SIM LIFE
ADDENDUM & QUICKSTART GUIDE & KEYBOARD CHART
AMIGA VERSION
Typed by Rygar!
Manual Supplied by JBM & FAIRLIGHT!
SYSTEM INFORMATION
HARDWARE REQUIRED
AGA VERSION:
A1200, A4000 using Workbench 3.0 with 2 MB of RAM. A
hard drive is recommended.
STANDARD VERSION:
A500, A500+, A600, A1200, A1500, A2000, A3000, A4000 using
Workbench version 1.3 or higher with a minimum 1 MB of RAM
although 2 MB is recommended. A hard drive is also recommended.
GENERAL INFORMATION
This Addendum / Quick Start Guide contains all the Amiga - specific
information to play SimLife.
There are two versions of SimLife for the Amiga: AGA which fully
supports A1200 and A4000 machines utilising the AGA graphics
chipset and STANDARD which supports all non AGA Amiga
machines.
The disks supplied have been compressed and will require
decompressions before use. If you intend to play SimLife from
floppies, please ensure that you have 3 formatted blank disks for the
game to install onto. See Installation instructions below.
NO COPY PROTECTION
SimLife is not ocpy protected. This is an experiment and a big leap
of faith for us. We are trusting you not to give away copies of this
game. Copy protection is a pain - for all of us - and we'd like to stop
using it forever, but if SimLife falls victim to piracy, then we will
revert to using protection on future products.
HIGH RESOLUTION MODE
If you are using the AGA version of SimLife you have the
capabilities of operating in high resolution mode if you have a
multisync monitor attached. The standard version may also be
operated in high resolution if you have a flicker fixer and 2MB or
more with a multisync monitor.
QUICK-START GUIDE INSTALLATION
Both AGA and STANDARD versions of the SimLife program have
identical installation programs. To install SimLife:
1. Insert the SimLife Disk 1 into your internal disk drive.
2. Reset you Amiga.
3. Follow the on screen instructions choosing graphical
requirements and install destination (either floppy or hard disk),
swapping disks when necessary.
STARTING THE PROGRAM
FROM HARD DISK
After installation (see above), using Workbench open the folder that
the game has been isntalled to and double-click on the SimLife icon
to play.
FROM FLOPPY DRIVE
Insert the disk labelled `SIMLIFE1' into your internal drive and reset
your machine. The game will load automatically.
THE ON-SCREEN TUTORIAL
After starting SimLife, you will see the New Game Window. Click on
the Tutorial button, then on Play Scenario to start the On-screen
Tutorial. You will then be walked through the basics of SimLife. A
special Tutorial Menu will appear to help you navigate and access
special Help screens.
There are two additional tutorials in the manual that will take you on
a more complete tour of SimLife and demonstrate how to design, set
up and carry out a SimLife experiment.
SPECIAL AMIGA FEATURES
Following is an explanation of any and all features and functions of
SimLife on the Amiga that weren't covered in the manual.
LOADING AND SAVING FILES
All file loading and saving is achieved through the standard Amiga
file requester. In addition, SimLife gives you the option of keeping
backup copies of the previous versions of each of these files. If you
want a backup, click in the Make Backups box in the Save File
dialogue box.
SOUNDS
Most sounds in SimLife happen in response to your actions, but there
are three sounds that occur to notify you of important events that you
might not otherwise notice.
Oooooh - this moan is the sound of an animal dying.
Ooh-la-la - this is the sound of animals mating.
Fanfare - this sound announces a birth.
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE SIMS
SimLife is a powerful simulation engine that can be put to use in a
number of different ways, both useful and silly. We've included a few
saved games on one of the disks that show some of these uses (or
abuses). Try them out. See if you can figure out what they are
and why.
DATA LOGGING
An advanced, but very useful feature in SimLife is Data Logging.
When you activeate the Data Logging... item in the Technical
Submenu of the Simulation Menu, the program will write a lot of data
to disk in a standard text file. This information can then be loaded
into a spreadsheet or other statistical program, and you can make all
the graphs and charts you could ever want.
Warning: The Data Log File can get huge. Depending on the size
of the world and the number of plants and animals in it, this file
can take up to 100KB per year. Make sure you have the disk space.
When you activate Data Logging, you will be presented with a
dialogue box that lets you name the data file and tell the computer
where to save it.
DATA LOGGING FILE SAVING OPTIONS
In addition to the usual Amiga file saving controls, you
can set a few other options.
Append to Existing File
Sometimes you might run SimLife with Data Logging,
take a break (to work - or better yet, play SimCity),
the come back to SimLife later. If you want to
continue Data Logging where you left off, and have
the data go into the same data file you were using
before, use the same file name and check this box.
Data Checkboxes (A.K.A. Flags)
You can choose what data to save to disk by
checking the following boxes. If you hold
down the Option key while checking a box,
they will all be checked. If you hold down
the Option key while unchecking (clearing)
a box, they will all be unchecked.
An explanation of what information each checkbox represents can be
found starting on the next page, as part of the complete description of
the Data Log file format.
DATA LOGGING FILE FORMAT
In order to make use of this data once you get it into a spreadsheet (or
other program), you'll need to know how all the data is arranged.
Each line in the data log file starts with the four-letter abbreviation, as
seen next to each checkbox, that indentifies the type of information the
line contains, followed by one or more data fields. Fields are
separated from each other by a single Tab. Lines are separated by a
Return. The first data field is the simulation time, showing the year,
day, and tick of the event being reported. On most lines, the next field
is either a species or an Orgot (an individual SimLife Organism)
identifier code, which consists of a flag indicating whether this is a plant
or an animal species, the species number and version, and specific organism if
applicable. The remaining fields are different for each message type as noted.
Type Year.Day.Tic Date Time Message
NOTE 0000.000.000 92/06/01 17:12:51 "Log started"
These are human-readable messages that report when the data log was started
or closed, as well as when a game is paused, the simulation time is reset to
zero, or a game is loaded.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Event Message
HIST 0000.000.000 1.19.01.000 2 "Wheatgrass' has only seeds left"
All messages that appear in the History window will be recorded to the data
log as they occur.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Remaining Special Pop.
DIED 0000.000.000 1.02.01.023 12
This is a record of each plant or animal death.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Pop.
LIVE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time a new plant or animal is created or populated, the species
identifier and unique orgot number of the new inhabitant is recorded. If the
GENE checkbox is checked, the genetic make-up of the new organism is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Pop.
BORN 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time an animal is born, the birth is reported. If the GENE checkbox is
checked, the genetic makeup ofthe newborn is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Population
SEED 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time a plant sprouts from a seed, the event is reported. If the GENE
checkbox is checked, the genetic makeup of the new plant is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID OrgotID
MATE 0000.000.001 0.06.01.002 0.06.01.001
Each time a pair of animals or plants mate, the event is reported. The first
OrgotID is the female.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID OrgotID
ASEX 0000.001.000 0.12.01.005 0.12.01.005
Each tiem an asexual plant or animal becomes pregnant, the event is reported.
Since the orgot is mating with itself, the OrgotID is duplicated for
consistency with the MATE data format.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Number Killed
KILL 0000.000.000 1.00.01.000 30
Each time a plant or animal is manually killed, the death is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Number Populated
POPU 0000.000.000 1.00.01.000 30
Each time a species is manually populated, the event is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Daily Statistics
DATA 0000.001.000 0.00.01.000 See below
At the end of each simulation day, the census statistics for each active
species are summarised.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Annual Statistics
YEAR 0001.000.000 0.00.01.000 See below
At the end of each simulation year, the census statistics for each active
species are summarised.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Message
DELE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 `SpeciesName' has been deleted.
Each time a species is deleted, the event is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Message
CREA 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 `SpeciesName' has been created.
Each time a species is created, the event is reported.
Type SpeciesID Species Name
LEGN 0.00.01.000 "Elephant"
At the beginning of each data log is a legend or listing of each species
identifier and species name. This can be used as a key to look up the name of
a species from its identifier number.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID MothersID Genetic Data
GENE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.001 1.00.01.000 See below
Each time a plant or animal is populated or born, the genetic information for
that individual is reported. Since animals have more genetic data than plants,
animals have several additional fields in addition to the basic fields.
DATA and YEAR Fields
All of the following fields are recorded for DATA (daily census statistics)
and YEAR (yearly census summaries) for each active species.
Simulation time; Species ID: Total species population, including seeds for
plants; for plant species, the number of seeds, if any; Species population,
not including unsprouted seeds; Number of births or sprouts in this species;
Number of deaths in this species; Water level for this species; Health level
for this species; Number of females in the species population; Average age of
the species population; Average size of the species population; Total biomass
of this species.
GENE Fields for Plants
These are the fields recorded for each individual plant:
Simulation time; OrgotID: OrgotID of this orgot's mother; Food Store gene;
Water Store gene; Health Store gene; Height gene; Mutation gene; Life span
gene; Stealth gene; Birth/Death gene; Movement/food source gene; Reserved gene
(not used for genetics).
GENE Fields for Animals
These are the fields recorded for each individual animal. They are the same as
the plant genes above, plus the following additional fields:
Behaviour gene; Vision gene; Food Action gene; Water Action gene; Health
Action gene; Food Danger gene; Water Danger gene; Health Danger gene;
Gestation Time gene; Gestation Size gene; Metabolism/Gender/Share Food gene;
Adult age gene; Weapons gene; Turn Style gene; Persistence gene; Species0
attract/repel gene; Species1 attract/repel gene; Species2 attract/repel gene;
Species3 attract/repel gene; Species4 attract/repel gene; Species5 attract/
repel gene; Species6 attract/repel gene; Species7 attract/repel gene.
KEYBOARD CHART
File Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + N = New Game...
Right Amiga Key + O = Open Game...
Right Amiga Key + W = Close Game...
Right Amiga Key + S = Save
Right Amiga Key + Q = Quit
Speed Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + P = Pause
Right Amiga Key + - = Slow
Right Amiga Key + = = Medium
Right Amiga Key + F = Fast
Right Amiga Key + U = Ultra
Opening Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + E = Edit
Right Amiga Key + M = Map
Right Amiga Key + T = Climate Lab
Right Amiga Key + B = Biology Lab
Right Amiga Key + O = Dashboard
Right Amiga Key + 1 = Variables
Right Amiga Key + 2 = Phenotype
Right Amiga Key + 3 = Evaluation
Right Amiga Key + 4 = Diversity
Right Amiga Key + 5 = Food Web
Right Amiga Key + 6 = Gene Pool
Right Amiga Key + 7 = Graphs
Right Amiga Key + H = History
Right Amiga Key + 8 = Mortality
Right Amiga Key + 9 = Population
Technical Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + Y = Change Physics
Right Amiga Key + L = Locate an Individual
Right Amiga Key + D = Data Logging
Goodies and Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + J = Music on/off
Right Amiga Key + K = Sound on/off
Right Amiga Key + A = Auto Tracking on/off
Other Keys
~~~~~~~~~~
Tab = Toggles between Plant and Animal in the Dashboard
Escape = Cancels operations, deselects selections, and sets
Life Tool to No Tool
Left Alt Key = In the Edit Window:
Hold down Left Alt Key while cloning to cause mutation
Hold down while raising or lowering Temperature or
Moisture to limit effect to one tile.
Hold down while using Carrot to call only Highlighted
animal.
Left Alt Key = In the Dashboard:
Hold down while clicking an On/Off button to turn all
plants or animals on or off.
Hold down while selecting a colour/symbol to set all
plants or animals to that colour/symbol.
Hold down while clicking on the Pause button to
single-step the simulation one Tick.
Left Alt Key = In the Graphs Window:
Hold down while selecting the Local Species or
Information to set all four Selectors at once.
Left Alt Key = In the Map Window:
Hold down while clicking the Populate... button to
randomly populate the world.
Left Alt Key = In the Food Web Window:
Hold down while clicking on a predator to open the
Population Interaction Window.
Left Alt Key = In Data Logging Dialogue Box:
Hold down while toggling any checkbox on or off to
turn them all on or off.
MINDSCAPE INTERNATIONAL
PRIORITY HOUSE, CHARLES AVENUE, BURGESS HILL, WEST SUSSEX RH15 9PQ
TEL 0444 246333 FAX 0444 248996
Typed by Rygar!
=============================================================================
___________________________________________________________________________
| |
| SIMLIFE USER MANUAL... Typed by Rygar! |
| |
| Supplied by JBM / FAIRLIGHT! |
|___________________________________________________________________________|
S I M L I F E - T H E G E N E T I C P L A Y G R O U N D
USER MANUAL
PART ONE
CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................................ 1
What Is SimLife? ..................................................... 2
What Is Artificial Life? ............................................. 6
Getting Started ......................................................... 9
Installation ........................................................ 10
Starting The Program ................................................ 10
Tutorial ............................................................... 11
Before You Begin .................................................... 12
Take A Tour Of Your Computerized Ecosystem .......................... 23
Building An Experiment: Splatt ..................................... 53
Reference .............................................................. 79
Introduction/The Basics ............................................. 80
Menus ............................................................... 84
File Menu ........................................................ 84
Edit Menu ........................................................ 85
Simulation Menu .................................................. 85
Windows Menu ..................................................... 94
Disasters Menu ................................................... 96
Windows ............................................................. 98
Dashboard ........................................................ 98
New Game Window ................................................. 103
Edit Window ..................................................... 104
Map Window ...................................................... 117
Populate Window ................................................. 123
World Design Window ............................................. 125
Biology Lab ..................................................... 128
Climate Lab ..................................................... 151
Graphs Window ................................................... 152
Mortality Window .................:::::...........:::::.......... 156
Gene Pool Window .................:::...::::::::....:::.......... 158
Food Web Window ..................:::...:::...:::...:::.......... 165
Population Interactive Window ....:::...:::...:::...:::.......... 168
Population Window ................:::...:::::::.....:::.......... 170
Diversity Window .................:::...:::...:::...:::.......... 171
History Window ...................:::...:::...:::...:::.......... 174
Laws of Physics Window ...........:::...:::...:::...:::.......... 175
Variables Window .................:::::...........:::::.......... 182
Phenotype Window ................................................ 184
Speciate Window ................................................. 185
Evaluation Window ............................................... 187
Locate an Individual Window ..................................... 188
Run Control Window .............................................. 189
Sample Experiments ................................................. 190
Miscellaneous Sim Stuff ............................................ 194
Glossary .............................................................. 198
Bibliography .......................................................... 200
Index ................................................................. 202
Machine Specific Addendum & Quickstart Guide & Keyboard Chart ......... 204
[PAGE: 1]
INTRODUCTION
"Life! Don't talk to me about life."
- Marvin The Paranoid Android
from The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
[PAGE: 2]
INTRODUCTION
SimLife is an Artificial Life Laboratory/Playground designed to simulate
environments, biology, evolution, ecosystems, and life.
WHAT IS SIMLIFE?
SimLife is a game, a toy and an experimental tool to learn about life, real
and artificial.
As a game, SimLife challenges you to successfully solve the problems
presented to you in each of six different scenarios.
As an experimental tool, SimLife gives you the power to:
* create and modify worlds;
* create and modify plants and animals at the genetic level;
* design environments and ecosystems;
* simulate and control evolution; and even
* change the physics of the universe.
A major feature and purpose of SimLife is that it is an exploration of the
emerging computer field of Artificial Life.
YOUR REASONS TO (SIM)LIVE
The goals in playing SimLife are many, and, as with most Maxis products,
are entirely up to you.
If you approach SimLife as a game, then your goals can be to win each of
the scenarios. If you approach SimLife as a "laboratory in a computer,"
your goals are as limitless as your imagination. If you approach SimLife
as a toy, you don't need goals; you can just play with plants, animals and
ecosystems.
If you are interested in monitoring your personal progress or understanding
of the ecological systems in SimLife, you can keep an eye on the Ecology Score
in the Graphs Window. It displays an ongoing score of the ecological soundness
of your ecosystem, which you can view as a rating of how well you are doing as
master of life on your world. There is also an evaluation window that
graphically shows how complex your ecosystem is, as well as assigning a score
to your performance.
[PAGE: 3]
THE ULTIMATE GOAL?
Perhaps the greatest challenge of playing SimLife is to start from scratch
and design and build a world with a sustainable ecosystem.
It's not an easy task, and once tou do it you may realize just how fragile
an ecosystem can be: how a small change in the environment or the extinction
of a single species can cause a wave of destruction that destroys life up and
down the food chain.
What can be considered the ultimate goal of SimLife is to look beyond the
game, to understand that the real world with its millions of species with
their combined billions of genes are all interrelated and carefully balance
in the food chain and the web of life, and that this balance can be upset.
Once we realize this, maybe we'll treat our planet, our environment and life
itself with the respect they deserve and need. OK. Enough heaviosity. Go play.
LEVELS OF PLAY
SimLife was designed to be played at different levels:
* On the simple game level of trying to solve the scenarios;
* On a simple experimental/play level of building your own
worlds, animals, and ecosystems; and
* On a complex experimental level where you control (or
meddle with) the laws of physics and manipulate plants and
animals at the genetic level.
You can do these things in any of five difficulty levels, from beginner to
expert.
[PAGE: 4]
SOFTWARE TOYS AND SYSTEM SIMULATIONS
SimLife isn't exactly a game - it's what we call a Software Toy. Toys, by
definition, are more flexible and open-ended than games.
As an example, compare a game, tennis, with a toy, a ball. In every tennis
game, there is one way to begin, one goal to pursue and one way to end. There
are infinite variations in the middle, but they all start the same way, chase
the same goal and end the same way. A ball is more flexible - there are more
things you can do with it. With the ball, you can play tennis. You can play
catch. You can throw it at someone. You can bounce it. You can make up a
hundred different games using the ball. Besides games, there are other things
you can do with a ball. You can paint it, use it to plug a leaky roof, or just
contemplate its roundness.
In SimLife, the "toy" is a biology laboratory in a computer.
When you play with SimLife, or any of our other Software Toys(R), don't limit
yourself to trying to "win." Play with it. Experiment. Try new things. Just
have fun.
There are many types of toys. SimLife, like SimCity(R), SimEarth(R), and
SimAnt(R) before it, is a SYSTEM SIMULATION toy. In a system simulation, we
provide you with a set of RULES and TOOLS that describe, create and control a
system. In the case of SimLife, the system is an ecosystem. Part of the
challenge of playing with a system simulation toy is to figure out how the
system works and take control of it. As master of the system, you are free to
use the Tools to create and control an unlimited number of systems (in this
case, ecosystems) within the framework provided by the Rules.
In SimLife, the Rules to learn are based on biology and behavior, including:
Environment: All life is affected by its external environmental conditions,
including the landscape, the climate, physical disasters and most importantly,
other life-forms.
[PAGE: 5]
Genetics: Living beings are defined by the genes they carry and pass on to
their offspring.
Evolution: Life changes in response to its environtment; species adapt to
their surroundings and evolve into new species.
Behavior: To survive individually and as a species, life-forms must find food
and water, defend themselves from predators and reproduce.
The Food Chain: For an ecosystem to be stable, the food chain must be a
complete circle; herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat herbivores, plants
consume animal waste and rotted carcasses. The sun provides the energy to keep
the cycle going.
Ecosystems: In addition to the cycling of material in the food chain, a
stable ecosystem has to efficiently cycle oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and
other important gasses and minerals between life, the atmosphere and the land.
The Tools provide you with the ability to design and build worlds and
ecosystems:
* Create landforms with lakes, mountains, rivers and impassable barriers.
* Modify the climate: set temperature ranges, humidity, seasonal changes,
and day-length variations with the Weather Lab.
* Mix and match pre-defined plants and animals, modify them at the genetic
level, or create your own life-forms in the Biology Lab.
* Use mutagens to cause mutations and speed up evolution.
* Change the laws of physics: set the lengths of days and years, change the
energy it takes to walk, swim, or fly.
* Track your data with graphs and charts that display population and
genetic changes through time.
[PAGE: 6]
But the most important Tool of all is the simulator itself. Test your
knowledge, plans, theories and ideas as you watch your creatures and
ecosystems thrive or die.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL LIFE?
SimLife is an Artificial Life playshop/toolkit/workshop.
Artificial Life (A-life) is an emerging new field in computer science that
is giving us a whole new way to study biology, evolution and life itself. Our
Software Toys make use of A-life technology to simulate living systems that
change and grow depending on the choices you make.
The idea behind A-life is to produce lifelike behavior on a computer (or
other artificial media), where it can be studied in ways real living things
cannot. A-life creates a laboratory in a computer, where the scientist can
completely control all environmental factors - even time.
One of the most important features of A-life is emergent behavior - when
complex behavior emerges from the combination of many individuals following
simple rules. Two examples of emergent behavior are ant colonies in the real
world, and SimCity in the computer world. In fact, biologic "life as we know
it" can be considered a form of emergent behavior.
Another important aspect of A-life is evolution - artificial life-forms can
react to their environment and grow, reproduce and evolve into more complex
forms.
The future of A-life holds much potential and promise. It may someday go
beyond the experimental world into the practical realm of design. The tools
and techniques being developed now will someday allow us to grow or evolve
designs for complex systems ranging from software to airplanes to
intelligence.
In a sense, A-life has the same ultimate goal as Artificial Intelligence (AI),
but uses opposite methods. AI uses a top-down approach to create a thinking
[PAGE: 7]
machine that emulates the human brain. A-life uses the bottomup approach -
start with single cells and grow/evolve life with intelligence.
ABOUT SIMLIFE DOCUMENTATION
There are five parts to the docs for SimLife: the manual, the machine-
specific addendum, the lab book, the registration card and the President's
letter/support info card.
The manual (that which you now hold in your hands) was typed by Rygar and has:
* An introduction chapter that gives you a little background on the game
and a brief explanation of Artificial Life;
* A Getting Started chapter to get you up and running;
* A three-part Tutorial that gives you some background info, leads you
through many of the windows and functions of the program and shows you
how to set up, conduct and evaluate an experiment;
* A Reference section that gives more background information, complete
descriptions of every menu, window, button and function, sample
experiments to try and miscellaneous information on the simulation; and
* A Glossary, a Bibliography and an Index.
The machine-specific addendum gives you any special info you'll need for your
particular computer, including loading, saving, printing, special menu items,
and keyboard shortcuts. It also has any last-minute features that were too
recent to make it into the manual. If you have any questions that aren't
answered in the manual, check your machine-specific addendum.
The lab book goes along with the experiment in the tutorial to give you an
example of one way to write up SimLife experiments. The lab book also has data
sheets containing printed blanks of most of the windows that you can copy,
draw in the data, and include in your own lab reports.
[PAGE: 8]
Sending in the registration card entitles you to free technical support, an
extended warranty on SimLife and a while bunch of other things. Read it,
fill it out and send it in. You'll be glad you did.
The President's letter invites you to contact Maxis about any problems or
suggestions you may have with or for SimLife. The support info (on the back of
the President's letter) tells you how to contact us for customer service and
technical support.
VARIOUS SIMLIFE VERSIONS AND MANUAL GRAPHICS
SimLife is (or soon will be) available on a number of different computer
systems. We try to keep all the versions as close to each other as possible,
while staying true to the individual interface differences of each machine.
The graphics for this manual are taken primarily from the Color Macintosh
version of SimLife because it was ready first. On any other computer, there
will be some slight differences in the look of the program. All the same
features and functions will be there, but some things (like buttons) may be
moved around a little. If you screen doesn't exactly match the graphics in the
manual, check in the machine-specific addendum for a complete explanation of
how SimLife has been customized for your computer
[PAGE: 9]
GETTING STARTED
"All life is an experiment."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
[PAGE: 10]
INSTALLATION * R Y G A R *
On most computers, SimLife must be installed to a hard disk before it can
be run. See your computer-specific addendum for installation instructions on
your computer
STARTING THE PROGRAM
Once again, see your computer-specific addendum for starting instructions.
ABOUT THE TUTORIALS
There is an on-screen tutorial built into SimLife. Once you start the program,
you will see the New Game Window. Click on the button that says Tutorial, then
click on Make It So. You will be taken on a quick tour through the basic
features of SimLife.
In addition, there is a fairly extensive tutorial in this manual, written in
three parts.
The first part gives some background information on SimLife, and on life
itself. You may want to skim through this section before going on. Most
of you will just jump right in and start messing around with the game.
Enjoy yourself - the information will be here when you want it.
The second part is a tour of the major features, functions and windows. We
won't be chasing any particular goal here, just playing around and getting
familiar with many of the things you can do with SimLife.
The third part of the tutorial is the complete design, setup and execution
of an experiment. We'll define the goals of the experiment, decide what
kind of world and what kind of life would be best to reach the goals, and
carry it out. Included in the SimLife package is a "lab book" that
summarizes the steps in the experiment, and leaves room for recording data
and conclusions [SORRY LAB BOOK NOT INCLUDED - JUST EMPTY PAGES ANYWAYS - [R]
[PAGE: 11]
TUTORIAL
"My boy, you are descended from a
long line of determined, resourceful,
microscopic tadpoles - champions
every one."
- Kilgore Trout
from Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
[PAGE: 12]
TUTORIAL
This tutorial covers a lot of material fairly quickly. If you're not already
somewhat familiar with SimLife, you'll probably want to run through the
on-screen tutorial first. It can be started from the New Game Window. Or
you may want to give the Before You Being section below a quick onceover,
then do the on-screen tutorial.
The graphics in this tutorial are from the color Macintosh version. The
screens on your computer may vary a little. See your machine-specific
addendum for more details.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before playing SimLife, there are a few things you'll want to know.
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
I hope you have many heads, because while playing SimLife you'll be
wearing many hats. Depending on the scenario you play or the experiment you
design, you can think of yourself as:
* a planetary game warden trying to protect and improve
various ecosystems;
* a behavioral ecologist exploring the different ways plants
and animals interact in their ecosystems;
* an evolutionary biologist trying to prove theories;
* Charles Darwin (only in his dreams);
* a being with amazing powers who creates worlds, populates them with
plants and animals, and balances ecosystems for fun;
* an Artificial Life experimenter; and
* a normal human trying to play and win a pretty complex computer game.
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What you are trying to do is:
* win each of the scenarios;
* stick your finger into an ecosystem, muck it up a bit and see
what happens;
* simulate current ecological situations (and disasters) and
try to recover before it's too late;
* build your own ecosystem from scratch;
* design and carry out any number of experiments that deal with plants,
animals, genetics, evolution and ecosystems;
* casually observe the interactions between plants, animals and the
environment over a long period of time; and
* have fun.
OF MICE AND KEYBOARDS
SimLife is much easier and more fun to play if you have a mouse. This
tutorial and the manual in general assume you have one.
If you don't have a mouse, check in the computer-specific addendum for
instructions on using menus and controlling windows, and for keyboard
equivalents to terms like "clicking" and "dragging."
SIMPLICITY AND RICHNESS
SimLife deals with life and ecosystems in a very simplified way.
Simplification serves a few purposes. If it were even 1/10th as complex as the
world we live in, it would have taken us 100 years to make the program, it
would cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you'd need a computer
the size of Baltimore to play it.
Because it is simple, time can be sped up and experiments that would take
hundreds of years in real time can be performed in hours or minutes. Because
it is simple, many external influences can be removed for experimental
controls that cannot be removed in "real world" experiments.
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SimLife, even while extremely simple compared to life as we live it, is a
fairly deep game/simulation/toy. It has many interrelated features and
functions that make it quite powerful and take a bit of htinking to master.
One of the most powerful features in SimLife is the ability to limit or
ignore many of the features. Depending on the game or experiment you may
require a large, rich, complex world with climatic changes, mountains and
valleys, and a convoluted web of plants and animals preying on each other, or
just a small spot of ground with no mountains, no weather changes and only one
type of life.
Both the tutorial below and some of the scenarios will deal with some small,
simple setups so you can play and explore right away without learning
everything first, and gradually deal with more complex worlds and experiments.
BUTTONS AND MORE BUTTONS
This game has more buttons than all the bellies in Chine. It can be a little
confusing at first, but follow the tutorial and you'll meet most of them
one at a time. Then you can read the reference section of this manual (just
kidding - I know nobody reads reference sections of manuals) to find out
exactly what each and every button does. If all else fails and you can't
decide which button to press, try eeny-meeny-miney-moe.
IT'S ABOUT TIME
Time in SimLife consists of Ticks, Days and Years. Each year is divided up
into four seasons of equal length: summer, fall, winter and spring.
A tick is one simulation cycle. The actual length of a tick in real seconds
depends on your computer's speed, the size of the world and the number of
organisms in the world.
The number of ticks per day and days per year varies with the different
scenarios and can be customized for different experiments. By adjusting
ticks and days, you adjust the rate at which time passes. When a scenario
or experiment deals with the behavior of one animal or one generation, then
you will want time to go slowly so the animal has time to exhibit its
behavior. When a scenario or experiment deals with the genetic drift
over many generations, then you will want time to pass quickly.
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OTHER STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW (SIMLIFE CONVENTIONS AND TERMINOLOGY)
Here are a few things to keep in mind while working your way through the
tutorial:
MENUS
To play SimLife, you'll have to understand how to use menus. Many computers
these days have menuing systems built into their operating systems, including
Macintosh, Amiga and Windows-based computers. In these cases we follow all
the standard menu-use conventions for your computer/operating system.
Check your machine-specific addendum for special menu details (if any) and for
keyboard shortcuts for opening menus and selecting menu items.
DOWN-ARROW (TRIANGLE) BUTTONS
Whenever you see a button with a down-arrow, or traingle pointing down, it
means you can click and hold on this button to open a pop-up menu of choices.
Clicking quickly on any down-arrow button wil automatically reselect the last
selection without opening the submenu.
SELECTED SPECIES
Within most windows, only one species will be "active" at a time. And when
playing SimLife, you usually play with one species at a time, checking it out
in one window, spreading it in another, and modifying it in yet another.
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Reselecting the species each time you jump to another window would be a
hassle, so in most windows, when you select a species, it becomes the
default or Selected Species for most other windows. The Selected Species
stays selected until you pick another one.
LOCAL SPECIES
Selecting a species in some windows does not make that species the "official"
Selected Species. The lucky plant or animal you choose in these windows
becomes the center of attention for the current window only - they are local
stars. Since we need to call the something, these are called the Local
Species.
