back to article SimCity 3000

I don’t know if my gaming habits had started to become dominated by RTS and FPS games by the time SimCity 3000 made its delayed debut in 1999, but for some reason I don’t recall it registering on my radar. Strange, for not only was SimCity 2000 one of my favourite games - as it remains to this day - but its sequel was also a …

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  1. Christian Berger

    Well the hardware could have done it

    As evidenced by this real-time 3D animated scenery in broadcast quality here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9aPPdnawhg

    It's just that your average PC couldn't do it. :)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rush Hour?

    I think that your memory is failing you worse than you think - Rush Hour is the SimCity 4 addon, doing just what you said there.

    SimCity 3000, at least according to Wikipedia, didn't have any add-ons...

    see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_3000

    and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_4

    and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_4:_Rush_Hour

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Rush Hour?

      "Rush Hour is the SimCity 4 addon"

      Thanks for spotting that; the article has been amended.

      C.

      1. SleepGuy

        Re: Rush Hour?

        SimCopter was an add-on to SimCity 2000 where you could fly through your city....was a great concept but the graphics and depth of view left a lot to be desired.

  3. JDX Gold badge

    I never placed 3000 even though I loved 2000. Does it use proper 3D meaning I can run it at a decent resolution on a modern PC?

    also, wikipedia says "A version of SimCity 3000, known simply as SimCity for iPhone, was released in 2011 for the iPhone and iPod Touch"

    If anyone can confirm it runs well on W7 I am going to find a copy on eBay!

    1. Red Bren
      Linux

      @JDX

      To not quite* answer your question, "Can I run it at a decent resolution on a modern PC?"

      I'm running it under WINE on my Fedora 18 box at 1280x1024 resolution without any problems. From what I can tell from the WineHQ website, it doesn't support widescreen resolutions, but it still gets a gold rating.

      If I get a chance, I'll try installing it on the wife's Win7 laptop and let you know if it works...

      * I should be a politician!

      1. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: @JDX

        I ran Sim City 3000 on contemporary hardware back in the day. It runs happily on my current setup too.

        Also, you don't need to resort to Wine. There is a Linux version.

    2. Michael Hutchinson
      Go

      Yes it runs fine in W7 if you don't mind being stuck with 4:3 resolutions. Just be sure to run the installer & game in compatibility mode (I used Win 2k iirc).

  4. Yet Another Commentard

    Dons cynical hat

    Another Sim City reprisal. It's almost as if something has prompted it, such as a new version due out any day now.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Dons cynical hat

      You mean like a new game has reminded the writers to go back and reminisce about the classic ones?

      How very dare they.

      1. Tom 38

        Re: Dons cynical hat

        This is the 3rd or 4th Sim City story I've read on here in the last month. The Reg is plastered with Sim City adverts. You can see how people could put 2+2 together..

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Dons cynical hat

          Yes, it's almost like they're doing a series on SimCity, thinking it might be of interest to reminisce on the dawn of the new game.

          1. GregC
            Devil

            Re: Dons cynical hat

            If the intent is to make me buy the new one it's failing miserably, all this series of articles is doing is reminding me how much I enjoyed the old games, and making me want to get hold of a copy of one of them.

            EA can take their always-online crap and shove it where the sun don't shine.

            1. Vimes

              Re: Dons cynical hat

              EA can take their always-online crap and shove it where the sun don't shine.

              Agreed.

              http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/clogged-streets-simcity-launch-plagued-by-server-problems/

              http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/05/simcity-refund-ea-origin/

        2. Minophis
          Meh

          Re: Dons cynical hat

          Agreed, there does seem to be a bit of theme recently. Well I suppose it pays for the other stories. I just wish EA had console versions of the new one, I refuse to run anything but linux on my desktop.

        3. DF118

          @Tom 38 Re: Dons cynical hat

          Yep - bit-tech is at it too.

    2. ScissorHands
      Devil

      Re: Dons cynical hat

      Just as well, to show how braindead the current incarnation is while these old gems can be bought for peanuts at Steam and GoG...

    3. Bonce

      Re: Don's cynical hat

      If you don't like it, don't read it.

      Can Don have his hat back now please?

    4. Another Justin

      Re: Dons cynical hat

      Seems like the SimCity launch is suffering from fairly massive technical DRM-based failures at the moment

      http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/permit-denied-simcity-servers-overloaded-building-gets-under-way-1C8725410

      No coverage of said story on here though - isn't this the sort of story that The Register usually thrives on?

