El-Fish

Infobox VG
title = El-Fish


developer = AnimaTek
publisher = Mindscape, Maxis
distributor =
designer =
engine =
version = 1.2
released = 1993
genre = Life simulation game
modes = Single player
ratings =
platforms = MS-DOS, Macintosh
media = Diskette
requirements =
input = Keyboard, Mouse

"El-Fish" is a fish and fish-tank simulator developed by Russian game developer AnimaTek, with Maxis providing development advice. The game was published by Mindscape (v1.1) and later by Maxis (v1.1 + v1.2) in 1993 on 5 diskettes.

Each fish in "El-Fish" has a unique Roe, similar to the genome. This allows the user to catch fish and use selective breeding and mutation to create fish to their own tastes for placing them in virtual aquariums. Around 800 possible genetic attributes (fin shape, body color, size, etc) are available, which can be selectively shaped into infinite numbers of unique fish. Once fish are created, "El-Fish" will algorithmically generate up to 256 animation frames so that the fish will appear to swim smoothly around the tank.

The tank simulator is very customizable for this game's era. The player can select from a large number of backdrops and tank ornaments for the fish to swim between. The user can also import their own images to use as tank ornaments. "El-Fish" includes a fractal based plant generator for creating unique aquarium plants. There are several "moving objects" that can be added to the tanks which the fish will react to, such as a cat paw, fibcrab, and a small plastic scuba diver. The user can also procedurally generate background music for their tank using an ingame composer, or choose a separate MIDI music file to be played for each virtual aquarium, and feed the fish.

The tank simulator can run as a "memory-resident program" in MS-DOS, making it a screensaver. Multiple tanks can be displayed via "El-Fish"'s slideshow feature.

Development

"El-Fish" was created by Vladimir Pokhilko, Ph.D. and Alexey Pajitnov, who had backgrounds in mathematics, computer science, and psychology. They were attempting to create software for INTEC (a company that they started) that would be made for "people's souls". They developed this idea, calling it "Human Software", with three rules:

* The software needs to be "aesthetically beautiful"
* The software needs to be constructive
* The software needs to bring feeling to people that they would not otherwise enjoy

"El-Fish" was developed by many bright minds, most with Ph.D.s, and some had worked on high profile projects such as the Russian space program.

Although El-Fish's demanding (for its time) system requirements prevented it from selling many units, it was an early version of what would become a very widespread genre.

Performance

^† Has a math co-processor (sometimes called the "387" chip)

The animating time of a fish depends heavily on its size, where a very small fish can be animated on a 386DX40 with 4MB of RAM in 2-4 hours, a very large fish can take easily up to 24+ hours.

The performance of the game itsself in the play mode varies depending how fast/slow the CPU is. The game in the Maxis version measures the speed of the CPU, so on a slow 386 it will only display 1-3 fish at once, but on a 486 it will show 10+ fish. This speed measurement will not work on modern PCs where the CPU speed went over the programs maximum and miscalculates the actual speed. For example the CPU is 3600MHz, but the program thinks your CPU is too slow and only will display 1-3 fish. This can be solved with several speed limitation software. It does not have to be slowed down to a 486's speed, but it has to fit the programs measurement calculation for displaying the maximum amount of fishes. This varies on the CPU speed. The first Mindscape version of the game does not have this mistake calculation.

Quotes

The manual contains several interesting phrases, shameless plugs and offbeat humor:

* "SimLife" and "El-Fish" tax the powers of today's computers to their limits... it will be a few years before this marriage of simulation and animation will make it into our homes. But eventually, we'll wonder how we ever put up with two-dimensional computer creatures."
* "You're probably getting "ant"sy (oops -- wrong game)" (Reference to the game "SimAnt")
* "Fish tried to evolve into many shapes and sizes, and all failed. Dinosaurs were a real fiasco. Fishkind tried for millions of years to get dinosaurs to build computers, but they wouldn't. So the fish wiped them out and started over with mammals."
* "There's a suckerfish born every minute."
* "When you make fish that are so beautiful that all your friends tell you that you are wonderful, is that considered fishing for compliments?"
* "All that glitters is not goldfish."
* "You ain't nothing but a dogfish." -El-Fish Presley
* "I'm a union fish -- a Pisces working for scale."
* "Any friend of yours is an anemone of mine."
* "Don't smell fish -- Play "El-Fish"!"

References

* Michael Bremer (1993). "El-Fish: The Electronic Aquarium: User's Manual". Orinda: Maxis.

External links

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