Choosing or changing the Local Species in these windows does not change the
Selected Species or Local Species in any other windows.
WHAT IS:
Warning: the following definitions are very short and simplified to give you
just enough of a background to get started with SimLife. This is not a
complete discussion of these topics, and they are dealt with primarily as
they are used in SimLife, which is not a totally accurate representation of
the real world. (In spite of this warning, I know I'll get some tersely
reprimanding letters from biologists and other scientists for my casual
treatment of these issues. I'm doing my best. So it's not perfect. So shoot
me. I'll be taking notes for the upcoming manual for SimMartyr.)
LIFE
Defining life is not easy. (As if you'd believe me if I told you.) You'll get
a different answer from everyone you ask and every book you read. But
basically, life is a gene's way of making copies of itself.
Some definitions of life include the requirement that organisms be composed
of one or more cells. Is this chauvinism? If cells can be considered "building
blocks," can we stretch the definition of cell to include building blocks made
of computer code as well as protoplasm? Is this a subject that is likely to
keep philosophers and science fiction afficionados occupied for years to come?
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For the purposes of playing with SimLife, we'll define life as anything that
exhibits lifelike behavior, including: adaptive behavior, self-replication
and the ability to extract order from the environment.
That's what life is. For answer to why it is or what it means, you'll have to
look somewhere other than in a computer game.
SPECIES
A species is a group of related organisms or populations capable of
interbreeding.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment, as used in SimLife, is the total external influence upon an
organism. This includes the influences of climate, landscape, other life-forms
and your computer. In fact, everything but the organism's genetic code.
ECOLOGY
Today, when most people hear the word ecology, they think of all the things
that are going wrong, like pollution, endangered species and declining
rainforests. But ecology, in our world as well as in SimLife, is also the
"good stuff."
Ecology is the study of the interrelationships of organisms and their
environment. All the interrelationships, both good and bad.
ECOSYSTEM
An ecosystem is the combination of the environment and the life in it
functioning together as an ecological unit in nature (or in computer).
In SimLife, we will often refer to the world as an ecosystem, and use the
words "world" and "ecosystem" interchangeably, since the SimLife world is such
a small place compared to the world we live in. It is, however, possible to
have two or more ecosystems running simultaneously in a SimLife world.
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PLANTS AND ANIMALS
In SimLife, there are two basic types of life-forms: plants and animals, which
roughly correspond to plants and animals in our world, but are, of course,
much simplified.
All life wants to survive, individually and as a species. In order for an
animal to survive as an individual, it must find food and eat without being
eaten. To survive as a species, many of the individuals must also live long
enough to find a mate and reproduce.
The process of an animal finding food while simultaneously avoiding becoming
food is called foraging. Foraging includes defense from predators, and is 90%
of animal behavior.
Finding a mate (in SimLife, at least) is almost a byproduct of foraging.
Animals follow their foraging patterns looking for food and water and get
distracted and sidetracked by the presence of the opposite sex.
Plants, as well as animals, have behavior. They aren't as active or as noisy
as animals, but they have to absorb nourishment, reproduce and spread their
seeds.
Plants don't have to forage for food; they get their nutrients from the soil,
the atmosphere and the sun. In SimLife, areas with deeper soil have more
nutrients for plants. Unlike animals, plants can't move around, but their
seeds can.
As plants and animals die, they decompose and enrich the soil (increase the
soil depth).
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FOOD, FOOD CHAINS AND FOOD WEBS
FOOD
Food is anything that can be consumed by the life in SimLife. All the food
that plants need is found in sunlight, air and soil. Food for animals is more
varied and includes plants and plant products, other animals, filter food and
Ultra-Food.
PLANTS
When animals eat plants, they don't necessarily eat all the plant, or enough
of the plant to kill it. They can nibble the leaves and the plant can grow new
ones. Animals can also eat seeds. fruit and nectar from plants.
FILTER FOOD
Filter food is the microscopic and near-microscopic plants and animals in the
water, air and soil that are eaten by filter food-eating animals. For example,
some whales live on plankton, tiny plants and animals that live near the
surface of the ocean.
Filter food is alive and needs nourishment, and often sunlight, so it
concentrates at the surface of the water, and near shorelines both in and out
of the water.
OTHER ANIMALS
Animals can be predators and can eat other animals - if they can catch them.
ULTRA-FOOD
The closest thing to Ultra-Food that occurs in our world is the supermarket,
where you can walk in and get any and all of the food you need. In SimLife,
this food source looks like a shopping cart. It supplies an unlimited amount
of whatever food an animal needs to any animal that approaches it.
Ultra-Food is a useful tool for helping new ecosystems get started and for
miraculously saving the lives of starving animals.
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FOOD CHAINS
A food chain is an arrangement of plants and animals in an ecosystem
structured according to who eats whom. Usually with the eater shown above the
eatee.
Plants and filter food are usually considered the bottom of the chain, with
herbivores (animals that eat plants) in the middle and predatory carnivores
(animals that eat other animals) at the top.
FOOD WEBS
A food web is the combination of all the interactive food chains in an
ecosystem.
GENETICS AND GENES
Genetics is the study of genes, the carriers of the genetic code that defines
what we are and sets the limits of what we can become.
The genetic code of plants and animals in SimLife is much shorter and simpler
than for organisms in our world. Whereas our genes are encoded and stored in
a complex molecule called DNA, SimLife genes are encoded and stored in
something like a database file.
While fewer and simpler, genes in SimLife are very powerful. One gene in a
SimLife organism has the equivalent effect on that organism as hundreds or
thousands of our genes have on us.
CHROMOSOMES
Chromosomes are long chains of genes. There can be many (thousands to
millions) genes in a single chromosome. Different life-forms on earth have
different amounts of chromosomes: Humans have 46, the fruit fly has 8, an
onion has 16, a dog has 78, a goldfish has 94, and a rygarius has about 451.
In SimLife, each chromosome consists of a single gene.
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GENOMES, PROTOTYPES, POPULATIONS AND GENE POOLS
GENOMES
In SimLife, a genome is the set of all the genes in an individual organism.
The genome will be different for each species and may vary from individual to
individual within a species.
PROTOTYPE GENOME
Every species in SimLife has a "prototype" genome. This is the original or
master set of genes - the genetic starting point when a species is created.
Through evolution, individuals will vary from the prototype genome. Over time,
individuals may vary so much from the prototype that they would no longer be
able to successfully mate with it, and by definition become another species.
POPULATION
A population is a group of organisms from a single species.
GENE POOLS
A species' gene pool is the total of all the genes in a population. It
represents all the genetic possibilities currently being explored by that
population.
A gene pool isn't an actual physical gathering of the genes - you don't take
all the genes out of their organisms and mix'em up in a big vat or pool. It's
just a way to think of the information contained in a while mess of genes at
once, while they are spread out in their various organisms.
EVOLUTION
What most people think of as evolution - adaption of plants and animals to
changes in their environment, physical changes in plants and animals, survival
of the fittest, and new species evolving from older ones - are not evolution,
they are the results of evolution.
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Evolution, simply put, is the constantly ongoing process of changes in the
gene pool over time. Nothing more, nothing less. It is the combination of many
minute genetic changes over a long period of time that produces the noticeable
results mentioned above.
The mechanisms that bring about changes in the gene pool are natural
selection, genetic drift, gene flow, mutation and recombination.
In SimLife, evolution can occur by all of these naturally occurring
mechanisms, plus one more. In SimLife, you can directly look at an organism's
genes and physically change them.
SPECIATION
Speciation is the process of one species evolving into another (or group of
other) species. It usually occurs when populations of the same species become
physically separated and are subject to different environmental pressures.
Over a long period of time, the gene pools in the two populations drift apart
and eventually the two populations cannot interbreed (even if physically
brought back together), and they become two different species.
In SimLife, species will automatically change into new species as they diverge
from the prototype (if you have AutoSpeciate turned on). These new species
will retain the same icon and name - with the addition of the subname
Version 2 - until you change them.
You can also manually speciate - pick an individual and change it into another
species.
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TAKE A TOUR OF YOUR COMPUTERIZED ECOSYSTEM
Make sure the game is installed properly, then start it up. See your machine-
specific addendum for instructions.
This tutorial assumes that you have amouse and know how to click, double-click
and click-and-drag. If you don't have a mouse and/or don't know how to do
these things, see the manual that came with your computer, and the SimLife
machine-specific addendum.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Once the game has started, you will immediately be faced with the New Game
Window and a decision: picking a scenario to play.
Tutorial
Meadows to Forests
Predator & Prey
The Longest Chain?
The Roaches' Revenge
Battle of The Sexes
E Pluribus Unum
Experimental Mode
Each of the six scenarios present a different gaming and learning challenge.
You can also play SimLife in Experimental Mode and set up your own scenarios
and experiments. In addition, this window can launch you into the on-screen
tutorial. (If you haven't already been through it, now would be a fine time
for it.)
[PAGE: 24]
Click on (and highlight) the names of each of the scenarios - without clicking
on the Play Scenario button. Read the descriptions of each scenario as they
appear in the big box in the upper-right corner of the window.
After you've looked them all over, click on Experimental Mode, then click
on Play Scenario. We'll take a quick tour of the various menus and windows
in SimLife, then build our own scenario.
AND ON THE MENU TONIGHT...
Take a moment and look at the Menu Bar. It will be at or near the top of the
screen. As usual, these menus group similar types of commands together for
easy access: all the file-related commands are in the File Menu and so on.
Click and hold on each of the menus and take a quick look at the commands.
Slide the pointer (while still holding down the mouse button) down to the
differnt menu items. Notice that some items bring up submenus. Look these
over, too.
Check your machine-specific addendum for special menu details for your
computer and keyboard shortcuts for opening menus and selecting menu items.
HOW DASHING!
The Dashboard is your control center.
The Dashboard will differ more from computer to computer than anything else
in SimLife. Depending on your computer, it may appear as either a separate
moveable window at the bottom of the screen, or as a control bar at the top of
the screen. It may or may not have the game clock included, and it may have
some other slight variations.
In addition, in some versions (including DOS and Windows), the Map and Edit
Window Control Panels appear at the top of the screen along with the
Dashboard.
[PAGE: 25]
MACINTOSH DASHBOARD
DOS AND WINDOWS DASHBOARD, WITH EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL
DOS AND WINDOWS DASHBOARD, WITH MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL
(skipped - later in the manual you will see what all the icons do! -RYGAR)
[PAGE: 26]
NOW YOU SEE IT...
The left side of the Dashboard has lots of buttons and pictures. These are
for controlling which plants and animals are visible in the Edit and Map
Windows.
A row of icons displays the differnt life-forms in SimLife, and how they will
look in the Edit Window
Click on the "A" button to display animals, and the "P" button to display
plants. There are more plants and animals available than can be seen at one
time. Click the right and left arrows to scroll through all of them.
There is a little rectangle below each icon. Depending on your monitor, the
rectangle will be a color, a shade or a symbol. This rectangle shows what
the organism will look like in the Map Window. (Since the Map Window covers
such a big area, the life-forms look so small that they can't be shown as
icons or pictures, so they show up as small colored dots on color monitors
and little symbols on black and white monitors.)
What if two of the animals you want to use are the same color or symbol? You
won't be able to tell them apart in the Map Window! Or what if you just don't
like the color we chose for your favorite electronic pet? Your aesthetic
sensibilities might be offended!
Never fear: you have the power to change the color/shade/pattern of any
organism. Click and hold on any rectangle to reveal a submenu of all the
available colors/shades/patterns. (This is a super-secret hidden feature,
[PAGE: 27]
so don't tell anybody about it. This information isn't in anyone else's
manual, just yours. We think you're special.)
Below each rectangle is an On/Off button. Clicking these buttons toggles
the display of each organism on and off in the Edit and Map Windows.
Turning a plan or animal off in the Dashboard does not kill it or change
it or remove it from the game or disk. It only turns the organism invisible.
At the moment, other than the buttons changing from saying "on" to "off"
and back again, nothing will happen since we haven't placed any of these
life-forms in the world yet.
Why not see everything all the time? It can be confusing to have hundreds
or thousands of animals running around on your screen. Sometimes it's
easiest to remove all the clutter and just look at one plant or animal (or a
couple of each) at a time.
A STAR IS BORN
The middle section of the Dashboard displays and lets you choose the
"Selected Species," which is, at least for a while, the star of the show.
Often while playing with SimLife, you'll be concentrating on one species at a
time, jumping from one window to another gathering information. If you select
a species in one window, it is automatically selected for most of the other
windows. This way you don't have to reselect the same organism every time you
switch windows.
The Selected Species can be chosen in most windows. To select it in the
Dashboard, read on.
GETTING DOWN
Some buttons in SimLife open pop-up menus when you click and hold on them.
These buttons are marked by a small down-arrow. The Dashboard has two of them,
one near the middle, and one near the right side.
[PAGE: 28]
Depending on your computer, click or click and hold on the down-arrow
button near the center of the Dashboard. You now see a menu of all the
plants and animals in SimLife. To select an item, click on your choice or
slide the cursor to it and let go.
The name of the new Selected Species will appear in the middle of the
Dashboard, and its icon will be highlighted in the Display section to the
left.
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY BUTTONS
As you may have noticed, many of the windows in SimLife have a lot of
buttons, including the Dashboard. To help you remember what all the buttons
do, we give you yet another button.
Click and hold on the Help button. As long as you hold down the mouse button,
you'll see a display of what every button in the Dashboard does.
Most windows in SimLife have these Help buttons, and they all work the
same way. Use them any time you want a reminder of what does what.
Near the Help button are a couple of words. These words indicate the currently
active tool in the Edit Window. We'll come back to this later.
These Five buttons from Left
to right means: Show Edit Window
Show Map
Show Biology Lab
Show Climate Lab
Scroll Species Left Census Window
| Scroll Species Right PopUp Menu
| | The currently selected Species |
| | | Icon for a Species |
| | | | Species Selection|PopUp Menu
| | | | | |
_|___|_________|_________________________|________|_______________|_________
|_V__ V_________V ________________________V________|__ ____________V_________|
| | | | [~~] | | | | | | | | | V_ | | | | | | |
| <-|-> | | [ ] | | | | | | | | | |__|| | | | | | _____|
|___|___|__|__[__]__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|Animal |__|__|__|__|__| | |
| | |__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|Sunfish | ________ |> || |
| A | P | ^ | | | | | | | | | | |Ve^sion 1| |__HELP__| |_____|
|___|___| | ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|ON|__|______| Populate Tool____^___|
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
^ ^ | | | | |
| | | On/Off Switch for Species | | Pause
| | | Display in Map and Edit | |
| | | Windows | |
| | Color Pop-Up Menu for | |
| | Displaying Species in | |
| | Map Window | |
| | | Currently Selected Edit
| See Plant Species | Window Tool
See Animal Species Name of the
Selected Species
[PAGE: 29]
HOLD ON A MINUTE
The button on the far right of the Dashboard pauses the simulation. It works
just like a pause button on a tape player. Click it to stop time. Click it
again to start time.
When you're done playing with it, leave the Pause off.
YOU CAN GET THERE FROM HERE
To the left of the Pause button are five window-opening buttons
(from Left to Right)
Open Edit Window, Open Map Window, Open Biology Lab, Open Climate Lab, Open
Census Window Pop-up menu
Notice that the Census Windows button has the down-arrow - that famous down-
arrow that means a pop-up menu is hidden under it.
Click and hold on the Census Windows button and look at the pop-up menu
of all the Census Windows.
Take a minute or two and click on each of these buttons, open all the windows,
including all the Census Windows, take a quick look at them and then close
them. Except for the Edit Window, they can all be closed by clicking in the
close box in the upper-left corner of the window. As the windows appear,
you'll notice a couple of things:
* The Dashboard always stays on top of any other window - even active ones.
* Only one Census Window can be displayed at once.
[PAGE: 30]
SEE THE WORLD
Once you've had a chance to glimpse each of the windows, take a closer look
at the Map Window. You can open or activate it either by clicking on the Map
Window button on the Dashboard or by selecting Map in the Windows menu.
This window shows you the entier world. If you screen is big enough, you can
move the window around by clicking and dragging the title bar. You can close
the Map Window by clicking in the Close Box in the upper-left corner.
The main portion of this window is the map of your world. Somewhere in the map
is a rectangle - the Edit Rectangle. It outlines the part of the map that is
visible in the Edit Window (a closeup view of parts of the world that we'll be
looking at soon).
[PAGE: 31]
CONTROL THE WORLD
Note: as shown in this manual, the Map Window Control Panel is found at the
bottom of the Map Window. On some computers, it will appear at the top of the
screen, as part of the Dashboard. Don't worry, it's there somewhere. See your
machine-specific addendum for details.
At the bottom of the window is the Map Window Control Panel. It controls what
information is seen in the map.
In just about the middle of the Map Window Control Panel is a Help button.
Click and hold on it to see an explanation of what all the other buttons do.
The five buttons on the left toggle on and off displays of multi-level data.
Each of these displays a range of information, like Altitude low to high.
Only one of these can be on at a time. Just to the right of these buttons
is a color key to help interpret the multi-level information.
Go ahead and click on them. When you're done, leave the Altitude display on.
To the right of the Help button are seven buttons that toggle on and off
displays of single-level information. Any or all or none of these can be on
at the same time.
At this point, since the world is still very empty, the only button that will
change anything in the display is the Water button. But go ahead and click on
all of them if it makes you happy.
At the far right of the Map Window Control Panel are two buttons that open
two more windows, one to build worlds and one to populate them.
[PAGE: 32]
WORLD BUILDING 101
We will now design a world and build it. For this tutorial, any world will do,
so go ahead and be rash in your upcoming decisions.
Click on the Build World button in the Map Window Control Panel to open the
World Design Window.
The World Design Window has a number of sliders and buttons. Three of the
sliders control the world's climate, controlling the average weather variation
average temperature and average moisture. (In SimLife, moisture includes both
humidity and precipitation.)
Set these anywhere you want by clicking and sliding the arrows on each slider.
Next, set the sliders for the amount of rivers and lakes you want and for the
number of mountains you want.
Over on the right are sliders that control how many artifacts will be spread
around the world. In SimLife, artifacts are anything that can appear in the
world that is not plant, animal, land, or water. The four artifacts are:
* Toxins - poisons that negatively affect the health of organisms;
* Mutagens - substances that increase the odds of mutation;
[PAGE: 33]
* Food Sources - this refers to Ultra-Food sources that supply any and all
food that animals require; and
* Barriers - barricades that SimLife organisms cannot cross.
Set these four sliders anwhere you want.
Next we'll pick a size for the world. There are four choices, each of which
is best for different experiments. Keep in mind while choosing a world size
that the larger the world, the longer it takes the computer to build it, and
the slower the simulation will run.
Choose the world size you want (I recommend small, but it's your world.)
Now you get to name the new world. Highlight the words below New World Name:
and type in whatever you want.
Now, click on the Make It So button, and the world will be built, layer by
layer, before your very eyes. If a dialog box or requester asks if you want
to save the current world, click No.
LIVE AND LET SIMLIVE
Now we have a world. A barren, desolate, lonely world. Nothing to do, no one
to talk to. Time to get a life - or better yet, a whole lot of it. Click on
the Populate... button in the Map Window.
The Populate Window lets us add plants and animals to the world singly or
in large groups.
[PAGE: 34]
Click or click and hold on the down-arrow button in the Species box. A
submenu of all the available plants and animals - just like the one in the
Dashboard - appears. Slide the cursor until the llama is highlighted,
then either click or release the mouse button.
Now click on the up-arrow in the Number box until you reach 10 or 20.
Click on the Add a Group button.
Click on the On the Land Button
Now click on Make It So. Ten (or however many you wanted) llamas are now alive
and kicking in the new world. Now we have ten lonely llamas.
THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
Let's get this party moving and really put some life into it. Again, open
the Populate Window by clicking on the Populate... button in the Map Window.
Click and hold in the Species box, then slide the cursor to All Plants. Set
the Number box to 25. Click on Add Scattered. Click on On the Land, then
click Make It So. Twenty-five of each plant species will be scattered all
over the world.
Repeat the above process, but for Species, select All Animals.
The world is now filled with life of all sorts. You can see the animals
scurrying around in the Map Window, but let's take a closer look.
Find the Edit Rectangle in the map. Drag it to a part of the world you want
to explore, then double-click in it.
[PAGE: 35]
LOOK CLOSELY
You are now in the Edit Window, ready for a close-up tour of the world.
You can move the Edit Window around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar. You can resize the window by clicking and draging the Resize Box
in the lower-right corner. You cannot close the Edit Window.
The main section of the window is the Display Area, where you can see varios
plants, animals and artifacts, as well as land and water.
[PAGE: 36]
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS. SO DOES THE LAND.
Since the world is too large to show in the Edit Window all at once, you
can scroll the window to show different parts of the map.
Depending on your computer, there are a few ways to scroll. Check with
your machine-specific addendum for more information on scrolling with your
computer.
There is a "joystick" for scrolling. Click or click and hold on any of the
arrows to scroll the window in the arrow's direction.
Note: On computers with small monitors the joystick will not be visible. Sorry
In addition, if your Edit Window has Scroll Bars and Arrows, you can use them.
If not, you can move the mouse to any edge or corner of the screen to scroll.
However you do it, scroll around and look the world over.
THE DISTINGUISHED PANEL
Note: as shown in this manual, the Edit Window Control Panel is found on the
left side of the Edit Window. On some computers, it will appear at the top
of the screen, as part of the Dashboard. See your machine-specific addendum
for details.
Along the left-side of the Edit Window is the Edit Window Control Panel,
filled with buttons and tools. Notice our old friend, the Help button. Click
and hold on it to see a display of what everything does.
At the top of the panel is the clock. It graphically shows the passing of day,
night and the seasons. It also gives the Tick, Day and Year. Ticks are the
smallest unit of time in SimLife. A tick is the time it takes an animal to
move one step and do one thing. The actual time a tick takes depends on your
computer's speed, the size of the world and the number of plants and animals
currently living.
____
/ \
/ \
/ \ <Day/Night & Season indicator
/__________\
| Tick 11 |
| Day 13 |
| Year 29 | <Digital Clock
|_ ________ _|
| | | |
|^| ||| <Arrow icons = Decrease/Increase Temperature
|||________|V|
|_|___OFF__|_| <Turn On/Off Temperature Layer
| | ~~~ | |
|^| ||| <Arrow icons = Decrease/Increase Moisture
|||________|V|
|_|___OFF__|_| <Turn On/Off Moisture Layer
| | ~~~ | |
|^| ||| <Arrow icons = Decrease/Increase Altitude
|||________|V|
|_|___ON___|_| <Turn On/Off Altitude Layer
| || H O | <Left = Life Tool Pop-Up Menu Right = Add/Remove Water
|_____||__2__|
|_ON__||_ON__| <Left = Turn On/Off Life Layer Right = Turn On/Off Water Layer
| || | <Left = Add/Remove Ultra-Food Right = Remove Barrier
|_____||_____|
| || | <Left = Add/Remove Toxins Right = Add/Remove Mutagens
|_____||_____|
|___HELP_____|
~~~~
[PAGE: 37]
Below the clock are a lot of buttons that activate the different Edit Window
tools. The name of the active button is displayed in the Dashboard to the left
of the Help button.
Immediately below the clock are three groups of buttons. These let you not
only choose whether or not to display the simulation information on
temperature, moisture and altitude, but let you adjust the settings.
MOVING UP IN THE WORLD
Click on the Altitude button. Notice that the land is all shown in one
color/shade/pattern. The altitude data is not shown. Click on it again and the
mountains and valleys come back.
Now click on the up-arrow button to the right of the Altitude button, then
click and/or click and drag the cursor in the Display Area. A mountain
rises from the land.
Click on the down-arrow button to the left of the Altitude button, then click
and hold on the mountain. It settles back into the plains.
A HOT TIME IN THE OLD WORLD TONIGHT
Now click on the Temperature button. A display of the temperature data is
added to the Display Area using colors or shades, depending on your computer.
A key to interpreting the colors/shades can be found in the Map Window Control
Panel, when the multi-level temperature display is on. If you can arrange
your screen so the Map Window Control Panel shows below the Edit Window, it
will make it easier to see the key.
Click on the up-arrow button to the right of the Temperature button, then
click and/or click and drag the cursor in the Display Area. The temperature
rises.
Click on the down-arrow button to the left of the Temperature button, then
click and hold in the Display Area. The temperature lowers.
The Moisture buttons work the same way.
Turn the temperature display off.
[PAGE: 38]
JUST THE ARTIFACTS, MA'AM
Now look at the four buttons just above the Help button. These let you place
or remove Artifacts.
Click on the Food Source button (the one that looks like a shopping cart).
Now click or click and drag in the Display Area. You've placed Ultra-Food
(a universal, unlimited food source) for your animals. To remove the sources,
just click on them.
The other artifact buttons let you place and remove barriers, toxins and
mutagens in the same way.
WATER YOU DOING?
Just above the Barriers button is the Water button. Click on the little On/Off
button below it to toggle the display of water on and off. Turning it off
doesn't make the water go away, it just makes it invisible.
Make sure the display of water ins set to On. Click on the Water button, then
click or click and drag the cursor in the display area to make water. If you
click or click and drag on water, it will turn back into land.
THIS IS THE LIFE (BUTTON)
We've saved the most powerful button for last. The Life button does a lot
of different things, all related to adding, removing, displaying and modifying
life.
Note: In any of the steps below, if you find it difficult when asked to click
on animals while they are moving, pause the simulation by clicking on the
Pause button in the Dashboard.
Click on the little On/Off button below it to toggle the display of life on
and off. Turning life off doesn't make the life go away, it just makes it
invisible.
To choose what you want the Life button to do, click and hold on it. A
submenu of all the button's functions will appear. Then slide the cursor
to your choice and release the mouse button.
[PAGE: 39]
POP-YOU LATE!
The defaul setting for the Life button is Populate, which adds life to the
world. The species to be added can be set in the Dashboard (the Selected
Species).
Go to the Dashboard and select LLucia's Llama as the Selected Species. Then
go back to the Edit Window, click and hold on the Life button, and select
Populate. Now click in the Display Area to add llamas.
I SMITE AND I SMITE NOT
Click and hold the Life button, and select Move. Now click and drag any
living thing to move it to another location.
SEND IN THE CLONES
Click and hold the Life button, and select Clone. Now click and drag any
living thing to another location. Instead of moving the original organism,
Clone makes a duplicate organism and places it where you release the mouse
button.
If you hold down the Option key - or Control key if your keyboard has no
Option key - while cloning, the clone will be mutated in some random way.
HIGHLITE THE LOW LIFE
Click and hold the Life button, and select Highlight. Now click on an animal
to highlight it. Open the Simulation Menu, open the Goodies submenu, and
select Auto Tracking. Now the Edit Window will automatically scroll to keep
your highlighted animal showing. The animal will stay highlighted until it
dies or you highlight something else.
[PAGE: 40]
I DON'T CARROT ALL FOR THIS
Click and hold the Life button, and select The Carrot. Now click and hold
somewhere in the Display Area. All the members of the Species you highlighted
will flock to the cursor.
PULL DOWN YOUR GENES
Click and hold the Life button, and select Show Genes. Click on any plant.
The Genome Window with the complete genetic code for the plant will appear.
We'll play more with the Genome Window later. For now, click on Never Mind.
Now, wit the Life button still set to Show Genes, click on an animal. The
Genome Window with the complete genetic code for the animal will appear.
Notice that animals have a more complex genetic code.
Click on Never Mind.
LET'S GET PERSONAL
Click and hold the Life button, and select Show Variables, then click on a
plant. This brings up the Variables Window, which gives the current status
of the plant you clicked on. The Variables are all the information the
simulation has about an organism that isn't in its genetic code, like age
and size.
Click in the Close Box to close the Variables Window. Repeat the process for
an animal.
[PAGE: 41]
LET ME LOOK AT YOU
Click and hold the Life button, and select Show Phenotype, then click on an
animal.
This opens the Phenotype Window for the animal you clicked on, which is sort
of a close-up view of the animal - and sort of isn't.
This picture isn't really what the animal looks like. It's a compilation
picture made out of parts of animals that we are all familiar with, to give
us some idea of how the animal fits into its environment.
From the picture, you should be able to tell what the animal eats, how it
moves, where it lives, and how many young it has at a time.
These compilation pictures are the flash cards used in the Biology Lab for
designing plants and animals.
Click in the Close Box to close the Phenotype Window. Repeat the process for a
plant.
LET'S SPLIT
Click and hold the Life button, and select SPecieate. Now click on any plant
or animal. The Speciate Window opens.
Among other things, you can use this window to change the organism into
another species, or a new species. For complete details, see the Refernce
section below.
Click on Never Mind to make this window go away.
[PAGE: 42]
A HISTORICAL EVENT
A goodly amount of time has passed since this world was created. And a lot of
things have happened. But what happened when? And what might have happened
that we didn't notice?
Click and hold on the Census button in the Dashboard, slide the cursor to
History and release the mouse button.
This window lists the world's important events along with the date they
happened. You can use the Older, Newer and Latest buttons to page through
all the events.
[PAGE: 43]
DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING?
All things come to an end. And until you get the hang of building a viable
food chain and ecosystem, you may be tempted to call this game SimDeath
instead of SimLife.
Tracking down the causes of death can give you insight into problems in the
ecosystem. And to help you investigate the causes of death, we present the
Mortality Window.
Click and hold on the Census button in the Dashboard, slide the cursor to
Mortality, and release the mouse button.
This window graphically and numerically shows how many organisms have died
and what killed them. You can look at mortality data for an individual
organism, or for All Animals or All Plants at once. The data shown goes back
five years.
When you've had enough of digging through death, close the Mortality Window
by clicking in the Close Box.
GOING TO SEED
Let's design a new plant. Click on the Biology Lab button in the Dashboard to
open the Biology Lab.
BIOLOGY LAB AT SELECT/EDIT LEVEL
[PAGE: 44]
The Biology Lab has two levels, the Select Level and the Edit Level. You are
now looking at the Select Level. This is where you can load and save
organisms individually or in groups, or start new ones.
