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1.1 root 1: <head><title>Introduction</title></head><body>
2:
3: <h1>Introduction</h1>
4:
5: <h2>Foreword</h2>
6:
7: Enter Micropolis and take control. Be the undisputed ruler of a
8: sophisticated real-time City Simulation. Become the master of existing
9: cities such as San Francisco, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro, or create
10: your own dream city (or nightmare slum) from the ground up. <p>
11:
12: Whether you take over an existing city or build your own, you are the
13: Mayor and City Planner with complete authority. <p>
14:
15: Your city is populated by Sims -- Simulated Citizens. Like their human
16: counterparts, they build houses, condos, churches, stores and
17: factories. And, also like humans, they complain about things like
18: taxes, mayors, taxes, city planners, and taxes. If they get unhappy,
19: they move out; you collect fewer taxes, the city deteriorates. <p>
20:
21: The next few sections will explain the overall concept of Micropolis and
22: give information that will help you win Scenarios and design and build
23: better cities. <p>
24:
25: <h2>About System Simulations</h2>
26:
27: Micropolis is the first of a new type of entertainment/educational
28: software, called System Simulations. We provide you with a set of
29: Rules and Tools that describe, create and control a system. In the
30: case of Micropolis the system is a city. <p>
31:
32: The challenge of playing a System Simulation game is to figure out how
33: the system works and take control of it. As master of the system, you
34: are free to use the Tools to create and control an unlimited number of
35: systems (in this case, cities) within the framework and limits
36: provided by the Rules. <p>
37:
38: <h3>Rules</h3>
39:
40: In Micropolis, the Rules to learn are based on city planning and
41: management, including: <p>
42:
43: <ul>
44:
45: <li>Human Factors: Residential space and amenities, availability of
46: jobs, and quality of life.
47:
48: <li>Economic Factors: Land value, industrial and commercial space,
49: unemployment, internal and external markets, electric power, taxation,
50: and funding for city services.
51:
52: <li>Survival Factors: Strategies for dealing with disasters, crime,
53: and pollution.
54:
55: <li>Political Factors: Public opinion, zoning, and keeping residents
56: and businesses satisfied with your city and your performance.
57:
58: </ul>
59: <p>
60:
61: <h3>Tools</h3>
62:
63: The Tools provide you with the ability to plan, lay out, zone, build,
64: bulldoze, re-zone, and manage a city. <p>
65:
66: <ul>
67:
68: <li>Plan: Mapping systems give physical and demographic overviews of
69: the entire city.
70:
71: <li>Layout: Design living and working areas, road and transit systems,
72: and recreational areas.
73:
74: <li>Zone: Set zoning boundaries for parks, residential, commercial and
75: industrial areas.
76:
77: <li>Build: Place roads, rails, airports, seaports, fire and police
78: stations, sports stadiums, and power plants.
79:
80: <li>Bulldoze: Clear forests for city growth, build landfill along
81: waterways, clear and re-zone developed areas.
82:
83: <li>Manage: Using the mapping and graphing systems, gather up-to-date
84: information on traffic density, population trends, power grid status,
85: pollution, crime, land value, police and fire department efficiency,
86: and cash flow. Set the tax rate and funding levels for city services.
87:
88: </ul>
89: <p>
90:
91: But the most important Tool of all is the Simulator itself. Test your
92: plans and ideas as you watch the city grow or shrink through the
93: immigration and emigration of industrious Simulated Citizens. Sims
94: will move in and build homes, hospitals, churches, stores and
95: factories in the zones you provide, or move out in search of jobs or a
96: better life elsewhere. The success of the city is based on the quality
97: of the city you design and manage. <p>
98:
99: <h3>Simulator Reaction Time</h3>
100:
101: The simulator is a very complex multi-tasking piece of software. It is
102: constantly performing many checks, calculations, and updates, as well
103: as keeping watch on the mouse and keyboard to respond to your demands.
