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Someone has obtained / found a lost floppy copy of an old Maxis game, SimRefinery. Purported to be uploaded to archive.org soon.

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One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,673
Boston, MA
The original article for all the contexts you need:

arstechnica.com

The sprawling, must-read history of Maxis’ former “serious games” division

The history of rare software that made SimCity look like Candy Crush in comparison.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

The comment that spawned a lot of attention:


Credits to the user, postbebop.


Tweet then followed after postbebop's comment:



There's a bit more context to this floppy disk here:


obscuritory.com

When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery | The Obscuritory

The creators of SimCity had a division that made Sim games for corporations. They were never released to the public. For the first time ever, this is the story of Maxis Business Simulations.
obscuritory.com obscuritory.com

Close if old.
 
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batfax

batfax

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,396
Awesome! Love hearing about Sim history. Finding the NES and Satellaview versions of SimCity a while ago was already amazing, but finding an entire game? This is some special stuff.
 
DrArchon

DrArchon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,485
I think some context is needed about what exactly this is.

This isn't your standard Maxis game of the era. This was commissioned by Chevron in order teach their refinery employees what exactly they were doing and why it mattered in the grand scheme of things. Chances are this will be dull as fuck, but it's still a neat piece of history.
 
OP
OP
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,673
Boston, MA
DrArchon said:
I think some context is needed about what exactly this is.

This isn't your standard Maxis game of the era. This was commissioned by Chevron in order teach their refinery employees what exactly they were doing and why it mattered in the grand scheme of things. Chances are this will be dull as fuck, but it's still a neat piece of history.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

batfax said:
Awesome! Love hearing about Sim history. Finding the NES and Satellaview versions of SimCity a while ago was already amazing, but finding an entire game? This is some special stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Here's a site that goes a bit further:

obscuritory.com

When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery | The Obscuritory

The creators of SimCity had a division that made Sim games for corporations. They were never released to the public. For the first time ever, this is the story of Maxis Business Simulations.
obscuritory.com obscuritory.com
 
batfax

batfax

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,396
Yeah, I'm aware it's going to be very dry compared to the proper games, but nevertheless this is a very cool piece of history. Doubly so since it's something the general public simply never had access to at all.
 
dyne

dyne

Member
Oct 25, 2017
406
Vancouver
076.gif


For real though that's cool. Can't wait to reticulate some splines.
 
SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,476
Oh wow, this is really interesting. Don't know why I never thought that companies would go, "SimCity is pretty neat... bet they totally know how to make a life-accurate version!"
 
samred

samred

Amico fun conversationalist
Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,585
Seattle, WA
If you're just tuning into the quoted tweets, you're missing the source of that photo (and, hopefully, the actual game, should it get dumped and uploaded). It's from an Ars Technica commenter:

arstechnica.com

The sprawling, must-read history of Maxis’ former “serious games” division

The history of rare software that made SimCity look like Candy Crush in comparison.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

The entire Ars gaming braintrust exploded when Phil's story went live. "Is it cool if I write up a PSA directing people to his site?" I asked other staffers, and they all said it was fine. Phil Salvador wrote a BEAST of a feature on this division of Maxis. You really should carve time out to read the whole thing.

And then when that freaking comment landed... Kyle and I lost our shit. I refresh that comment thread and archive.org about 3x/day now.
 
OP
OP
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,673
Boston, MA
samred said:
If you're just tuning into the quoted tweets, you're missing the source of that photo (and, hopefully, the actual game, should it get dumped and uploaded). It's from an Ars Technica commenter:

arstechnica.com

The sprawling, must-read history of Maxis’ former “serious games” division

The history of rare software that made SimCity look like Candy Crush in comparison.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

The entire Ars gaming braintrust exploded when Phil's story went live. "Is it cool if I write up a PSA directing people to his site?" I asked other staffers, and they all said it was fine. Phil Salvador wrote a BEAST of a feature on this division of Maxis. You really should carve time out to read the whole thing.

And then when that freaking comment landed... Kyle and I lost our shit. I refresh that comment thread and archive.org about 3x/day now.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Adding to OP. Thank you.
 
samred

samred

Amico fun conversationalist
Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,585
Seattle, WA
Archive.org
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    • ekim

    ekim

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    Oct 26, 2017
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    • KingBae

    KingBae

    Member
    Oct 28, 2017
    717
    This is really cool! As odd as the subject of the game is, I've always found refineries structurally fascinating and interesting looking. I hope someone will expand on this prototype.
     
    pikablu

    pikablu

    Member
    Oct 28, 2017
    1,322
    My grandpa worked for Chevron for over 20 years. I feel attached to this in someway and want to play it.
     
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