We're going to make a new plant, so click on the New Plant button.
You are now at the Edit Level of the Biology Lab, ready to work on your new
plant.
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
Right now the name for the new plant is New Plant, which isn't very charming
or expressive. Click the Rename button, highlight the words "New Plant," and
type in a new name - how about Rover? - and click Make It So.
[PAGE: 45]
WOW. WHAT A FLASH
Below the name is the composite "flashcard" picture of the plant, as seen
in the Phenotype Window. The plant is made of three pictures. To the left of
each picture are arrows.
You can click on these arrows to cycle through all the pictures. Go ahead and
do some clicking. As you do, notice the text below the pictures - it
describes the plant you are designing.
The top line of text describes the top picture, which defines the plant's
flower: whether or not it makes nectar, and what type of seeds it has.
The middle line of text describes the middle picture, which defines the
plant's structure, its preferred climate and whether it is deciduous or
evergreen.
The bottom line of text describes the bottom picture, which gives the plant's
sprouting needs and tells whether the plant lives on land or water.
So we're on the same track for the next step, click around until your text
and picture match this:
No nectar, fruit seeds
Deciduous temperate shrub
Floating, sprouts in warm dry weather
Once your picture matches, notice the row of buttons below the plant
description. Click on the third button on the left. This button writes the
genetic code for your new plant based on the flash cards you chose.
[PAGE: 46]
That was easy. We designed a plant by making only a few major decisions and
left the details up to the computer. Let's go a step deeper and play directly
with the plant's genetic code to do some fine-tuning.
Roll up your sleeves and read on.
I DREAM OF GENOME
Look again at all the buttons below the text section. Click and hold on the
Help button and look it over for a few seconds.
Most of these buttons are very powerful tools for advanced experiments, so for
now, we'll only deal with one or two.
Click on the Edit Species Prototype Genome button.
You now see the Genemoe Window that defines Rover. All the genetic information
in the text and pictures is here, plus a few other genes.
Let's modify Rover a little. First, we'll give Rover male flowers instead of
both. Click and hold in the little down-arrow button to the right of the word
Gender, slide the cursor to Male, and release the mouse button.
Now, let's let Rover make Nectar, so click on the button next to Nectar.
Now, something big: let's turn Rover into a tree. Click and hold on the down-
arrow button to the right of the words Structure and Floating, slide the
cursor to Tree andrelease the mouse button.
[PAGE: 47]
When it was a floating plant, Rover didn't need to store much water, but
now as a tree, it will need a lot of water storage capability. Click and drag
the arrow on the Water slider about three-quarters of the way to the right.
Note: when you make major changes in the genome, be sure to check over any
related genes. If we didn't adjust the Water Storage gene while making Rover
a tree, they all would have died of thirst before maturity.
That's enough genetic tinkering for now. Click on Make It So to return to
the Biology Lab.
[PAGE: 48]
FLASHBACKS
Now look at the flash cards. The flashcard image automatically updated to
match the changes in the Genemo Window.
TIME OUT!
OK, here's something to remember: we haven't been designing an individual
plant - we've been designing an entire species. The "Rover" we've been
working on is the prototype for a whole species of Rovers.
As you place new Rovers into the world, they will be based on this prototype,
and vary only slightly. When new Rovers are born, they will be based on
their parents.
OK. Back to the Biology Lab.
THE FINAL TOUCHES
Just three more items to be mentioned and Rover is done. There are three
sliders in the upper-right section of the Biology Lab.
The top slider sets the amount that the Rovers you place in the world will
vary from the prototype. The farther to the right you set the Gene Pool
Diversity slider, the more variation in the genes in all the Rovers-to-be.
The more the variation, the more possibility for evolution. This slider
does not affect Rovers that are born to other Rovers.
The middle slider, Mating Difference, sets how genetically different two
Rovers can be and still produce offspring.
The last slider, %Genes from Father, sets how many of the Rover-offspring's
genes come from each parent. We humans get ours 50/50, but you can set
Rover anywhere you want.
That's it. Rover's all designed and done... except for the way it looks in
the Edit Window. Now we get to draw some pictures.
[PAGE: 49]
ICON DO IT. CAN YOU?
The icon we draw for Rover won't affect it or its genes in any way. The
only thing the icon does is help us identify it when we see it in its
environment. You can be as silly or abstract as you want when drawing
icons, as long as you can remember what they are.
A plant needs four icons, one for when it's a seed, one with no leaves, one
with leaves, and one with flowers.
A SEEDY SPOT
First, we'll draw the seed icon. Click on the little icon for seeds, then
click on the Clear button.
Now click on a color. Draw the seed just as you would with any paint program:
click or click and drag on a blank spot to draw, click or click and drag on a
colored spot to erase it. As you draw the icon in the large drawing area, it
appears real-size above.
If you wish, and you have them, use other colors to adorn the seed.
[PAGE: 50]
BRANCHING OUT
CLick on the "No Leaves" icon, then click Clear. This icon represents the
plant when it has branches, but no leaves or flowers.
Draw it however you want (but remember, Rover is a tree).
LEAF ME ALONE
Now we want to draw the same thing and add leaves. Before changing to the
next icon, go to the Edit Menu at the top of your screen, and select Copy
Icon.
Next click on the Leaves icon, then select Paste Icon from the Edit Menu.
We've got our branches - all we need to add are the leaves.
Go ahead and add leaves.
ROVER IN BLOOM
Choose Copy Icon from the Edit Menu again, select the "Flowers" icon, then
select Paste Icon from the Edit Menu.
Now add your flowers.
THE EASY WAY
For those of us who can't draw worth beans - or are in a hurry - there are a
number of professionally pre-drawn icons. Click and hold on the Icons button
just above Undo to see a submenu of 32 icons to choose from. Just look now -
be careful not to choose one or your personal artwork will be lost.
Each of these icons only shows the one stage with leaves, but if you choose
one it supplies all four icon stages of the plant.
We could have just chosen one of these and saved all the time and trouble
of drawing our Rover, but don't you feel like a better human being for having
done it yourself?
[PAGE: 51]
ROVER'S ALL OVER
Now click on the Return To Edit button.
Notice that Rover is now amongst all the other plants in the Species Display.
Click on the Save button to save all our hard work to disk for future use.
Not only can you use Rover now, but you can load it into any future games or
experiments.
If you have any questions about saving plants, see your machine-specific
addendum.
SPREADING YOUR SEED
Close the Biology Lab by clicking in the Close Box.
Make sure Rover is the Selected Species in the Dashboard.
Go to Edit Window, set the Life Button to Populate and place a few Rovers.
When you place them, they are seeds. As time passes, they grow branches,
then leaves, then bloom. If Rover is too stupid to bloom, it must be a
blooming idiot.
YOUR REPORT CARD
Now we'll look at one more window. Open the Windows Menu and select
Evaluation.
The Evaluation Window lets you know how well you're doing at ecosystem
management by giving you a Score, a Rating, and a Status report. It also
pictorially shows which ecological niches are currently filled with plants
and animals. You can click on any of the pictures to get an explanation
of what they represent.
[PAGE: 52]
SEMI-SORTA-SUMMARY
This concludes Part 2 of the tutorial. We've been through a lot of windows,
features and functions and you should understand enough to figure out
any new ones you run across. Congratulations.
In addition, we've gone through the process of plant design. The process
of animal design is very similar and will be dealt with in detail in the
next section of the tutorial... speaking of which...
The next and final part of this tutorial will be the design, setup and
execution of a complete experiment. Thrills, spills and fun for the whole
family. Don't miss it!
[PAGE: 53]
BUILDING AN EXPERIMENT: SPLATT
Now it's time to design, set up, carry out and evaluate an experiment.
SimLife is very complex and has a massive amount of features. One of the most
powerful features in SimLife is the ability to turn off or eliminate many of
the features for better experiment control.
In any experiment, control is a primary issue. All possible outside
influences must be eliminated for the experiment to be valid and to really
find out who did what to whom and why.
Now, we'll set up a very simple experiment. We'll turn off and leave out a
number of factors. This gives us complete control over the experiment and
will also make the simulation run faster.
THE SIMLIFE LAB BOOK
A summary of this experiment, along with blanks to fill in your data and write
your conclusions, can be found in the lab book included with this product.
If you don't want to mark up your lab book, you may make a photocopy of it
for your personal use and mark that up. No selling copies of the lab book
in dark alleys to minors while weaing a trenchcoat.
THE GOAL OF THIS EXPERIMENT
The goal of this experiment is to observe evolution (a change in the gene
pool) through natural selection.
THE APPROACH
We will focus on a few genes in particular: Roaming, Turning, Turn Type and
Turn Angle. The Roaming controls how likely an animal is to keep moving even
though it is not necessarily hungry or thirsty. The Turning gene controls
how often the animal turns while moving. The Turn Type and Turn Angle genes
control how the animal moves when it is turning.
We will set up a world where environmental pressures favor survival for
an animal with a high tendency for roaming and turning and see if, after a
number of generations, the animal's gene pool changes to increas these
tendencies.
[PAGE: 54]
For simplicity - and control - the world will have only two species of
animals - the experimental subjects and the control group. Both species will
be supplied with all the food and water they need.
Environmental pressure to promote roaming and turning will only be applied
to the subject group. And that pressure will be you. You will act as the
predator and use the Smite function of the Life button to kill any of the
subject animals that hold still too long - those that don't roam very often.
No other predators will be allowed into the world where they might cause
different or unknown environmental influences.
THE PLAN OF ATTACK
The steps we'll be taking in setting up the experiment will be:
1. Design and build the subject animal.
2. Duplicate and rename the subject as the control animal.
3. Design and build the world needed for the experiment.
4. Modify the climate for optimum control.
5. Change the laws of physics for optimum time passage.
6. Populate the world with the subject and control species.
7. Record the starting genetic data for both populations.
8. Apply the environmental pressure for a number of generations.
9. Observe the results, at two points in time.
10. Analyze the results.
STEP ONE: BUILD-A-BUG
The first thing we need to do is design and build the animal that we will be
hunting down and killing.
We at Maxis believe in the sacredness of all life, both real and artificial.
All life-forms have their place in the ecosystem and the universe. We suggest
you only destroy animals, even electronic ones, for a good cause - like this
tutorial.
When deciding who should live and who should die, keep in mind that some
organisms are, well, let's just say that killing some animals inspires less
guilt than others. Speaking of cockroaches, let's model our experimental
subject after them.
[PAGE: 55]
If you feel personally offended by using cockroaches as test subjects, then
you can always turn off your computer and curl up with a good Franz Kafka
story. Or, instead of modeling the subjects after cockroaches, base them on
something else... since we're dealing with the Roaming gene, you can make your
critters look like noses and call them the Roamin' Noses. (I was going to use
the Roamin' Noses in this experiment, but i couldn't draw good nose icons.)
Or you could make the animal look like your older brother, your boss, or
anyone or anything else you'd enjoy splatting.
PREPARATION
Before you can continue with this experiment, make sure SimLife is running and
in Experimental Mode.
BIO-MANIPULATION
Click on the Biology Lab button in the Dashboard.
When the Biology Lab opens, click on New Animal.
[PAGE: 56]
Now we name our new test-subject-to-be. Click on the Rename button, highlight
the old name, type in a new one, and click Make It So. I'm naming my new
animal Splatt.
Next, we'll set the three sliders above the icon section. Since we'll be
dealing with a relatively small population, we'll need as much Gene Pool
Diversity as possible. Set it all the way up.
Set Mating Difference all the way up, and set %Genes from Father to 50%.
We've got some serious gene-splicing to do, so we'll skip the flash cards and
go straight to the Genome Window. Click on the Edit Species Prototype Genome
button.
YOU ANIMAL, YOU
Notice that the Genome Window for an animal is much more complicated than for
a plant. In addition, there are two indicator bars in the lower-right corner,
for Maximum Size and Energy Requirements.
There is no free lunch in SimLife. The more powerful and versatile you make
an animal, the more energy it will need to survive. You can an animal so
strong and fast and stealthy and dangerous with such great vision that it
would be invincible - but even if it lived in a supermarket it couldn't eat
fast enough to survive.
THE SPLICE OF LIFE
In general, our requirements for this animal aren't very demanding. All we
want it to do is eat and reproduce and roam. It won't have any enemies to
contend with, and it won't have to search for fight for food or water.
[PAGE: 57]
ANIMAL DESIGN SUMMARY
Here I will just mention what each setting should be. See the Reference
section below for a complete description of what each gene does.
1. Keep the Gender Male or Female; if it's sterile or asexual it won't
show us very much evolution.
2. For Movement, just Walking will do.
3. It will only need one Food Source, but since we're using cockroaches for
our model, click them all. (Notice that each type of food you add
increases the animal's energy requirements. For this experiment, it
won't matter, but be careful in others.)
4. Set Share Food and Persist to about 50%.
5. Set Roaming and Turning to about 25%.
6. Set Turn Type to Zig-Zag, and Turn Angle to Medium-Low.
7. There will be nothing to prefer, avoid or ignore, so we'll prefer to
ignore the avoidance settings.
8. Set Life span to 50%. (We don't want the older bugs to clutter up our
ecosystem.)
9. Set Adult to 25% so they'll mature quickly.
10. Set Die-off to middle-Age.
11. On the Features, set Size and Vision to about 25%, and Stealth and
Weapons to 0.
12. For Gestation, set Size to 25% (or less), Time to about 5%, %Female to
50%, and Mutation all the way down.
13. Set Number Of Children to 4.
14. For Food (internal food storage), set Max to 50%, Danger to 25%, and
Action between them.
15. Set Water the same as Food.
16. For Health, set Max all the way up, Action at about 50%, and Danger
at about 25%.
Now click on Make It So to return to the Biology Lab.
[PAGE: 58]
PRETTY PICTURES
The final stage in designing Splatt is making the icons. With plants, there
were four. With animals, there are only two, one for the animal as a child
and oe for the animal as an adult. (there are actually four animal icons:
the other two are flipped images of the first two, so when the animals
move around the Edit Window they don't look like they're going backwards.
These flipped icons are automatically made for your, courtesy of your
friendly local computer.)
Now is the time to let your artistic talents shine, to express the very soul
of Splatt in a grid of 16 x 16 colored dots. Try to evoke the essence of
Splattness, or just do anything - as long as you will be able to recognize
it in the Edit Window, and are able to distinguish it from any other life-
forms.
Click on the Adult icon, then click Clear. Now draw an icon to represent
Splatt the Roach, or Splatt the Nose, or Splatt the little sister, or
whatever.
So, maybe it does look more like a rabbit than a bug. I now what it is, and
that's what counts.
Next click on the Child icon, then click Clear. Now draw a portrait of the
insect as a young bug. Make sure it looks different enough from the adult
so you don't stomp on children by mistake during the experiment.
Once you're done with the icons, click on the Return to Edit Level button.
Now click on the Save button. If you need help saving Splatt, see your
machine-specific addendum.
Close the Biology Lab for now by clicking in the Close Box.
[PAGE: 59]
THEY'RE ALIVE!
Look at the Dashboard. Notice that Splatt is now the Selected Species, and
its icon has been added to the other icons.
Now go to the Edit Window. Click and hold the Life button. Slide the cursor
to Populate and release the mouse button.
Now click or click and drag the cursor in the Edit Window Display Area
to set a bunch of Splatts loose in the world.
FOR USE AT A LATER TIME
This new animal we've created will not automatically appear in the Dashboard
if you start a new game at a later time. If you have saved the animal to disk
you can load it into the game (and Dashboard) by using the Load Species
button in the Biology Lab at the Select Level.
STEP TWO: THE CONTROL SPECIES
Take a few moments to watch your creations scurry about, living and dying;
then it's time to get back to work. Click on the Pause button in the Dashboard
to pause the simulation.
We are now going to make our control species. It will be an exact duplicate
of Splatt except for two things: its name and its icons. We need to give it
another name so the simulation will keep its data separate from Splatt's,
and we need it to look different so we can be sure to apply our environmental
influence only on the subject and not the control.
Double-click on Splatt's icon in the Dashboard. The Biology Lab will open,
with Splatt ready to edit.
[PAGE: 60]
Click on the Return to Select Level button to go to the Select Level of the
Biology Lab.
We now want to make a duplicate of Splatt, so click on the Copy button.
Look at the Dashboard. Notice that there is now a duplicate of Splatt
pictured just to its right. If it isn't showing, click on the right arrow to
scroll until you see it. This is our copy. Double-click on the copy's icon in
the Dashboard.
Our new species is now showing in the Biology Lab. It has been named Copy of
Species, which is kind of a dumb name, so let's rename it. Click on the
Rename button, type in a new name (I'm using Control), and click Make It So.
[PAGE: 61]
A BUG OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
We need to make our control bugs look different from Splatt, so we need new
icons. You can be as creative as you want here, but I'll be lazy and make
mine identical, except for the color. My Splatts are black. I'll make
Controls red.
Be sure to change both the adult and child icons.
Once you've changed the icons, click on the Return to Select Level button,
then save the new species.
Close the Biology Lab.
ON DASHBOARD!
One Last Detail: check the colors assigned to Splatt and Control in the
Dashboard.
Below the icons of each species is a colored rectangle. This is the
color that the animal will appear in the Map Window. (The Map Window
represents such a large area that there's no room for icons, just colored
dots.)
If the default colors for Splatt and Control are aesthetically pleasing to
you and different enough from each other that you can easily tell them
apart, do nothing. If you want to change one or both, click and hold on
the colored rectangles to open a submenu of color choices, then slide
the cursor to the color you want.
STEP THREE: ADVANCED WORLD DESIGN
Now it's time to custom-build the laboratory/world for this experiment.
Open the Map Window bu clicking on the Map Window button in the Dashboard,
then click on the Build World... button to open the World Design Window.
[PAGE: 62]
Adjust your World Design Window, using the settings following below. You can
name it anything you want. I'm using Splatter.
In general, we want our experimental world to be absolutely non-hostile.
We, as the smiters, are going to be the only danger to life in this world.
WORLD DESIGN SUMMARY
Here's a listing of all the settings and why I chose them.
1. We want the climate to be pleasant and forgiving, so set Regional
Weather Variation low (about 25%), and the Average Temperature and
Average Moisture to average (about 50%).
2. We'll bu customizing the terrain later, so for now, set Rivers and Lakes
and Mountains all the way down. In any event, we won't want any
mountains in this world, because mountains affect the climate and we
want our climate to be identical in all parts of the world.
3. We'll want no Toxins that might interfere with our experiment; set them
to none.
4. Absolutely no Mutagens! We want all evolution in this experiment to
result from natural selection.
5. We'll be strategically placing Food Sources by hand, so, for now, set
them to none.
6. We won't need any Barriers, so set them to none.
7. Set World Size to Tiny. We won't need much space, and since we'll be
dealing with a number of generations, we'll want time to pass quickly.
(The smaller the world, the faster the simulation runs.)
When you've made all the adjustments and named your world, click on the
Make It So button.
[PAGE: 63]
EXTERIOR DECORATING
Our new world is pretty boring, and very barren. Now it's time to put on
some finishing touches.
We want our Splatts and Controls to have unlimited food and water, so let's
ring the world with water, and place lots of food sources around the border.
We'll also want to scatter numerous watering holes and more food sources all
over the interior.
Go to the Edit Window, click on the Water button, and draw a border of water
all the way around the world, then dot the interior of the world with small
ponds. Be careful not to put so many that it makes it hard for the animals to
move around.
Next, click on the Food Source button, and scatter food around the border.
Place a Food Source near each pond.
We now have our world. It would be a shame to lose all your hard work, so
open the File Menu and select Save. See your machine-specific addendum if
you need more information on saving games.
[PAGE: 64]
STEP FOUR: CLIMATE CONTROL
Click on the Climate Lab button in the Dashboard to open the Climate Lab.
We don't really need to mess around with the climate for this experiment, but
since this is a tutorial, we'll go through the motions so you'll know how to
do it when you need to.
Remember way back when we set the average moisture and average temperature in
the World Design Window? Here you can set the amount that the heat and water
vary around the average we already set. You can also set the amount of
variation in day length during the year.
Set all three of the sliders around 50% - we don't want to put our little
critters under too much climatic stress, but we don't want to bore them to
death, either.
Each of these three settings lets you select the season at which it peaks.
Set the Temperature Variation peak to Winter by clicking and holding on the
down-arrow button, opening the submenu, sliding the cursor to Winter and
releasing the mouse button. Why would anyone want to make it hot in the
winter? Because they can.
Close the Climate Lab.
[PAGE: 65]
STEP FIVE: THE LAWS OF PHYSICS
Next, we need to mess with the Laws of Physics to compress time and remove
other influences and factors that might "taint" the experiment.
Open the Simulation Menu, then open the Technical Submenu and select
Change Physics... to open the Laws of Physics Window.
This is the stuff experimenters' dreams are made of. The control over time
and energy this window gives you is one of the main incentives for
experimenting with artificial life (as opposed to non-artificial life).
Every biologist in the world would love to have this type of power and
control over experiments. (So would every meglomaniacal lunatic, but that's
another story.)
Basically, what we want to do here is make life as easy as possible for our
bugs, make time pass very quickly and make a few other minor adjustments.
To change any of the settings, click and hold on the down-arrow buttons,
slide the cursor to your new choice, then release the mouse button.
Go ahead and adjust your Laws of Physics Window to match the picture
above, then click on Make It So. The Laws of Physics Window will close.
LET'S GET PHYSICSFUL
Here's a summary of all the settings, with brief reasons why they suit this
experiment. A more complete explanation of what each control does can be
found in the Reference section below.
Set all the Movement Costs, Metabolism Costs and Health Costs to Tiny.
We don't want to drain our critters of any more energy than we have to.
[PAGE: 66]
Since we're supplying the animals with unlimited Food Sources, the Food
Value settings don't really matter. But go ahead and set them all to Huge,
just for the principle of the thing.
We won't have any plants in this world, so you can set Plant Costs to
anything your heard desires.
In the Simulation Stuff section, set Life span to Short, We want our older
generations to pass on their genes, then nobly die, and not clutter up the
world. (Sometimes science is cruel.)
Set Day Length to 8 Ticks and Year Length to 16 Days to set time moving
at a fast clip. We'll be dealing with a number of generations in this
experiment, and don't want to spend the next 10 years of our lives working
on this stupid tutorial.
Plant Limit doesn't matter, since we'll have no plants. Go wild.
Set Mutation Rate to Zero. We want to see if we can reproduce evolution
through natural selection without the advantages that mutations can give.
Set Animal Limits to 200. We don't want to overcrowd the world.
You can set the Soil and Climate Change slider anywhere you want, as it won't
affect anything in this experiment.
[PAGE: 67]
STEP SIX: POPULATION EXPLOSION
Now we'll set our Splatts and Controls loose in the world, using the
Populate Window.
In order to have evolution through natural selection, without any mutations,
we'll need a good spread of genes in the gene pool. To do this, we'll set
loose some Splatts and Controls, then make some modifications to both species'
Genome Prototypes, and set some more loose.
If it isn't already paused, pause time now by clicking on the Pause button in
the dashboard.
LET THERE BE SPLATT
Open the Map Window by clicking on the Map Window button in the Dashboard.
Click on the Populate... button in the Map Window Control Panel.
Click and hold on to the down-arrow button in the Selected Species box, drag
the cursor to Splatt's icon, then release the mouse button.
Click on Add Scattered, and On the Land.
Click or click and hold on the up-arrow button in the Number box until 40 is
displayed.
Click on Make It So. Fifteen new Splatts will be scattered about the world.
LET THERE BE MORE SPLATT
Double click on the Splatt icon in the Dashboard to open the Biology Lab with
Splatt ready to edit.
[PAGE: 68]
Click on the Edit Species Prototype Genome button.
Now make the changes to the Splatt genome as shown above to give us a good
spread of turn- and roam-related genes.
Here are the changes to make:
1. Slide the Roaming and Turning genes up to 75%
2. Change Turn Type to Random.
3. Change turn Angle to Medium-High.
Click on Make It So, then close the Biology Lab.
Click on the Populate... button in the Map Window Control Panel, then
populate the world with another 15 Splatts, scattered on the land.
TAKE CONTROL PLEASE
Now you will need to repeat the same process you just went through with
Splatts, but with the Controls.
Briefly, here's how to do it:
1. Open the Populate Window.
2. Set the Selected Species to Control.
3. Set the Number to 40.
4. Click Add Scattered.
5. Click On the Land.
6. Click Make It So.
7. Double-click on the Control icon in the Dashboard.
[PAGE: 69]
8. Click on the Edit Species Prototype Genome button.
9. Slide the Roaming and Turning genes up to 75%.
10. Change Turn Type to Random.
11. Change Turn Angle to Medium-High.
12. Click on Make It So.
13. Close the Biology Lab.
14. Click on the Populate... button in the Map Window Control Panel.
15. Click on Make It So.
You should now have 40 of each Splatts and Controls with the low settings for
turns and roaming, and 40 of each with the higher settings.
BREAK TIME
Before going on with the experiment, we need to take a time out and get
familiar with a few more SimLife features. First we'll talk a quick tour of
the many Census Windows, then we'll think about how to record out data, then
we'll do an in-depth personal interview with the Gene Pool Window.
Now would be a great time to save the experiment to disk. Open the File Menu
and select Save Game. Information on saving games with your computer can be
found in the computer specific addendum.
TIME OUT 1: TAKING THE CENSUS
We will now take a few moments to explore the Census Windows, where you can
get massive amounts of data about the life and times of your world. These
windows show the status and results of all games and experiments.
Click on the Pause button in the Dashboard and let the simulation run for 10
or 20 seconds, then click Pause again. This will give the Census Windows a
chance to update and analyze the genes of your new population.
[PAGE: 70]
To open any of the Census Windows, click and hold on the Census Window button
in the Dashboard to reveal a submenu, then slide the cursor to the window you
want to open and release the mouse button. For now, open the Graphs Window.
In the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons that let
you cycle through all the Census Windows. Go ahead and click on one of the
arrows a few times, looking briefly at each window. When you get back to the
Graphs Window, stop.
A complete description of each and every button and control of each and every
Census Window can be found in the Reference section below.
TIME OUT 2: RECORDING DATA
In this experiment and in any SimLife games or experiments, you will probably
want to sketch copies of the Census Windows into your beloved and trusty lab
notebook. If you're not already following and recording this experiment in the
provided SimLife Lab Book (or a copy of it), you may want to start now.
In the back of the Lab Book, we have provided a full complement of data
sheets with blank windows for you to copy, fill in and include in any
write-ups of SimLife experiments.
[PAGE: 71]
If you don't like lab books, you can write up and record your experiments in
any word processor.
If you have a way to take screenshots of your computer screen and print them
out and tape them into a lab book (or place the screenshot files directly into
word processor documents), you'll find it very useful. (You may have better
luck printing the data if you run SimLife in black and white before taking
screenshots.)
Note: Some versions of SimLife, depending on the computer, have
built-in facilities for capturing windows to a clipboard or disk. See
your machine-specific addendum for details.
TIME OUT 3: THE GENE POOL WINDOW
This window is crucial to understanding the results of our experiment. A
complete explanation of this window can be found in the Reference section
below, but we'll spend a little time here covering the basics.
Open the Gene Pool Window by clicking and holding on the Census Window button
in the Dashboard, sliding the cursor to the words Gene Pool and releasing the
mouse button.
This window shows the combination of all the genes in the population. At the
top-left corner of the window is the Population Box, which shows the total
population for the Local Species. The Local Species is selected just below the
[PAGE: 72]
Population Box. Click and hold on the down-arrow button to see a pop-up menu
of all icons for all plants and animals. (Notice that you can also choose All
Plants or All Animals and see all their genes at once.)
To choose a Local Species, slide the cursor to the icon you want, then release
the mouse button. For now, select Splatt.
Somewhere around there is a yes/no button for using (or not) color. Don't
worry about it for now. Worry about it later.
BE DISCRETE
Below the Local Species Box is the display area for Discrete Genes, the genes
that are set in the Genome Window with buttons.
There are too many of these genes to show in the window at one time, but you
can see all of these genes a few (one group) at a time. To change the group,
click and hold on the Group Select down-arrow button, slide the cursor to the
group you want, then release the mouse button.
The checkmark(s) on the left of the discrete gene bar graphs indicate the
setting(s) of the species Prototype.
Take some time and, in turn, select each group and see the results.
BE INDISCRETE
The whole right side of the Gene Pool Window displays the Continous Genes-those
that are set with sliders in the Genome Window.
This section can display the data in two ways: by using colors, or by using
black bar graphs. While a little confusing at first, once you get the hang of
the color display, it gives a lot of information quickly. Besides, it looks
cool.
But alas, for now, click on the button over on the left that sets Use Colors
to No.
[PAGE: 73]
At the top of this part of the window is a key to help you interpret the data.
It changes depending on your choice of color or black and white.
Each of the rectangles (made up of small slices) corresponds to a gene slider
in the Genome Window. For one animal, and arrow or a line can mark the value
for the gene. But when you need to see the gene values for a larger number of
animals, it's a little trickier.
We use little bar graphs (or color graphs). Wherever there is a bar, at least
one of the animals has that value for the gene. The height of the bar (or the
shade of the color) indicates how many of the population have that value.
Only nine continuous genes can be shown at once. You can choose which genes to
display by... I bet you can guess how to do it. I have faith in you.
If you are truly daring, switch back to Use Colors (if you have a color
monitor), study the key and see if it makes sense to you.
Now it's time to go back to the experiment. Close the Gene Pool Window by
clicking in the Close Box. .
|
|This doc was typed by *RYGAR* Don't steal it
STEP SEVEN: TAKE STARTING DATA |and say u did it! Thanks! Fuckings to Sorehead
|
Time to take our starting data. You can use a piece of paper, your own lab
book, or the official SimLife Lab Book (or a copy of it).
Open the Technical submenu in the Simulation Menu and select Set Time to 0 so
your experiment starts at Tick 0, Day 0 and Year 0. Be sure to record the time
along with your other data.
