But, one day, HotU, which was by far the biggest site, the largest archive, and the most professionally run site of them all, finally shut down. Many sites who had crossed the line got shut down, only to reopen on a different address and get shut down again. Since the late 90s, abandonware has changed a lot, it pushed the limits of piracy and received severe pushback by publishers who were still around. Every game had its own detailed description and the whole site was used not only for preservation, but for the celebration of gaming’s history. Home of the Underdogs ( HotU) was not only a platform to download the games (and software), it was pretty much a museum of yesteryear’s gaming. It was a community of volunteers who would share their old copies and Home of the Underdogs was THE waterhole where we would all gather. We were thousands of nostalgic gamers wanting to reconnect with the games of our past, and the games we had missed the first time around. Well, there was a rapidly growing community of people who definitely cared. So, how was one supposed to play Master of Magic anymore? Most people would probably shrug and say “ you just don’t, who cares”. Digital distribution was not even a concept, Steam didn’t exist. At the time, GOG.com did not exist of course. The games were made available for free, but they were also not available for purchase. So, that’s not legal then, is it? Well, it was definitely one of those grey area that the internet is so good at uncovering and exploiting. The term was coined online and meant to describe games that were no longer distributed, whose publisher had disappeared or that were old enough that no one apart from their original fans even remembered them. The site offered free downloads of old PC games. Over all, I have always enjoyed this game.In the late 90s, when internet became ubiquitous in our homes, I discovered a little abandonware website called Home of the Underdogs. Stealing eggs of the opposite ants and assimilating them into your colony instead of eating them would be cool! There are some ants that will do that! Last, but not least, I loved reading about the different kinds of ants and ant anatomy included with the game! I honestly wish there was another SimAnt with more mechanics at play and more focus on the nursery aspect, as well as unique challenge scenarios (reach a colony of # ants, defeat Red Ants before x time, defeat N amount of spiders) to keep the game fresh and force one to change their priorities. and I admit, it was easier to control with point-and-click with a mouse, as opposed to with a SNES controller. Controlling caste and behaviour was great too. There was rarely just waiting for something to grow or finish, I always had some task to do! Get more food, dig more tunnels, tend to the eggs, fight off invading red Ants! But it didn't take any fancy timing or tricky button combinations, just quick thinking and planning. The original, I found, gave more control, but I sort of missed the 'Scenario' gameplay added to the SNES port. So when I found the original PC version some time later in a bundle of games I was thrilled. I remember playing the SNES version of SimAnt obsessively as a young child (younger than 9 - I know I didn't have it after around 9 years of age). Same gameplay, but if you chose to actively control an ant, instead of the "Dig Dug" view, you became the and and played it as an FPS! Never went beyond comments made by Maxis staffers at the trade shows, but talk about it went on until "Streets of SimCity" came out and royally tanked, which killed off any ideas of FPSing any other Maxis sims. IIRC, Maxis toyed around with the idea of a new version of SimAnt. Even PC Week gave it an excellent review, and those choads back then were notorious for hating anything that wasn't Lotus 1-2-3. When it came out, it actually outsold SimCity and the various cosmetic packs, and there was almost no negativity seen in the reviews published in the plethora of trade rags at the time. This was one of the few games that the early pirate groups actively encouraged the "if you like it, buy it!" dogma. SimAnt was included in the SimClassic pack. The game was a hit with more than 100,000 copies sold and was released on many platform. You have to manage your ants by digging tunnels, find food, protect the queen, expand your territory, fight against many enemies, including the evil red ants ! The conquest of the whole garden and the house will make you victorious. In the nineties, several Sim like games were created, Sim Ant is a ant colony simulator. SimAnt was released by Maxis and is part of the Sim series.
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