This is a commercial game, put out by the same people that did SimCity, SimAnt, SimEarth, and more. The idea is to build an ecosystem, by designing animals and plants to put into it and then letting them run around have sex, die, etc., with evolution and mucking around from god (you). Being a commercial program, its very slick, with nice graphics and animation, sound effects, full color maps of the game world, and a well- written manual. To make a creature, you give it a number of attributes such as what types of food it eats, how it moves (swim, fly, walk), what type of movement pattern it has, how long it takes to reach maturity and start having kids, and many, many more (probably over 50 characteristics total, many of them continuously variable). You also have some control over weather, the terrain in your world, how quickly evolution happens, and other factors.

SimLife is a really fun game, you could easily spend hours playing it. That said, its probably not too useful as a biology teaching tool, especially at the college level. When the game first came out, there were several discussions on the net about its utility as a teaching tool, and for the most part people gave it reserved praise at best. Still, it might be worth looking at. If nothing else, its a good way to procrastinate, and its better for your students than television.

Computer: Macintosh / Windows

Source: Any mail-order company, or Maxis

Cost: Low

Last update 22nd of January 1996