Did you know that Maxis （creators of SimCity） sold investors on a vision a world where "simulation" was a common use-case for computers， and Maxis was the company at the center of simulation software？This was the first of many fascinating revelations this book brought me。 Reading it， I found myself getting caught up in their grand vision。The first part of _Building SimCity_ is a deep dive into the game's historical antecedents: from tabletop city simulations and Vannevar Bush's analogue computer Did you know that Maxis （creators of SimCity） sold investors on a vision a world where "simulation" was a common use-case for computers， and Maxis was the company at the center of simulation software？This was the first of many fascinating revelations this book brought me。 Reading it， I found myself getting caught up in their grand vision。The first part of _Building SimCity_ is a deep dive into the game's historical antecedents: from tabletop city simulations and Vannevar Bush's analogue computers， to systems thinking and cellular automata。 This part explores many ideas that I have briefly encountered before and wondered "why hasn't anyone taken these wonderful ideas and produced something great with them？" The book answers: "Will Wright did， you just didn't notice。" More specifically， _Building SimCity_ argues that SimCity the game is a synthesis and application of many great ideas， which are mostly hidden to the player。 This book gives us a look behind the curtain。The second part of the book spends chapters on the design of SimCity， the history of Maxis， and the experience of playing SimCity。 The implementation chapter has no code listings — as a programmer， reading it feels like reading an exceptionally clear design document， explaining the real-time （UI） clock and the simulation clock， the 16-bit representation of map tile state， the main simulation loop， and the map scan algorithm for information propogation across tiles。 This chapter is accompanied by exceptionally well-designed diagrams， which I find quite valuable on their own。To set expectations: this is an academic work。 It contains war stories and technical details， but it also goes to great lengths to situate SimCity in its historical context， connecting it to previous ideas， and providing full citations。 But though the prose has an academic bent， I find it very engaging and readable。The only negative thing I can say about this book is that the printed edition has a chemical smell， which I assume is due to the full-color printing and will presumeably fade with time。[Disclaimer: I haven't finished this book yet， I've read the first few chapters about the history of simulation and also skipped ahead to the chapter about SimCity's implementation details。 I'm posting this here because it's what I've written out in emails to friends about the book; I'll update my review when I finish reading it。] 。。。more