104: When you load in a city, give the simulator some time to compile its
105: data and update the maps, graphs, population levels, etc. Some of the
106: other times when the simulator lags behind you are when powering zones
107: and updating the city services map after installing police and fire
108: stations. <p>
109:
110: <h2>The Goals of Micropolis</h2>
111:
112: There are many goals to be pursued and reached in Micropolis. <p>
113:
114: <h3>Scenarios</h3>
115:
116: Each of the eight included scenarios is actually a game in itself,
117: with an unlimited number of ways to win -- or lose. <p>
118:
119: Each Scenario is a city which is either the victim of horrible
120: planning or about to be the victim of a natural disaster. After you
121: load in a Scenario, you will have a limited amount of time to correct
122: or repair the problems. If you are successful, you will be given the
123: key to the city. If not, you may be ridden out of town on a rail. <p>
124:
125: If one strategy doesn't work, try another. There are a million stories
126: in each city, and you write them. <p>
127:
128: <h3>Your Dream City</h3>
129:
130: Perhaps the main goal of Micropolis is for you to design, manage and
131: maintain the city of your dreams. <p>
132:
133: Your ideal place to live may be a bustling megalopolis, lots of
134: people, lots of cars, tall buildings: high-energy, high density
135: living. Or it may be a small rural community, or a linked group of
136: small communities providing slow-paced country living. <p>
137:
138: As long as your city can provide places for people to live, work, shop
139: and play, it will attract residents. And as long as traffic,
140: pollution, overcrowding, crime or taxes don't drive them away, your
141: city will live. <p>
142:
143: <h1>Getting Started</h1>
144:
145: <h2>Micropolis Requirements</h2>
146:
147: Micropolis requires an Intel processor running the Linux operating
148: system, with the X11 window system installed, a 16 bit deep color graphics display,
149: a kernel with the shared memory option enabled,
150: and at least 32 megabytes of memory. <p>
151:
152: <h2>Micropolis Features</h2>
153:
154: <h3>On-Line Help</h3>
155:
156: You can get help on the Micropolis user interface, by pointing the mouse
157: at anything mysterious, holding down shift, and clicking the left button.
158: The Help window will pop up, giving instructions and useful hints on how
159: to use the controls. <p>
160:
161: <h3>Multiple Views</h3>
162:
163: You can open up any number of animated city maps and editors at once. <p>
164:
165: <h3>Pie Menus</h3>
166:
167: Micropolis features pop up "pie menus" for quickly selecting city editing tools.
168: Pie menus are radial menus with their choices in different directions,
169: and they're very fast and efficient to use.
170: Since you change editing tools quite often while building a city,
171: you can save much time and effort by using the pie menu shortcuts
172: instead of the moving back and forth to the tool pallet.
173: <p>
174:
175: <p>
176:
177: <hr>
178: <p>
179: <h2>Micropolis, Unix Version.</h2>
180: This game was released for the Unix platform
181: in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop
182: Per Child program. Copyright © 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. If
183: you need assistance with this program, you may contact:
184: <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis</a> or email <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.
185: </p><p>
186:
187: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
188: it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
189: the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
190: your option) any later version.
191: </p><p>
192:
193: This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
194: WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
195: MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
196: General Public License for more details. You should have received a
197: copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If
198: not, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/">http://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>.
199: </p><p>
200:
201: <h3 align="center">ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7</h3>
202:
203: </p><p>
204: No trademark or publicity rights are granted. This license does NOT
205: give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any
206: other Electronic Arts trademark. You may not distribute any
207: modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any
208: affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.
209: </p><p>
210:
211: Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
212: copyright notice and these terms.
213: </p><p>
214:
215: If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume
216: contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree
217: to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual
218: assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.
219: </p><p>
220:
221: You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified
222: versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as
223: the original program.
224: </p><p>
225:
226: This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public
227: License. <b>TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS
228: PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY
229: OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE ENTIRE RISK OF
230: SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU. ELECTRONIC ARTS
231: DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES,
232: INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY,
233: FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY
234: RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING,
235: USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST
236: INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL
237: MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
238: UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE
239: WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE
240: CORRECTED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR
241: ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. SOME
242: JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED
243: WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A
244: CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY
245: NOT APPLY TO YOU.</b>
246: </p>
247: </body>
248:
249:
250:
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