Next, open the Gene Pool Window. Select Splatt as the local species. Chances
are that you now have less than 30 of each of Splatts and Controls because
some died during the 10 seconds that the game was unpaused to let the Census
[PAGE: 74]
Windows update. Unless you have less than 20 of each, don't worry about it. If
you have less than 20, go to the Edit Window and use the Populate mode of the
Life Tool to add more Splatts and/or Controls.
On paper or in the Lab Book, record the following discrete gene information:
1. Population
2. Turn Angle
3. Turn Type
Record the same information for Control.
Now record the information for the following continuous genes:
1. Roaming
2. Turning
Record the same information for Control.
Here's my data: Tick: 0
Day: 0
Year: 0
SPLATT CONTROL
Population: 56 Population: 59
Once the data is recorded, you're ready to start stomping bugs.
[PAGE: 75]
STEP EIGHT: SPLATT THEM BUGS
Time to kill bugs.
BUT WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?
The idea here is to be a predator. You like to kill and eat Splatts. You find
it easier to catch the ones that:
1. Stay still too long, or
2. Go in a straight line for a long while.
You won't smite any of the Control species because you are a predator that
wants its experiment to work.
You won't kill of so many that you deplete the population.
As you begin smiting, depending on the speed of your computer, it might be far
too easy or far too difficult to catch the Splatts. Adjust the speed of the
game in the Speed submenu of the Simulation Menu to make time move fairly
quickly and to give yourself a little challenge.
One more thing: you may want to turn of the Play Animal Sounds in the Goodies
submenu of the Simulation Menu if others are listening, but it is helpful to
have the aural feedback whenever there is a birth, death or mating.
LET THE SMITING BEGIN
Click on the Pause button in the Dashboard to start the clock.
Now, smite the wee bugs, and remember:
* Go for the ones that stay in one place too long, and that go in a
straight line for a while.
* Avoid smiting the Controls.
* Speed up or slow down the simulation speed as needed.
PROGRESS REPORT
When your population starts to dwindle a little, take some time off (stop
smiting, but leave the simulation running) and look through the various
Census Windows while the Splatt population builds back up.
[PAGE: 76]
WHAT CAN GO WRONG AND HOW TO FIX IT
It's possible that there are so many water holes or food sources that some
creatures are trapped and can't move, as opposed to not wanting to move. If
so, lower the amount of water holes and food sources.
It's possible that your population could die out, or all the females or males
will kick. Go ahead and add some new ones, Ideally this shouldn't happen, and
it will set you back a little by diluting the gene pool.
If the Controls start crowding out the Splatts and using up most of the
alotted Animal Limit (remember out settings in the Laws of Physics Window?),
use the Populate Window to kill off some Controls and give the Splatts a
chance.
If you have a slow machine, the bugs may be too easy to catch and you'll kill
too many. Try increasing the simulation speed. You can also try holding the
cursor over the bug you want to smite and counting to three slowly before
pulling the trigger.
Check the Mortality Window-one of the Census Windows-for causes of death. If
many of them die from the lack of food or water, add more food and water to
the world.
STEP NINE: TAKING DATA
After at least five or six generations, pause the simulation, and take down
the Tick, Day, Year and Population as well as the same genetic information you
at Time 0.
Smite away for many more generations.
When you've done all the smiting you can stand, pause the simulation and take
a complete final set of data for both species.
[PAGE: 77]
STEP TEN: ANALYSIS
This is perhaps the most important part of any experiment. Look over your
before, after, and in-between data. And think about it and the following
questions.
What does it mean?
Was there evolution?
Did the gene pool change?
Was it by natural selection?
Why or why not?
What went wrong?
What went right?
If you had to do it over again (and you do), would you do it differently?
What would you change?
Write a report with all the answers to all those questions and have it on my
desk by 8:00 AM tomorrow morning.
EXPERIMENT SUMMARY
Depending on quite a number of factors, your Splatt experiment may or may not
have demonstrated evolution in action. Whatever happened, don't be
disappointed. We usually learn more when things go wrong than when they go
right.
Splatt was a very short, simple experiment, and now that you've been dragged
through it, you should have a good idea of the power and flexibility of
SimLife.
Happy simulating.
[PAGE: 78]
TUTORIAL SUMMARY
Well that's quite enough of a tutorial if you ask me. If you made it all the
way through, be proud.
You've been introduced to a lot of information in this tutorial, and it only
hinted at the possibilities of this program. Only by playing around, coming
up with your own ideas and testing them will you fully master SimLife.
Go. Play. Experiment. The reference section is here if and when you need it.
There's another manual section with suggested experiments. There is also a
bibliography at the end of this manual to point you to some great books about
life, artificial life, biology, evolution, genetics, and other related
subjects.
[PAGE: 79]
REFERENCE
"I don't need a wife, living the timeless life. When I need a friend, I just
give a wriggle. Split right down the middle. And when I look, there's two of
me, Both as handsome as can be."
- Mike Heron
from A Very Cellular Song
[PAGE: 80]
INTRODUCTION/THE BASICS
DOWN-ARROW (TRIANGLE) BUTTONS
Whenever you see a button with a down-arrow, or a triangle pointing down, it
means you can click and hold on this button to open a dropdown menu of
choices.
SIMLIFE CONVENTIONS AND TERMINOLOGY
Clicking quickly on any down-arrow button will automatically reselect the
last selection without opening the drop-down menu.
OPTION KEY OR CONTROL KEY
The Option key, if you have one, is used for a number of shortcuts in SimLife.
If you don't have one, use the Control key for the following shortcuts:
IN THE DASHBOARD
Option-click on the Animal or Plant display On/Off buttons to turn the display
of all animals or plants on or off. This is handy if you want to see, for
instance, just one animal: turn them all off at once, then turn the one you
want back on.
Option-click on a color in the color submenu under any of the icons to turn
all the plants or animals to that color. Use this if you want one animal to
stand out in the crowd: turn them all to a single color, then turn the one
you want to a different color.
IN THE MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL
Option-click on the Populate... button to automatically populate the world
with a random assortment of plants and animals.
SPECIES NAMING SYSTEM
You can name species anything you want, up to 15 characters. Each species also
has a version number attached to its name. (The version number is displayed in
the Dashboard when the species is the Selected Species.)
[PAGE: 81]
As these species split into new species, the new species will become Version
2, Version 3, and so on. The name will remain the same until and unless you
change it.
INDIVIDUAL ORGANISM NAMING SYSTEM
Individual organisms have two-part names: their species name and a number. The
numbers are given to individuals in the order they're born and continue to
increase during the duration of game. There are no "go-backs" to reuse the
numbers of organisms that die. The numbers start at 0 (zero). The biggest
number that can be used in an organism's name is
200000000000000000000000000000000-1, or 4,294,967,296. If all numbers are
used, they start over again at 0.
TERMINOLOGY
SELECTED SPECIES
Within most windows, only one species will be "active" at a time. And when
playing SimLife, you usually play with one species at a time, checking it out
in one window, spreading it in another, and modifying it in yet another.
Reselecting the species each time you jump to another window would be a
hassle, so in most windows, when you select a species, it becomes the default
or Selected Species for most other windows. The Selected Species stays
selected until you pick another one.
LOCAL SPECIES
Selecting a species in some windows does not make that species the "official"
Selected Species. The lucky plant or animal you choose in these windows
becomes the center of attention for these windows or parts of windows only-
they are local stars. Since we need to call the something, these are called
the Local Species.
Choosing or changing the Local Species in these windows does not change the
Selected Species or Local Species in the other windows.
[PAGE: 82]
PROTOTYPE GENOME
Each species in SimLife has a Prototype Genome. This is the genetic starting
point for a species: the baseline from which evolution can be measured.
Through evolution, individuals will vary from the Prototype Genome. Over time,
individuals may vary so much from the prototype that they would no longer be
able to successfully mate with it, and by definition become another species.
ABOUT LIFE IN SIMLIFE
LOOKS OF LIFE
As you play SimLife, the different plants and animals will visually appear in
a few different ways. None of these ways truly and accurately shows the way
these organisms look.
These electronic organisms exist as ones and zeros-energy states in
transistor switches in the memory chips of your computer. Assuming that most
of the beings that play SimLife are human, and that none of the humans we know
can see energy states in transistor switches, we figured we'd better find some
way to visually present SimLife-forms in a way that humans can see and
understand.
One way they appear is as a series of three "flash-cards" as seen in the
Biology Lab and Phenotype Window. These flash card pictures were chosen and
drawn to express the organisms' physical and behavioral traits in familiar
terms. you may not know what the organism looks like, but by looking at
combinations of familiar earth plants and animals, you will know how it fits
into its world.
Another way the organisms appear is as icons in the Edit Window. These icons
are pretty small (16 by 16 pixels) and can't be very fancy. Their main purpose
is to help you distinguish one organism from another (and to look pretty).
The last way the organisms appear is as small squares or dots (sometimes a
single pixel) in the Map Window. When looking at this window, you can tell
that organisms are there and that they're moving (if they are).
[PAGE: 83]
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
For the purposes of playing SimLife, we define life as anything that exhibits
lifelike behavior, including: adaptive behavior, self-replication and the
ability to extract order from the environment.
SimLife-forms easily meet this definition, and more. They metabolize energy
from your wall socket. They require the proper environment-the SimLife
program-to survive. They react to stimuli in the environment. They evolve.
In a way, they are like viruses and need a host-the computer-to live in and
with.
SIMLIFE ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS
We did our best to keep different SimLife versions as close to each other as
possible while staying true to the interface conventions of each type of
computer.
All the main features and functions are the same in all versions, but some
things have been moved around. The main places where differences are found are
in the Dashboard, the Edit Window Control Panel, and the Map Window Control
Panel. Check with your machine-specific addendum for details.
[PAGE: 84]
MENUS
Here are a listing and explanations of all menu items in SimLife. If there are
any additions, omissions or differences, they will be explained in the
addendum for your computer.
FILE MENU
This menu has the commands for file management and quitting SimLife. There may
be File Menu items for Page Setup and Printing that are not listed here. See
your machine-specific addendum for details.
ABOUT SIMLIFE...
About SimLife... brings up vital and fascinating facts about this game. If
your computer has a special menu, like the Macintosh "Apple" menu, this item
will be there and not in the File Menu. It may also appear as About
Application...
NEW GAME
New Game opens the New Game Window allowing you to choose from the many
available game scenarios, or to begin a new world from scratch.
OPEN GAME
Open Game lets you load and play a pre-saved game.
CLOSE
Close removes the current game from memory without quitting SimLife.
SAVE
Save is for saving the current game to disk. If the game has not been saved
before, you will be prompted for a file name.
SAVE AS...
Save As... is for saving the current game to disk. You will always be prompted
for a file name.
QUIT
Quit ends SimLife.
[PAGE: 85]
EDIT MENU
The Edit Menu is primarily used in SimLife when you are designing icons to
represent plants or animals. For more information, see the section on the
Biology Lab below.
Also see your machine-specific addendum for more information (if there is any)
on this menu.
UNDO
Undoes the last icon drawing action you made on a plant or animal icon.
COPY ICON
Copies the current icon in the Biology Lab so it can later be pasted into
another icon.
PASTE ICON
Pastes the copied icon into the current icon in the Biology Lab.
CLEAR ICON
Clears (erases) the icon currently being edited in the Biology Lab.
SHOW CLIPBOARD
On computers that have a Clipboard, displays the current contents of the
clipboard.
SIMULATION MENU
The Simulation Menu is for controlling various game-play options and
simulation settings. Each item in this menu opens a submenu. Submenu items are
active if they have a checkmark to their left.
SPEED
The Speed submenu lets you adjust the speed at which the simulation runs,
which affects the rate at which time passes in your ecosystem. In the DOS and
Windows versions, Speed is a full menu, not a submenu.
PAUSE
Pause stops time in the simulation completely.
[PAGE: 86]
SLOW
Slow sets the simulation to its slowest speed.
MEDIUM
Medium sets the simulation speed to a nice relaxed rate of time.
FAST
Fast sets the simulation speed to about twice as fast as Medium.
ULTRA
Ultra lets the simulation run as fast as possible on you computer.
[PAGE: 87]
GOODIES
This submenu lets you customize some of the interface features in SimLife.
PLAY MUSIC
Play Music toggles the playing of music on and off. The amount and quality of
music available to you depends on your computer.
PLAY ANIMAL SOUNDS
Play Animal Sounds toggles the animal sound effects on and off. The amount and
quality of sound effect available to you depends on you computer. These sounds
notify you of animal-related occurrences in your ecosystem, including mating,
birth, disease and death.
PLAY OTHER SOUNDS
Play Other Sounds toggles environmental and disaster-related sound effects on
and off. The amount and quality of sound effects available to you depends on
your computer.
AUTO SCROLL
Auto Scroll causes the terrain in the Edit Window to automatically scroll when
you are placing organisms or modifying the world near the edge of the window,
so you don't have to constantly stop and mess with the scroll bars.
AUTO TRACKING
Auto Tracking scrolls the area in Edit Window to keep the highlighted plant or
animal visible.
DISPLAY MESSAGES
Display Messages toggles on and off the display of helpful hints and messages
during the game.
[PAGE: 88]
UPDATE ALL WINDOWS
Update All Windows toggles between constantly updating all the information in
all the windows that are open and only updating the information in the active
(front) window. Updating all of the windows will slow the simulation speed.
POPULATE...
Populate... open the Populate Window.
BUILD WORLD...
Build World... opens the World Design Window.
LAYERS
This submenu lets you easily turn on and off many of the layers of data that
can be displayed in the Edit and Map Windows. This only affects the display of
these layers, and in no way changes or deletes the actual data from the
simulation.
HIDE ALL LAYERS
Hide All Layers turns off the display of all data layers.
SHOW ALL LAYERS
Show All Layers turns on the display of all data layers.
HIDE ALL ANIMALS
Hide All Animals turns off the display of all animals.
SHOW ALL ANIMALS
Show All Animals turns on the display of all animals
HIDE ALL PLANTS
Hide All Plants turns off the display of all plants.
SHOW ALL PLANTS
Show All Plants turns on the display of all plants.
[PAGE: 89]
SHOW PLAGUE/STD PINK (AS "P)
Show Plague/STD Pink (as "P"), when active, turns the display of diseased
animals in the Map Window pink on color monitors, and into the letter "P" on
monochrome monitors, so you can easily track the spread of disease through the
ecosystem.
DIFFICULTY
This submenu lets you adjust a number of factors that affect ease of play. All
these adjustments can be seen in the Laws of Physics Window.
Typical changes that affect ease of play are length of day, higher or lower
energy value for food, higher or lower energy loss for toxins and injuries,
higher or lower health costs and movement costs.
BEGINNER
Beginner is the easiest setting.
NOVICE
Novice gives you a little bit of a challenge. Barely.
AVERAGE
Average is the difficulty level that provides a good challenge without taxing
your innermost brain reserves.
ADVANCED
Advanced requires a lot of thinking, but not complete mastery of all the ins
and outs of the simulation.
EXPERT
Expert requires complete knowledge of everything to do with the simulation and
life and evolution and everything else. And a lot of luck.
MODIFIED
Modified means you've gone into the Laws of Physics Window and changed
something so it is no longer in any of the preset difficulty levels. To
return to a preset setting, choose any of the above choices.
[PAGE: 90]
You can't choose Modified from this menu. It will be ghosted unless you make
changes in the Laws of Physics Window, in which case Modified will be black
with a checkmark beside it.
TECHNICAL
This submenu gives you access to a number of advanced simulation
manipulation functions.
SET RANDOM SEED...
Set Random Seed... opens a dialog box or requester that lets you modify the
seed number from which random numbers are generated. Random numbers are used
in a number of places, most notably in the world building.
You cannot set the seed to zero.
One use of changing the random seed is to recreate worlds without taking up
all the disk space that's needed when saving a complete game.
Here's how to do it:
* Enter a number and write it down.
* Open the World Design Window, write down all your settings and
build a world.
* If you like the world you get, you recreate it at any time with the
random seed and World Design settings.
* If you don't like it, recycle the paper you wrote the seed down on.
People who use this method of returning to particular ecosystems receive a
free membership in the Save The Seed Not The World Club. Details on this club
might be found in some cereal box, but I'm not sure.
CHANGE PHYSICS...
Change Physics... opens a dialog box or requester that lets you modify the
physics of the universe in the simulation, including days per year and the
energy it takes to climb, fly, walk, etc. These settings can change the ease
[PAGE: 91]
of play, or let you experiment with worlds that are very different from ours.
When you make a change in this window, the Difficulty setting is set to
Modified.
LOCATE AN INDIVIDUAL...
Locate An Individual... opens a dialog box or requester that lets you locate
specific plants or animals in your ecosystem.
WORLD BUILDING OPTIONS...
World Building Options... opens a dialog box or requester that lets you modify
the way SimLife builds new worlds.
RECORD ALL STATISTICS
Record All Statistics... toggles between the simulation saving statistics for
every possible graph and saving all but the "percentage" graphs. When you
sacrifice the information in the "percentage" graphs, you gain simulation
speed and use less memory.
SET TIME TO 0
Set Time to 0 resets the Tick, Day and Year to zero. Use this item to reset
the clock when you are ready to begin an experiment.
RUN CONTROL...
Selecting Run Control... opens a dialog box or requester that lets you tell
the simulation speed to pause after a certain amount of time and wait for you.
You can set it to pause after any amount of days or years, depending on your
experiment, but the most useful is 50 years. All the graphing, history and
census data is only kept in memory for 50 years: if you stop the simulation
every 50 years and save it to disk (each time under a different name), you can
get continuous data and graphs for the whole experiment.
[PAGE: 92]
DATA LOGGING...
Data Logging..., when active, continually saves simulation data to a disk
file. When you select this item, it will open a dialog box or requester and
let you choose a name and location for this file.
The data log file is in a standard ASCII, tab-delimited format and can be
loaded into a number of spreadsheets or databases for charting, graphing and
statistical analysis. This is an advanced feature for people who really love
to play with spreadsheets and charts and graphs. The format for the data file
can be found in your machine-specific addendum.
Warning: The data log file can get very big and will fill your drive
if you're not careful.
AUTOSPECIATE
When AutoSpeciate is selected, organisms that diverge so much from their
Prototype Genome that they could not successfully mate with the prototype will
automatically be classified as a new species.
The new species version will be changed, but it will retain the same icon and
name until and unless you change it.
RECONVERGE SPECIES
Reconverge Species recombines multiple species into a single species. If you
have AutoSpeciate activated, you can end up with a large number of very
similar species. Reconverge Species cleans up the clutter, combining a number
of almost identical species into one or a few species.
This adds genetic diversity to older, existing species, and makes more room in
the ecosystem for new species.
Here's how it works:
1. The total population of each existing species is examined, and all the
genes are combined and averaged.
2. The species prototype is changed to match the average genotype.
[PAGE: 93]
3. Starting with the newest species, each species prototype is compared to
the prototype of every other (newer) species.
4. If, when the comparison is made, the two prototypes are able to
successfully mate, the popolations are combined into one species-into
the first of the species to exist.
[PAGE: 94]
WINDOWS MENU
This menu is for opening and activating the various windows in SimLife.
DASHBOARD
Dashboard opens or activates the Dashboard.
VARIABLES
Variables opens or activates the Variables Window, which displays information
on the highlighted individual plant or animal.
This item can only be chosen when an organism is highlighted.
PHENOTYPE
Phenotype opens or activates the Phenotype Window, which displays the flash
card representation of the highlighted plant or animal.
This item can only be chosen when an organism is highlighted.
EVALUATION
Evaluation opens or activates the Evaluation Window.
EDIT
Edit opens or activates the Edit Window.
MAP
Map opens or activates the Map Window.
CLIMATE LAB
Climate Lab opens or activates the Climate Laboratory.
BIOLOGY LAB
Biology Lab opens or activates the Biology Laboratory.
[PAGE: 95]
CENSUS
Census opens a submenu that lets you choose from the seven census
displays/graphs. Only one census window can be displayed on-screen at a time.
DIVERSITY
Diversity opens or activates the Diversity Window, which shows how many
different types of organisms are currently living in the world.
FOOD WEB
Food Web opens or activates the Food Web Window, which graphically shows the
predator/prey relationships in your ecosystem.
GENE POOL
Gene Pool opens or activates the Gene Pool Window, where you can see the
evidence of evolution.
GRAPHS
Graphs opens or activates the Graphs Window, which can display, up to four at
a time, any of 720 graphs in two time scales.
HISTORY
History opens or activates the History Window, which keeps a running record of
all events in the world.
MORTALITY
Mortality opens or activates the Mortality Window, which displays a chart of
the reasons for plant and animal death in your ecosystem.
POPULATION
Population opens or activates the Population Window, which shows the relative
populations of all plant or all animal species.
[PAGE: 96]
DISASTERS MENU
This menu lets you activate a number of disasters that will test the stability
and resilience of your ecosystems, as well as show the dire consequences these
disasters can produce.
Disasters that are currently in progress are indicated by a checkmark to their
left. All disasters that you activate stay active until you select them again
in the menu to terminate them.
Disasters will occur randomly in games unless No AutoDisasters is selected.
Random disasters will turn themselves off after a while. As disasters turn
off, they take a few simulation cycles to finish up and go away, so they don't
cause worse problems by stopping abruptly (like beaching fish after a flood).
Random disasters are those that that occur as part of a scenario that can't be
turned off. They'll stop when they're good and ready. The lenght of and
destruction caused by disasters depends on the difficulty setting in the
Simulation Menu.
PLAGUE
Plague releases a deadly disease into the ecosystem. Plagues are passed from
animal to animal. When an infected animal is right next to an uninfected
animal, there is a 10% chance of the plague being passed on.
STD
STD releases a sexually transmitted disease into the ecosystem. STDs are
passed when animals mate.
HEAT WAVE
Heat Wave causes the temperature all over the ecosystem to increase.
COLD WAVE
Cold Wave causes the temperature all over the ecosystem to decrease.
FLOOD
Flood causes a flood to occur.
[PAGE: 97]
DROUGHT
Drought causes a drought to occur.
FIRE
Fire starts a fire in the ecosystem, but only if there are plants.
COMET
Comet causes a large, destructive comet to impact somewhere in the ecosystem.
TELEPORT
Teleport causes many of the plants and animals to be randomly redistributed
around the ecosystem.
CIVILIZATION
Civilization allows an invasion of our pristine ecosystem by land developers.
Land developers are members of some strange industrial species that bulldozes
the land and builds houses. (Humans. Can't take them anywhere.)
NO AUTO-DISASTERS
No Auto-Disasters eliminates random disasters from occuring, but won't stop
disasters that occur in scenarios, or disasters you activate yourself.
Selecting No Auto-Disasters after a disaster has begun will not stop it or
make it end sooner.
[PAGE: 98]
WINDOWS
SimLife has a lot of windows. More windows than you can shake a stick at (or
throw a stone through). You don't have to use all of them all of the time, so
don't panic. They're all there for a reason, and will be more and more useful
as you become more familiar with SimLife. Here is an explanation of each and
every window, each and every button, slider and feature in each window, and an
explanation of what they all do and why you'll want to do it.
DASHBOARD
The Dashboard is a row of buttons that gives you easy control over plant and
animal display, access to all the other windows and a simulation pause button.
On the Macintosh, the Dashboard is a separate small window at the bottom of
the screen, and will be displayed on top of any other window on the screen,
with the exception of dialog boxes or requesters that wait for an "OK,"
"Never Mind," or "Make It So" before you can do anything else.
On DOS and Windows computersm the Dashboard is found at the top of the screen,
and is a control bar, not a separate window. Also, on these machines, the Edit
Window Control Panel and the Map Window Control Panel (one at a time) are
displayed as part of the Dashboard. Here's how the Dashboard looks on a DOS or
Windows-based computer while combined with the Edit Window Control Panel. For
more details and for other computers, check your machine-specific addendum.
[PAGE: 99]
TITLE BAR (MAC VERSION ONLY)
At the top of the Dashboard is the Title Bar. While badly named (since it
contains no title), it is still useful.
You can click and drag the Title Bar to move the Dashboard around the screen.
On the left side of the Title Bar is the Close Button. Clicking on the Close
Button will make the Dashboard go away. You can bring it back by selecting
Dashboard in the Windows menu.
ORGANISM DISPLAY CONTROLS
Below the Title Bar and on the left are the controls for displaying (or not
displaying) different plants and animals.
The "A" and "P" buttons choose between dealing with animals and plants
respectively.
The animals or plants are displayed in a row. These are the icons that
represent the organisms in the Edit Window. Only 12 show at a time. You can
use the left and right arrows to scroll through all possible organisms.
If you click on the picture or icon of any organism, it is highlighted and
becomes the Selected Species. The name and type (plant or animal) of the
organism appears in the center section of the Dashboard. The Selected Species
becomes the default choice for use in most windows. For example, if you
clicked on the Rose, then went to the Edit Window, the Rose would be the
default organism to use with the Populate tool. Then, if you went to the
Biology Lab, the Rose would be the default organism to genetically modify.
If you double-click on any organism's icon, the Biology Lab will open with
that organism ready for dissection.
Right below the picture of the organism is a colored rectangle. This shows the
color of the dot that the organism is represented by in the Map Window.
[PAGE: 100]
To change the color, click and hold on the rectangle to reveal a menu of color
choices, slide the pointer to the color you want, then release the mouse
button.
If you hold down the Option Key (or Control key if your keyboard has no
Option key) while selecting a color for a plant, then that color will be
selected for all the plants. If you hold down the Option key (or Control Key)
while selecting a color for an animal, then that color will be selected for
all the animals.
Below the color rectangles are the display On/Off buttons for each organism.
Clicking them toggles their display on and off. Turning them off does not
remove them from the simulation, just from view.
If you hold down the Option Key (or Control key if your keyboard has no
Option key) while turning a plant on or off, all the plants will be turned
on or off. If you hold down the Option key (or Control key) while turning
an animal on or off, all the animals will be turned on or off.
SELECTED SPECIES SECTION
The middle of the Dashboard displays and selects the Selected Species, which
is the default organism to be used or manipulated in any of the windows.
The display shows three pieces of information: whether the Selected Species is
a plant or an animal, the name of the Selected Species, and the version number
of the Selected Species.
The Selected Species can be selected in two ways: click on its icon in the
Organism Display Section to the left, or click and hold on the Select button
(the one with the down-arrow) to reveal a menu of all possible organisms, then
slide the pointer to the one you want and release the mouse button.
[PAGE: 101]
WINDOW BUTTONS
There are five buttons that open or activate different windows:
The Edit button opens or activates the Edit Window.
The Map button opens or activates the Map Window.
The Biology button opens or activates the Biology Lab.
The Climate button opens or activates the Climate Lab. [RYGAR]
The Census button opens a submenu (notice the down-arrow) that lets you open
or activate any of the six Census Windows. Each of these windows will be
described in detail below.
PAUSE BUTTON
The Pause button stops time in the simulation. Click on the Pause button again
to resume at the previous speed.
If you wish an experiment to proceed at a very slow, controlled pace, pause
the simulation, the hold down the Option key (or Control key) and click on the
pause button. Time will move forward in a single step of one Tick (one
simulation cycle) for each time you click.
EDIT WINDOW TOOL INDICATOR
The Dashboard also contains an indicator that tells which tool is active in
the Edit Window.
HELP BUTTON
Many windows in SimLife, especially those with many buttons, have a Help
button to give you a quick on-screen reminder of what everything does. Click
and hold on the Help button to get help.
[PAGE: 102]
OTHER BUTTONS
On some computers there may be a few other buttons in or near the dashboard,
such as Populate... and Build World... which are duplicated from the Map
Window Control Panel. See your machine-specific addendum for details.
[PAGE: 103]
NEW GAME WINDOW
The New Game Window lets you select any of the nine scenarios, or start a new
game in Experimental Mode. It opens when you first start SimLife and when you
select New from the File Menu.
From this window you can start the on-screen tutorial, the scenarios, or
Experimental Mode.
The six included scenarios deal with ecosystems and evolution. When you click
on a scenario name, it will become highlighted and a brief description of its
goals will appear in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you choose Experimental Mode, you are free to create your own scenarios
and experiments.
Once you have highlighted the Tutorial, Experimental Mode, or the scenario you
want to play, click on the Play Scenario button.
When you first start SimLife, you must select either a scenario or
Experimental mode. When you first load the game the Never Mind button will not
be available. If you open the New Game Window at a later time, you will have
the opportunity to leave this window without selecting a scenario by clicking
on Never Mind.
The YES/NO button lets you play any scenario in a world of your own design
instead of the default world. First, build or load that world, then click this
button to say NO, then highlight the scenario and click Play Scenario.
[PAGE: 104]
EDIT WINDOW
The Edit Window is a close-up view of the world. Here you can modify the
terrain and the microclimate, populate the world with plants and animals,
and manipulate the environment.
It can be opened or activated by selecting Edit Window in the Windows Menu or
by clicking on the Edit Window button in the Dashboard.
Note: on some computers, the Edit Window Control Panel is found at the
top of the screen, integrated with the Dashboard. See your
machine-specific addendum for details.
EDIT WINDOW TITLE BAR
The Edit Window Title Bar displays the name of the current scenario or game.
The Edit Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar.
Clicking on the Grow Box on the right side of the Title Bar expands the window
to fill the screen. Clicking on it again shrinks it to its previous size.
Depending on your computer, you may or may not be able to close the Edit
Window while SimLife is running.
[PAGE: 105]
THE DISPLAY AREA
The biggest section of the Edit Window is the display of the world. The world
is too big to be shown in its entirety in this window at one time, so there
are Scroll Bars, Scroll Arrows and Scroll Boxes to help you navigate to any
place in the world.
On some computers there is a scrolling "joystick" in the lower-left corner of
the window. Clicking and clicking and holding on any of the arrows will scroll
the Display Area over the world in the direction that the arrow points.
Clicking on the blank space in the middle where there is no arrow doesn't do
anything, but you can click there if it makes you happy.
You can resize the Edit Window by clicking and dragging the Size Box in the
lower-right corner of the window.
THINGS IN THE DISPLAY AREA
In the Diplay Area, you will see: Land (in 16 levels of altitude), Water,
Plants, Animals and Artifacts.
Artifacts are special items you can place in the ecosystem such as barriers,
Ultra-Food food sources, toxins and mutagens.
