SimEarth for Windows 3.1 dropped in 1991 and was basically Maxis asking, “What if you could control an entire planet?” Built off the success of SimCity, it let you mess with everything—atmosphere, continents, life evolution—all in this weirdly deep simulation. It wasn’t flashy, but if you were a kid back then who loved science or just wanted to flood Pangaea for fun, this was your game. You’d tweak CO₂ levels, watch dinosaurs die off, then try to evolve intelligent life. Updates were light, mostly bug fixes and interface tweaks, but the core stayed the same: total planetary control. It ran best on Windows 3.1, but you could also catch it on DOS and even the Super Nintendo (which was a way stripped-down version).