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The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

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Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#11

Post by Mezzie »

PLenz wrote: post #9
mewse wrote: post #6

I worked at Maxis for about six months during the middle part of the events described in the article. I started during the tumultuous days surrounding the initial attempt at SimCity 3000 (I didn’t work on that project, though I saw its prototypes from time to time), up until shortly after the EA buyout was announced (but before it actually happened). On my first day at work there was a giant poster in the reception a…

I just want to say that my brother and I played _the_hell_ out of Streets. So thanks for being a small part of our childhoods.

I did as well! I also shared a lot of crazy driving cities online.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#12

Post by willismichael »

mewse wrote: post #6

I worked at Maxis for about six months during the middle part of the events described in the article. I started during the tumultuous days surrounding the initial attempt at SimCity 3000 (I didn’t work on that project, though I saw its prototypes from time to time), up until shortly after the EA buyout was announced (but before it actually happened). On my first day at work there was a giant poster in the reception a…

> Streets of SimCity

Maybe that's why you had a Voodoo card? My brothers and I loved Streets of SimCity. That you could load your game from SimCity 2000 and drive around in it was genius. We had so much fun with that game. The ridiculous songs on the radio and the over-the-top cheesy dialog were just icing on the cake.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#13

Post by MattRix »

peterjmag wrote: post #4
Aloha wrote: post #3

This language dates the article, and (as a queer person) amuses me. "A homosexual programmer at Maxis objected to the use of female characters as objects of affection in SimCopter. So, he decided to protest by putting what he termed "muscle boys in swim trunks" into the game. During the game, these characters would mysteriously appear and kiss each other, but only on very rare occasions. At least, that was the idea.…

For anyone who's curious, here's a video of the Easter egg in action, along with a some more interesting backstory on Jacques Servin, the programmer in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mh7Pc5MSI&t=495s

Ahhh he’s one of the Yes Men, that’s great, I had no idea.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#14

Post by xattt »

mewse wrote: post #6

I worked at Maxis for about six months during the middle part of the events described in the article. I started during the tumultuous days surrounding the initial attempt at SimCity 3000 (I didn’t work on that project, though I saw its prototypes from time to time), up until shortly after the EA buyout was announced (but before it actually happened). On my first day at work there was a giant poster in the reception a…

I devoured all and any news around Maxis and Sim games as a kid, from Happy Puppy and the like. I don’t think I ever made a connection at that point in time that it was possible to be part of the action, however dire the situation was in reality.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#15

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

Aloha wrote: post #3

This language dates the article, and (as a queer person) amuses me. "A homosexual programmer at Maxis objected to the use of female characters as objects of affection in SimCopter. So, he decided to protest by putting what he termed "muscle boys in swim trunks" into the game. During the game, these characters would mysteriously appear and kiss each other, but only on very rare occasions. At least, that was the idea.…

Even in 1999, the use of the term "homosexual" in that context was pretty dated, unless it was coming from the mouth of Lucille Bluth. [0]

[0] https://youtu.be/XFH5WeJfQJ4

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#16

Post by xattt »

The SimCity-SimCopter-SoSC tie in worked because I loved creating cities and then getting to see them in 3D. Albeit, I used the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit because I didn’t understand the gameplay enough to make money at age 8-9.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#18

Post by ReactiveJelly »

mewse wrote: post #6

I worked at Maxis for about six months during the middle part of the events described in the article. I started during the tumultuous days surrounding the initial attempt at SimCity 3000 (I didn’t work on that project, though I saw its prototypes from time to time), up until shortly after the EA buyout was announced (but before it actually happened). On my first day at work there was a giant poster in the reception a…

Like the other two commenters, me and my brother also played Streets! I'd love to hear dev gossip stories about its development.

I'd love to hear what kind of delicious spaghetti code caused it to crash all the time and then eventually stop running on newer CPUs.

Edit: And why, IIRC, some of the weapons were split out into their own DLLs. Faster compile times?

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#19

Post by voidfunc »

SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #10

> Somehow, Christmas 1996 came around, and Maxis did manage to ship all four games... or at least something resembling them. But no one was very happy about meeting the deadline, as corners were cut on all the projects. Wright was the most disappointed of all. "The low point for me was releasing SimCopter when we did," he says. "The gameplay was developing nicely, but we just had to ship it too soon." As someone who…

Maybe I misremember or it’s committed to the nostalgia zone but I remember SimCopter being a ton of fun. I only really remember it being prone to freezing.

Once I figured out how to get my SC2K cities ported into the game it was even more fun.

Re: The Story of Maxis Software (1999)

#20

Post by voidfunc »

xattt wrote: post #16

The SimCity-SimCopter-SoSC tie in worked because I loved creating cities and then getting to see them in 3D. Albeit, I used the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit because I didn’t understand the gameplay enough to make money at age 8-9.

Thats why you were supposed to type “iamacheat” ;)
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