The Story of SimCity – How Will Wright Created a Phenomenon | Kim Justice

A documentary about how the genius Will Wright made SimCity, one of the most important computer games ever made. Going through his inspiration, his struggles, the formation of Maxis, the mainstream success, plus several versions of the game and some of its successors.

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0:00 Intro
2:28 Will Wright’s Beginning: Raid on Bungeling Bay
9:46 SimCity’s Inspiration: Urban Dynamics, Stainislaw Lem and the Game of Life

17:05 It’s Good, but is it a Game?: Wright Struggles With Studios
23:38 Maxis Software Forms and SimCity Arrives

29:20 SimCity In-Depth: How The Game Plays
37:09 SimCity Ports: Windows, Amiga, Macintosh, SNES, C64, Acorn etc.
47:28 SimCity as a Mainstream and Political Phenomenon, and it’s Infuence
53:30 The Follow-Ups: SimEarth, SimAnt, SimTower, SimHealth, SimRefinery etc.

1:01:24 Outro: Pulling The Sims Out of the Fire

FURTHER READING:

The Story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery: https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/
Recovering Nintendo’s Lost SimCity for the NES: https://gamehistory.org/simcity/
The Real Mayors of SimCity: https://www.vice.com/en/article/ezv7wp/the-real-mayors-of-simcity
Will Wright’s City In A Box: https://www.filfre.net/2016/06/simcity-part-1-will-wrights-city-in-a-box/

The Ideology Hiding in SimCity’s Black Box: https://www.polygon.com/videos/2021/4/1/22352583/simcity-hidden-politics-ideology-urban-dynamics
The Replay Interviews: Will Wright: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-replay-interviews-will-wright

#retrogaming #simcity #willwright #thesims #gamedocumentary #kimjustice