심앤트

심앤트

심앤트(SimAnt)는 1991년에 출시된 맥시스의 생활 시물레이션 비디오 게임이다. 심앤트는 개미들에 초점이 맞추어져 있다. 심시티 및 심즈의 디자이너인 윌 라이트가 디자인하였다.

설명

이 게임은 근본적으로 개미 세상에 대한 시물레이션이다. 윌 라이트는 E. O. Wilson의 개미 사회에 대한 연구에서 영감을 받았다고 밝혔다. 이 게임에는 세 가지 모드가 있다. 빠른 게임, 전체 게임, 그리고 실험 모드이다. 이 게임은 IBM PC, Amiga, 애플 매킨토시, SNES(슈퍼 닌텐도 엔터테인먼트 시스템)의 4가지 기기에서 발매되었다. 닌텐도 버전은 8개의 시나리오가 추가되었다. 최종 목표는 다양한 위치에 존재하는 적인 붉은개미를 제거하는 것인데 이때 다양한 위험이 존재한다. In SimAnt, the player plays the role of an ant in a colony of black ants in the back yard of a suburban home. The ant colony must battle against enemy red ants. The ultimate goal is to spread throughout the garden, into the house, and finally to drive out the red ants and human owners. In this respect, SimAnt differed from other 'Sim' games that were open-ended and had no victory conditions.

In the Quick Game, the player establishes a black ant colony in a small patch of yard, shown in top-down perspective. The computer opponent establishes a competing red ant colony in the same patch. Underground ant colonies are depicted in a side view. The player has direct control of a single ant at a time, indicated by a yellow color, and may switch control to a different ant at any time by either double-clicking the desired ant or choosing Exchange from the Yellow Ant menu and clicking on it. A little known fact is that the spider in the game can also be controlled by using the Exchange method. The player's yellow ant may influence the behavior of other black ants by leaving pheromone trails to destinations such as food and enemy ant colonies and can control the other ants in a limited way (by ordering a certain number to follow it, for instance). The quick game is won or lost when either the red or black colony in said patch is defeated.

The player's yellow ant may pick up food and pebbles, engage in trophallaxis (by receiving regurgitated food from friendly ants), and attack enemy ants. Groups of ants (or yellow ant with his recruits) may attack and kill bigger enemies like spiders, caterpillars, and antlions. Natural hazards include human footsteps, electrical outlets, bugspray, spiders, antlions, lawnmowers, and rain, which washes away pheromone trails and can flood the bottom of ant nests.

In the Full Game, the player begins with an ant colony in an overhead view, much like the Quick Game. The region of this overhead view is a single square of a map containing a yard and house. The player spreads to other areas by producing young queens and drones to mate with each other. The full game is lost when the black colonies are eliminated and won when the red colonies are eliminated and the humans are driven out of the house.

The Experimental Game is similar to the Quick Game, except the player can also control red ants, spiders and has access to a set of experimental tools. These tools allow the player to place pheromone trails, maze walls, rocks, ants, pesticides and food.

The boxed game also comes with a thoroughly researched instruction manual, which not only covers game mechanics, but also contains a large amount of information regarding ants and ant societies.

Creatures

There are a variety of creatures in SimAnt such as spiders, antlions, caterpillars, pillbugs, birds, roaches, flies, and even humans. The roaches and flies can only be found inside the house. The spider, caterpillars, and the antlions can all be killed by sufficiently large swarms. Dead spiders and caterpillars will eventually turn into food. They will eventually be replaced. Dead antlions are not replaced.

The ants' caste system in the game is simple. Workers normally make up most of the colony and their jobs are to gather food, dig out the nest, and care for eggs, larvae, and the queen. They also help defend the nest. Soldiers are stronger than workers, and better at fighting other ants; they can do most of the same jobs as workers but need more food and can't care for eggs and larvae. The queen ant only has to lay eggs and is the most important ant. In the PC version, 20 queens can be placed in a colony using a cheat (type "qeen"). New queens and males (drones) have wings and their only jobs are to mate and make new colonies.

Legacy

파일:Simant win31 complete.jpg

The original game for Windows 3.1 included the software on both 3½" and 5¼" diskettes, along with a full manual, reference guide, catalog, and registration material.

It was rereleased by Maxis as part of the SimClassics suite.

Will Wright, creator of the Sim series, said he got the idea for The Sims while working on SimAnt.

Sales reception

According to the game box, using a statistic from the Software Publisher's Association, more than 100,000 copies of the PC version had sold by April 10, 1992.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #178 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.

External links

• (영어) SimAnt - 모비게임스
• SimAnt on GameFAQs (PC version)