Toys your kids will love


What is an Ant farm?

A formicarium is an insectarium which isan ant in a colony of black ants in the
designed primarily for the study of antback yard of a suburban home. The ant
colonies and how ants behave. "Antcolony must battle against enemy red
Farms," similar to these, are popularants. The ultimate goal is to spread
subjects for school projects. Those whothroughout the garden, into the house,
study how ants behave are known asand finally to drive out the human
myrmecologists.owners. In this respect, SimAnt differed
A formicarium is usually an ant colonyfrom other 'Sim' games, which largely
enclosed by a transparent box made ofhad no "win" or "lose" situation.
glass or plastic. The firstIn the Quick Game, the player
commercially-sold formicarium wasestablishes a black ant colony in a
introduced around 1929 and patented insmall patch of yard, shown in top-down
1931 by Frank Eugene Austin, an inventorperspective. The computer opponent
and professor at the Thayer School ofestablishes a competing red ant colony
Engineering at Dartmouth College. Austinin the same patch. Underground ant
included painted or wooden scenes ofcolonies are depicted in a side view.
palaces, farms, and other settings aboveThe player has direct control of a
the ground level, for a whimsical look.single ant at a time, indicated by a
The best-known formicariums are examplesyellow color, and may switch control to
of "Uncle Milton's Ant Farm," for whicha different ant at any time (by
the ants are sent to the purchaserdouble-clicking the desired ant). (A
through the mail, upon receipt of thelittle known fact is that the spider in
coupon enclosed with the Ant Farm. Thethe game can also be controlled by
educational toy is made by Uncle Miltondouble clicking it.) The player's yellow
Industries in Westlake Village,ant may influence the behavior of other
California, and has sold over 20 millionblack ants by leaving pheromone trails
Ant Farms since 1956 and which owns theto destinations such as food and enemy
brand name "Ant Farm" (a registeredant colonies and can control the other
trademark). This type of formicarium isants in a limited way (by ordering a
for observing worker ants and itscertain number to follow it, for
effectiveness in serious ant propagationinstance). The quick game is won or lost
is limited.when either the red or black colony in
Formicariums and "Ant Farms" are usuallysaid patch is defeated.
made thin enough so the tunnels andThe player's yellow ant may pick up food
cavities made by the ants can be seenand rocks, regurgitate food for friendly
and for their behavior to be studied.ants, and attack enemy ants, spiders,
They can be filled with soil, sand,caterpillars, and antlions. Natural
vermiculite, other mineral fragments, orhazards include human footsteps,
sawdust. Newer formicariums filled withspiders, antlions, lawnmowers, and rain,
semi-transparent gel (pictured right)which washes away pheromone trails and
can be made thicker. The gel providescan flood the bottom of ant nests.
nutrition, moisture and a medium for theIn the Full Game, the player begins with
ant nest.an ant colony in an overhead view, much
Other types of formicariums are thoselike the Quick Game. The region of this
made with plaster, or simply with nooverhead view is a single square of a
medium. Plaster nests can be made bymap containing a yard and house, and the
placing modeling clay on a glass panelplayer wins by colonizing the entire
in the form of tunnels and chambers. Themap. The player spreads to other areas
plaster is poured onto the mold and whenby producing young queens and drones to
it has dried the clay is removed and themate with each other. The full game is
remaining structure can be used forwon or lost when either of the red or
housing ants. The ants in this type ofblack colonies is eliminated.
formicarium are very easily seen, but itThe Experimental Game is similar to the
can be less than comfortable for theQuick Game, except the player can also
ants. Mediumless formicariums can be incontrol red ants and has access to a set
any container, with the ants staying inof experimental tools. These tools allow
moist test tubes or other smallthe player to place pheromone trails,
containers. This also allows for bettermaze walls, rocks, ants, and food.
visibility, but can be less interestingThe boxed game also comes with a
because no digging takes place.thoroughly researched instruction
Often, containing ants inside amanual, which not only covers game
formicarium can be a problem. Severalmechanics, but also contains a large
substances are used to repel the ants,amount of information regarding ants and
including vegetable oil, petroleumant societies.
jelly, or fluon. They are applied to theCreatures
side of the formicarium to preventThere are a variety of creatures in
escape. These substances are generallySimAnt such as spiders, antlions,
too slippery for the ants to walk on.caterpillars, pillbugs, birds, and even
Despite this, some species of ants canhumans. All of these creatures are
build bridges of debris or dirt on thehazards to a player's ant colony, though
substance to escape.the player can switch to playing a
Another way of preventing the ants fromspider in order to destroy opposing ant
escaping is to place the entirecolonies. The spider, caterpillars, and
formicarium in a shallow container ofthe antlions can all be killed by
water, creating a moat.swarming them with other ants you've
SimAnt is a 1991 life simulationgathered to yourself. Dead spiders and
computer game by Maxis focusing on ants.caterpillars will eventually turn into
It was designed by Will Wright, maker offood. They will also return later on.
other 'Sim' games such as SimCity andAntlions stay dead once they are killed.
The Sims.The ants' caste system in the game is
The game is essentially a simulation ofsimple. Workers normally make up most of
an ant colony (Ant simulation game) .the colony and their jobs are to gather
The game consists of three modes: afood, dig out the nest, and care for
Quick Game, a Full Game, and aneggs, larvae, and the queen. They also
Experimental Game. It was released forhelp defend the nest. Soldiers are
the IBM PC, Commodore Amiga, Applestronger than workers, and better at
Macintosh, and Super Nintendofighting other ants; they can do most of
Entertainment System. The Nintendothe same jobs as workers but need more
version also added eight scenarios,food and can't care for eggs and larva.
where the goal in each is to eliminateThe queen ant only has to lay eggs and
the enemy red ants in various locales,is the most important ant. New queens
each with different hazards. However,and males (drones) have wings and their
this edition of the SimAnt lacks theonly job is to mate and make new
Experimental Game.colonies.
In SimAnt, the player plays the role of



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