DRAWING ORDER
Often more than one "thing" will occupy a place at a time even though only one
can be seen at a time. Things are drawn on the screen in the order below, from
top to bottom:
1. Temperature or Moisture Layers (only when turned on)
2. Animals
3. Plants
4. Artifacts
5. Water
6. Altitude
Turning off different layers in either the Edit Window Control Panel or the
Simulation Menu can help clear the clutter.
[PAGE: 106]
THE EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL
This control panel graphically displays the passage of time, controls what
data is shown in the Display Area, and provides all the tools you will need to
modify the land and environment.
As shown here, it is a vertical panel on the left side of the Edit Window. On
some computers it is a horizontal panel at the top of the screen, integrated
with the Dashboard.
An indicator that tells which tool is currently active in the Edit Window can
be found in the Dashboard.
[PAGE: 107]
TIME DISPLAY
This display shows the passage of time. The sun and moon cycle showing day and
night. At the peak of each lunar circle, and icon depicting the current season
is displayed.
Below the sun and moon is a digital clock that displays the Tick, Day and
Year.
A tick is the amount of time it takes your computer to completely calculate
one simulation cycle. The actual (real-time) duration of a tick varies with
the speed of your computer.
The number of ticks per day and days per year varies with the different
scenarios, and can be customized for different experiments.
Each year is divided up into four equally lengthed seasons: summer, fall,
winter and spring.
TEMPERATURE TOOL
The Temperature tool controls the display of temperature data in the Edit
Window and lets you modify the local temperature.
To toggle the display of the temperature layer in the Edit Window on and off,
click anywhere on the button. The words "on" or "off" will appear below the
temperature icon, indicating... well, you know.
The temperature is displayed as colored or shaded squares. A color key to
help you interpret the temperature can be found in the Map Window Control
Panel when the temperature display is active in the Map Window.
Turning off the temperature display does not affect the actual temperature in
the simulation, only whether or not it is shown in the Edit Window.
To raise or lower the temperature in a specific area of the ecosystem, click
on the up or down arrows on either side of the temperature icon, then click,
[PAGE: 108]
click and hold, or click and drag in the display area. After you have adjusted
the temperature up or down, it will still vary with the seasons.
If you want to raise or lower the temperature in a very small area (a cell or
tile, the size of one plant or animal), hold down the Option key while you
click. If your keyboard doesn't have and Option key, use the Control key.
When the cursor is in the Edit Window Display Area and the temperature tool is
active, it will appear as as thermometer.
Seeing the temperature display can help you understand you ecosystem's climate
and discover reasons why different plants or animals thrive or die in
different areas.
Adjusting the temperature directly affects the local plant life and indirectly
affects the animals. By raising or lowering the temperature in one (or more)
section(s) of a world, you can have two or more ecosystems existing
side-by-side for comparison experiments.
If you change the temperature slowly over a period of many years you might be
able to track the genetic changes of the local plant life as it adapts to its
changing environment.
MOISTURE TOOL
The Moisture tool controls the display of moisture data in the Edit Window,
and lets you modify the local moisture in the air.
In SimLife, moisture is the combination of humidity and rainfall - all the
water that stays in or passes through the atmosphere.
To toggle the display of the Mositure layer in the EditWindow on and off,
click anywhere on the button. The words "on" or "off" will appear below
the moisture icon, indicating... I'll give you two guesses.
[PAGE: 109]
Moisture is displayed as colored or shaded squares. A color key to help
you interpret the moisture can be found in the Map Window Control Panel when
the moisture display is active in the Map Window.
Turning off the moisture display does not affect the simulation, only whether
or not it is shown in the Edit Window.
To raise or lower the moisture in a specific area of the ecosystem, click
on the up or down arrows, respectively, to either side of the moisture
icon, then click, click and hold, or click and drag in the display area.
After you have adjusted the moisture up or down, it will still vary with the
seasons.
If you want to raise or lower the moisture in a very small area (a cell or
tile, the size of one plant or animal), hold down the Option key while you
click. If your keyboard doesn't have an option key, use the Control key.
When the cursor is in the Edit Window Display Area and the moisture tool is
active, it will appear as a water drop.
Seeing the moisture display can help you understand your ecosystem's climate,
and discover reasons why different plants or animals thrive or die in
different areas.
Adjusting the moisture directly affects the local plant life and inderectly
affects the animals. If you change the moisture slowly over a period of
many years you may be able to track the genetic changes of the local plant
life as its adapts to its changing environment.
ALTITUDE TOOL
The Altitude tool controls the display of altitude data in the Edit Window
and lets you rais or lower the land.
To toggle the display of the altitude layer in the EditWindow on and off,
click anywhere on the button. The words "on" or "off" will appear below the
altitude icon, indicating... I'll let you figure it out.
[PAGE: 110]
The altitude is displayed as a range of colors or shades, from dark to light
as altitude increases. A color key to help you interpret the altitude can be
found in the Map Window Control Panel when the altitude display is active in
the Map Window.
TUrning off the altitude display does not affect the simulation, only
whether or not it is shown in the Edit Window.
TO raise or lower the land in a specific area of the ecosystem, click on the
up or down arrows on either side of the altitude icon, then click, click and
hold, or click and drag in the display area.
When the cursor is in the Edit Window Display Area and the altitude tool is
active, it will appear as a mountain.
Seeing the altitude display can help you understand you ecosystem's climate,
and discover reasons why different plants or animals thrive or die in
different areas.
LIFE TOOL
The Life tool is a multi-function tool that gives you the capabilities of
displaying, placing, marking, moving, cloning, smiting and inspecting
any organism in the ecosystem.
Click on the small On/Off button below the icon to turn on and off the display
of all life in the ecosystem.
Click and hold on the Life icon to see a pop-up menu of all the capabilities
of this tool.
Click quickly on the Life icon to reselect the previous submenu choice
without opening the submenu.
[PAGE: 111]
POPULATE
Populate lets you add plants or animals to the ecosystem.
When Populate is active, the cursor will appear as a DNA spiral. Clicking
or clicking and dragging will place the Selected Species into the ecosystem.
To change the Selected Species, see the section on the Dashboard above.
There are places where you cannot place a new organism. You can't place a
plant on a plant, or an animal on an animal. Sometimes when you place an
organism, you cannot see it any more. That's usually because there is
something else in that spot that has drawing priority, i.e., animals are drawn
over plants, etc. A complete explanation of drawing order is given in the Edit
Window Display Area section above.
SMITE
Smite lets you remove individual plants or animals from the world. When Smite
is active, the cursor becomes a lightning bolt. Click on any life-form to end
its miserable existence (or enjoyable existence, if you want to feel guilty).
To remove an entire species, see the Populate Window below.
MOVE
Move lets you drag an individual plant or animal to another location. When
Move is active, the cursor becomes a hand. Click and drag to move any organism
to another place.
When moving an organism, you can't place a plant on a plant or an animal
on an animal. If you place an organism and cannot see it any more, it's
because something else in that spot has drawing priority, i.e., animals are
drawn over plants, etc.
CLONE
Clone lets you make a copy of an existing plant or animal. When Clone is
active, the cursor becomes a double set of DNA spirals. Click and hold on any
[PAGE: 112]
organism, then drag the cursor to a new location and release the mouse
button.
If you hold down the Option key (or Control key on computers with no Option
key) while cloning, the clone will mutate. For more information on mutations,
see the section on Mutation below.
When cloning an organism, you cannot place a plant on a plant or an animal
on an animal. If you place an organism and can't see it any more, it's
because something else in that spot has drawing priority, i.e., animals are
drawn over plants, etc.
THE CARROT (RECRUIT)
The Carrot is for calling individual animals. When the Carrot is active, the
cursor will appear as a carrot. While the Carrot is active, and you click
and hold (for a while) in the display area, the animals of the Selected
Species (the one listed in the middle section of the Dashboard) will try
to go to where you click.
To change the Selected Species, see the section on the Dashboard above.
If you hold down the Option key (or Control key if your keyboard has no
Option key) and click, only the highlighted animal will be called to your
click.
This tool is useful for separating individuals or groups so it is easier to
move, clone, relocate or otherwise play with them.
HIGHLIGHT
Highlight lets you mark a plant or animal. When Highlight is active, the
cursor becomes a highlighted box. Click on any organism to highlight it.
When you highlight an organism, it becomes the Selected Species. When Auto
Tracking is active in the Goodies submenu of the Simulation Menu, the screen
will scroll so the highlighted organism stays in view.
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SHOW GENES
Show Genes allows you to inspect the genes of any individual plant or animal.
When Show Genes is active, the cursor will appear as a DNA spiral and pencil.
Click on any organism to bring up the Genome Window.
This is the one place in SimLife when you can inspect and modify the genes
of one individual organism instead of the species prototype.
The Genome Window is explained in detail below.
SHOW VARIABLES
Show Variables allows you to inspec the simulation variables of any
individual plant or animal. These variables are the non-genetic information
that is different for each organism and that changes throughout its life,
including health, age, height, weight, etc.
When Show Variables is active, the cursor will appear as a slider control.
Click on any organism to bring up the Variables Window. The Variables
Window is explained in detail below.
SHOW PHENOTYPE
Show Phenotype bring up a small window displaying the "flash card" image of
any plant or animal. When Show Phenotype is active, the cursor will appear as
an eye. Click on any organism to see its flash card picture.
The Phenotype Window is explained in detail below.
SPECIATE
Speciate lets you grab an individual organism from one species and change it
into another species in a number of ways.
When Speciate is active, the cursor will appear as a sort of triangle of three
boxes, representing "two descended from one." Click on any organism to open
the Speciate Window. The Speciate Window is explained in detail below.
[PAGE: 114]
WATER TOOL
The Water tool toggles on and off the display of water in the Edit Window, and
lets you add or remove water from the ecosystem.
Click on the small On/Off button below the icon to turn on and off the display
off all water in the ecosystem.
When the Water tool is active, the cursor says H2O. Click or click and drag
the cursor on land to turn it into water. Click or click and drag on water to
turn it into land.
Use this tool to customize landforms, enlarge or remove lakes and isolate
groups of land animals. You can also make islands and moats, and spell your
name in a river.
FOOD TOOL
The Food tool lets you place or remove Ultra-Food sources anywhere you want.
This food will feed any animal an unlimited supply of whatever it needs to
survive. This is especially useful in newer ecosystems that haven't had time
for plants to spread, or when the food chain has been broken.
When the Food tool is active, the cursor becomes a shopping cart.
Ultra-Food sources last forever and provide an unlimited amount of food to all
animals that approach them.
BARRIER TOOL
The Barrier tool lets you put down impenetrable barriers in the ecosystem that
only flying organisms can cross.
When the Barrier tool is active, the cursor becomes a pile of rocks. Click
anywhere on land or water to place a barrier.
Barriers are useful for dividing populations into isolated groups. You can
then expose each group to different environmental pressures and track the
divergent evolution in the different groups.
[PAGE: 115]
Since flying organisms can cross barriers, to isolate them you'll have to use
the altitude tool and make very high mountains.
TOXIN TOOL
The Toxin tool lets you palce a deadly poison into the ecosystem. This poison
will decreas an organism's health when it is directly adjacent to it.
When the Toxin tool is active, the cursor becomes a skull and crossbones
Click or click and drag in the Edit Window to place toxins.
[PAGE: 116]
If you place a toxin on top of a creature, the creature will be drawn on top
of the toxin. You may want to temporarily turn off the life layer when placing
toxins.
MUTAGEN TOOL
The Mutagen tool allows you to place material in the ecosystem that will raise
the odds of mutations occuring in nearby plants and animals.
When the Mutagen tool is active, the cursor becomes the radiation symbol.
Click or click and drag in the Edit Window to place mutagens.
If you place a mutagen on top of a creature, the creature will be drawn on top
of the mutagen. You may want to temporarily turn off the life layer when
placing mutagens.
A detailed description of Mutation is found below in the Reference section.
HELP
Click and hold on the Help button to see an on-screen reminder of what
each button in the Edit Window Control Panel does.
THE JOYSTICK
This is a simulated joystick to scroll the area that is displayed in the Edit
Window. Clicking or clicking and holding on any of the arrows will scroll the
Display Area over the world in the direction the arrow points.
[PAGE: 117]
MAP WINDOW
The Map Window is a satellite view of the entire world. It is where you
get an overview of the status of your ecosystem, garner information on the
environment and soil quality, and check the location of various objects and
organisms. It is also the launching site for mass-populating the ecosystem
and building new worlds.
The Map Window can be opened or activated by selecting Map in the Windows
Menu or by clicking on the Map icon on the Dashboard.
Note: on some computers, the Map Window Control Panel is found at the top
of the screen, integrated with the Dashboard. See your machine-specific
addendum for details.
[PAGE: 118]
MAP WINDOW TITLE BAR
The Map Window Title Bar displays the scenario name, or the world name if you
bulid one of your own.
The Map Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar. Clicking on the Close Box on the left side of the Title Bar makes
the Map Window go away.
DISPLAY AREA
The Map Window Display Area is the actual map of your world. Because of the
scale of the map, objects, items and organisms in it are tiny and are
represented by colored or shaded dots or areas.
Many of the objects can be recognized by the color keys or indicators in the
Map Window Control Panel. Organisms can be identified by their color as shown
on the Dashboard.
EDIT RECTANGLE
Somewhere in the Map Window Display Area is the Edit Rectangle. This rectangle
circumscribes the area of the map that is currently visible in the Edit
Window.
Clicking anywhere on the map will cause the Edit Rectangle to center to center
itself around the cursor. You can also click and drag the Edit Rectangle.
When the Edit Rectangle is moved, the Edit Window will change to display the
new area in the rectangle.
Double-clicking in the Edit Rectangle brings the Edit Window to the front.
THE MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL
The Map Window Control Panel is filled with buttons that control what is
viewed in the map. The display controls do not affect the world or the
simulation in any way, just what you see at a particular time.
There are two different types of display controls: multi-level displays - only
one (or none) of which can be displayed at a time, and single level
[PAGE: 119]
displays - any or all of which can be displayed at a time. When applicable,
a color key will appear near the middle of the Map Window Control Panel to
help you interpret the multi-level data.
There are also two buttons that open the related Populate and World Design
Windows.
SOIL DEPTH
Soil Depth shows the depth, and therefore (in SimLife at least), the quality
of the soil. It is a multi-level display, and cannot be displayed at the
same time as any other multi-level display.
A color/shade key to help you interpret soil depth will appear near the
middle of the Map Window Control Panel.
The deeper the soil, the better the conditions and the more nutrients there
are for plants. New worlds will have shallow soil, but as plants grow and die,
they increase the depth. There will always be at least some good soil in
new worlds, especially near water sources.
Soil will erode if there are no plants on it.
FILTER FEEDER FOOD
Filter Feeder Food shows the amount of food available for the filterfeeding
animals such as crustaceans and whales in the ocean, and spiders, insect-
eating birds and anteaters on the land. It is a multi-level display, and
cannot be displayed at the same time as any other multi-level display.
Filter food consists of plants and animals in the ocean, the soil and the
air that range from microscopic size to the size of large insects. Filter
food is at the bottom of the food chain.
Filter food concentrates in shallow water and on shorelines, where it can
get nutrients from the nearby soil yet still receive sunlight. Since it
requires sunlight, the amount of filter feeder food will vary with the
seasons.
[PAGE: 120]
A color/shade key to help you interpret the available filter feeder food will
appear near the middle of the Map Window Control Panel.
TEMPERATURE
Temperature shows the air temperature in the world. It is a multi-level
display, and cannot be displayed at the same time as any other multi-level
display.
A color/shade key to help you interpret the temperature will appear near
the middle of the Map Window Control Panel.
Temperature changes with the seasons and directly affects plants and
indirectly affects animals.
MOISTURE
Moisture shows the amount of moisture in the world. It is a multi-level
display, and cannot be displayed at the same time as any other multi-level
display.
A color/shade key to help you interpret humidity will appear near the middle
of the Map Window Control Panel.
Moisture includes both humidity in the air and precipitation, and changes
with the seasons. The presence of plants increases moisture. As moisture
increases, plant-growing conditions improve so more plants can grow. This in
turn attracts and feeds more animals and increases soil depth.
ALTITUDE
Altitude shows the height of the land in the world. It is a multi-level
display, and cannot be displayed at the same time as any other multi-level
display.
A color/shade key to help you interpret altitude will appear near the middle
of the Map Window Control Panel.
[PAGE: 121]
The altitude of a new world affects the climate. (See The World Building
Process in Miscellaneous Simstuff at the end of this section for more info.)
Also, only animals with climbing capability can move up or down steep slopes.
LIFE
Life toggles on and off the display of plants and animals on the map. This
is a single-level display, and can be viewed along with one of the multi-
level displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
See the Dashboard to find out what colors represent which organisms.
WATER
Water toggles on and off the display of all water on the map. This is a
single-level display, and can be viewed along with one of the multi-level
displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
BARRIERS
Barriers toggles on and off the display of any barriers on the map. This is
a single-level display, and can be viewed along with one of the multi-level
displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
TOXINS
Toxins toggles on and off the display of any toxin deposits on the map.
This is a single-level display, and can be viewed along with one of the
multi-level displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
MUTAGENS
Mutagens toggles on and off the display of mutation-causing agents on the
map. This is single-level display, and can be viewed along with one of the
multi-level displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
FOOD SOURCES
Food Sources toggles on and off the display of any Ultra-Food food sources on
the map. This is a single-level display, and can be viewed along with one
of the multi-level displays and any or all of the other single-level displays.
[PAGE: 122]
TRAILS
Trails toggles on and off the display of the trails that animals follow on
the map, so their foraging movements can be observed. This is a single-level
display, and can be viewed along with one of the multi-level displays and
any or all of the other single-level displays.
Trails, like all other data layers, exist even when their display is turned
off. Trails are used by animals to find or avoid each other for eating or
mating, or because of genetic attraction or avoidance.
Animals can sense and follow other animals' trails. This is the SimLife
equivalent to vision and is controlled by the vision gene.
HELP
Click and hold on the Help button to see an on-screen reminder of what each
button in the Map Window Control Panel does.
POPULATE BUTTON
Populate... opens the Populate Window so you can add plants or animals to the
world. A complete explanation of the Populate Window can be found below.
You can hold down the Option key (or the Control Key if your keyboard has no
Option key) while clicking on the Populate button to randomly populate the
world with plants and animals.
Build World Button
Build World... opens the World Desing Window so you can create a new world. A
complete explanation of the World Design Window can be found below.
[PAGE: 123]
POPULATE WINDOW
The Populate Window lets you add or delete plants and animals to or from the
world in large numbers, as opposed to the Edit Window, where you can only add
or remove one organism at a time.
The Populate Window can be reached through the Populate button in the Map
Window Control Panel, and through the Goodies submenu in the Simulation Menu.
The basic process of populating the world is to first select a species (or
group of species), and pick a number of organisms to be added or deleted.
Next, choose whether to add the species (either as a group or scattered all
over the world) or delete the species. Then decide whether the organisms
should be put on the land or in the water or both. And last, instruct the
computer to "Make It So."
SELECTED SPECIES
The Selected Species is the type of plant or animal you want to add or remove.
It will default to the Selected Species in the Dashboard.
To change the Selected Species, click and hold on the arrow button to open a
submenu of all available plants and animals, then slide the cursor to the one
you want. In addition to individual species, you can also select either All
Plants or All Animals.
When you change the Selected Species in the Populate Window, it will also
change in the Dashboard.
NUMBER
This is the number of organisms to be added or deleted. If you have chosen All
Plants or All Animals as the Selected Species, then this number of each
species will be added.
To adjust the number, click or click and hold on the up or down arrows, or
highlight the number and type in a new one.
[PAGE: 124]
ADD A GROUP
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be added to the world
in a group.
ADD SCATTERED
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be spread all over
the world when it is added.
KILL OFF
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be removed from the
world.
ON THE LAND
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be placed on dry land
when it is added to the world.
IN THE WATER
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be placed in the
water when it is added to the world.
ANYWHERE
Click on this button if you want the Selected Species to be placed randomly on
both land and water when it is added to the world.
NEVER MIND
Click on this button if you wish to leave the Populate Window without adding
or deleting any organisms.
MAKE IT SO
Click on this button when you are happy with all the settings above. The
Selected Species will be added or deleted and the Populate Window will close.
HELP
Click and hold on the Help button to see on-screen help for this window.
[PAGE: 125]
WORLD DESIGN WINDOW
The World Design Window lets you create new worlds to suit your whims or the
needs of your experiments. It can be reached through the Build World button in
the Map Window Control Panel, and through the Goodies submenu in the
Simulation Menu.
The basic process of world design is to first choose settings for climate,
rivers and mountains, the decide which and how many artifacts you want in the
world then pick a size for the world, name it and "Make It So."
Most of the settings involve slider controls. To adjust them, click and drag
the arrows.
There are four possible world sizes. When choosing world sizes, keep in mind
the speed of your computer (larger worlds run slower), the amount of RAM you
have (larger worlds take more memory), and the particular experiment you are
designing. Larger world sizes are not available on some computers while in
black and white mode.
REGIONAL WEATHER VARIATION
This adjustment controls the variations in temperature and moisture in your
ecosystem's climate. When set to high, the seasonal changes in both
temperature and moisture will be high. When set to low, the ecosystem will
have very little difference between seasons.
WORLD AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
This adjustment sets the average, or center point around which the seasonsal
temperature variations vary.
WORLD AVERAGE MOISTURE
This adjustment sets the average, or center point around which the seasonal
moisture variations vary.
[PAGE: 126]
RIVERS AND LAKES
This adjustment sets the amount of the ecosystem that is covered by water. It
ranges from none to many, which will cover the entire world except for the
highest mountain peaks. If you set the Rivers and Lakes to many and mountains
to none in the adjustment below, you can create an ocean-only ecosystem.
MOUNTAINS
This adjustment sets the amount of mountains that will be generated in the
ecosystem.
TOXINS
This adjustment sets the amount of toxins that will appear scattered around
the new world when it is generated. These can be set from none to many.
MUTAGENS
This adjustment sets the amount of mutagens that will appear scattered around
the new world when it is generated. These can be set from none to many.
FOOD SOURCES
This adjustment sets the amount of Ultra-Food Food Sources that will appear
scattered around the world when it is generated. These can be set from none to
many.
BARRIERS
This adjustment sets the amount of Barriers that will appear scattered around
the new world when it is generated. These can be set from none to many.
NEW WORLD NAME
This is where you enter the name for the new world.
[PAGE: 127]
TINY
Click on this button to generate a tiny world, which will be 32 x 64 tiles.
SMALL
Click on this button to generater a small world, which will be 64 x 128 tiles.
MEDIUM
Click on this button to generate a medium-sized world, which will be 128 x 256
tiles.
LARGE
Click on this button to generate a large world, which will be 256 x 512 tiles.
NEVER MIND
Click here if you want to exit the World Design Window without building a new
world.
MAKE IT SO
Click here when you are satisfied with all the settings and want to exit this
window and proceed with building a new world.
HELP
Click and hold on the Help button to see on-screen help for this window.
[PAGE: 128]
BIOLOGY LAB
The Biology Lab is a multi-level window for inspecting and modifying existing
plant and animal species, and designing and creating new ones. It can be
reached either through the Biology Lab item in the Windows Menu or through the
Biology Lab icon in the Dashboard. You can also open the Biology Lab directly
to the second (edit) level by double clicking on an organisms icon in the
Dashboard.
The Biology Lab can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar. It will go away if you click in the Close Box.
BIOLOGY LAB AT SELECT LEVEL
The first level of the Biology Lab is for selecting an organism to work with.
The second level is for editing, where you modify the organism and/or its
icon. From the second level you can open the Genome Window and inspect or
manipulate the organism's genetic code.
[PAGE: 129]
PROTOTYPES AND INDIVIDUALS
In the Biology Lab, you can only edit the Prototype (the genetic starting
point) of a species.
To edit the genes of an individual organism, you will have to select the
individual in the Edit Window with the Show Genes function of the Life Tool
and do the editing in the Genome Window.
SELECT LEVEL
Here you select an existing species to edit, copy, delete or save. You can
also create a new plant or animal species, or load in previously saved
species, individually or in groups (zoos). Once you have gone from here to the
Edit Level and modified a species, return here to save your changes.
SELECTED SPECIES
This is the species that is ready for editing, copying, etc. Icons of all
possible species are displayed on the right side of the window. To select a
new Seleted Species, click its icon. Changing the Selected Species here
changes it in all windows.
EDIT
Click here to move to the Edit level of the Biology Lab so you can inspect or
modify the Selected Species.
COPY
Click here to make a copy of the Selected Species that you can then edit and
save.
DELETE
Click here to remove the Selected Species from the current world. Deleting a
species will not remove it from the disk or prevent you from using it in
another world.
SAVE
Click here to save you edited species to disk for later use.
[PAGE: 130]
Warning: If you edit any of the plants and animals that come with
SimLife, you should save them under different names or in different
folders or directories than the originals so you can go back to the
originals at a later time. Whatever you do, don't save over the
original plants and animals on the original disks. Protect your zoo!
NEW PLANT
Click here to go to the Edit Level of the Biology Lab to create a new plant.
NEW ANIMAL
Click here to go to the Edit Level of the Biology Lab to create a new animal.
SAVE ALL PLANTS
Click here to save all the currently defined plants to disk in a single file.
These plants can all be loaded in at once by using the Load A Zoo button.
SAVE ALL ANIMALS
Click here to save all the currently defined animal species to disk in a
single file. These animals can all be loaded in at once by using the Load A
Zoo button.
DELETE ALL PLANTS
Click here to remove all plants from the world. This only removes them from
the current world in the current experiment or scenario; it does not remove
them from the disk or prevent them from being used in other worlds or
scenarios.
DELETE ALL ANIMALS
Click here to remove all animals from the world. This only removes them from
the current world in the current experiment or scenario; it does not remove
them from the disk or prevent them from being used in other worlds or
scenarios.
[PAGE: 131]
LOAD A SPECIES
Click here to open a dialog box or requester to load in a previously saved
plant or animal.
LOAD A ZOO
Click here to open a dialog box or requester to load in a previously saved
Zoo file. A Zoo is a group of plants or animals saved together by using the
Save All Plants or Save All Animals button.
EDIT LEVEL
The Edit Level of the Biology Lab lets you easily modify or design organisms,
as well as draw or change icons for the organisms and make a few basic genetic
manipulations.
When you edit at the Edit Level, you can never edit one individual member of a
species. You can only edit the prototype of the species.
You can get to the Edit Level from the Select Level by selecting a species
from the icons and then clicking on the Edit button, by double-clicking on a
Selet Level plant or animal icon, or by clicking either the New Plant or New
Animal buttons.
You can also edit a species by double-clicking on the species' icon on the
Dashboard. Whenever you start a new plant or animal, you will be editing the
entire species.
[PAGE: 132]
The Edit Level of the Biology Lab is slightly different for animals and
plants.
NAME
This is a display of the name of the Selected Species.
RENAME
Click here to open a dialog box or requester that allows you to rename the
current species.
FLASH CARDS
The flash cards give you a simple way to modify or design an organism.
These flash card pictures are not actually representative of how the organism
looks. SimLife organisms are electronic and look like a matrix of ones and
zeros manifested as energy levels in transistor switches in the memory of your
computer. Since we humans can't see energy levels in transistors, we've put
these flash cards into SimLife as a pictorial analogy: a way to think of these
organisms in familiar terms, to relate them to combinations of plants and
animals we are familiar with.
The pictures of the flash cards were chosen and drawn to help you understand
how the animal fits into the environment. Looking at these pictures, it is
fairly easy to figure out the organism's food, brain size, method of movement,
etc.
[PAGE: 133]
Each SimLife organism is represented by a combination of three pictures. Each
of these pictures represents at least two genetic factors. To change the
pictures, click on the up or down arrows above or to the left of the pictures.
As you "flip" through the flash cards, a text description of the organism will
appear below the pictures.
Designing organisms through the flash cards is somewhat limited. These
creatures will only have one food source, one type of seed, one method of
motion, etc. To add abilities to your creature, you can enter the Genome
Window and fine-tune its genetic code.
Note: You can flip through the flash cards all you want without
messing up your organism. The changes you make to the flash cards
don't actually affect the organism until you click on the Change
Prototype Genome to Match Picture button, as explained below.
The flash cards for plants are arranged vertically.
The top card has eight possible pictures, which represent two factors: the
presence or absence of nectar and the four seed types (sticky, dropping,
drifting or fruit).
The middle card has 18 possible pictures, which represent three factors:
deciduous or evergreen, evaporation rate (dry, normal or humid) and structure
(grass, tree or shrub).
The bottom card has eight possible pictures, which represent three factors,
all of which deal with the plant's germination: floating or nonfloating seeds,
sprouting temperature (high or low) and sprouting moisture (high or low).
[PAGE: 134]
The flash cards for animals are arranged horizontally.
The left card, the front of the animal, has 18 possible pictures, which
represent two factors: the food source (nectar, plants, animals, fruit, filter
or seeds) and the intelligence (large, medium or small).
The middle card has 20 possible pictures, which represent two factors: method
of movement (walk, climb, swim or fly) and preferred environment (ocean,
jungle, plains, mountain or desert).
The right card, the rear of the animal, has six possible pictures, which
represent two factors: gestation size and time (small, medium or large) and
litter size (1-2 or 4-8).
GENE POOL DIVERSITY
This slider sets the genetic spread-the amount of variance in the genes-of a
species when you add it to the world through the Populate Window or with the
Populate function of the Life Tool in the Edit Window. From then on, genetic
diversity is in the hands of natural selection and the species' genetic
algorithm.
MATING DIFFERENCE
This slider control sets the limits on how different the genetic code of two
individuals of two species can be, while still allowing them to mate.
% GENES FROM FATHER
This slider controls the amount of genes the offspring receives from the
father. The rest of the genes come from the mother. This slider has no effect
in asexual species.
ICON SECTION
Here you can change or edit the icons that represent the existing creatures,
and choose or create new icons for new creatures.
There are differences in the icon section for plants and animals.
