Part 16: Bonus - PC Version

Bonus - PC Version





Today, I'll be showing off a bit of the PC version. Not all the cool stuff (no laser spiders, unfortunately), but I'll look into some of the cool differences between the two.



This version also has Tutorial, Quick Game, and Full Game. However, while the SNES version is the only one with Scenarios, the PC version gets Experimental Mode. Let's start with that, shall we?



Of course, that's not the only difference. Let's start by clicking the "Silly" option.



It simply adds these little flavor dialogue. I liked it.



The Help button will give you this nice handy layout of the menu. Behind, we have the overall map view and status bar, followed by the Behavior/Caste windows.



The appeal of Experimental Mode is to dick around with various things. Manipulate trails, add stuff, all that crap.



For instance, here I add a ton of food for the black side.





I won't show off all the dialogue, but it's pretty charming at times. You should play it for yourself if you want to see it all!





We can build walls and stuff, so if you're obsessed with making ant mazes to food, there you go.





Let's speed things up by adding some ants, shall we?



Add a few reds for good measure...



Time to expand the nest!

Alright, let's get more creative.



DEATH ARENA



TWO SIDES ENTER



ONE SIDE SURVIVES



simant.png



The winner is...no one, because I then spray the area with insecticide, a PC-exclusive attack that's not wonderful with ants.



Alright, while there's more ways to have fun with Experimental, this is just a short overview, so let's go to Quick Game for a minute.





The X key lets us eXchange with other ants, or, in this case, the spider.

Yes, we are the fucking spider now.



That said, I couldn't figure out how to actually eat the damn ants, so I just switch back and let the spider do its thing.





And now we come to the next major difference between this and the SNES versions: built-in cheat codes. Typing in "eggs" lets the yellow ant lay a bunch of eggs, for instance.



We can also cheat the yellow and general colony's health levels.





Or add multiple queens to each side. They're all four-letter commands, and if you want to know them, check GameFAQs.





You can even get "jokes," if you can really call them that.



Or, more practically, add a ton of holes automatically.



In a nice callback to the original SimCity, you can even add $10000 by typing in the word "FUND."



Here's a quick showing of trails. Not much difference here.



There's also a lot of graphics like these that pop up. Again, not going to show them all, as you should play the game yourself if you want to see them.



Alright, the last thing we'll do is Full Game.



Here's the game map. It's really fucking huge, much larger than the SNES one.

In the middle of the status screen, there's a couple more options. Mate lets you force the mating cycle, rather than waiting for it to happen like the SNES version. Place lets you place available queens in areas you choose. As you can imagine, this is a fucking godsend and cuts down significantly on the random mating/placement of the SNES version.





Same old wacky cat.







Oh, did I forget to mention there's a cheat that fills EVERY space with black colonies?



Yeah, I wish I had this on the SNES version.



Alright, let's see what ending the PC version has.





And...that's it. That's SimAnt for the PC.

Of course, I didn't show everything, as this was just a quick overview. That said, this version is abandonware, so yeah.

Thanks for following, and thanks for making the thread so awesome with all your awesome ant facts!