SimPark is a 1996 video game by Maxis

Maxis

Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...

. The object of the game is to cultivate and manage a successful park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

. Similar to SimTown

SimTown

SimTown is a 1995 personal computer game published by Maxis, much like the best selling SimCity and Sims but on a smaller scale. SimTown allows the player to construct a town consisting of streets, houses, businesses and parks and then control the people in it...

, it is targeted more towards child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren than the average gamer

Gamer

Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...

. SimPark attempts to show the importance of ecological

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

 balance. It could well be considered a 'lite' version of SimIsle

SimIsle

SimIsle: Missions in the Rainforest is a construction and management simulation game published by Maxis in 1995. It ranks among many commercially unsuccessful Maxis games produced in the 1990s between the various incarnations of SimCity...

.

Objective

Players have to quickly learn how doing (or not doing) various things will affect how their park grows. For instance, if certain flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

 types aren't planted, the park won't attract bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

s. If the bees aren't flying around the park, then pollination

Pollination

Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...

 won't occur, which is an important aspect of keeping the park growing. On top of properly managing the plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 and animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

 population, players are also required to identify the park's plants and animals.

Humor

Players often receive in-game email, such as their boss telling them to make the park more diverse, or their virtual mother telling about life back at home (ex: "I baked you a cake..." etc.) Occasionally, the Boss's pet frog Rizzo will make an appearance on the screen to give the player advice, or nag about the way they're handling things. In addition to having the option to turn him off, one can also turn off any combination of four different disasters. These disasters include:

• Garbage
  Waste
  Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
  
   Dump

The Garbage Dump is just a big pile of rubbish. As soon as it is made, rats start to produce from it and inhabit your park. The only way to get rid of the garbage dump is to put water on it or place lots of garbage-eating animals such as rats and black bears, around the garbage dump.

• Fire
  Fire
  Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
  
  
• Kudzu
  Kudzu
  Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so...
  
  
• Alien invasion
  Alien invasion
  The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
  
  

The Alien Invasion consists of flat, pink-and-blue creatures that litter the park grounds and sometimes float on the water. If the map is clicked to get a zoomed-out map view, the pattern the Aliens form may be in the shape of letters. One example of this is a message which reads: "Surrender, Dorothy". This is a parody to the movie The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

. The only way to get rid of aliens, aside from using cheat codes, is to bulldoze them with the "Bulldozer

Bulldozer

A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...

" tool.

The option of using a microphone feature allows you to click on park-goers and listen to what they have to say. Some of the more memorable quotes include, "My socks don't match," "I didn't brush my teeth this morning," "Eddie! Oh Eddie! Where are you?" and "My favorite book is Wind in the Willows."