RSSEA Open-Sources SimCity With $100 Laptop
By Tim Conneally | Published November 12, 2007, 12:33 PM
The One Laptop Per Child initiative which strives to give children of developing nations equal and affordable access to modern educational tools, has received the gift of SimCity from Electronic Arts. The 18-year old franchise was donated to the OLPC project by EA as a time-honored piece of "edutainment" software.
"The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun, particularly for first time players," said Steve Seabolt, the vice president of global brand development of The Sims franchise.
But the gift is not a version simply ported for use on OLPC's Linux platform. Though a multi-player educational version for Linux/X11 was developed several years ago, EA's gift is the original 1989 SimCity open source.
While it may not be the children in third world countries adopting Sim City's blueprint to develop their own games, perhaps this means that versions of the game will be tailor-made to better suit the needs of children in developing countries.
12:25 pm EST November 12, 2007 - Last Thursday, when BetaNews asked EA if the version of SimCity it had intended to donate was the port in which programmer Don Hopkins had taken part, EA told us no.
But Hopkins told BetaNews this morning the gift is the source code of his multi-player educational version which he ported from Mac to Unix in 1993, and recently adapted to the OLPC.
"The mission is to rewrite the multi-player mode in terms of the OLPC's advanced mesh networking libraries, using a much more modern and efficient architecture than the X11 protocol used by the old multi-player mode," Hopkins told us, "The whole point of the OLPC program using Open Source Software is so the countries using it can customize the software to their own needs."
"The multi-player support is still in there, but it is hard for kids to use, because it requires entering an IP address and disabling X11 network security," he continued. "It can be turned back on by a command line switch, which is disabled by default. We decided to disable it for the time being just to get the game through Quality Assurance and out the door. But since it's open source, you can turn back on if you like."
Hopkins then took issue with our contention that a version of SimCity might need to be re-tailored to meet the interests of children in emerging nations.
"The OLPC project has every intention of teaching kids in developing countries to program computers and create their own games," Hopkins told BetaNews. "To imply that kids in 'third world countries' can't learn to program just as well as kids anywhere, or that the developing countries aren't the ones who know best what their own needs are, is bigoted and condescending, and reeks of cultural imperialism. The whole point of the OLPC program using Open Source Software is so the countries using it can customize the software to their own needs."
yes, turn those African kids into game playing addicts! What the world has become
Score: 0
|I think GTA woulda been a better choice.... Larry Flynt shoulda thrown something in too.
Score: 0
|I'd like to correct a couple of factual errors in this story, and comment on the condescending negative tone of the author.
"But the gift is not a version simply ported for use on OLPC's Linux platform. Though a multi-player educational version for Linux/X11 was developed several years ago, EA's gift is the original 1989 Sim City, open source."
No, that's wrong. The gift was the source code of the multi-player educational version of SimCity that I ported from the Mac to Unix about 15 years ago, and more recently adapted to the OLPC.
The multi-player support is still in there, but it is hard for kids to use, because it requires entering an IP address and disabling X11 network security. It can be turned back on by a command line switch, which is disabled by default. We decided to disable it for the time being just to get the game through Quality Assurance and out the door. But since it's open source, you can turn back on if you like.
The mission is to rewrite the multi-player mode in terms of the OLPC's advanced mesh networking libraries, using a much more modern and efficient architecture than the X11 protocol used by the old multi-player mode.
"While it may not be the children in third world countries adopting Sim City's blueprint to develop their own games, perhaps this means that versions of the game will be tailor-made to better suit the needs of children in developing countries."
Seymour Papert and Alan Kay, whose philosophy of "Constructionism Education" is the guiding light of the OLPC project, have spent their lives teaching kids to program computers. The OLPC project has every intention of teaching kids in developing countries to program computers and create their own games.
To imply that kids in "third world countries" can't learn to program just as well as kids anywhere, or that the developing countries aren't the ones who know best what their own needs are, is bigoted and condescending, and reeks of cultural imperialism.
The whole point of the OLPC program using Open Source Software is so the countries using it can customize the software to their own needs.
The goal of Constructionist Education is to teach people in developing countries to solve their own problems, design and program their own software, so they're not dependent on other countries who don't understand their needs.
Score: 0
|If this is Don Hopkins, I'd like to speak to you privately.
Score: 0
|Quite pathetic if you ask me. Theres already better open source "Sim City" called "LinCity-NG", at least im quite sure its better than anything from the 1989.
Score: 0
|Before you rubbish someone else's generosity, you might consider contributing something yourself.
Score: 0
|i'd say in this case his opinion is more valuable than your retort in essentially the same context.
Score: 0
|You miss the whole point, Moron!
Score: 0
|And, I'd say that your retort to his retort shows you are a moron!
Score: 0
|And ive not? Nice try though. Better luck next time. Got anything else you could pull out of your ***?
Score: 0
|Spamtastic!
Score: 0
|Ooh, must have taken you awhile on that one, moron.
Score: 0
|mo·ron [mawr-on]
–noun
1. a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.
Score: 0
|wow. what a gift. "here's a game you have to port yourself. enjoy. btw it's from a decade or so ago"
Score: 0
|And you gave what?
Oh yes, a churlish and unrequested opinion.
That's very useful to everyone, I'm sure...
Score: 0
|Good pwning, there.
Score: 0
|look Frostbrain, he doesn't need to have given anything to emit his opinion on any topic, and if you don't wanna see that someone is trying to make some ridiculous lobby by gifting an 18 year old game, then fly off.
Score: 0
|exactly. point was, dont gift me garbage i cant fix if you have the solution right there in your pocket and it costs you nothing. that's just ass. if you want them to learn to use it, give them the open source version that works and let them learn by hacking cool features on to it like people did with quake 1.
Score: 0
|You're still a moron.
Score: 0
|Even worse, a cynical moron.
Score: 0
|You should try capitals every once in awhile. It will improve your writing and show some evidence of intelligence, moron.
Score: 0
|