[PAGE: 135]
Plant Icons
Each plant needs four icons that represent the four stages of plant life:
seed, with flowers, with leaves (but no flowers) and with no leaves. You can
either choose from the included icons or draw on your own. You can also choose
icons, then edit them yourself.
To choose a set of plant icons, click and hold on the Icons button to open a
submenu of 32 predrawn plants, then slide the cursor to the one you want and
release the mouse button.
The submenu only shows one of the icons-leaves, no flowers-but all four icons
are there.
The icon drawing process is simple:
* Choose the icon you want to draw or change, then click on it.
* Click on the color in the pallette you want to draw with.
* Click or click and drag in the drawing area. R.Y.G.A.R.-(c) 1993 !!!
If you make a mistake, you can undo your last drawing action by clicking on
the Undo button, or selecting Undo in the Edit Menu.
[PAGE: 136]
Since different stages of the plant's life may look very similar, you can:
* Draw one stage.
* Select the Copy Icon item in the Edit Menu.
* Click on another icon.
* Select the Paste Icon item in the Edit Menu
* Make any changes as necessary.
There is also a Clear button. Use this to completely clear an icon if you want
to start over.
Animal Icons
There are four icons for each animal, but only two that you can draw or
change. There are two stages of life represented by animal icons: child and
adult. Since animals move, you'll need two child and two adult icons facing in
different directions.
You can either choose from the included icons or draw your own. You can also
choose icons, then edit them yourself.
[PAGE: 137]
To choose a set of animal icons, click and hold on the Icons button to open a
submenu of 64 predraws animals, then slide the cursor to the one you want and
release the mouse button.
The submenu only shows the adult icons in one direction, but all four icons
are there.
The icon drawing process for animals is even simpler than for plants: you
don't have to draw the "flipped" icons-they are automatically generated for
you.
* Choose either the left adult or the left child icon and click on it.
* Click on the color in the pallette you want to draw with.
* Click or click and drag in the drawing area.
If you make a mistake, you can undo your last drawing action by clicking on
the Undo button, or by selecting Undo in the Edit Menu.
Since the two stages of the animal's life look very similar, you can:
* Draw one stage.
* Select the Copy Icon item in the Edit Menu.
* Click on another icon.
* Select the Paste Icon item in the Edit Menu.
* Make any changes as necessary.
There is also a Clear button. Use this to completely clear an icon if you want
to start over.
[PAGE: 138]
BIOLOGY LAB BUTTONS
At the lower-left corner of the Biology Lab are seven buttons. Many of these
buttons are very powerful and can drastically alter the gene pool of an entire
species, so a warning message will appear to give you a chance to back out.
Return to Select Level
Click here to return to the Select Level so you can save the current species
and/or edit another.
Change Picture to Match Prototype Genome
Click here to update the picture to match any changes you have made to the
species prototype in the Genome Window.
Change Prototype Genome to Match Picture
Click here to change the genetic code for the prototype species to match the
flash card picture. You can flip through the flash cards all you want, and it
won't affect the genetic code until you click on this button.
Edit Species Genome
Click this button to open the Genome Window for the Selected Species.
Make Population Match Prototype Genome
Click here to update the genetic code of the entire population of the Selected
Species to match the genetic code of the currently selected species'
Prototype.
This is a deceptively powerful button that goes way beyond the capabilities of
today's biological science. In the world we live in, you can make changes to
an organism's genetic code, but the changes won't be noticeable until a future
generation-the organism won't re-form itself to match the new code.
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This tool in SimLife not only changes the genetic code of a whole population
of organisms, it instantly updates the population physically, mentally or
whateverly to match its new genetic code. If you add the ability to fly to the
Prototype and push this button, the whole population of this species will
instantly grow wings.
Make Prototype Genome Match Population
Click here to change the Prototype of the organism being edited to match the
current population of that species.
Help
Click and hold on the Help button to see an on-screen reminder of what each
button in the Biology Lab does.
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GENOME WINDOWS
There are actually two Genome Windows: one for animals and one for plants.
These windows display the entire genetic code for any species or individual
organism and allow you to change, modify, manipulate or redesign the organisms
at the genetic level.
The Genome Window can be opened from the Biology Lab by clicking on the Edit
Species Genome button or from the Edit Window by using the Life Tool in Show
Genes mode and clicking on an organism.
When you enter the Genome Window through the Biology Lab you will be looking
at the prototype genome for the whole species. When you enter from the Edit
Window you will be looking at the genome for the individual that you clicked
on.
The Genome Window both consists of a number of slider controls, on/off
switches and drop-down menu choices. Designing or modifying organisms at the
genetic level is actually a lot easier than it looks-once you understand what
each of the genes does.
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when designing an organism is
this: There is no free lunch. Even in SimLife. The price you pay is in energy
consumption. If you create an animal that can climb and swim and fly, and it's
large and fast and strong and has sharp vision and powerful weapons, it will
require so much energy to survive that it probably couldn't eat enough to stay
alive even if it lived in a supermarket. As you design or modify an organism,
keep an eye on the Energy Requirement Bar near the lower-right corner of the
window. (It will be explained in detail below.)
The genome only contains the potentials for the animal. There are a number of
factors or variables for each individual animal that change with time. These
variables include current health, weight, age, current food and water storage,
etc., and can be found in the Variables Window as described below.
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HELP
At any time in this window you can click and hold on the name of any gene or
group of genes for a pop-up explanation of what the gene does.
TITLE SECTION
This part of the Genome Window displays the name of the species or individual
organism currently being edited. If it is an individual organism, it will have
a number as part of its name.
GENDER
There are four possible settings for Gender: Female, Male, Asexual, and
Sterile. Click and hold the down-arrow button to reveal the Gender submenu,
then slide the cursor to the gender (or lack thereof) of your choice.
MOVEMENT
There are four ways animals can move. They can walk, climb, swim or fly. The
different methods of movement require differing amounts of energy: swimming
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takes the least, flying takes the most and walking and climbing are somewhere
in the middle. Of course, you can go to the Laws of Physics Window (see below)
and change the energy it takes to do these things.
Clicking on the button to the left of each method of movement toggles it on
and off for the animal being edited. Animals can be made capable of more than
one type of movement, but the more skills and abilities an animal has, the
more energy it requires.
If all types of movement are turned off, the animal will just sit in one
place-like an anemone.
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FOOD SOURCES
In addition to Ultra-Food, there are six food sources that animals can eat:
nectar, plants, animals, fruit, filter food (plankton and near-microscopic
plants and animals in the sea, soil and air) and seeds.
Clicking on the button to the left of each food source toggles it on and off
for the animal being edited. Animals can be made capable of eating more than
one type of food, but more sources take more energy due to the more versatile
digestive system required to absorb the different materials.
BEHAVIOR
There are four slider controls, two drop-down menus and a series of icons and
buttons that define the animal's behavior. In SimLife, all behavior is geared
to foraging for food, finding a mate and fleeing enemies.
The Share Food slider deals with the social aspects of eating. If the slider
is all the way to the left, then the animal will hunt and eat alone, like the
tiger. If the slider is all the way to the right, then the animal has highly
developed social graces when it comes to food. These species will hunt or
gather together and share food with any member of their species.
The Roaming slider adjusts how often the animal will move when it doesn't
absolutely need to find food or water right away.
The Turning slider adjusts the number and severity of directional changes the
animal makes while moving.
The Persist slider controls how long a creature will follow a trail before
giving up and trying something else.
Turn Type is a pull-down menu that lets you choose between three types of
turning behaviors: zig-zag, looping and random.
Turn Angle is a pull-down menu that lets you choose between four severities of
turns that the animal can make: low, medium-low, medium-high and high. A high
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turn angle helps an animal thorougly explore a small area, while a low turn
angle allows an animal to hastily cover a larger territory.
The Prefer/Avoid/Ignore controls set what types of plants or animals your
current animal will be attracted to or repelled by.
You can choose up to eight organisms and set whether they attract or repel
your animal:
* Click on any of the buttons below the icons to toggle between
Prefer (+), Avoid (-) or Ignore (0).
* Click and hold on the icon above to reveal a submenu of all life-forms
* Slide the cursor to the plant or animal you want, then release the mouse
button.
Hint: it is a good idea not to have your animal be attracted to another animal
that will eat it.
Icons to the right take precedence in behavior conflicts, i.e., if an animal
comes into contact with one thing that it is attracted to and another thing
it is repelled by at the same time, it will react to the one whose icon is
farthes to the right.
LIFE
This section of the genetic code consists of two sliders and one pull-down
menu that deal with the animal's maturation rate and length of life.
Life Span is a slider control for adjusting the maximum life span of the
animal. This maximum life span is a percentage of the maximum life span in the
Laws of Physics Window.
Adult is the age, or point in the life span, where the animal reaches
maturity. Animals grow in size until they reach adult age.
Die-off is a pull-down menu with three choices for death age (die-off is
superceded by death due to starvation, dehydration or predation): immortal,
live to old age and live to medium age. Click and hold on the down-arrow
button to see the menu, then slide the cursor to your choice.
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When the setting is immortal, the animal will not die of natural causes.
When the setting is old age, the animal will live out its maximum life span.
When the setting is medium age, the animal will die somewhere between
maturity and maximum life span.
FEATURES
This section of the Genome Window consists of four slider controls that deal
with physical survival features, which require a lot of energy.
The Size slider controls the maximum size of the animal.
The Stealth slider controls the animal's ability to move silently and avoid
predators.
The Weapons slider controls the power of the animal's weapon (claws, teeth,
poisons, etc.).
The Vision slider controls the animal's visual acuity.
GESTATION
This section of the Genome Window consists of four sliders and one pull-down
menu that deal with the animal's reproductive system.
The Size slider controls the amount that the animal gains in size during
gestation, which directly relates to how much food/energy the animal needs to
reproduce.
The Time slider controls the amount of time the animal takes to produce
offspring.
The %Female slider controls the percentage of offspring that are female.
The Mutation slider controls the likelihood of the animal's offspring having
a mutation.
Number of Children is a pull-down menu that controls the number of offspring
the animal has each litter. Click and hold on the down-arrow button to reveal
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the menu, then slide the cursor to the number you want. The choices are 1,
2, 4 and 8 children per litter.
FOOD
This section of the Genome Window deals with the animal's food/energy stores.
The current values for food for any individual animal can be seen in the
Variables Window.
The Max slider adjusts the maximum food the animal can store in its body. A
high max setting allows stocking up of energy when it is plentiful, but
increases the animal's weight and slows it down.
The Action slider sets the food storage level that provokes the animal to
start looking for food.
The Danger slider sets the food storage level for when the animal does nothing
else but look for food.
WATER
This section of the Genome Window deals with the animal's water stores. The
current water values for any animal can be seen in the Variables Window.
The Max slider adjusts the maximum water the animal can store in its body. A
high max setting allows stocking up of water when it is plentiful, but
increases the animal's weight and slows it down.
The Action slider sets the water storage level that provokes the animal to
start looking for water.
The Danger slider sets the water storage level for when the animal does
nothing else but look for water.
HEALTH
This section of the Genome Window deals with the animal's overall health. The
current values for health for any animal can be seen in the Variables Window.
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The Max slider adjusts the maximum health level the animal can reach.
The Action slider sets the health level that causes the animal to start
resting to replenish its health.
The Danger slider sets the food storage level for when the animal does nothing
but sit still and save energy.
MAXIMUM SIZE BAR
As you design or modify an animal in this window, the Maximum Size Bar will
indicate how big your animal will have to be to hold all the features and
capabilities you are programming into it.
ENERGY REQUIREMENT BAR
As you design or modify an animal in this window, the Energy Requirement Bar
will indicate how much energy your animal will require to survive all the
features and capabilities you are programming into it.
The farther to the right this bar is, the more energy the animal needs to
survive. Try to keep this bar at 3/4 or less. If this bar gets all the way
to the right, the animal will need so much food to live it could starve in
the middle of dinner.
NEVER MIND
Click this button to leave the Genome Window without changes taking place.
MAKE IT SO
Click this button when you are happy with all the settings. All your changes
will be activated and the window will close.
HELP
At any time you can click and hold on the Help button or on any of the labels
or gene names to see on-screen help.
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THE PLANT GENOME
TITLE SECTION
This part of the Genome Window displays the name of the species or individual
plant currently being edited. If it is an individual organism, it will have a
number as part of its name.
GENDER
Gender is a pull-down menu with four choices for plants: Male, Female, Both
and Asexual. Click and hold on the down-arrow button to open the menu, then
slide the cursor to your choice and release the mouse button.
STRUCTURE
Structure is a pull-down menu with four choices for basic plant structure:
Tree, Shrub, Grass and Floating. Click and hold on the down-arrow button to
open the menu, then slide the cursor to your choice and release the mouse
button.
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SEEDS
Seeds is a pull-down menu with four choices for types of seeds your plant
can have: Sticky, Dropping, Drifting and Fruit. Click and hold on the down-
arrow button to open the menu, then slide the cursor to your choice and
release the mouse button.
SEASONS
Sprout Season is a pull-down menu with your choice of four seasons in which
your plant can sprout: Spring, SUmmer, Fall and Winter. Click and hold on the
down-arrow button to open the menu, then slide the cursor to your choice and
release the mouse button.
Flower Season will always be the season immediately following Sprout Season.
Seed Season will always be the season immediately following Flower Season.
SLIDERS
There are nine slider controls for adjusting various genetic characteristics
of your plant. All adjustments get higher as the slider moves from left to
right.
The Evaporation Rate slider controls the rate at which the plant loses water
to the atmosphere. The higher the evaporation rate, the faster it loses water
and the more water it needs to survive. Also, the higher the evaporation rate,
the faster the plant will grow.
The Sprout Moisture slider controls the amount of moisture required for the
plant's seeds to sprout.
The Sprout Temperature slider controls the temperature that must be reached in
sprouting season before the seed will sprout.
The Health slider sets the maximum health level for the plant. The higher the
health, the more resistant it is to toxins and the better it can survive
after being partially eaten by animals.
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The Food slider sets the maximum amount of food the plant can store.
The Water slider sets the maximum amount of water the plant can store.
The Mutation Rate slider controls the odds on how often mutation will occur
in new generations of this plant.
The Maximum Size slider controls the size limitations of the plant.
The Old Age slider controls how long the plant can live (barring accidents,
predation or disaster) before it loses the ability to reproduce.
BUTTONS
The Nectar button is a yes/no toggle that controls whether or not the plant
produces nectar.
The Evergreen button is a yes/no toggle that control whether or not the
plant is an evergreen.
Click on Never Mind if you want to leave the Plant Genome Window without any
changes taking place.
Click on Make It So when you are happy with all your settings. All your
changes will be activated and the window will close.
HELP
Click and hold on the Help button or on any slider or control names for
on-screen help.
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CLIMATE LAB
The Climate Lab lets you make changes to the climate of the current world. It
can be reached through the Climate Lab iten in the Windows Menu or through
the Climate Lab button in the Dashboard.
The Climate Lab can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar. It'll go away if you click in the Close Box.
Each of the three adjustable climatic aspects deal with variation throughout
the year and have two controls: a slider to set the amount of variation
and a drop-down menu to set the season where the variation reaches its peak.
Adjust the sliders by clicking and dragging the pointer. The variation
increases from left to right. To set the Peak Season, click and hold on the
down-arrow buttons to open a pull-down menu of the seasons, then slide the
cursor to the season of your choice and release the mouse button.
The right side of the window has a graph to visually depict the seasonal
variations for each setting.
DAY LENGTH VARIATION
This setting controls how much the amount of daylight per day changes
throughout the year. This affects the amount of sunlight plants get.
RAINFALL VARIATION
This setting controls the seasonal changes in rainfall (which is included
under the Humidity heading in the graphis and in most other windows).
TEMPERATURE VARIATION
This setting controls the seasonal changes in temperature.
HELP
You can get on-screen help by clicking and holding on the control names.
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GRAPHS WINDOW
The Graphs Window is a very versatile tool for extracting information from the
simulation. It can display 720 graphs in either of two time scales. Four
graphs can be displayed at a time.
The Graphs Window can be opened from the Windows Menu (it's in the Census
submenu) or through the Census button on the Dashboard.
The Graphs Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging
the Title Bar. It will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" that marks the Graphs Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons.
You can click on these arrows to cycle forwards and backwards through all
the Census Windows.
To the left of the up and down arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on
this button to see a brief explanation of what this window does and how it
works.
[PAGE: 153]
TIME SCALE
There are two available time scales in which the graphs can be displayed,
50 years or 50 days. Click on the Days or Years buttons to change time scales.
GRAPH SELECTORS
There are four graph selectors, each of which can be used to choose any
graph - or no graph - to display. Each selector is assigned a color or shade.
The words in the selector and the corresponding graph will appear in this
color or shade.
Selecting a graph to display is a two-step process: first select a species,
then select the information.
THE LOCAL SPECIES
The Local Species of the graph is the plant or animal whose information is
graphed. The Local Species can be any plant or animal, or all plants or all
animals at once. When this species is selected, it is active in the Graphs
Window only - it does not become the Selected Species in the Dashboard.
To select a Local Species, click and hold on the upper down-arrow button to
reveal a submenu of all possible choices, then slide the cursor to your choice
and release the mouse button. An icon representing your choice will appear
below the arrow.
If you hold down the Option key (or the Control key if your keyboard has no
Option key) while selecting a Local Species, that species will be the subject
for all four selectors.
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THE INFORMATION
The information is the data to be graphed about the above subject.
To select the information to be displayed, click and hold on the lower
down-arrow button to reveal a submenu of all possible choices, then slide
the cursor to your choice and release the mouse button. If you hold down the
Option key (or the Control key if your keyboard has no Option key) while
selecting the information, that information will be selected for all four
selectors. (The last sentence was a selected selection for our select
audience.) The possible choices of information to display are:
No Graph - displays nothing for this Graph Selector.
Population - displays the changes in the subject's population.
Births - displays the changes in the subject's births.
Deaths - displays the changes in the subject's deaths.
Age (% of Max) - displays the changes in how long the subject lives as a
percentage of its maximum possible age.
Size (% of Max) - displays the changes in the subject's size as a percentage
of its maximum possible size.
Females (%) - displays the changes in the percentage of the subjects that are
female.
Radiation (%) - displays the cumulative radiation dose the subject has
received as a percentage of the maximum dose.
Food (%) - displays the changes in the percentage of maximum food the subject
has stored.
Water (%) - displays the changes in the percentage of maximum water the
subject has stored.
Health (%) - displays the changes in the subject's health rating, as a
percentage of maximum health.
% of Biomass - displays the amount of the biomass that is represented by the
subject. If the subject is an animal species, the graph will show its
percentage of the total animal biomass. If the subject is a plant species, the
graph will show its percentage of the total plant biomass. If the subject is
All Plants or All Animals, the graph will show its percentage of combined
plant and animal biomass.
Ecology Score - displays an ongoing score of the ecological soundness of the
current world. This score is actually a rating of how well you are doing as
master of this ecosystem. It is easy to get high ecology scores for short
periods of time - the challenge is to keep a constant high score.
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Note: If you have deselected Record All Statistics in the Technical
submenu of the Simulation Menu, the percentage-based graphs and the
ecology score will not be available.
DISPLAY AREA
The bottom section of the Graphs Window is where the graphs are displayed.
When relevant, numbers will appear along the right side and/or percentages
will appear along the left side to provide a scale for interpreting the
graphs.
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MORTALITY WINDOW
The Mortality Window is a graphic display of the causes of death in the
ecosystem. It also displays the predators (if any) that are responsible for
the deaths. It can be opened from the Windows Menu (it's in the Census
submenu) or through the Census button on the Dashboard.
The Mortality Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging
the Title Bar. It will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" that marks the Mortality Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the Census
Windows.
Below the up and down arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this button
to see a brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
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LOCAL SPECIES
Mortality information can be shown for any individual species, or for All
Plants or All Animals as a group. To select the Local Species whose mortality
graph you want to see, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open the
submenu of choices, slide the cursor to the species of your mortal desire and
release the mouse button.
The species selected here does not affect the Selected Species in the
Dashboard or any of the other windows.
ALL DEATHS
The default display is a graph of all causes of death for the previous five
years.
The agents of death are listed along the left side of the display from top to
bottom. The number of deaths in the current year from each cause is displayed
below the name of each agent.
The percentages are represented as bars that increase from left to right.
WHO'S EATING ME?
If you click on the Who's Eating Me? button, you will see a display of all the
predators with bar graphs showing how many of the Local Species they have
eaten.
Click on the All Deaths button to return to the default display.
CAUSES OF DEATH
For the most part, the causes of death are self-explanatory: Eaten, Old Age,
Disease, No Water and No Food are easy to figure out. The only ambiguous one
is Accident, which covers everything that doesn't fit into any of the above
categories. Deaths listed as Accidents include human-caused death by: Smiting,
Plant and Animal Limits in the Laws of Physics Window, and Populating land
plants or animals in the water. It also covers real accidents like water
animals stranded on land during a drought. Also, when animals have children,
their litters spread out in all directions. If a litter occurs near water,
some infants can drown.
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GENE POOL WINDOW
The Gene Pool Window is a graphic display of evolution in action. It shows the
frequency and spread of genes for any single species at a time, or All Plants
or All Animals at once.
It can be opened from the Windows Menu (it's in the Census submenu) or through
the Census button on the Dashboard.
The Gene Pool Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging
the Title Bar. It will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" that marks the Gene Pool Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the Census
Windows.
Next to the up and down arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this
button to see a brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
[PAGE: 159]
TYPES OF GENES
To understand this window, keep in mind that creatures in SimLife have two
types of genes: discrete and continuous.
Discrete genes are like yes/no or multiple-choice genes. They have one value.
For instance, as far as animal movement genes go, either the individual animal
walks or it doesn't; it flies or it doesn't. Yes or no. Relating to gender,
either an animal is male, female, asexual or sterile. Pick one and only one:
multiple choice. Discrete genes are shown and adjusted in the Genome Window as
on/off buttons.
Continuous genes are those that can have a wide range of values, for example,
the life span or the mutation probability genes. Each of these genes is a
number somewhere on a continuum from 0 to 256. They are shown and adjusted in
the Genome Window as slider controls.
In a sense, you can think of the discrete genes as digital-yes or no, on or
off-and the continuous genes as analog with a continuous range of possible
values. (Technically, in SimLife, the continuous genes are stored and computed
digitally and actually have a number of discrete values, but there are enough
available values in the continuum for them to appear analog for all practical
and experimental purposes.)
POPULATION
This section of the Gene Pool Window displays the total population of the
Local Species, whether the Local Species is a plant, an animal, or All Plants
or All Animals.
This window always displays information on a species population-all the
members of that species that are currently alive in the world. The only way
you can see the gene pool information for one organism is if there is only one
alive, or if you put one organism into its own species with the Speciate
function. Of course, one organism is not a very good gene pool.
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LOCAL SPECIES
This section of the Gene Pool Window both displays and allows you to select
the Local Species. Click and hold on the down-arrow button to reveal the
submenu of all possible choices, then slide the cursor to your choice and
release the mouse button. Both the name of the Local Species and its icon will
be displayed.
The species selected here does not affect the Selected Species in the
Dashboard or any of the other windows.
USE COLORS BUTTON
This button toggles between displaying the continuous gene section of this
window using colors to represent percentages or using small bar graphs to
represent percentages. This will be explained below.
This button may not appear on computers with monochrome monitors.
DISCRETE GENES
This section of the Gene Pool Window displays all the information on the
discrete genes of the Local Species.
The genes are arranged into groups of related genes. The group name is
displayed at the top of this section, and the individual genes are listed
below with a bar chart showing what percentage of the population has this
gene. The bar charts range from 0% on the left to 100% on the right. Since
individual organisms can have more than one food source or method of movement,
the bar charts add up to more than 100%
GROUP SELECTION
One group of genes can be selected at a time. Click and hold on the down-arrow
button to reveal a submenu of the choices, slide the cursor to your choice and
release the mouse button.
GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL GENES
Since the genes in plants and animals are different, so are the groups as
displayed in this section of this window.
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Plant Gene Groups
Gender: Asexual, Male, Female, Both
Structure: Floating, Grass, Shrub, Tree
Seeds: Sticky, Dropping, Drifting, Fruit
Sprout Season: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring
Nectar: Yes, No
Evergreen: Yes, No
Animal Gene Groups
Gender: Male, Female, Asexual, Sterile
Movement: Walk, Climb, Swim, Fly
Food Sources: Nectar, Fruit, Filter, Plants, Animals, Seeds
Die-Off: Immortal, Old Age, Middle Age
# Children: 1, 2, 4, 8
Attracted to : There are no "set" choice displays for Attracted to... Icons
representing the six most common attractants for the Local Species will be
displayed to the right of its bar charts.
Tries to Avoid: There are no "set" choice displays for Tries to Avoid... Icons
representing the six most common repellants for the Local Species will be
displayed to the right of its bar charts.
Turn Angle: Low, Med-Low, Med-High, High
Turn Type: Looping, Random, Zig-Zag
CONTINUOUS GENES
This section of the Gene Pool Window displays all the information on the
continuous genes of the Local Species.
There are 23 different continuous genes that can be displayed for animals and
nine for plants.
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GENE SELECTION
Along the left side of this section is a list of the continuous genes being
displayed. Nine genes can be displayed at once, so all plant genes can be
viewed simultaneously.
To view all the animal genes or change the order of display for plants, click
and hold on the down-arrow to the right of the gene name to open a submenu of
all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then release the mouse
button.
WARNING: TRICKY GRAPHS
The Contiuous Gene display is a little tricky, but understanding it is very
important to interpreting changes in the Gene Pool, which is needed in many
scenarios and experiments.
To make it easier to understand, there are two different ways to look at the
information: using colors and using bar graphs.
The two types of displays are chosen by clicking on the Use Colors? button. A
color or monochrome key will appear to help you interpret the data in this
section of the window.
On some computers with monochrome-only screens, the Use Colors? button and/or
the color key and/or color display may not be available.
CONTINUOUS GENE DISPLAY - MONOCHROME
When the Use Colors? button is set to "No," the continuous genes will be
displayed using small black bar graphs. The key at the top will help you
understand the display.
Each of these partitioned rectangles represents one continuous gene. The left
end of this rectangle corresponds with the lowest value for that gene and the
right side corresponds with the highest value. The bars appear at different
locations-different values-and show what percentage of the population has that
value for the particular gene. The higher the bar, the higher the percentage
of the population with that value.
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Each of these lines matches a slider in the Genome Window. For example, the
life span gene.
Above is shown the Gene Pool Window life span gene display for one animal, and
that animal's life span gene from the Genome Window. Notice how the bar's and
arrow's locations match.
To be really useful, the gene pool must show the combined genes for a whole
population, not just one organism. Each animal in the population will have a
value for life span, but not all of them will have the exact same value.
When there is a spread of values for a gene, this is shown using multiple
black bars at different locations. The higher the bar, the more of the
population has that value for the gene.
In addition, if the Local Species is a single species (not All Plants or All
Animals), there will be a thin pink or black line somewhere in the display.
This line marks the value of this gene for the Prototype of the species. You
can look at the prototype value as the "starting position" for each gene. When
the black bars drift away from the Prototype, they represent the change in the
gene pool-the evolution of the genes through natural selection and mutation.
If All Plants or All Animals is selected there will be no Prototype lines.
[PAGE: 164]
CONTINUOUS GENE DISPLAY - COLOR
When the Use Colors? button is set to "Yes," the continuous genes will be
displayed using a special color display. The key at the top will help you
understand the display.
Each of these black rectangles represents one continuous gene. The left side
of the rectangle corresponds with the lowest value for that gene and the right
side corresponds with the highest value. The colored bars appear at different
locations-different values-and show what percentage of the population has that
value for this gene. Instead of using the height of the bar to represent the
percentage, in this display we use color. The key above will show you what
colors represent what percentages.
The gene pool is the combined genes for a whole population. Each organism in
the population will have a value for each gene, but not all of them will have
the exact same value.
Each rectangle displays all the values of all the organisms for one gene. When
there is a spread of values for a gene, this is shown using multiple colored
bars at different locations.
Part of the reason for using this type of display is because it looks very
much like the Gel Electrophoresis analysis of actual DNA in a biology
laboratory.
In addition, if the Local Species is a single species (not All Plants or All
Animals), there will be a thin pink or black line somewhere in the display.
This line marks the value of this gene for the Prototype of the species. You
can look at the prototype value as the "starting position" for each gene. When
the colored bars drift away from the Prototype, they represent the change in
the gene pool-the evolution of the genes through natural selection and
mutation.
If All Plants or All Animals is selected there will be no Prototype lines.
[PAGE: 165]
FOOD WEB WINDOW
This window shows the predator/prey relationships between different organisms
in the ecosystem.
The Food Web Window can be opened from the Windows Menu (in the Census
submenu) or through the Census button on the Dashboard.
The Food Web Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging
the Title Bar and it will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" which marks the Food Web Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the
Census Windows.
Next to the up and down arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this
button to see a brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
[PAGE: 166]
Note: Plants can be eaten but not necessarily killed, which can
techincally be called parasitism as opposed to predation, but they're
shown here as prey.
SPECIES
This is the display of the Local Species: the species whose food web
information is shown below. To change the Local Species, click and hold on the
down-arrow to reveal a submenu of all available choices, then slide the cursor
to your choice and release the mouse button.
In this window you can only select a single species at a time; you cannot
choose All Plants or All Animals. Changing this species does not affect the
Selected Species in the Dashboard.
MAIN LINKS
The Main Links display is the default setting for this window, and is shown
above.
Press this button to display the main links in the food web for the current
ecosystem. It will show up to eight predator species on the left and their
associated eight favorite prey species on the right. These are the top eight
energy transactions in the food web.
To the left of the predator icons is a bar graph showing the relative activity
of the predators.
If you click on any of shown predators or preys, they'll pop to the center and
become the Local Species and this window will enter One Species mode (see
below).
[PAGE: 167]
ONE SPECIES
Press this button to display the food web centered around the Local Species.
The Local Species will appear in the middle. Any and all predators will be
listed along the left. These are the animals (if any) that eat the Local
Species.
The eight most common food sources, including prey (those who are eaten by the
Local Species) will appear along the right (if any-plants have no prey).
