Sim Mania!

I have to preface this post by saying that I have owned every Maxis Sim game ever made (up until the massive number of Sims expansions. I never really got into those) in one form or another, on one machine or another, and have tried each game at least once. That being said, I am no authority on most of the lesser spin offs, such as SimIsle or SimAnt, and I stopped playing the ever-popular Sims after the first generation.

I love this series of video games. They all allow such a large array of variety in game play and are actually quite difficult when you get into the more detailed parts of them. Anyone that has ever played the SimCity series can attest to how tough it can get, and almost all of us have cheated to fully enjoy building and destroying our cities.

Because of the upcoming Geeks Over Dinner Podcast I am a part of, which will use the SimCity 3000 theme, I recently started installing and playing these games again, and just like when I was a child I fell in love all over again. Let me share some of the highlights with you.

SimCity Classic - 1989

NOTE: You can play this game for free online! Click here for more info.

The game that started the SimCity franchise is actually the game I have played the least. I was first introduced to the series with SimCity 2000, but I did take the time to look back at the first game. The game play of the series hasn't changed drastically since the original. You build roads, utilities, and zones in order to create a sprawling metropolis.

The unique thing about this game was the raw level of customization given to the player, especially in 1989 when games were incredibly linear and not nearly as accessible to the public. The game was limiting in some ways, especially when a player of later games, like myself, went back to try the original. The biggest hurdle for me was the viewpoint, which was top down. Later games in the series used a rotatable isometric view, allowing for a nice 3-dimensional perspective, even when the game was still basically sprites.

It is nice that this game is now being released to the public online, as it is a fantastic example of early gaming brilliance. When users get into the more complicated aspects, such as city finances, taxation, and property values, it really shines as a simulator, despite its reputation as a playground. I urge everyone to check it out at least once, as it is a staple of gaming history.

SimCity 2000 - 1993

Easily the most famous game in the SimCity series, SimCity 2000 had it all. Build your city, blow it up, tax your people, and then, thanks to some lackluster expansions, explore your city like never before. SimCity 2000 took all that was great about the original and gave it a well-deserved face lift. For those who started with the original, it was able to import the previous title's cities and bring them up to date with more colorful (and varied) buildings and added things like complex scenarios and more entertaining disasters. 

All of the classic concepts are still here, like zoning and budgeting, and new concepts like arcologies and district management are introduced. Perhaps one of the biggest enhancements is the Urban Renewal Kit, which few people really used, I think. To some, it was a cheat platform, allowing you to put just about any building anywhere without tapping into the money system or restrictions the game would throw at you. To others, like myself, it gave players the ability to create their own buildings and explore the more conceptual side of the game by building scenarios and customizing the landscape.

I mentioned lackluster spin offs above, and I think I need to clarify my labeling of them. SimCopter and Streets of SimCity were 100% unique and fun, but not very well received. They were released in 1996 and 1997, respectively, and were created in a strange time in Maxis' history. The company was on the cusp of being acquired by Electronic Arts, and during this time was split into multiple factions attempting to tackle multiple markets. 

The first was just called Maxis, and after it made SimCopter, it continued its goal of making SimCity 3000, which was eventually released in 1999.  The Second, called Maxis Kids, was tasked with creating games for the younger audience. Games like SimTown and Widget Workshop were made by this branch. The third, and probably most peculiar, was internally called Maxis Sports. That's right. Sports. They took the engine SimCopter used, modified it, and released its one and only game: Streets of SimCity.

Alright, with the history lesson behind us, lets talk about the good parts of these two games. The biggest selling point, and perhaps the most appealing feature, was the ability to play inside cities made in SimCity 2000 in 3D. Depending on your hardware, the cities themselves were rendered quite nicely considering the power of graphics at the time. While they look absolutely terrible by today's standards, they were fun to fool around at the time, and the kid in me was not very critical of the game's controls, difficulty, and large number of bugs and glitches.

