For me,
it started way back in the mid-70`s,
playing a BASIC game called Hammurabi on the Cincinnati Public Schools
mainframe. Hammurabi was one of the
earliest resource management games, and although it was only 50-some lines of
code, it was pretty sophisticated for the time.
As the player, you had to decide how much of your grain to plant each
year, how much to feed to your people, and how much to store. These were life and death decisions as far as
your loyal minions were concerned, and it often only took one bad year to
devastate your tribe.




Hammurabi
was the direct ancestor to the multitude of resource management games we`ve seen over the years. As the capabilities of our hardware have
improved, so has the complexity of the games.
Amongst the latest iterations is Activision`s
The Movies. Imagine (or don`t - I`m
going to paint the picture for you anyway) a combination of Hammurabi, SimCity,
and The Sims, throw in Hollywood-style egos and ethics, and you will have some
idea of what The Movies is all about.
As with most games of this type, The Movies is essentially an
electronic playground, offering you the freedom to do with it as you want. You can concentrate on the business aspect,
trying to build a financially successful movie studio, or you can concentrate on
the art of movie making. You can rule
your stars with an iron fist, or you can pander to their every avaricious
demand. It`s
your playground, and you decide how to play on it.




The sophistication
of The Movies is a far cry from the relatively simplistic world of
Hammurabi. You, as the studio head, are
responsible for the hiring and firing of not only the talent, but of the
hundreds of workers that it takes to run a first-class movie studio. You will be hiring the janitors that keep
your studio lot looking spiffy and clean, thereby attracting more potential
employees, as well as hiring the builders that create the sets, buildings, and
facilities that are required to create the next big box office hit. You will also being hiring actors as leads,
extras, or even directors. You will have
to hire script writers and film crews.
All of these people expect to be paid, so you`ll
have to keep an eye on the finances as well.
Of course, in Hollywood
nothing is ever easy, and you will find that giving one unhappy star a raise is
likely to cause resentment in the others.
Damaged egos are a great excuse to deliver sub-par performances on the
set, as well as spending a bit too much time in the bars. It is your job as the Head Dude to keep all
of the workers, from janitor to box office darling, happy and productive.




O...