To the right of the prey icons is a bar graph showing how many of each prey
were caught and eaten by the Local Species.
If the Local Species is a plant, no prey will be displayed because plants
don't go around hunting and eating things they catch. (Well, other than the
big plant in my office that likes to munch on editors that take liberties with
my writing, if you can take a hint.)
If you click on either a predator or prey, it will become the Subject Species.
Its icon will move to the middle of the display and its predators and prey
will be shown on the left and right respectively. In this way you can move up
and down the food chain and get a complete overview.
[PAGE: 168]
POPULATION INTERACTION WINDOW
The Population Interaction Window displays a special type of graph of the
predator/prey relationships between different organisms in the ecosystem.
Unlike the graphs in the Graphs Window, which map a single population against
time, this graph maps the ratios of two populations (predator and prey)
against eachother over time.
To open the Population Interaction Window, first open the Food Web Window in
Main Links mode, then hold down the Option key (or Control key if your
keyboard has no Option key) and click on one of the predator icons.
Note: This graph only shows the relationship between plant and animal
predation, and will not work when the prey is filter food.
This window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the Title
Bar and it will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a punch card within a punch card that marks the
Population Interaction Window as a descendant of a Census Window.
Over on the right side of the window is the Help button. Click and hold on
this button to see a brief explanation of what this window does and how it
works.
[PAGE: 169]
TIME SCALE
Click on the Days or Years buttons to choose between displaying data for the
last 50 days or the last 50 years.
DISPLAY AREA
This part of the window is a grid where the graph is displayed. The predator
is shown along the left (Y axis) the prey along the bottom (X axis). The
lower-left corner is zero population for both species. The number of living
predators is shown on the upper-left side of the grid, the number of living
prey is shown at the lower-right.
Above the display area is a color key that lets you know which of the data
points are older, and which are newer.
CHANGING SPECIES
Once this window is open, you can change the two species being graphed to any
two species currently loaded into the simulation. Click and hold on the down
arrow button next to either species' icon, then select the new species of your
choice.
INTERPRETING THE GRAPH
If all the data points are clustered together in a small bunch, then both the
predator and prey populations are stable. If the line is circular, then you
have a predator/prey "cycle," where the two populations directly affect each
other. If the line travels horizontally from right to left, the predator is
killing off the prey faster than they can reproduce.
In a long-lasting ecosystem, this graph will show various repeating, ever-
changing shapes and patterns that point out the chaotic nature of ecosystems.
BACK TO FOOD WEB
Clicking on this button returns you to the Food Web Window.
[PAGE: 170]
POPULATION WINDOW
The Poulatioon Window is a graphic display of the relative populations of all
organisms in the ecosystem. It can be opened from the Windows Menu (in the
Census submenu) or through the Dashboard Census button.
The Population Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging
the Title Bar. It will go away if you lcick in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" that marks the Population Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the
Census Windows.
Below the arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this button to see a
brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
ALL PLANTS
Click on All Plants to see the population display of the plants. The total
plant population is displayed to the right of the All Animals button, and
icons representing all the plants are displayed below.
Bars will appear above the icons representing the relative populations of
each plant. The higher the bar, the greater the population. If there is no
bar, then there are no representatives of that species in the ecosystem at the
current time.
ALL ANIMALS
Click on All Animals to see the population display of the animals. The total
animal population is displayed to the right of the All Animals button and
icons representing all the naimals are displayed below.
Bars will appear above the icons representing the relative populations of each
animal. The higher the bar, the greater the population. If there is no bar,
then there are no representatives of that species in the ecosystem at the
current time.
[PAGE: 171]
DIVERSITY WINDOW
The Diversity Window is a graphic display of which ecological niches are being
exploited by the current population of plants and animals.
The Diversity Window can be opened from the Windows Menu (it's in the Census
submenu) or through the Census button on the Dashboard. It can be moved around
the screen by clicking and dragging the Title Bar. It will go away if you
click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" which marks the Diversity Window as
a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the Census
Windows.
Below the arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this button to see a
brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
[PAGE: 172]
MAKING A LIVING
To survive in an ecosystem, plants and animals must "exploit a niche," or make
a living. Ecologically speaking, making a living is finding a way to survive -
finding food, avoiding becoming food and reproducing.
For animals, the most important parts of making a living are their type(s) of
movement and kind(s) of food they can eat.
Plants don't move, so their strategies are a little different. Different sizes
and structures of plants (trees, shrubs, water plants, etc.) are better
adapted to different environments. Different ways of spreading seeds (fruit,
dropping, sticky, etc.) and energy-saving strategies (evergreen vs. deciduous)
work better (or don't) depending on the climate and surrounding animal life.
If a lot of different organisms eat the same kind of food, live in the same
places, and generally live the same lifestyle, there will be a lot of
competition for resources. If different plants and animals each live a little
differently - eat different foods, move differently, spread seeds in different
ways - they are not in direct competition with each other, and more can
survive.
Beyond non-competition, a lot of different types of plants and animals living
together, each in a different niche, become more than the sum of the
individual organisms. They become an interrelated food web, a community, an
ecosystem. A healthy long-lasting ecosystem will have plants and animals in
many diverse niches.
ALL ANIMALS
Click on All Animals to see the diversity display of the animals. The display
is a gridlike graph with food sources on the left (the Y axis) and types of
movement on the bottom (X axis). There is a box at each grid intersection
point of the X and Y axes. The number of animals at each intersection (Z axis)
is shown by the size and shade of the box. A key to interpreting the boxes
and the numbers they represent is provided on the right side of the window.
[PAGE: 173]
ALL PLANTS
Click on All Plants to see the diversity display of the plants. The display
is a gridlike graph with types of trees on the left (the Y axis) and seed and
nectar information on the bottom (X axis). There is a box at each grid
intersection point of the X and Y axes. The number of plants at each
intersection (Z axis) is shown by the size and shade of the box. A key to
interpreting the boxes and the numbers they represent is provided on the
right side of the window.
[PAGE: 174]
HISTORY WINDOW
This window tracks and lists the important historical events that have
happened in the ecosystem during the present game or experiment.
The History Window can be opened from the Windows Menu (in the Census submenu)
or through the Census button on the Dashboard.
The History Window can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar and it will go away if you click in the Close Box.
Just below the Close Box is a "punch card" that marks the History Window
as a Census Window.
Near the upper-right corner of the window are up and down arrow buttons. You
can click on these arrows to cycle forward and backward through all the Census
Windows.
Below the arrows is the Help button. Click and hold on this button to see
a brief explanation of what this window does and how it works.
If you click on any of the events, the icon that represents the organisms in
the event will appear next to the punch card.
The main area of the window displays the year and day of each event along with
text messages describing them. The events that are listed here include
mutations, extinctions, species danger (hunger, thirst, no males left, no
females left), new species creations, etc.
To scroll through the list of historical events, click on the Older or Newer
buttons. To view the latest occurrences, click on Latest.
[PAGE: 175]
LAWS OF PHYSICS
The Laws of Physics Window gives you the power to change the physical laws
and properties that deal with time and energy in your world. It can be opened
with the Change Physics... item in the Technical submenu of the Simulation
Menu.
Besides feeding one's ego by supplying such awesome power, this window
actually has very practical experimental uses. For example, changing the
amount of energy it takes to move, such as a setting of very little energy to
fly and a lot to walk, could simulate a low-gravity world. Raising the energy
it takes to swim could simulate a world with a very viscous ocean.
Depending on your experiment, changing the physics of time can help your
efficiency. If you are interested in the behavior of one generation, make the
days and years as long as possible and increase the life span of organisms.
If you are interested in the genetic drift over many generations, shortening
the length of days and years could save you hours or days of computer time.
Many of the settings below have a range of possible values that goes from
Tiny to Low to Medium to High to Huge. Each value is twice the previous
value, i.e., Low is twice as high as Tiny, Medium is twice as high as Low,
etc.
[PAGE: 176]
HELP
At any time in this window you can click and hold on the Help button or on
the name of any control for a pop-up explanation of what it does.
MOVEMENT COSTS
This is where you can adjust the amount of energy it takes for an animal to
move in any of the four ways: Swimming, Walking, Climbing and Flying. Since
plants in SimLife don't move, this won't affect them.
There are five values for each movement type: Tiny, Low, Medium, High and
Huge.
To change the movement cost, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open
a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
As mentioned above, changing movement costs can simulate different gravitities
and ocean viscosties. If you use your imagination with these settings you can
come up with some interesting worlds.
FOOD VALUE
By adjusting the amount of food value - energy - supplied by each type of
food, you directly control how much food animals need and indirectly affect
their behavior by controlling how much time they must spend looking for food
and how much time they have for other pastimes, such as looking for a mate.
There are six food sources: Animals, Plants, Filter Food, Fruit, Nectar and
Seeds. Each of these foods can be assigned a value: Tiny, Low, Medium, High,
or Huge.
To change the food value cost, click and hold on the down-arrow button to
open a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
[PAGE: 177]
Changes in Food Values do not directly affect plants, but indirectly they will
affect how many of them will be eaten - more if their food value is low,
less if their food value is high.
These settings do not affect the Ultra-Food food sources.
METABOLISM COSTS
This section adjusts how much energy is required for metabolic processes:
Gestation, Growth and Healing. Each of these processes can be assigned a
value: Tiny, Low, Medium, High or Huge.
To change the metabolism cost, click and hold on the down-arrow button to
open a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice,
then release the mouse button.
Gestation controls how much energy it takes to produce offspring. With a
high energy cost for gestation, only a very well-fed organism can
"afford" to reproduce.
Growth controls how much energy it takes to recover from injury, plagues
and toxins.
HEALTH COSTS
This section adjusts how much energy is lost by health-related processes and
issues. These issues are: Toxins, Plague, Old Age, Crowding and Battle. Each
of these items can be assigned a value: Tiny, Low, Medium, High or Huge.
To change the health cost, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open
a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
[PAGE: 178]
PLANT COSTS
This section controls how much energy is required by plants to "make their
living." Plants need energy for getting food and water, growing and making
nectar, fruit, and seeds. The energy cost for food and water can be set to a
value: Tiny, Low, High, or Huge.
To change the plant costs, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open a
submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
SIMULATION STUFF
This section controls seven simulation factors including time. Six factors are
adjusted with a pop-up menu, the seventh with a slider bar.
LIFE SPAN
This setting adjusts the average life span for organisms in the world.
This setting is a "master control" for individual species' life spans as set
in their genetic code. This setting sets a general life span length. The
species' genes set the percentage of this general life span they are capable
of living.
The five possible life span settings are: Brief, Short, Medium, Long and
Methuselan. To change the life span, click and hold on the down-arrow
button to open a submenu of all available choice, slide the cursor to your
choice, then release the mouse button.
DAY LENGTH
This control sets how many Ticks (simulation cycles) constitute one day. The
possible day lengths are 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 Ticks.
To change the Ticks per day, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open
a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
You will want long days for behavioral experiments and short days for long-
term, many-generation experiments.
[PAGE: 179]
YEAR LENGTH
This control sets how many days constitute one year. The possible year lengths
are 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 days.
To change the days per year, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open
a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
PLANT LIMIT
This control lets you put limits on the number of plants that can exist in
the world at any one time. Since the simulation runs slower with more
organisms, you can limit the number of plants to: Unlimited, 1/2 maximum, 1/4
maximum, 1/8 maximum, 1/16 maximum, 1/32 maximum, 1/64 maximum and 1/128
maximum. The maximum is the total number of cells in the world, and depends on
world size.
To change the Plant Limit, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open a
submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
MUTATION RATE
This adjustment controls the overall Mutation Rate in the world, over-
riding an individual species' mutation rate as set in its genetic code. This
setting sets a general rate, and the species' genes set an individual rate as
a percentage of this general rate.
To change the Mutation Rate, click and hold on the down-arrow button to open
a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice, then
release the mouse button.
ANIMAL LIMITS
This adjustment sets the maximum number of animals that can occupy the world
at any one time. The setting is for all living species combined. The more
animals there are, the slower the simulation runs. Setting a limit keeps
animals from running amok and taking over all your computer's processing time.
[PAGE: 180]
The maximum available animals that you can set are: Unlimited, 50, 100, 200,
400, 800 and 1600.
To change the maximum animals per species, click and hold on the down-arrow
button to open a submenu of all available choices, slide the cursor to your
choice, then release the mouse button.
SOIL AND CLIMATE CHANGE
This adjustment controls how much the soil and climate will change over time.
If you want a very stable climate with little or no erosion for your
experiments, set this slider low. If you want your ecosystem to be subjected
to wide swings in climatic conditions with erosion, set it high.
BUTTONS
At the bottom of the window are three buttons.
Click Set Defaults if you want to make the current settings in this window
the default conditions henceforth and forevermore (well, at least until you
make changes and set new defaults).
Click Never Mind if you want to make this window go away without making any
changes.
Click Make It So if you are happy with the current settings and want them to
be activated. The new settings will immediately take control of the world, but
the default settings will not be changed.
[PAGE: 181]
WORLD BUILDING OPTIONS
The World Building Options Window lets you set options that the simulation
uses when creating a new world. It also lets you rebuild one aspect, or data
layer, of a world without changing anything else.
It can be opened with the World Building Options... item in the Technical
submenu of the Simulation Menu.
Show Steps toggles on and off the display of each data layer as the world
is built. When the steps are shown, it takes a little longer to build the
world, but it looks so cool that it seems to go faster.
Lake Size lets you choose to have large or small lakes in the world. If you
aren't interested in water-dwelling creatures, making small lakes leaves you
more room for your landlubbers.
Temperature Zones, when selected, causes only the temperature zones to be
rebuilt the next time you build a world. This is especially useful when you
have changed a world's altitude in the Edit Window and want to update the
temperature data to the new landform.
Moisture Zones, when selected, causes only the moisture zones to be rebuilt
the next time you build a world. This is especially useful when you have
changed a world's altitude in the Edit Window and want to update the
moisture data to the new landform.
Rivers and Lakes, when selected, causes only the rivers and lakes to be
rebuilt the next time you build a world.
Artifacts, when selected, causes only the artifact placement to be rebuilt
the next time you build a world.
Everything, when selected, causes every aspect of a world to be rebuilt
next time you build a world. This is the default setting.
Never Mind makes this window go away without making any changes.
Make It So activates the current settings and closes the window.
[PAGE: 182]
VARIABLE WINDOW
The Variables Window shows and lets you change the current status of any
individual organism. The information in this window is not contained in the
genetic code; it is a display of the results of the genes and environment.
This window shows the things that change during an organism's life, like
health, age, height, weight, etc., that are constantly variable. (Constantly
variable is the SimLife oxymoron of the week.) When you make changes in this
window, the changes in the organism take place immediately.
The Variables Window can be opened in two ways. From the Windows Menu - if
and only if there is currently an organism highlighted in the Edit Window -
or directly from the Edit Window by using the Life Tool in Show Variables mode
and clicking on an organism.
The Variables Window treats plants and animals differently - not because of
prejudice, but because it recognizes the true differences between the two
types of organisms and appreciates them both for what they are.
The Title Bar contains the name of the individual, which consists of the
species name and the individual's number. The window can be moved around
the screen by clicking and dragging the Title Bar. The window will go away if
you click in the Close Box. The window will also go away if the organism
whose variables you are inspeciting dies, so it is a good idea to pause the
simulation while inspecting variables.
PLANT VARIABLES
There are two sections to this window. The top section displays the individual
plant's current status for Health, Food supply, Water and Radiation exposure.
Each display is a bar graph, with low on the left, high on the right. You
can change (manipulate, heal, feed, starve, etc.) the plant by dragging
the black arrows under each of the bars.
[PAGE: 183]
The bottom section displays the Height, Weight, and Age of the plant, both
numerically and with a bar. You can change the Height and Age by dragging
the black arrows under their bars, but Weight changes autmatically in relation
to Height and other variables.
Note: If you age a seed, it will not instantly turn into a full grown tree, or
even sprout - it will become a very old seed. Old seeds die.
ANIMAL VARIABLES
The Animal Variables Window has three sections.
The top section is very similar to the top plant section. It shows the current
status for Health, Food, Water and Radiation. In addition, it has marker
arrows over Health, Food and Water to show where on the bar the animal takes
action (the arrow on the right), or is in danger (the arrow on the left). The
action and danger levels are set in the animal's genome.
The middle section gives numerical and graphic representation of the animal's
Height, Weight and Age. The Age bar has arrows to make the action level (arrow
on the left) and danger level (arrow on the right). This section also contains
a display for Forage Count and Gestation.
Forage Count increases as an animal looks for food, and resets when food is
found. If the count reaches a certain number (depending on the Persistence
gene), the animal will try another foraging strategy.
For males, Gestation is blanked out. For females, Gestation gives the current
pregnancy status. If she is not pregnant, Gestation will be all the way to
the left. When the arrow reaches the right side of the slider, birth occurs.
Dragging the arrow all the way to the right causes the birth to occur
instantly: the SimCesarean.
The bottom section of this window is the Brain Box. Whatever the animal
is currently thinking will appear here.
[PAGE: 184]
PHENOTYPE WINDOW
The Phenotype Window displays any organism's "flash card" image, as seen in
the Biology Lab.
The Phenotype Window can be opened in two ways: from the Windows Menu if and
only if there is currently an organism highlighted in the Edit Window, or
directly from the Edit Window by using the Life Tool in Show Phenotype mode
and clicking on an organism.
The image in this window does not represent the actual appearance of the
organism: Its purpose is to give you some insight into the organism's size,
structure, eating habits, etc.
We constructed these images of SimLife organisms out of parts of familiar
earth animals that should have some meaning for most of us. For instance,
looking at a phenotype of any animal, you can easily see what it eats, how
it moves and how many children it has per litter. And as mammals, we like to
think that if the picture of the head looks like a mammal it has a larger
brain than something with an isect's head. (Chauvinism? Maybe - but if any
insects out there fell slighted you can program your own darn game.)
[PAGE: 185]
SPECIATE WINDOW
The Speciate Window lets you change a chosen individual organism into another
species in a few different ways.
The Speciate Window can only be opened from the Edit Window by setting the
Life Tool to Speciate and clicking on any organism.
SPECIES NAME
This is the display of the current individual organism (the Subject) that is
being speciated. Since it is an individual, it will have a number after the
species name.
MAKE ME PROTOTYPE OF SPECIES
Clicking this button will change the genotypes of all the organisms in the
Subject's species to exactly match the Subject.
You might want to use this button if you have located one individual in a
species that has developed an advantageous genetic trait that you want to
share with the whole family.
MAKE ME INTO A NEW SPECIES
Click this button if you want to use the Subject as the starting point for
beginning a new species. After you click on this button, the Biology Lab
will open set to the Subject's genotype. You can rename it and save it as
a new species. Before saving, you can modify the icon and the genome (either
with the flash cards or in the Genome Window).
CHANGE ME TO SPECIES SHOWN BELOW
Click this button to transform the Subject into another species. You can
choose the new species in the New Species box below.
If you try to turn a plant into an animal or an animal into a plant you'll
receive a caustic message proving that programmers can be just as big of
smart alecs as manual writers.
[PAGE: 186]
NEW SPECIES
This is a display of the species the Subject will be changed into if you click
on the Change Me To Species Shown Below button above.
To change this species, click and hold on the down-arrow to reveal a submenu
of all available choices, slide the cursor to your choice and release the
mouse button.
NEVER MIND
Click this button to close the Speciate Window without doing anything you
might regret later.
[PAGE: 187]
EVALUATION WINDOW
The Evaluation Window gives you feedback on how well you are doing as an
ecological experimenter. It visually shows the diversity of life in your
ecosystem and gives you a numerical score, a personal rating and a status
report.
The Evaluation Window can be reached through the Evaluation item in the
Windows Menu. It can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the
Title Bar. It will go away if you click in the Close Box.
THE MAIN DISPLAY
The main area of this window is a scenic view of a potential ecosystem. There
will be pictures of plants and/or animals that represent different ecological
niches that are currently filled. The more life-forms you have, the more
diversity you have, and the better your ecosystem's chances of survival.
Click on any displayed pictures of plants or animals for more information on
the types and numbers of organisms they represent.
SCORE
This gives you numerical feedback on your skills and progress. The score is
based on the ecology score (which is a factor of a whole bunch of things
going on in the ecosystem), with diversity of species, the number of years
the game has been in progress and the difficulty level factored in. It's easy
to get a high score for a short time, but keeping a high score for a long time
is very hard.
RATING
Rating gives you a title that describes your skill. There are 21 ratings
ranging from Parking Lot Builder to... you'll have to find out for yourself.
STATUS
Status is a one-line description of the current ecosystem. It might point
out a problem or need, mention something nice, give you useful information
or even compliment you.
[PAGE: 188]
The Locate an Individual Window lets you find any currently living individual
organism. It can be opened from the Technical submenu in the Simulation Menu.
SELECTED SPECIES
Click and hold on the down-arrow button to see a submenu of all available
species. While holding the mouse button down, slide the cursor to the species
you want, and release.
NUMBER
Highlight and type in the number of the individual you want to locate.
NEVER MIND
Click this button to close the Locate An Individual Window without locating
anything.
MAKE IT SO
Click on this button when you have chosen the species and number above. The
individual, if living, will be located, highlighted and visible in the Edit
Window. If it isn't living, you will be returned to the Locate An Individual
Window for another try.
[PAGE: 189]
RUN CONTROL WINDOW
The Run Control Window lets you tell the simulation to pause and wait for you
after a certain amount of time. It can be opened from the Technical submenu of
the Simulation Menu. Use this window when you want to check data at certain
times without sitting at the computer, waiting and watching, ready to dive
for the pause button.
You can set it to pause after any amount of days or years, depending on your
experiment, but the most useful is 50 years. All the graphing, history and
census data is only kept in memory for 50 years: if you stop the simulation
every 50 years and save it to disk (each time under a different name), you can
get continuous data and graphs for the whole experiment.
Note: Run Control will stay active until you disable it.
NUMBER
Use the up- and down-arrows or type in the number of days or years you want
the simulation to run before pausing.
DISABLE
Click this button to disable Run Control.
DAYS
Click this button to activate Run Control and make it pause after a number of
days.
YEARS
Click this button to activate Run Control and make it pause after a number of
years.
NEVER MIND
Click this button to close the Run Control Window without activating it.
MAKE IT SO
Click on this button when you have set the amount of time you want the
simulation to run before pausing.
[PAGE: 190]
SAMPLE EXPERIMENTS
There are an unlimited number of experiments you can design and run with
SimEarth. Here are just a few ideas to work with.
SEED-EATERS AND PLANTS
Design an experiment to see if, on the whole, seed-eaters do more damage or
good to plant populations.
Keep in mind:
* Many seeds don't sprout if they don't have the right genes for sprouting
temperature and moisture.
* Seeds that don't sprout take up room that could otherwise be exploited
by seeds that can sprout.
* Seeds that are eaten never sprout.
THE BATTLE OF THE SEXLESS
Design an experiment that shows whether or not sexual reproduction (as opposed
to asexual reproduction) provided an advantage to a species.
Keep in mind:
* The vast majority of species on earth use sex during reproduction to
expand their gene pool.
* Sexual reproduction requires the large energy expense of finding and
courting a mate that could otherwise be used to find food or directly
increase the population.
* What is there in the real world that's missing from SimLife that might
make your experimental outcome different?
OTHER WORLDS
A Food Web that is successful in earthlike surroundings might not do so well
if transplanted to another planet with different gravity, different ocean
viscosity, and/or different energy returns from food sources.
[PAGE: 191]
Design an experiment (or 10) that simulate(s) other worlds, set loose some
life, and see what happens. Then determine the genetic changes that would
allow the life to better survive in the new surroundings.
Keep in mind:
* Different types of worlds can be designed in the Laws of Physics Window.
* It will be easier to start with Food Webs that have been proven survivors
in an earthlike setting.
GALAPAGOS
The Galapagos Islands contain the best known examples of divergent evolution
because of isolation.
Design an experiment where two populations (one on the mainland, one on an
island) are isolated from each other, and see if and how the paths that
evolution takes in the two populations differ.
Keep in mind:
* To get the full effect, and to have different evolutionare pressures,
make the maindland large, and the island small.
You'll have better luck with this one if you use a fairly large world.
* Barriers over land or water will block walkers, but not flyers. To keep
flying creatures from crossing the ocean, spreading their genes and
messing up the experiment, have the island as far from the mainland as
possible, and set the energy requirement for flying so high that an
animal will starve to death before it can cross the ocean.
PIG OUT
Sometimes colonists bring animals from their old homes to new lands.
Unfortunately, these animals always escape, and often don't have any natural
enemies to keep their population down. A classic case is the pig in Hawaii. It
not only has no natural enemies, but also eats many of the native plants down
to the roots, killing them.
[PAGE: 192]
Design an experiment to simulate the destruction done by pigs in Hawaii, and
try to come up with a solution for the problem.
Keep in mind:
* Setting the food value of plants to low in the Laws of Physics Window
will cause herbivores to eat the entire plant and not just graze on the
leaves.
* Sometimes solutions to problems cause their own, worse problems.
CRY WOLF
Fans of the Farley Mowat book Never Cry Wolf (or the Disney movie based on the
book) know of the importance of the balance between the populations of wolves
and caribou.
Design an experiment with a stable cyclic balance between wolves (carnivores)
and caribou (herbivores), then go hunting and drastically reduce the wolf
population. See if reducing the predators is better or worse for the prey.
Keep in mind:
* Watch the Population Interaction Window first for establishing the stable
wolf/caribou relationship, then to see the results when the wolf
population drops.
* If you haven't read the book or seen the move, I recommend both.
INBREEDING
What happens when there is not enough genetic diversity within a species'
gene pool? An April 1992 National Geographic article told of the modern-day
woes of lions living in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania with just this
problem.
Design an experiment where the species with very little genetic diversity
faces a new environmental pressure such as dwindling food source, climate
change, or new predator.
[PAGE: 193]
THE CALIFORNIA WATER RUSH
For the past five years, California has been suffering from a drought. Yet
farmers still grow crops that require huge amounts of water and homeowners
want large green (thirsty) lawns.
Design an experiment where you have many water-hungry plants flourishing in a
wet environment, then slowly start to dry things up. See if you can develop
new strains of the old plants that require less water, or come up with new
plants that will meet the same needs without needing the same water.
[PAGE: 194]
MISCELLANEOUS SIM-STUFF
CONSERVING MEMORY
SimLife can be a memory hog. If you have limited memory, you may want to do
the following:
* Use the smaller-sized worlds: the smaller the world, the less memory
the simulation needs.
* Use the Plant and Animal Limits in the Laws of Physics Window.
* Turn off Record All Statistics in the Technical submenu of the Simulation
Menu.
MAKING THE SIMULATION RUN FASTER
Aside from setting the actual simulation speed in the Speed submenu of the
Simulation Menu, there are two basic ways to make the simulation run faster:
limiting memory use and limiting screen redraws.
The more information in memory, the more data the simulation has to check and
recalculate every cycle. Ways to limit memory usage are:
* Use the smaller-sized worlds: the smaller the world, the less memory the
simulation needs.
* Use the Plant and Animal Limits in the Laws of Physics Window.
* Turn off Record All Statistics in the Technical submenu of the Simulation
Menu.
Dealing with graphics and redrawing the screen is very processor-intensive.
Ways to limit redraws are:
* Limit the number of windows you have open at a time.
* Keep the Edit Window small.
* Turn off Auto Tracking in the Goodies submenu of the Simulation Menu.
When on, Auto Tracking can cause frequen screen redraws, which slow
things down.
* Turn off Update All Windows in the Goodies submenu of the Simulation
Menu.
[PAGE: 195]
In addition, turning off sounds and music in the Goodies submenu of the
Simulation Menu will free up the processor a little, and will increase speed
just a little.
You can also change the day and year length in the Laws of Physics Window,
but this only changes the rate time passes, and doesn't actually make the
simulation run any faster.
THE WORLD BUILDING PROCESS
When building a new world, the simulation follows these steps:
1. Draw fractal lines to make the upper ridges and peaks of mountain
ranges.
2. Use Cellular Automaton techniques to gradually and randomly bring the
peaks of the mountains down to the plains.
3. Pick points at mountain peaks and start rivers flowing down.
4. Let rivers wind downhill until they hit the plains.
5. Once on the plains, flood the rivers out into lakes.
6. Create the moistures zones: starting along the left edge of the screen,
the wind blows the moisture from west to east. Air picks up moisture as
it goes over lakes, loses it over plains, drops moisture on west side of
mountains and is drier on the east side. Since air loses moisture going
across plains, a long plain will turn into a desert without nearby
water.
7. Create the temperature zones: start on left. Begin with a random but
smooth distribution of temperatures, and sweep to the right. As you go
over water, temperature becomes more moderate. As you go up in altitude,
it gets colder. On flat ground, it gets hotter (desert effect). If you
have few mountains and lakes you get a desert.
8. Build the soil layer. The best soil is under water and in moist zones.
The soil gets worse as you go up in altitude. If you add water, it will
not make the soil better. If you expose previously underwater soil, it
will be good, but will start to erode immediately.
[PAGE: 196]
9. Add the filter food. Filter food follows the moisture: moist areas and
lakes have the most. Filter food changes with the seasons: more when
it's warm with long days; wetness helps, too.
DATA FILE TYPES
SimLife uses a number of different types of data files to save plants,
animals, and games. Here is a listing and explanation of each of the types.
If there are variations for your particular computer, they will be covered
in the machine-specific addendum.
GAME DATA FILE
Depending on world size and population, the Game file can range from 50KB to
500KB. The Game file does not save any of the census information.
Included information:
* The map
* All species prototypes
* All organisms and their locations on the map
* The state of all windows and menu settings.
INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL DATA FILE
This file holds the species prototype for a plant, and is approximately 1KB
in size. It is created from the Select Level of the Biology Lab when you
click on the Save button.
PLANT ZOO FILE
This file holds the species prototypes for a group of plants. It is created
from the Biology Lab using the Save All Plants button. Its size is
approximately 1KB per plant.
