Play Balance of the Planet Online

Balance of the Planet came out in 1990 for MS-DOS, published by Infogrames. It was one of those serious, data-heavy simulations that felt right at home on a PC in the early 90s, when games were starting to explore complex real-world topics instead of just high scores or fantasy quests. You don't pilot a spaceship or swing a sword here; you're handed the keys to the planet's future, and it's a sobering responsibility.

You control global policy, adjusting sliders for things like deforestation rates, industrial emissions, and renewable energy investment. Your main objective is to keep the planet habitable for as long as possible without collapsing the world economy. The core mechanics involve managing a dense matrix of interconnected variables, reading reports on environmental and economic feedback, and trying to anticipate long-term consequences from short-term fixes. The pacing is deliberate, almost academic, and the difficulty comes from the sheer number of factors in play; a small change in one area can trigger unexpected crises elsewhere. It feels like being in a very tense, very quiet war room where the only enemy is human short-sightedness.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".