History Videogame / SimEarth

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Aside from making the climate uninhabitable, if you want to actually ''have'' life, you can make life hellish (as is stated outright in the TurboGrafx-16 version) by setting Art and Philosophy down to zero.

* [[AnInteriorDesignerIsYou An Exterior Designer Is You]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: Maxis' "[=SimEverything=]" game, ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' (released 18 years later).

* WideOpenSandbox

''[=SimEarth: The Living Planet=]'' is a SimulationGame by Maxis, released for home computers in 1990 and the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendo in 1992. After ''VideoGame/SimCity'', it was the first "spinoff" in the VideoGame/SimSeries. The game leaves the player in control of a planet's terrain and biosphere over billions of years. As well as playing with a custom planet, you can try your hand at scenarios like terraforming Mars, solving modern-day Earth's problems, or exploring James Lovelock's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld Daisyworld]] hypothesis.

** The Super NES version had [[https://www.freegameempire.com/games/SimEarth/manual a comparatively simple manual]], putting the most important info from the other versions' manuals in an in-game dictionary accessible from the main menu. The UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version's operations guide condenses it much further, eschewing the earth sciences lessons entirely and covering just the basics of gameplay -- considering how complex the game is, this is [[ViewersAreGeniuses a flaw rather than a mercy]].

* SaveGameLimits: Only one planet can be saved at a time on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version due to the Wii [[PortingDisaster not having the same filesystem]] as the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16.

* AllThereInTheManual: "All" being a crash course in earth sciences, from geology to biology, and a functional guide to climate modelling that is useful 20 years later in understanding IPCC reports. It was over 500 pages, went into exhaustive detail about the simulation's assumptions and underlying equations, and was [[DoorStopper larger than most modern game]] ''[[DoorStopper boxes]].''

''[=SimEarth: The Living Planet=]'' is a SimulationGame by Maxis, released for home computers in 1990 and the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendo in 1992. The game leaves the player in control of a planet's terrain and biosphere over billions of years. As well as playing with a custom planet, you can try your hand at scenarios like terraforming Mars, solving modern-day Earth's problems, or exploring James Lovelock's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld Daisyworld]] hypothesis.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Nuking a nanotech city will release robots into the wild, which generally [[GreyGoo outcompete any other organism in the wild]], and can easily become sentient.

* TheReptilians: If dinosaurs or reptiles become sentient.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology / ArtisticLicenseGeology: The Gaia Hypothesis that the entire game is based on is acknowledged by the manual as being not widely accepted in scientific circles at the time of release, and remains widely controversial to this day. However, it runs with it anyway because the result is an effective visual tool of how life and the environment on a planet can potentially develop regardless of the specifics.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Aside from making the climate uninhabitable, if you want to actually ''have'' life, you can make life hellish ([[GettingCrapPastTheRadar as is stated outright in the TurboGrafx-16 version]]) by setting Art and Philosophy down to zero.

** The Super NES version had a comparatively simple manual, putting the most important info from the other versions' manuals in an in-game dictionary accessible from the main menu. The UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version's operations guide condenses it much further, eschewing the earth sciences lessons entirely and covering just the basics of gameplay -- considering how complex the game is, this is [[ViewersAreGeniuses a flaw rather than a mercy]].

''[=SimEarth: The Living Planet=]'' is a SimulationGame by Maxis, released for home computers in 1990 and the SuperNintendo in 1992. The game leaves the player in control of a planet's terrain and biosphere over billions of years. As well as playing with a custom planet, you can try your hand at scenarios like terraforming Mars, solving modern-day Earth's problems, or exploring James Lovelock's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisyworld Daisyworld]] hypothesis.

** The Super NES version had a comparatively simple manual, putting the most important info from the other versions' manuals in an in-game dictionary accessible from the main menu. The VirtualConsole version's operations guide condenses it much further, eschewing the earth sciences lessons entirely and covering just the basics of gameplay -- considering how complex the game is, this is [[ViewersAreGeniuses a flaw rather than a mercy]].

* SaveGameLimits: Only one planet can be saved at a time on the VirtualConsole version due to the Wii [[PortingDisaster not having the same filesystem]] as the TurboGrafx16.

* CruelPlayerCharacterGod: Crank up the sun and bake the planet into a desert wasteland! Or maybe dial it down and trigger a whole new Ice Age! Wipe out cities with plagues, smash continents with asteroids, and make your species favor war by turning them away from philosophy!

* YouNukeEm: One of the disasters available to be triggered by the player. [[NighInvulnerable Useless]] for stopping robots, though.

** The Super NES version had a comparatively simple manual, putting the most important info from the other versions' manuals in an in-game dictionary accessible from the main menu. The VirtualConsole version's operations guide condenses it much further, eschewing the earth sciences lessons entirely and covering just the basics of gameplay.

** Thankfully, this was condensed to just twelve pages in the VirtualConsole version, covering just the basics of gameplay.

* DueToTheDead: ''Averted'' by Gaia herself. If your sentient species goes extinct and you check up on her immediately after, what does she have to say?

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Aside from making the climate uninhabitable, if you want to actually ''have'' life, you can make life hellish ([[GettingCrapPastTheRadar as is said in the game]]) by setting Art and Philosophy down to zero.

* CopyProtection: Based around solar system trivia.

* CharacterTiers: [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] due to different species having different likelihoods of attaining sentience. [[InfinityPlusOneSword Robots]] are the most likely if introduced. Below them are [[HumansAreSpecial mammals]] and [[TheReptilians dinosaurs]], the most likely sentient species to occur by laissez-faire play. At the bottom are Trichordates, which even TheMonolith will frequently fail when used on, and below even that are Carniferns, which not only need specific conditions to appear in the first place, they are very difficult to control enough to develop intelligence before another species beats them to it. [[DifficultButAwesome Still, though, sentient carniferns]].