game, created
SimCity in part to learn about cities, appropriating ideas from traditions in which computers are used as tools for modeling and thinking about the world as a complex system. As such,
SimCity is a microcosm of the histories and cultures of computer simulation that engages with questions, themes, and representational techniques that reach back to the earliest computer simulations.
Gingold uses
SimCity to explore a web of interrelated topics in the history of technology, software, and simulation, taking us far and wide--from the dawn of programmable computers to miniature cities made of construction paper and role-play. An unprecedented history of Maxis, the company founded to bring
SimCity to market, the book reveals Maxis's complex relations with venture capitalists, Nintendo, and the Santa Fe Institute, which shaped the evolution of Will Wright's career; Maxis's failure to back
The Sims to completion; and the company's sale to Electronic Arts.
A lavishly visual book,
Building SimCity boasts a treasure trove of visual matter to help bring its wide-ranging subjects to life, including painstakingly crafted diagrams that explain
SimCity's operation, the Kodachrome photographs taken by Charles Eames of schoolchildren making model cities, and Nintendo's manga-style "Dr. Wright" character design, just to name a few.
深入探討開創性的模擬遊戲《SimCity》，將其置於遊戲、模擬和計算的歷史背景中。
《建造SimCity》通過記錄有史以來最具影響力的模擬遊戲之一《SimCity》，探索計算機模擬的歷史。正如作者Chaim Gingold所解釋的，這款城市規劃遊戲的遠見設計師Will Wright部分是為了學習城市而創造了《SimCity》，他借鑒了將計算機用作建模工具和思考世界作為複雜系統的傳統中的想法。因此，《SimCity》是計算機模擬歷史和文化的縮影，涉及的問題、主題和表現技術可以追溯到最早的計算機模擬。
Gingold利用《SimCity》探索技術、軟體和模擬歷史中相互關聯的主題，帶領我們從可編程計算機的曙光到用建築紙和角色扮演製作的微型城市，走遍各地。這本書提供了Maxis的前所未有的歷史，該公司成立的目的是將《SimCity》推向市場，揭示了Maxis與風險投資家、任天堂和聖塔菲研究所之間的複雜關係，這些關係塑造了Will Wright的職業生涯；Maxis未能將《模擬市民》完成的失敗；以及該公司被電子藝術公司收購的過程。
《建造SimCity》是一本視覺效果豐富的書籍，擁有大量視覺資料，幫助將其廣泛的主題生動呈現，包括詳細製作的圖表，解釋《SimCity》的運作，Charles Eames拍攝的學童製作模型城市的Kodachrome照片，以及任天堂漫畫風格的“Dr. Wright”角色設計，僅舉幾例。
