The earliest simulation games for personal computers were various ports of the early Star Wars mainframe games. However, in 1982, Utopia became the first full-fledged Sim game. In the following years, four other major games marked the touchstones for the genre well into the 1990s.
Perpetual Evolution
Modern Strategy Genres and Games
There are dozens are strategy games released every year and it seems new genres are forged every few months. The 2000s have seen a rash of fantastic simulation releases and the tradition continues today. Perhaps because of its games immensity, the strategy genre has produced the most consistantly solid computer games this decade. Expect "Genetic Simulations" to be the hot new genre in 2007.