[PAGE: 197]
ANIMAL ZOO FILE
This file holds the species prototypes for a group of animals. It is created
from the Biology Lab using the Save All Animals button. ITs size is
approximately 1KB per animal.
DATA LOG FILE
Data Log files are created when you activate the Data Logging option in the
Technical submenu of the Simulation Menu. When active, once a day all the
simulation memory that is viewable in the Graph Census Window is dumped to
disk.
It is in a standard ASCII tab-delimited file format and cen be loaded into
most spreadsheets and databases for charting, graphing and statistical
analysis.
The size of this file depends on the number of species and length of the
game, and is approximately 1KB per day. This file is appendable: you can
log data during a game or experiment, stop for a while, and come back
to the game at a later time and continue logging to the same Data Log file.
The Data Log file also contain genetic descriptions of each animal that lives
during a game, plus enough genealogy info the eventually recreate the family
trees of animals in your experiments.
For more information and for the file format, see your machine-specific
addendum.
[PAGE: 198]
GLOSSARY
The SimLife manual provides many game-specific definitions for terms that are
working definitions relevant to gameplay. Many of the following glossary
definitions are more broad, formal denotations of terms.
Adaptive Behavior - Responses - often genetically controlled - of an
individual, group or species to the environment that aid
survival and reproduction.
Artificial Life - The study of and attempt to simulate life and lifelike
processes in artificial media, including software (computer
simulations), hardware (robotics), and wetware (organic
material).
Asexual - Involving or reproducing by reproductive processes (as cell
division, spore formation, fissions, or budding) that do not involve
the union of individuals or germ cells: lacking sex or functional
sex organs.
Carnivore - An organism that feeds on animals; a flesh-eating animal.
Census - A usually complete enumeration of a population; specifically, a
periodic governmental population count.
Chromosome - A filamentous, threadlike structure in the cell nucleus (in
eukaryotic cells), along which the genes are located.
Deciduous - Falling off or shed seasonally or at a certain stage of
development in the life cycle; shedding leaves each year.
Diversity - Represented by a broad band of distinct elements or qualities;
characterized by variety, difference and deep range.
DNA - Any of various nucleic acids that are localized especially in cell
nuclei that are the molecular basis of heredity in many organisms, and
are constructed of a double helix held together by hydrogen bonds
between purine and pyrimidine bases, which project inward from two
chains containing alternate links of deoxyribose and phosphate.
Ecology - A branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of
organisms and their environments.
Ecosystem - The sum total of physical features and organisms occuring in a
given area.
Environment- The sum total of physical, chemical and biotic factors (as
climate, soil, and living things) that act upon on organism or an
ecological community and ultimately determine its form and
survival.
Evergreen - Having foilage that remains green and functional through more than
one growing season.
Evolution - Change in the genetic makeup of a population with time; a theory
that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in
other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences
are due to modifications in successive generations.
[PAGE: 199]
Extinct - No longer active or existing.
Filter Food - Organic matter or minute organisms often found in water currents
that provide a source of nutrition for certain animals.
Food Chain - the sequence of organisms, including producers, consumers, and
decomposers, through which energy and materials are made and
consumed in a community; an order of predation in which
organisms use the next usually lower member as a food source.
Foraging - A browsing, grazing or wandering search for food or provisions.
Gene - A sequence of DNA nucleotides that codes for a particular polypeptide
or an RNA molecule. Genes provide information for structure and
function in organisms and are passed on in reproduction.
Genealogy - An account of the descent of a person, family, or group from an
ancestry or from older forms.
Genetic Drift - Change in the gene pool purely as a result of chance, and not
a result of selection, mutation, or migration.
Genetics - A branch of biology that deals with the heridity and variation of
organisms; the genetic makeup and phenomena of an organism, type,
group, or condition.
Genome - The total genetic information in an organism's nucleus.
Germination - Sprouting or developing; coming into being or beginning to grow.
Gestation - The carrying of young in the uterus and the concomitant
developmental stages.
Herbivore - An animal that eats plants.
Humidity - Degree of wetness, especially atmospheric moisture.
Intelligence - Ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying
situations; the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's
environment.
Mutation - Any relatively stable heritable change in the genetic material.
Natural Selection - Differential reproduction in nature, leading to an
increase in the frequency of some genes or gene
combinations and to a decrease in the frequency of others.
Nectar - A sweet liquid that is secreted by the nectaries of a plant,
sometimes a nutritional source for animals.
Niche - The functional role and position of an organism in the ecosystem.
Phenotype - The physical manifestation of a genetic trait; the features of
form, function, and behavior of an organism; an expression of
interaction between genotype and environment.
[PAGE: 200]
Precipitation - A deposit on the earth of hail, mist, rain, sleet, or snow;
the quantity of water deposited.
Predator - One that preys, destroys or devours; often a consumer of living
tissue.
Prey - An animal taken by a predator as food.
Prototype - An individual that exhibits the essential features of a later
type; an original model on which something is patterned.
Recombination - The formation by the processes of crossing-over and
independent assortment of new combinations of genes in progeny
that did not occur in the parents.
Speciation - The process of the formation of new species.
Species - A category of biological classification ranking immediately below
the genus or subgenus, comprising related organisms or populations
potentially capable of interbreeding.
Toxin - A poisonous substance that is a specific product of the metabolic
activities of a living organism and is usually very unstable, notably
toxic when introduced into the tissues, and typically capable of
inducing antibody formation.
SIMLIFE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Douglas - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Harmony Book, 1979.
Allen, John - Biosphere 2: The Human Experiment. Penguin Books USA, 1991.
Ashby, W. Ross - Design for a Brain. Chapman & Hall, 1960.
Bell, William J. - Searching Behavior: The Behavioral Ecology of Finding
Resources. Chapman and Hall, 1991.
Bradbury, Ian - The Biosphere. Belhaven Press, 1991.
Dawkins, Richard - The Blind Watchmaker. W.W. Norton & Company, 1986, 1987.
Dawkins, Richard - The Selfish Gene. New Edition. Oxford University Press,
1976, 1989.
Eldredge, Niles - Macro-Evolutionary Dynamics: Species, Niches & Adaptive
Peaks. McGraw-Hill, 1989.
Goldberg, David E. - Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization & Machine
Learning. Addison Wesley, 1989.
Gonick, Larry and Mark Wheelis - The Cartoon Guide to Genetics. Updated
Edition. Harper Perennial, 1983, 1991.
[PAGE: 201]
Gould, James L. and Carol Gould - Sexual Selection, Scientific American
Library. 1989.
Imes, Rick - The Practical Botanist: An Essential Field Guide to Studying,
Classifying, and Collecting Plants. Simon and Schuster, Fireside,
1990.
Keeton, William T. - Elements of Biological Science. W.W. Norton & Company,
1973.
Langton, Christopher G., ed. - Artificial Life II: A Proceedings Volume in the
Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of
Complexity, Volume X. Addison Wesley, 1992.
Langton, Christopher G., ed. - Artificial Life: A Proceedings Volume in the
Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of
Complexity, Volume VI. Addison Wesley, 1989.
Lem, Stanislaw - The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age. Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
Meyer, Jean-Arcady, ed. - From Animals to Animats: Proceedings from the First
International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive
Behavior. Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1991.
Minsky, Marvin - The Society of Mind. Simon & Schuster, 1985, 1986.
Packer, Craig - "Captives in the Wild." National Geographic, Vol. 181, No. 4
(1992): 122-136.
Pianka, Eric R. - Evolutionary Ecology - Fourth Edition. Harper & Row, 1988.
Terborgh, John - Diversity and the Tropical Rain FOrest. Scientific American
Library, 1992.
Vonnegut, Kurt - Galapagos. Delacorte Press, 1985.
Wilson, E. O., ed, et al - Biodiversity. National Academy Press, 1986.
Wilson, E. O. - Life on Earth. Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1978.
Young, Paul - The Botany Coloring Book. Harper & Row, 1982.
[PAGE: 202]
INDEX
A - C
A Button 26, 99
About SimLife... 84
Accidents 157
Action 146, 147
Add a Group 124
Adult 144
Advanced 89
Age (% of Max) Graph 154
All Deaths 157
Altitude 120
Altitude Button 37
Altitude Tool 109
Analysis 77
Animal Food Sources 143
Animal Gene Groups 161
Animal Genome 141-147
Animal Icons 136
Animal Limits 179
Animal Variables 183
Animal Zoo File 197
Animals 18
Anywhere 124
Artifacts 38, 105, 181
Artificial Life 6
Auto Scroll 87
Auto Tracking 39, 87
Auto-Disasters 97
AutoSpeciate 92
Average 89
Avoid 144
Barrier Tool 114
Barriers 33, 121, 126
Beginner 89
Behavior 143
Biology Lab 43-45, 48, 55, 58-59, 94, 128-139
Biology Lab, Edit Lab 131-139
Biology Lab, Select Level 129-131
Biology Lab Buttons 43, 138 T
Births Graph 154 Y
Bowser 42, 93 P
Brain Box 183 E
Build World... 88 D
Build World... Button 32, 61, 122
Build-A-Bug 54 B
Carrot 40, 112 Y
Causes of Death 157
Census Button 42, 43 R
Census Submenu 95 Y
Census Windows 69, 70, 152-174 G
Census Windows Button 29 A
Change Physics... 65, 90 R
Change Picture to Match Prototype Genome 138
Change Prototype Genome to Match Picture 138
Chromosomes 20
Civilization 97
Clear Icon 85
Climate Lab 64, 94, 151
Climate Lab Button 64
Clone 39, 111
Close 84
Cold Wave 96
Comet 97
Conserving Memory 194
Continous Gene Display - Color 164
Continous Gene Display - Monochrome 162
Continous Genes 72, 159, 161
Control 60-61
Control Key 39, 80, 100
Copy Button 60, 129
Copy Icon 50, 85
D - F
Danger 146, 147
Dashboard 24-29, 59-61, 94, 98-102
Data File Types 196-197
Data Log File 197
Data Logging... 92
Day Length 178
Day Length Variation 151
Days 14
Deaths Graph 154
Delete All Animals 130
Delete All Plants 130
Delete Button 129
Die-off 144
Difficulty Submenu 89
Disasters Menu 96
Discrete Genes 72, 159-160
Display Controls 99
Display Messages 87
Diversity 95
Diversity Window 171-173
DOS/Windows Dashboard 25, 98
Down-arrow Buttons 15, 27, 80
Drawing Order 105
Drought 97
Ecology 17
Ecology Score Graph 154
Ecosystem 17
Edit 94
Edit Button 129
Edit Level 44
Edit Menu 85
Edit Rectangle 30, 35, 118
Edit Species Genome 138
Edit Window 35, 63, 104-116
Edit Window Control Panel 36, 104, 106-116
Edit Window Display Area 105
Edit Window Tool Indicator 101
Edit Rectangle 30
Energy Requirement Bar 147
Environment 17
Evaluation 94
Evaluation Window 51, 187
Evaporation Rate 149
Evergreen Button 150
Everything 181
Evolution 21
Expert 89
Features 145
Females (%) Graph 154
File Menu 84
Filter Feeder Food 119
Filter Food 19, 119
Fire 97
Flash Cards 45, 48, 82, 132-134
Flood 96
Flower Season 149
Food 19, 146
Food (%) Graph 154
Food Chains 20
Food Slider 150
Food Sources 33, 121, 126
Food Tool 114
Food Value 176
Food Web 95
[PAGE: 203]
Food Web Window 165-167
Food Webs 20
Forage Count 183
G - L
Game Data File 196
Gender 46, 141, 148
Gene Pool 21, 95
Gene Pool Diversity 48, 134
Gene Pool Window 71, 158-164
Gene Poole 42
Gene Selection 162
Genes 20
Genetics 20
Genome Window 40, 46-47, 56-57, 140-150
Genomes 21
Gestation 145
Gestation Size 145
Gestation Time 145
Goals of SimLife 2
Goodies Submenu 87
Graph Display Area 155
Graph Information 154
Graph Selectors 153
Graph Time Scale 153
Graphs 95
Graphs Window 70, 152-155
Group Selection 160
Health 146, 149
Health (%) Graph 154
Health Costs 177
Heat Wave 96
Help Button 28, 31, 101, 116, 122, 124, 127, 139, 147, 150, 152, 156, 158, 176
Hide All Animals 88
Hide All Layers 88
Hide All Plants 88
Highlight 39, 112
History 95
History Window 42, 174
Home Gene Splicer-Dicer 47
Icon Section 134
Icons 49-50, 58
Ignore 144
In the Water 124
Individual Animal Data File 196
Individual Organism Naming System 81
Individual Plant Data File 196
Installation 10
Joystick 35-36, 105, 116
Kill Off 124
Lab Book 53, 70-71, 74
Lake Size 181
Large 127
Laws of Physics Window 65, 175-180
Layers Submenu 88
Life 16, 121, 144
Life Button 38
Life Span 144, 178
Life Tool 110-113
Llama 34, 39, 188
Load a Species 131
Load a Zoo 131
Local Species 16, 81, 153, 157, 160, 166
Locate an Individual Window 188
Locate an Individual... 91
M - P
Macintosh Dashboard 25, 98
Main Links 166
Make Population Match Prototype Genome 138
Make Prototype Genome Match Population 139
Making a Living 172
Making the Simulation Run Faster 194
Map 94
Map Window 30, 117-122
Map Window Button 30
Map Window Control Panel 31, 118-122
Map Window Display Area 118
Mating Difference 48, 56, 134
Max 146, 147
Maximum Size Bar 147
Maximum Size Slider 150
Medium 127
Menu Bar 24
Menus 15, 24, 84-97
Metabolism Costs 177
Mice 13
Modified 89
Moisture 120
Moisture Tool 108
Moisture Zones 181
Mortality 95
Mortality Window 43, 156-157
Mountains 126
Move 39, 111
Movement 141
Movement Costs 176
Mutagen Tool 116
Mutagens 32, 121, 126
Mutation 145
Mutation Rate Slider 150
Nectar 46
Nectar Button 150
New Animal Button 130
New Game 84
New Game Window 23, 103
New Plant Button 130
New World Name 126
No Auto-Disasters 97
No Graph 154
Novice 89
Number of Children 145
Old Age Slider 150
On the Land 124
On-screen Tutorial 10
One Species 167
Open Game 84
Option Key 39, 80, 100
Organism Display Controls 99
P Button 26, 99
Palette 49
Paste Icon 85
Pause Button 29, 69, 101
% Female 145
% Genes from Father 48, 134
% of Biomass Graph 154
Persist 143
Phenotype 94
Phenotype Window 41, 184
Philosophy of Life 83
Plague 96
Plant Costs 178
Plant Gene Groups 161
Plant Genome 148-150
Plant Icons 135
Plant Limit 179
Plant Variables 182
Plant Zoo File 196
Plants 18
[PAGE: 204]
Play Animal Sounds 87
Play Music 87
Play Other Sounds 87
Play Scenario Button 103
Populate 39, 111
Populate Window 33-34, 67-68, 123-124
Populate... 88
Populate... Button 33, 67-68, 122
Population 95, 159
Population Graph 154
Population Interaction Window 168, 169
Population Window 170
Prefer/Avoid/Ignore 144
Prototype 129
Prototype Genome 21, 82
Q - S
Quit 84
Radiation (%) Graph 154
Rainfall Variation 151
Rating 187
Reconverge Species 92
Record All Statistics 91, 155
Recording Data 70
Recruit 112
Reference 79-197
Regional Weather Variation 125
Rename Button 60
Return to Select Level 60, 138
Rivers and Lakes 126, 181
Roamin' Noses 55
roaming 143
Run Control Window 189
Run Control... 91
Sacredness of All Life 54
Sample Experiments 190-193
Save 84
Save All Animals 130
Save All Plants 130
Save As... 84
Save Button 51, 129
Scenarios 23, 103
Score 187
Scrolling 36
Seasons 149
Seed Season 149
Seeds 149
Select Level 129
Selected Species 15, 27, 81, 99, 100, 123, 129
Selected Species Section 100
Set Defaults 180
Set Random Seed... 90
Set Time To 0 91
Share Food 143
Show All Animals 88
Show All Layers 88
Show All Plants 88
Show Clipboard 85
Show Genes 40, 113
Show Phenotype 41, 113
Show Plague Pink 89
Show Steps 181
Show Variables 40, 113
SimAnt(R) 4
SimCity(R) 4
SimEarth(R) 4
Simulation Menu 85
Simulation Stuff 178-197
Size 145
Size (% of Max) Graph 154
Small 127
Smite 39, 111
Software Toys(R) 4
Soil and Climate Change 180
Soil Depth 119
Speciate 41, 113
Speciate Window 41, 185-186
Speciation 22
Species 17
Species Naming System 80
Speed Submenu 85, 86
Splatt 53-78
Sprout Moisture 149
Sprout Season 149
Sprout Temperature 149
Starting Data 73
Status 187
STD 96
Stealth 145
Structure 148
System Simulation 4
T - Z
Taking Data 76
Technical Submenu 65, 90
Teleport 97
Temperature 120
Temperature Button 37
Temperature Tool 107
Temperature Variation 151
Temperature Zones 181
Ticks 14, 36
Time Display 107
Time in SimLife 14
Tiny 127
Title Section 141
Toxin Tool 115
Toxins 32, 121, 126
Trails 122
Triangle Buttons 15, 80
Tricky Graphs 162
Turn Angle 143
Turn Type 143
Turning 143
Tutorials 10-78
Types of Genes 159
Ultra-Food 19, 33, 114, 121, 126
Undo 85
Update All Windows 88
Use Colors Button 160
Variables 94
Variables Window 40, 182-183
Vision 145
Water 121, 146
Water (%) Graph 154
Water Button 38
Water Slider 150
Water Tool 114
Weapons 145
Who's Eating Me? 157
Window-opening Buttons 29
Windows 98-197
Windows Menu 94
World Average Moisture 125
World Average Temperature 125
World Building Options Window 181
World Building Options... 91
World Buliding Process 195
World Design Window 32, 62, 125-127
World Design Window 32, 62, 125-127
Year Length 179
Years 14
SIM LIFE
ADDENDUM & QUICKSTART GUIDE & KEYBOARD CHART
AMIGA VERSION
Typed by Rygar!
Supplied by JBM
SYSTEM INFORMATION
HARDWARE REQUIRED
AGA VERSION:
A1200, A4000 using Workbench 3.0 with 2 MB of RAM. A
hard drive is recommended.
STANDARD VERSION:
A500, A500+, A600, A1200, A1500, A2000, A3000, A4000 using
Workbench version 1.3 or higher with a minimum 1 MB of RAM
although 2 MB is recommended. A hard drive is also recommended.
GENERAL INFORMATION
This Addendum / Quick Start Guide contains all the Amiga - specific
information to play SimLife.
There are two versions of SimLife for the Amiga: AGA which fully
supports A1200 and A4000 machines utilising the AGA graphics
chipset and STANDARD which supports all non AGA Amiga
machines.
The disks supplied have been compressed and will require
decompressions before use. If you intend to play SimLife from
floppies, please ensure that you have 3 formatted blank disks for the
game to install onto. See Installation instructions below.
NO COPY PROTECTION
SimLife is not copy protected. This is an experiment and a big leap
of faith for us. We are trusting you not to give away copies of this
game. Copy protection is a pain - for all of us - and we'd like to stop
using it forever, but if SimLife falls victim to piracy, then we will
revert to using protection on future products.
HIGH RESOLUTION MODE
If you are using the AGA version of SimLife you have the
capabilities of operating in high resolution mode if you have a
multisync monitor attached. The standard version may also be
operated in high resolution if you have a flicker fixer and 2MB or
more with a multisync monitor.
QUICK-START GUIDE INSTALLATION
Both AGA and STANDARD versions of the SimLife program have
identical installation programs. To install SimLife:
1. Insert the SimLife Disk 1 into your internal disk drive.
2. Reset you Amiga.
3. Follow the on screen instructions choosing graphical
requirements and install destination (either floppy or hard disk),
swapping disks when necessary.
STARTING THE PROGRAM
FROM HARD DISK
After installation (see above), using Workbench open the folder that
the game has been installed to and double-click on the SimLife icon
to play.
FROM FLOPPY DRIVE
Insert the disk labelled `SIMLIFE1' into your internal drive and reset
your machine. The game will load automatically.
THE ON-SCREEN TUTORIAL
After starting SimLife, you will see the New Game Window. Click on
the Tutorial button, then on Play Scenario to start the On-screen
Tutorial. You will then be walked through the basics of SimLife. A
special Tutorial Menu will appear to help you navigate and access
special Help screens.
There are two additional tutorials in the manual that will take you on
a more complete tour of SimLife and demonstrate how to design, set
up and carry out a SimLife experiment.
SPECIAL AMIGA FEATURES
Following is an explanation of any and all features and functions of
SimLife on the Amiga that weren't covered in the manual.
LOADING AND SAVING FILES
All file loading and saving is achieved through the standard Amiga
file requester. In addition, SimLife gives you the option of keeping
backup copies of the previous versions of each of these files. If you
want a backup, click in the Make Backups box in the Save File
dialogue box.
SOUNDS
Most sounds in SimLife happen in response to your actions, but there
are three sounds that occur to notify you of important events that you
might not otherwise notice.
Oooooh - this moan is the sound of an animal dying.
Ooh-la-la - this is the sound of animals mating.
Fanfare - this sound announces a birth.
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE SIMS
SimLife is a powerful simulation engine that can be put to use in a
number of different ways, both useful and silly. We've included a few
saved games on one of the disks that show some of these uses (or
abuses). Try them out. See if you can figure out what they are
and why.
DATA LOGGING
An advanced, but very useful feature in SimLife is Data Logging.
When you activeate the Data Logging... item in the Technical
Submenu of the Simulation Menu, the program will write a lot of data
to disk in a standard text file. This information can then be loaded
into a spreadsheet or other statistical program, and you can make all
the graphs and charts you could ever want.
Warning: The Data Log File can get huge. Depending on the size
of the world and the number of plants and animals in it, this file
can take up to 100KB per year. Make sure you have the disk space.
When you activate Data Logging, you will be presented with a
dialogue box that lets you name the data file and tell the computer
where to save it.
DATA LOGGING FILE SAVING OPTIONS
In addition to the usual Amiga file saving controls, you
can set a few other options.
Append to Existing File
Sometimes you might run SimLife with Data Logging,
take a break (to work - or better yet, play SimCity),
the come back to SimLife later. If you want to
continue Data Logging where you left off, and have
the data go into the same data file you were using
before, use the same file name and check this box.
Data Checkboxes (A.K.A. Flags)
You can choose what data to save to disk by
checking the following boxes. If you hold
down the Option key while checking a box,
they will all be checked. If you hold down
the Option key while unchecking (clearing)
a box, they will all be unchecked.
An explanation of what information each checkbox represents can be
found starting on the next page, as part of the complete description of
the Data Log file format.
DATA LOGGING FILE FORMAT
In order to make use of this data once you get it into a spreadsheet (or
other program), you'll need to know how all the data is arranged.
Each line in the data log file starts with the four-letter abbreviation, as
seen next to each checkbox, that indentifies the type of information the
line contains, followed by one or more data fields. Fields are
separated from each other by a single Tab. Lines are separated by a
Return. The first data field is the simulation time, showing the year,
day, and tick of the event being reported. On most lines, the next field
is either a species or an Orgot (an individual SimLife Organism)
identifier code, which consists of a flag indicating whether this is a plant
or an animal species, the species number and version, and specific organism if
applicable. The remaining fields are different for each message type as noted.
Type Year.Day.Tic Date Time Message
NOTE 0000.000.000 92/06/01 17:12:51 "Log started"
These are human-readable messages that report when the data log was started
or closed, as well as when a game is paused, the simulation time is reset to
zero, or a game is loaded.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Event Message
HIST 0000.000.000 1.19.01.000 2 "Wheatgrass' has only seeds left"
All messages that appear in the History window will be recorded to the data
log as they occur.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Remaining Special Pop.
DIED 0000.000.000 1.02.01.023 12
This is a record of each plant or animal death.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Pop.
LIVE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time a new plant or animal is created or populated, the species
identifier and unique orgot number of the new inhabitant is recorded. If the
GENE checkbox is checked, the genetic make-up of the new organism is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Pop.
BORN 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time an animal is born, the birth is reported. If the GENE checkbox is
checked, the genetic makeup ofthe newborn is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID New Species Population
SEED 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 30
Each time a plant sprouts from a seed, the event is reported. If the GENE
checkbox is checked, the genetic makeup of the new plant is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID OrgotID
MATE 0000.000.001 0.06.01.002 0.06.01.001
Each time a pair of animals or plants mate, the event is reported. The first
OrgotID is the female.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID OrgotID
ASEX 0000.001.000 0.12.01.005 0.12.01.005
Each tiem an asexual plant or animal becomes pregnant, the event is reported.
Since the orgot is mating with itself, the OrgotID is duplicated for
consistency with the MATE data format.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Number Killed
KILL 0000.000.000 1.00.01.000 30
Each time a plant or animal is manually killed, the death is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Number Populated
POPU 0000.000.000 1.00.01.000 30
Each time a species is manually populated, the event is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Daily Statistics
DATA 0000.001.000 0.00.01.000 See below
At the end of each simulation day, the census statistics for each active
species are summarised.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Annual Statistics
YEAR 0001.000.000 0.00.01.000 See below
At the end of each simulation year, the census statistics for each active
species are summarised.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Message
DELE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 `SpeciesName' has been deleted.
Each time a species is deleted, the event is reported.
Type Year.Day.Tic SpeciesID Message
CREA 0000.000.000 1.00.01.030 `SpeciesName' has been created.
Each time a species is created, the event is reported.
Type SpeciesID Species Name
LEGN 0.00.01.000 "Elephant"
At the beginning of each data log is a legend or listing of each species
identifier and species name. This can be used as a key to look up the name of
a species from its identifier number.
Type Year.Day.Tic OrgotID MothersID Genetic Data
GENE 0000.000.000 1.00.01.001 1.00.01.000 See below
Each time a plant or animal is populated or born, the genetic information for
that individual is reported. Since animals have more genetic data than plants,
animals have several additional fields in addition to the basic fields.
DATA and YEAR Fields
All of the following fields are recorded for DATA (daily census statistics)
and YEAR (yearly census summaries) for each active species.
Simulation time; Species ID: Total species population, including seeds for
plants; for plant species, the number of seeds, if any; Species population,
not including unsprouted seeds; Number of births or sprouts in this species;
Number of deaths in this species; Water level for this species; Health level
for this species; Number of females in the species population; Average age of
the species population; Average size of the species population; Total biomass
of this species.
GENE Fields for Plants
These are the fields recorded for each individual plant:
Simulation time; OrgotID: OrgotID of this orgot's mother; Food Store gene;
Water Store gene; Health Store gene; Height gene; Mutation gene; Life span
gene; Stealth gene; Birth/Death gene; Movement/food source gene; Reserved gene
(not used for genetics).
GENE Fields for Animals
These are the fields recorded for each individual animal. They are the same as
the plant genes above, plus the following additional fields:
Behaviour gene; Vision gene; Food Action gene; Water Action gene; Health
Action gene; Food Danger gene; Water Danger gene; Health Danger gene;
Gestation Time gene; Gestation Size gene; Metabolism/Gender/Share Food gene;
Adult age gene; Weapons gene; Turn Style gene; Persistence gene; Species0
attract/repel gene; Species1 attract/repel gene; Species2 attract/repel gene;
Species3 attract/repel gene; Species4 attract/repel gene; Species5 attract/
repel gene; Species6 attract/repel gene; Species7 attract/repel gene.
KEYBOARD CHART
File Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + N = New Game...
Right Amiga Key + O = Open Game...
Right Amiga Key + W = Close Game...
Right Amiga Key + S = Save
Right Amiga Key + Q = Quit
Speed Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + P = Pause
Right Amiga Key + - = Slow
Right Amiga Key + = = Medium
Right Amiga Key + F = Fast
Right Amiga Key + U = Ultra
Opening Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + E = Edit
Right Amiga Key + M = Map
Right Amiga Key + T = Climate Lab
Right Amiga Key + B = Biology Lab
Right Amiga Key + O = Dashboard
Right Amiga Key + 1 = Variables
Right Amiga Key + 2 = Phenotype
Right Amiga Key + 3 = Evaluation
Right Amiga Key + 4 = Diversity
Right Amiga Key + 5 = Food Web
Right Amiga Key + 6 = Gene Pool
Right Amiga Key + 7 = Graphs
Right Amiga Key + H = History
Right Amiga Key + 8 = Mortality
Right Amiga Key + 9 = Population
Technical Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + Y = Change Physics
Right Amiga Key + L = Locate an Individual
Right Amiga Key + D = Data Logging
Goodies and Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right Amiga Key + J = Music on/off
Right Amiga Key + K = Sound on/off
Right Amiga Key + A = Auto Tracking on/off
Other Keys
~~~~~~~~~~
Tab = Toggles between Plant and Animal in the Dashboard
Escape = Cancels operations, deselects selections, and sets
Life Tool to No Tool
Left Alt Key = In the Edit Window:
Hold down Left Alt Key while cloning to cause mutation
Hold down while raising or lowering Temperature or
Moisture to limit effect to one tile.
Hold down while using Carrot to call only Highlighted
animal.
Left Alt Key = In the Dashboard:
Hold down while clicking an On/Off button to turn all
plants or animals on or off.
Hold down while selecting a colour/symbol to set all
plants or animals to that colour/symbol.
Hold down while clicking on the Pause button to
single-step the simulation one Tick.
Left Alt Key = In the Graphs Window:
Hold down while selecting the Local Species or
Information to set all four Selectors at once.
Left Alt Key = In the Map Window:
Hold down while clicking the Populate... button to
randomly populate the world.
Left Alt Key = In the Food Web Window:
Hold down while clicking on a predator to open the
Population Interaction Window.
Left Alt Key = In Data Logging Dialogue Box:
Hold down while toggling any checkbox on or off to
turn them all on or off.
MINDSCAPE INTERNATIONAL
PRIORITY HOUSE, CHARLES AVENUE, BURGESS HILL, WEST SUSSEX RH15 9PQ
TEL 0444 246333 FAX 0444 248996
Typed by Rygar!