[SIGCIS-Members] NEXT FRIDAY: ROMchip Presents: Chaim Gingold and Will Wright on Building SimCity

[Laine Nooney]

Join us Friday, July 19, as *ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories *hosts a
conversation with game development legend Will Wright as he turns the
tables and interviews Chaim Gingold, author of the new MIT Press book *Building
SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine*, a deep dive into the
trailblazing simulation game *SimCity* and its place in the history of
games, simulation, and computing. The event will be at 2PM EDT on the
*ROMchip *Twitch channel, https://www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal. RSVP HERE
<https://www.tickettailor.com/events/romchipajournalofgamehistories/1284446>
.


*About the Book**“One of the best origin stories ever told and the best
account I've seen of how innovation actually occurs in computerdom." -
Stewart Brand*

*Building SimCity*
<https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547482/building-simcity/> explores the
history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential
simulation games ever made: *SimCity*. As author Chaim Gingold explains,
Will Wright, the visionary designer behind the urban planning game, created
*SimCity* in part to learn about cities, thinking about the world as a
complex system and appropriating ideas from traditions in which computers
are used for modeling. As such, *SimCity* is a microcosm of the histories
and cultures of computer simulation that engages with questions, themes,
and representational techniques that reach back to the earliest computer
simulations.

Gingold uses *SimCity* to explore a web of interrelated topics in the
history of technology, software, and simulation, taking us far and
wide—from the dawn of programmable computers to miniature cities made of
construction paper and role-play. An unprecedented history of Maxis, the
company founded to bring *SimCity* to market, the book reveals Maxis's
complex relations with venture capitalists, Nintendo, and the Santa Fe
Institute, which shaped the evolution of Will Wright's career; Maxis's
failure to back *The Sims* to completion; and the company's sale to
Electronic Arts.

A lavishly visual book, *Building SimCity* boasts a treasure trove of
visual matter to help bring its wide-ranging subjects to life, including
painstakingly crafted diagrams that explain *SimCity*'s operation, the
Kodachrome photographs taken by Charles Eames of schoolchildren making
model cities, and Nintendo's manga-style “Dr. Wright” character design,
just to name a few.


*About Will Wright and Chaim Gingold*Will Wright is the renowned creative
force behind groundbreaking simulation games such as *SimCity*, *The Sims*,
*Spore*, *SimEarth*, and *SimAnt*. *SimCity*, released in 1989 by Maxis,
the videogame developer-publisher cofounded by Wright, revolutionized the
gaming industry and paved the way for *The Sims* (1999), one of the
best-selling videogame series of all time. In 1991, “Dr. Wright” was
awarded an honorary doctorate by Nintendo. Wright received a Lifetime
Achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2001 and was
inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in
2002. His latest project is *Proxi*, a game about bringing your
subconscious to life.

Chaim Gingold began his career in videogame design apprenticed to Will
Wright on *Spore*, where his chief accomplishment was designing the
critically acclaimed* Spore Creature Creator. *His projects, like *Earth: A
Primer*, a science book made of interactive toys, have been featured by
*Wired*, *CNN*, and the *New York Times.* He is the author of *Building
SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine*, which was recently published
by MIT Press.


*Praise for Building SimCity*“I learned more about the history and practice
of simulation from this book than I ever knew. While I was usually stuck in
the trees when designing *SimCity*, Gingold rises above to see the entire
forest."
— Will Wright, Designer of *SimCity* and *The Sims*; co-founder, Maxis

“Much more than a book about *SimCity*, or even about video games, its
large scope includes the invention of interactive computer graphics for
simulations of all kinds, including the 'beyond reality' universes of
games. Highly recommended!”
— Alan Kay, winner of the 2003 ACM Turing Award

“*Building SimCity* tells the riveting and timely story of how the very
unlikely idea of simulating cities became one of the most successful
videogames of all times, tracing its origins back to the history of
computing.”
— Yasmin B. Kafai, Lori and Michael Milken President's Distinguished
Professor, The University of Pennsylvania; coauthor of *Connected Gaming:
What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy*


*About ROMchip**ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories*
<https://www.romchip.org/> is a free, online scholarly journal for game
history. *ROMchip *develops, edits, and publishes ad-free, open access game
history research for a range of audiences. It supports any discipline of
work enlivening the history of games in local and global contexts, and
embraces diversity in how game history is studied, documented, collected,
preserved, and practiced. *ROMchip* is a donation-based organization
fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation
<https://hackclub.com/fiscal-sponsorship/> (d.b.a. Hack Club), a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499).
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