EA Donates SimCity to 'One Laptop Per Child' Project
Electronic Arts today announced it is gifting Maxis' original SimCity to the project. The One Laptop per Child initiative is a non-profit organization with the goal of providing cheap, functional laptops to poor children in developing countries.
The hardware itself, the famous "$100 laptop," actually increased to a price of $200 recently. The foundation has received funding for laptop distribution in countries such as Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia, and Libya.
"SimCity is entertainment that's unintentionally educational," said EA global branding VP Steve Seabolt. "Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities. There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it's a creativity tool thatÂ’s only limited by the player's imagination."
-
I REALLY Want one of these, I like that it looks like a kids toy AND it has the crank thing so you can power it without having to plug it in
It still has that righT? the hand crank or almost lawnmower pully lever to get its own power?
MORE DEVICES need hand cranks, CARS, TRUCKS, we need a way to hook treadmills and shit up to cars and trucks, use the treadmill for 30 min and then you get power to travel for 2 days or something-
Actually I believe the reason the cost increased to $200 is they removed the crank and replaced it with a more generic power adapter, to allow any sort of pedal or power-generating peripheral. I think the issue was that the crank could get clogged with sand or something.
Could be wrong on that, but I don't have time to check it out right this second.-
-
-
"The XO battery can be recharged with a hand-crank, pull-cord, pedal, solar panel, or car battery when no electricity source is available."
http://askbobrankin.com/xo_the_200_laptop.html
-
-
-
You're not supposed to want one! They made them look like toys so people wouldn't want them so there would be no commercial demand so kids wouldn't get their laptop stolen and put on ebay.
I kinda wanted one too as a novelty, but then I realized wanting one meant some poor kid would have his laptop stolen down the line* and that is really saddening. I wonder if there's a OLPC replacement program.
*Not directly because of me wanting one, just in general.
-