''SimFarm: SimCity's Country Cousin'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

in which players build and manage a virtual

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is use ...

. It was developed by

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The Sims ...

and released in 1993 as a spin-off of ''

SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim ...

''. The game included a teacher's guide to teaching with ''SimFarm'' with blackline masters to be photocopied for the class and a user manual. In 1996, ''SimFarm'' and several other Maxis simulation games were rereleased under the ''Maxis Collector Series'', with greater compatibility with

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

and differing box art, including the addition of ''Classics'' beneath the title.

Gameplay

Simulating duties on a real

in the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

, ''SimFarm'' puts players in charge of building up the land, placing the buildings, buying and selling

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...

and planting

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

. A

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

and

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

system are in place as well, presenting the same kind of challenges found in a real-world farm. As with ''

'', there are

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

s that can wreak havoc on the player's farm.

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

es,

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

s, pests, and

dust storm A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transp ...

s are some of the events that can disrupt farm crops and

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most l ...

s. There are four types of livestock in ''SimFarm'', all of which have specific food requirements, need water, and breed new livestock. Animals' value can be increased by making a barn available for their use. ''SimFarm'' also has a small town included in its simulation. This town is reminiscent of ''SimCity'' in its form and function. The player may interact with the town occasionally by suggesting new tile types and joining competitions with livestock (such as sending in a prize pig to potentially earn a blue ribbon and a cash prize.) Suggesting that an airport be built in the town will usually cause its construction, thus unlocking the ability to buy and use a

crop duster A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

. The homestead in ''SimFarm'' is where the player lives; it is expanded at the beginning of each game year if the player has made enough money in the previous year. ''SimFarm'' allows the player to choose a location derived from the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

and climate of one of nine areas of the US or to design one's own climate by selecting average winds, rainfall, and temperatures. Equipment is necessary to maintain your farm and bring your crops to harvest. Structures store equipment, livestock, seeds, etc. The minimum equipment required to bring one field to harvest is one tractor, one planter, one plow, one harvester, one truck, and one trailer. The crops are the main revenue-raising item in ''SimFarm''. All crops have specific maturity cycles, water requirements, temperature requirements, and resistance to pests, weeds, and

diseases A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

. Each crop type must be grown in a season that meets these requirements, and managed according to its needs, in order to produce a high-value crop.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly throug ...

'' in 1993 approved of the game's graphics and documentation. The magazine concluded that "it's not perfect, but learning how to ''SimFarm'' is a lot of fun". Despite giving an overall fun rating of 74%, ''

PC Games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-dete ...

'' expressed disdain for the game's monotony, further stating, "On the packaging they advertise it as "Sim City's Country Cousin", and you should not expect anything more from this program." Page 80, SimFarm Review.

References

External links

*
SimFarm Soundtrack
{{Sim series 1993 video games Business simulation games DOS games Farming video games FM Towns games Classic Mac OS games Maxis Sim games NEC PC-9801 games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Windows games