That's right. The games were buggy. In fact, the adult in me fails to see how either of these games ever made it to store shelves. SimCopter, which was made first, gets a bit of a pass from this writer, seeing as it was made from scratch and accomplished the task of rendering cities in three dimensions. It played horribly for the most part, but was quite humorous. The radio, megaphone messages, and overall atmosphere was hilarious, and even the kid who played it more than a decade ago realized this. 

Streets of SimCity did a pretty terrible job at improving the engine for a racing game. Cars handled terribly, the buildings somehow seemed more boring than in SimCopter, and the artificial intelligence was practically non-existent. All that being said, the game was and still is strangely fun and addictive. The cars could be outfitted with awesome weapons and modifications, the most notable being a hover conversion in the vein of Back to the Future Part II. The radio was fantastic. The music was very catchy, the DJ's and commercials were hilarious and memorable, and there was humor scattered throughout the campaign in typical Maxis fashion. The music was so well liked, in fact, that it was reused later on in the huge success that was The Sims.

Both these games were not that good, but they seem to still have a cult following on the Internet, and most people that I talk to actually have fond memories of them.

SimCity 3000 - 1999

The final game I'll reminisce about today is SimCity 3000, quite easily my favorite game in the SimCity series. I adored this game, and still play it regularly. I remember getting my first copy of it from a Troll book order in middle school. The game was gorgeous, even by today's standards, and offered the biggest jump in both graphics and features between any two games in the series. While Electronic Arts did publish the game, it had virtually no footprint in it's design, unlike its heavy successor, SimCity 4. The game was still purely Maxis, and all the humor, design, and the memorable music reflected this.

The game introduced more features, such as waste management, expanded the land value system, and introduced neighbor deals. Finally I could ship my trash to another city not run by me, and they could purchase the water I didn't need. The economy part of the game drastically changed because of this, and you could delegate much more of your budgeting concerns into the management of departments, such as fire protection or transportation. In fact, this part of the game was so greatly expanded that Maxis introduced a character driven help system. Each department in the city got its own manager who would pop up in the news ticker from time to time to tell you when you needed to do some work on their respective part of the game. They all had back stories and most were very tongue-in-cheek (One of them looked suspiciously like Benjamin Franklin and commented on just about everything).

The game also introduced real-world landmarks. I don't remember ever seeing so many new and interesting buildings, and was exposed to a lot of the lesser known landmarks from around the world. They had the usual buildings, such as the World Trade Center, Sears Tower, and Tokyo Tower, but also had things like Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza. The Unlimited re-release also Incorporated multiple building types, so your entire city could have a European, Asian, or the default American style.

Finally, the game was not sprite based, but instead relied on a sophisticated 3D model system for its buildings. The Building Architect Tool, released about a year after the game and later as a part of the Unlimited Package, was a simple but powerful 3D editor that allowed users to create and share buildings. While it seemed to lack the ability to modify the cities like the Urban Renal Kit did for SimCity 2000, it was still quite powerful and I spent just as much time making buildings as I did playing the actual game. 

I played later games, like SimCity 4 (which I also love), but none of them had the lasting impact on me as SimCity 3000. SimCity 4 was more advanced in every way, but seemed too much like The Sims to me, and had no character in its music and humor. It played like a dream, however, and provides the most complete city building experience. I recommend 4 for anyone new to the series.

Hopefully some of you had a nice walk down memory lane with me on this series. I wish a SimCity 5 would be made, as the last attempt at a SimCity game was called "Societies" and was terrible. It wasn't made by Maxis, probably because EA has them working churning out Sims expansions. Hopefully EA's new corporate direction, which is quite nice compared to it's pretty crappy role in the 2000's, will spawn a true SimCity successor. Until then, I'll continue swapping time between 3000 and 4, and occasionally diving back into SimCity 2000 and its simulators. They are all great fun, and have left a pretty big impact on simulation gaming. Other games in this arena, such as Roller Coaster Tycoon, Tropico, and Civilization have also had great success in this genre, mostly because of the path carved by Maxis. The best may still be coming.

~ Jimmy "Perched on the top floor of a launch arcology" the G.

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This post has a Shenanaganary rating of:

"Can somebody explain Maxis' love of Llamas?"