[micropolis] / manual / intro.html

<head><title>Introduction</title></head><body>

<h1>Introduction</h1>

<h2>Foreword</h2>

Enter Micropolis and take control. Be the undisputed ruler of a
sophisticated real-time City Simulation. Become the master of existing
cities such as San Francisco, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro, or create
your own dream city (or nightmare slum) from the ground up.  <p>

Whether you take over an existing city or build your own, you are the
Mayor and City Planner with complete authority.  <p>

Your city is populated by Sims -- Simulated Citizens. Like their human
counterparts, they build houses, condos, churches, stores and
factories. And, also like humans, they complain about things like
taxes, mayors, taxes, city planners, and taxes. If they get unhappy,
they move out; you collect fewer taxes, the city deteriorates.  <p>

The next few sections will explain the overall concept of Micropolis and
give information that will help you win Scenarios and design and build
better cities.  <p>

<h2>About System Simulations</h2>

Micropolis is the first of a new type of entertainment/educational
software, called System Simulations. We provide you with a set of
Rules and Tools that describe, create and control a system. In the
case of Micropolis the system is a city.  <p>

The challenge of playing a System Simulation game 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, cities) within the framework and limits
provided by the Rules.  <p>

<h3>Rules</h3>

In Micropolis, the Rules to learn are based on city planning and
management, including: <p>

<ul>

<li>Human Factors: Residential space and amenities, availability of
jobs, and quality of life.

<li>Economic Factors: Land value, industrial and commercial space,
unemployment, internal and external markets, electric power, taxation,
and funding for city services.

<li>Survival Factors: Strategies for dealing with disasters, crime,
and pollution.

<li>Political Factors: Public opinion, zoning, and keeping residents
and businesses satisfied with your city and your performance. 

</ul>
<p>

<h3>Tools</h3>

The Tools provide you with the ability to plan, lay out, zone, build,
bulldoze, re-zone, and manage a city. <p>

<ul>

<li>Plan: Mapping systems give physical and demographic overviews of
the entire city.

<li>Layout: Design living and working areas, road and transit systems,
and recreational areas.

<li>Zone: Set zoning boundaries for parks, residential, commercial and
industrial areas.

<li>Build: Place roads, rails, airports, seaports, fire and police
stations, sports stadiums, and power plants.

<li>Bulldoze: Clear forests for city growth, build landfill along
waterways, clear and re-zone developed areas.

<li>Manage: Using the mapping and graphing systems, gather up-to-date
information on traffic density, population trends, power grid status,
pollution, crime, land value, police and fire department efficiency,
and cash flow. Set the tax rate and funding levels for city services.

</ul>
<p>

But the most important Tool of all is the Simulator itself. Test your
plans and ideas as you watch the city grow or shrink through the
immigration and emigration of industrious Simulated Citizens. Sims
will move in and build homes, hospitals, churches, stores and
factories in the zones you provide, or move out in search of jobs or a
better life elsewhere. The success of the city is based on the quality
of the city you design and manage.  <p>

<h3>Simulator Reaction Time</h3>

The simulator is a very complex multi-tasking piece of software. It is
constantly performing many checks, calculations, and updates, as well
as keeping watch on the mouse and keyboard to respond to your demands.
When you load in a city, give the simulator some time to compile its
data and update the maps, graphs, population levels, etc. Some of the
other times when the simulator lags behind you are when powering zones
and updating the city services map after installing police and fire
stations.  <p>

<h2>The Goals of Micropolis</h2>

There are many goals to be pursued and reached in Micropolis.  <p>

<h3>Scenarios</h3>

Each of the eight included scenarios is actually a game in itself,
with an unlimited number of ways to win -- or lose. <p>

Each Scenario is a city which is either the victim of horrible
planning or about to be the victim of a natural disaster. After you
load in a Scenario, you will have a limited amount of time to correct
or repair the problems. If you are successful, you will be given the
key to the city. If not, you may be ridden out of town on a rail.  <p>

If one strategy doesn't work, try another. There are a million stories
in each city, and you write them.  <p>

<h3>Your Dream City</h3>

Perhaps the main goal of Micropolis is for you to design, manage and
maintain the city of your dreams.  <p>

Your ideal place to live may be a bustling megalopolis, lots of
people, lots of cars, tall buildings: high-energy, high density
living. Or it may be a small rural community, or a linked group of
small communities providing slow-paced country living.  <p>

As long as your city can provide places for people to live, work, shop
and play, it will attract residents. And as long as traffic,
pollution, overcrowding, crime or taxes don't drive them away, your
city will live.  <p>

<h1>Getting Started</h1>

<h2>Micropolis Requirements</h2>

Micropolis requires an Intel processor running the Linux operating
system, with the X11 window system installed, a 16 bit deep color graphics display, 
a kernel with the shared memory option enabled, 
and at least 32 megabytes of memory. <p>

<h2>Micropolis Features</h2>

<h3>On-Line Help</h3>

You can get help on the Micropolis user interface, by pointing the mouse
at anything mysterious, holding down shift, and clicking the left button. 
The Help window will pop up, giving instructions and useful hints on how 
to use the controls.  <p>

<h3>Multiple Views</h3>

You can open up any number of animated city maps and editors at once. <p>

<h3>Pie Menus</h3>

Micropolis features pop up "pie menus" for quickly selecting city editing tools. 
Pie menus are radial menus with their choices in different directions, 
and they're very fast and efficient to use. 
Since you change editing tools quite often while building a city, 
you can save much time and effort by using the pie menu shortcuts 
instead of the moving back and forth to the tool pallet.
<p>

<p>

<hr>
<p>
<h2>Micropolis, Unix Version.</h2>
This game was released for the Unix platform
in or about 1990 and has been modified for inclusion in the One Laptop
Per Child program.  Copyright &copy; 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc.  If
you need assistance with this program, you may contact:
<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>.
</p><p>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
</p><p>

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.  You should have received a
copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program.  If
not, see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/">http://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>.
</p><p>

<h3 align="center">ADDITIONAL TERMS per GNU GPL Section 7</h3>

</p><p>
No trademark or publicity rights are granted.  This license does NOT
give you any right, title or interest in the trademark SimCity or any
other Electronic Arts trademark.  You may not distribute any
modification of this program using the trademark SimCity or claim any
affliation or association with Electronic Arts Inc. or its employees.
</p><p>

Any propagation or conveyance of this program must include this
copyright notice and these terms.
</p><p>

If you convey this program (or any modifications of it) and assume
contractual liability for the program to recipients of it, you agree
to indemnify Electronic Arts for any liability that those contractual
assumptions impose on Electronic Arts.
</p><p>

You may not misrepresent the origins of this program; modified
versions of the program must be marked as such and not identified as
the original program.
</p><p>

This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public
License.  <b>TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS
PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.  THE ENTIRE RISK OF
SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE RESIDES WITH YOU.  ELECTRONIC ARTS
DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY
RIGHTS, AND WARRANTIES (IF ANY) ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING,
USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.  ELECTRONIC ARTS DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST
INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE PROGRAM; THAT THE PROGRAM WILL
MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE PROGRAM WILL BE COMPATIBLE
WITH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE PROGRAM WILL BE
CORRECTED.  NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS OR
ANY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY.  SOME
JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATIONS ON THE APPLICABLE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A
CONSUMER, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS MAY
NOT APPLY TO YOU.</b>
</p>
</body>
Commit	Line	Data
6a5fa4e0 MG	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:micropolis@laptop.org">micropolis@laptop.org</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