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SimLife
SimLife is a life simulation game released in 1992 by Maxis. Players create and manage artificial worlds populated with various organisms, controlling evolution and environmental factors. The game involves manipulating genetics, food sources, climate, and terrain to foster thriving ecosystems or create experimental scenarios. Gameplay centers on observing how creatures adapt, breed, and interact within your designed environment. Controls are intuitive, using menus and cursor-based interactions to place life forms, adjust settings, and monitor population statistics. The game progresses through multiple scenarios with increasing complexity, from simple single-organism experiments to fully-developed worlds with complex food chains. Players can witness real-time evolution, experiment with genetic traits, and test hypotheses about population dynamics. SimLife blends educational content with sandbox gameplay, appealing to both those interested in biology and casual simulation enthusiasts.
- Released
- 1992
- Platform
- DOS
- Genre
- Action
- Rating
- 4.7 / 5 (1.3K)
- Last updated
SimLife Controls — DOS Keyboard Keys
Default keyboard bindings for SimLife on our in-browser DOS emulator. Plug in a USB or Bluetooth gamepad to auto-detect mappings, or rebind any key from the emulator settings menu.
DOS games use the keyboard directly as the controller — there is no console-button mapping. Open the in-game documentation or check the game-specific options screen for the key layout used by this title.
Rebind any key from the EmulatorJS in-game settings menu (gear icon → Controls). A connected gamepad auto-maps to the same buttons.
SimLife Longplay & Gameplay Videos
Watch a full playthrough of SimLife on DOS before you dive in — recommended for getting a feel for the game's pacing, story beats, and difficulty curve.
Watch longplay on YouTube
"SimLife" DOS longplay 1992
External references
Frequently Asked Questions
When was SimLife released?
SimLife was released in 1992 for the DOS.
What type of game is SimLife?
SimLife is a Action game for the DOS, playable instantly in your browser — no downloads, no installs.
How can I play SimLife for free?
Open this page and click "Play Now" — SimLife runs free in your browser via WebAssembly emulation. No account, no payment, no installer.
Do I need to download anything to play SimLife in the browser?
No. SimLife streams from a public archive into a browser-side DOS emulator. Nothing is installed on your computer.
Can I save my progress in SimLife?
Yes. Save states are stored in your browser (IndexedDB) per game, and you can also use any in-game save the original DOS cartridge supported.
Does SimLife work on mobile devices?
Yes — the DOS emulator runs on iOS Safari and Android Chrome. Touch controls overlay the game; landscape mode is recommended.
Is it legal to play SimLife this way?
RetroGameSpace is a transient caching reverse-proxy and does not host first-party copies of SimLife. Game files are fetched on demand from publicly-accessible archives. You are responsible for compliance with your local laws and the bring-your-own-ROM principle.
