]> git.zerfleddert.de Git - micropolis/blame - manual/intro.html
ignore SIGCHLD to reap zombies
[micropolis] / manual / intro.html
CommitLineData
6a5fa4e0
MG
1<head><title>Introduction</title></head><body>
2
3<h1>Introduction</h1>
4
5<h2>Foreword</h2>
6
7Enter Micropolis and take control. Be the undisputed ruler of a
8sophisticated real-time City Simulation. Become the master of existing
9cities such as San Francisco, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro, or create
10your own dream city (or nightmare slum) from the ground up. <p>
11
12Whether you take over an existing city or build your own, you are the
13Mayor and City Planner with complete authority. <p>
14
15Your city is populated by Sims -- Simulated Citizens. Like their human
16counterparts, they build houses, condos, churches, stores and
17factories. And, also like humans, they complain about things like
18taxes, mayors, taxes, city planners, and taxes. If they get unhappy,
19they move out; you collect fewer taxes, the city deteriorates. <p>
20
21The next few sections will explain the overall concept of Micropolis and
22give information that will help you win Scenarios and design and build
23better cities. <p>
24
25<h2>About System Simulations</h2>
26
27Micropolis is the first of a new type of entertainment/educational
28software, called System Simulations. We provide you with a set of
29Rules and Tools that describe, create and control a system. In the
30case of Micropolis the system is a city. <p>
31
32The challenge of playing a System Simulation game is to figure out how
33the system works and take control of it. As master of the system, you
34are free to use the Tools to create and control an unlimited number of
35systems (in this case, cities) within the framework and limits
36provided by the Rules. <p>
37
38<h3>Rules</h3>
39
40In Micropolis, the Rules to learn are based on city planning and
41management, including: <p>
42
43<ul>
44
45<li>Human Factors: Residential space and amenities, availability of
46jobs, and quality of life.
47
48<li>Economic Factors: Land value, industrial and commercial space,
49unemployment, internal and external markets, electric power, taxation,
50and funding for city services.
51
52<li>Survival Factors: Strategies for dealing with disasters, crime,
53and pollution.
54
55<li>Political Factors: Public opinion, zoning, and keeping residents
56and businesses satisfied with your city and your performance.
57
58</ul>
59<p>
60
61<h3>Tools</h3>
62
63The Tools provide you with the ability to plan, lay out, zone, build,
64bulldoze, re-zone, and manage a city. <p>
65
66<ul>
67
68<li>Plan: Mapping systems give physical and demographic overviews of
69the entire city.
70
71<li>Layout: Design living and working areas, road and transit systems,
72and recreational areas.
73
74<li>Zone: Set zoning boundaries for parks, residential, commercial and
75industrial areas.
76
77<li>Build: Place roads, rails, airports, seaports, fire and police
78stations, sports stadiums, and power plants.
79
80<li>Bulldoze: Clear forests for city growth, build landfill along
81waterways, clear and re-zone developed areas.
82
83<li>Manage: Using the mapping and graphing systems, gather up-to-date
84information on traffic density, population trends, power grid status,
85pollution, crime, land value, police and fire department efficiency,
86and cash flow. Set the tax rate and funding levels for city services.
87
88</ul>
89<p>
90
91But the most important Tool of all is the Simulator itself. Test your
92plans and ideas as you watch the city grow or shrink through the
93immigration and emigration of industrious Simulated Citizens. Sims
94will move in and build homes, hospitals, churches, stores and
95factories in the zones you provide, or move out in search of jobs or a
96better life elsewhere. The success of the city is based on the quality
97of the city you design and manage. <p>
98
99<h3>Simulator Reaction Time</h3>
100
101The simulator is a very complex multi-tasking piece of software. It is
102constantly performing many checks, calculations, and updates, as well
103as keeping watch on the mouse and keyboard to respond to your demands.
104When you load in a city, give the simulator some time to compile its
105data and update the maps, graphs, population levels, etc. Some of the
106other times when the simulator lags behind you are when powering zones
107and updating the city services map after installing police and fire
108stations. <p>
109
110<h2>The Goals of Micropolis</h2>
111
112There are many goals to be pursued and reached in Micropolis. <p>
113
114<h3>Scenarios</h3>
115
116Each of the eight included scenarios is actually a game in itself,
117with an unlimited number of ways to win -- or lose. <p>
118
119Each Scenario is a city which is either the victim of horrible
120planning or about to be the victim of a natural disaster. After you
121load in a Scenario, you will have a limited amount of time to correct
122or repair the problems. If you are successful, you will be given the
123key to the city. If not, you may be ridden out of town on a rail. <p>
124
125If one strategy doesn't work, try another. There are a million stories
126in each city, and you write them. <p>
127
128<h3>Your Dream City</h3>
129
130Perhaps the main goal of Micropolis is for you to design, manage and
131maintain the city of your dreams. <p>
132
133Your ideal place to live may be a bustling megalopolis, lots of
134people, lots of cars, tall buildings: high-energy, high density
135living. Or it may be a small rural community, or a linked group of
136small communities providing slow-paced country living. <p>
137
138As long as your city can provide places for people to live, work, shop
139and play, it will attract residents. And as long as traffic,
140pollution, overcrowding, crime or taxes don't drive them away, your
141city will live. <p>
142
143<h1>Getting Started</h1>
144
145<h2>Micropolis Requirements</h2>
146
147Micropolis requires an Intel processor running the Linux operating
148system, with the X11 window system installed, a 16 bit deep color graphics display,
149a kernel with the shared memory option enabled,
150and at least 32 megabytes of memory. <p>
151
152<h2>Micropolis Features</h2>
153
154<h3>On-Line Help</h3>
155
156You can get help on the Micropolis user interface, by pointing the mouse
157at anything mysterious, holding down shift, and clicking the left button.
158The Help window will pop up, giving instructions and useful hints on how
159to use the controls. <p>
160
161<h3>Multiple Views</h3>
162
163You can open up any number of animated city maps and editors at once. <p>
164
165<h3>Pie Menus</h3>
166
167Micropolis features pop up "pie menus" for quickly selecting city editing tools.
168Pie menus are radial menus with their choices in different directions,
169and they're very fast and efficient to use.
170Since you change editing tools quite often while building a city,
171you can save much time and effort by using the pie menu shortcuts
172instead 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>
180This game was released for the Unix platform
181in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop
182Per Child program. Copyright &copy; 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. If
183you 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:micropolis@laptop.org">micropolis@laptop.org</a>.
185</p><p>
186
187This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
188it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
189the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
190your option) any later version.
191</p><p>
192
193This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
194WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
195MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
196General Public License for more details. You should have received a
197copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If
198not, 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>
204No trademark or publicity rights are granted. This license does NOT
205give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any
206other Electronic Arts trademark. You may not distribute any
207modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any
208affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.
209</p><p>
210
211Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
212copyright notice and these terms.
213</p><p>
214
215If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume
216contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree
217to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual
218assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.
219</p><p>
220
221You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified
222versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as
223the original program.
224</p><p>
225
226This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public
227License. <b>TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS
228PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY
229OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE ENTIRE RISK OF
230SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU. ELECTRONIC ARTS
231DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES,
232INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY,
233FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY
234RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING,
235USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST
236INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL
237MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
238UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE
239WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE
240CORRECTED. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR
241ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY. SOME
242JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED
243WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A
244CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY
245NOT APPLY TO YOU.</b>
246</p>
247</body>
248
249
250
Impressum, Datenschutz