Galapagos, not unlike its namesake island chain, is a series of digital laboratories in which the inhabitants constantly evolve — albeit at a much faster rate than Darwin ever imagined. The story of Galapagos revolves around Mendel (as in Gregor, the geneticist), an artificial life form unlike any other computer game character. For the first time, we can say of a computer intelligence, “it’s alive.”
As an experiment in artificial life, Galapagos succeeds. The little blue Mendel does seem alive. This pipsqueak is constructed of blocky limbs and a buggy torso. Infrared and acoustic inputs on its head act as its senses. Mendel’s limbs and senses connect to what Anark, the game’s developer, terms Non-stationary Entropic Reduction Mapping (NERM) controllers — Mendel’s brain. (See Oct/ 96 , p90 to learn more about NERM.)
As Mendel experiences its environment, it interprets what it “sees” through its infrared eyes, and moves emulated servomotors controlling its limbs accordingly. When first born, Mendel falls off cliffs and walks right into deadly energy beams and lava pools. Each time it dies, a new data point is added to its NERM, and eventually Mendel learns “don’t go there” and “don’t do that.” The Galapagos player can encourage Mendel to turn by clicking on the little character. Mendel acts incredibly lifelike, from whimpering when approaching danger, to occasional unpredictable behavior.
But Galapagos isn’t just an experiment, it’s a game. The player must figure out how each of Galapagos’ five worlds operates, and guide Mendel through them. Each of the worlds is stunningly rendered in vivid 3D textures, and gorgeous to look at. (The PC version uses 3D acceleration to make it look even better.) Rather than driving Mendel in a first person perspective, the player manipulates the Galapagos environment by clictog (sometimes repetitively) on it while watching Mendel from above.
This is where Galapagos begins to fall apart: As a game, it can be exceedingly frustrating. Unlike the user-controllable camera of Bungie Software Products’ Myth: The Fallen Lords, in Galapagos the game moves the camera at will (although it’s generally centered on Mendel) . This can make parts of the game almost impossible to play: To manipulate the environment, the player must be able to see it, but the camera often swings out of view of an object, and the player can’t click on it anymore. Then Mendel dies.
The other half of the gameplay issue is motivation: What reason does the player have to want to keep Mendel alive, to keep playing the game? The introductory story seems barely fleshed out: We’re supposed to imagine a world outside of Galapagos that’s being overrun by Galapagos itself, and Mendel is a soldier that will be used for evil if we don’t help it escq)e. Unfortunately, the voice-over alone is not enough to make us suspend our disbelief. Also, Mendel, being a complex creature, can grow pigheaded about approaching the puzzles — you would, too, if you kept dying. Finally, at times, it seems as though you’re fighting the game itself, not Galapagos, for control.
We’re disappointed Galapagos does not provide enough carrots to make us want to keep playing. We think the artificial life and complexity theory driving Mendel are the destiny of computer intelligence and look forward to seeing them used again. Perhaps in a more free-form world, watching Mendel in action would be more enjoyable. On the other hand, this game editor-stumping puzzleland will be challenging to even the smartest of gamers.
Tafel, Kathy. (March 1998). Galapagos: Mendel's Escape. MacAddict. (pg. 68).
Anark Game Studios
Games
out of 10 (0 vote)
40 / 
2014-04-14 / 
5d867303fde3d006785cd0f1c3da778129bcb678 / 
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galapagos.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
SheepShaver
