''SimTunes'' is a children's software toy designed by Toshio Iwai and released by

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The S ...

in 1996. It involves

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

a picture using large

pixels In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

, where each

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

represents a

musical note In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class. Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretizatio ...

. The player places up to four different-colored Bugz, which represent

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

s or vocal syllables, on this picture, and can change their starting directions and relative speeds. The Bugz crawl over the picture, playing notes corresponding with the colors; and they turn, move

random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rando ...

ly, or jump in response to function symbols that can be added to the dots. ''SimTunes'' was originally developed in the early 1990s by Iwai as a game titled ''

Sound Fantasy , titled ''Sound Factory'' during development, is an unreleased video game for the Super NES/Super Famicom. Designer Toshio Iwai was inspired by his earlier interactive installation art piece titled ''Music Insects'', to develop a video game at ...

'' for the Super NES/Super Famicom. Many of the ideas and elements in ''Sound Fantasy'' are present in ''SimTunes''.

References

External links

* 1996 video games Music video games Maxis Sim games Non-games Video games about insects Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Jerry Martin Windows games Windows-only games Software for children Single-player video games {{Simulation-videogame-stub