    5. SleepGuy

      Re: Dons cynical hat

      Check out the new SimCity on Amazon...out of 700 reviews (currently), 619 of them are ONE STAR!! In addition they are charging an outrageous $60 for it...it's SimCity for crying out loud.

      I would have pre-ordered if it had been $30...after hearing about all the problems I think I'll just skip it.

  5. BigAndos

    I always really liked SimCity 3000, except for the fact that whatever machine I've tried it on it always crashes periodically. The new SimCity sounds like bit of a pain. I'm hoping a crack appears at some point - then I would actually buy it!

    1. ElNumbre
      Stop

      No don't...

      If you buy it, EA can say that people don't mind DRM.

      If you pirate/crack it, EA can use it to justify DRM.

      Either way, you lose, and the EA gobshite who thinks this is a good idea wins.

      The only choice is not to play it.

  6. dotdavid
    Meh

    Meh

    Personally, I always preferred Transport Tycoon.

    And the OpenTTD version is still around and very good. You can even play it on an Android phone (although I tried and gave up in disgust, I think a larger screen is a benefit in this sort of game).

    1. reno79

      Re: Meh

      Someone after my own heart. I even tried OTTD on my nexus 7 and likewise got annoyed with the interface. Fantastic idea as I wasted many a week on TT in my youth and would love to have revisited it on a device I could take to work to use while in meetings... I mean on lunch.

      As for Sim City 3000, it was one I kind of skipped. Played it a little but I always ended up going back to 2000 for reasons I cannot recall now.

    2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      Well me to but it isnt technically a city builder.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Lack of street level dissapointment

    The lack of street level was a killer as far as I was concerned.

    I saw the advert for the 3D walk around the city bit and as a young lad thought that looks fun!

    I'm not entirely convinced it would have required a powerhouse computer either, and besides those were the days when everyone was replacing their machine every couple of years because that's about all they were good for. SimCopter was also released a couple of years prior to 3000 and that was 3D.

    When I saw 3000 was then just a rehashed 2000 it just felt disappointing, hence I never played it, and I lost a good amount of my childhood to 2000, and TT.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Preferred this over 4

    SC4 seemed overly complex, preferred SC3 to that.

    Got the CDs of both quite cheaply a few years ago, played well on a 2006 Toshiba laptop.

  9. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    I picked up a copy of this...

    ... in a charity shop for a quid last year and it's fun to just spend an evening building up Grahamville (hell, if Sheldon can have Sheldonopolis...!) and seeing, for instance, how much you can boost property values in an area by getting rid of noisome neighbours and building lots of parks and planting trees :-)

  10. Herby

    Planning for SimCity ... Space?

    Maybe it will simulate the round trip to Mars that the zillionare is planning. Just you and a spouse, and the outcome will determine if anything will be alive when you get back to earth!

    An interesting simulation that would be!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Shaken not Poured

    "...Many were the PC magazines I poured over looking for news and previews..."

    I hope you meant "pored over"... or did you really get excited to the point of excessive wetness?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shaken not Poured

      Indeed. From Daily Writing Tips:

      The verb pore, with the meaning “examine closely,” may derive from two Old English words, a verb, spyrian, meaning “to investigate, examine,” and a noun, spor, meaning “a trace, vestige.”

      The noun pore, meaning “an opening in the skin,” is not related to the verb in the expression “to pore over.” The noun comes from a Greek word meaning “a passageway.”

      The verb pour, meaning to transfer water or some other substance from a container, came into English by way of Old French from a Latin verb, purare, “to purify.” In ritual practice, objects are purified by pouring water over them. The English word pure comes from Latin purus, “pure.” The Latin verb came from the Latin noun.

  12. jon 72
    Happy

    Just like to say..

    I've been so swayed by the hype I went out and bought a copy. Not the new one but the deluxe edition Sim City 4 from a charity shop for £2. Should keep me going for a few years yet till this new fangled all singing and dancing release turns up in the bargin bin.

    1. LaeMing
      Meh

      Re: Just like to say..

      Though I am not sure what use the newfangled one will be by that time since one presumes the servers it relies on will be gone by then in favor of serving to the latest version.

  13. Kanhef
    Alien

    SimMars

    I remember SimEarth had a 'terraform Mars' scenario. It would be interesting to see that game redone with more sophisticated modeling, now that personal computers are a few orders of magnitude more powerful than they were when it was released.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    afk;

    Digging out my copy Sim City 3000...

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