GPL’ed SimCity on OLPC
November 11th, 2007 by CrusaderElectronic Arts posteda press release to announce that the original By gifting SimCity onto each OLPC laptop, EA is providing users with anentertaining way to engage with computers as well as help developdecision-making skills while honing creativity. This is the first time a majorvideo game publisher has gifted a game to the world. [...] “SimCity is entertainment that’s unintentionally educational. Players learn touse limited resources to build and customize their cities. There are choicesand consequences, but in the end, it’s a creativity tool that’s only limitedby the player’s imagination,” said Steve Seabolt, vice president of globalbrand development, The Sims Label. “The game should prove to be an incrediblyeffective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun, particularlyfor first time players. We are thrilled to be making this contribution to OLPCto help meet their goal of educating the children of the world.” At Edit: Hopkins has also posted a YouTube video demonstrating SimCity on the OLPC.
The GPL source code version of SimCity will not be called “SimCity”, but wewill use the SimCity source code to make a city building game called”Micropolis”, which was the original working title of SimCity. That’s becauseEA reserves the right to review and QA the official version of the game that’spublished under the name “SimCity” on the OLPC. So we can make improvements tothe TCL/Tk version of Micropolis (based on the GPL source code), and submitthem to EA for review and QA, which if they approve, will be used as theofficially branded version of SimCity for the OLPC. It will be the same code,but the only difference is the name, which EA understandably wants to protect,be ensuring the quality and integrity of OLPC SimCity.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:41 am
heh, pie menus and all.. I hope the kids will have as much fun playing with it as Don has ;)
November 12th, 2007 at 1:16 am
But will it be better than lincity, or particularly lincity-ng?
Still pretty promising from EA.
November 12th, 2007 at 4:09 am
SimCity with a nice modern user interface and licensed under the GNU
GPL ? That is amazing ! As one who played the original I particularly
notice looking the video (thanks ‘youtube-dl’) the modern user
interface which looks very good and useable.
(This is a bit OT but another classic I would like to be liberated
like this is Lemmings, though it has quite probably less educational
value…)
November 14th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
SimEarth would be more educational, more eco-correct and more politically correct – it’s just sad when you see what is going on in the world: A rich businessman walks up to a starving, half-naked and somewhat ‘edecucated’ child. He proclaims, “hey kid, look how great cities are!”.
Do you see where I am going with this?
^^