What do you do when you've made millions from the bestselling computer game of all time? Will Wright, creator of the Sims franchise, began collecting Russian space junk. The 45-year-old now has several backup control panels and computers from Russian spaceships. His prized possession: a global astrogator, a navigational computer with a tiny spinning globe inside. Wright appreciates the stuff as much for the science behind it as for the history. "We turned our noses up at the Russians," he says, "but I admire their approach to engineering and what they managed to do in space."

And with his own feats of engineering and exploration, Wright has amassed his share of fans as well. Since cofounding his company, Maxis, in Orinda, CA, 18 years ago, he has transformed the stuff of ordinary life -- from washing dishes to throwing hot-tub parties -- into a cottage industry. Wright's most successful brands -- SimCity, the urban-planning game, and The Sims, his people simulator -- have sold roughly 54 million copies worldwide. Now, perhaps because of all those Russian spaceships, he's brewing up an intergalactic epic that's sure to be his most ambitious launch yet. "The theme," he says, "is everything."