Building SimCity How to Put the World in a Machine

A deep dive into the trailblazing simulation gameSimCity, situating it in the history of games, simulation, and computing.
Building SimCityexplores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made:SimCity. As author Chaim Gingold explains, Will Wright, the visionary designer behind the urban planning game, createdSimCityin part to learn about cities, appropriating ideas from traditions in which computers are used as tools for modeling and thinking about the world as a complex system. As such,SimCityis a microcosm of the histories and cultures of computer simulation that engages with questions, themes, and representational techniques that reach back to the earliest computer simulations.
Gingold usesSimCityto explore a web of interrelated topics in the history of technology, software, and simulation, taking us far and wide-from the dawn of programmable...