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I thought 3000 was the best showing, though perhaps that's looking at it back later when performance is not as much of a concern. It felt like an upgraded SimCi

I thought 3000 was the best showing, though perhaps that's looking at it back later when performance is not as much of a concern. It felt like an upgraded SimCity 2000, rather than a big change in game mechanics that 4 was.

JonathonW 3y ago
Same here— SimCity 3000’s the one that really hit the right spot gameplay-wise for me. Prettier and deeper and more polished than 2000 without departing too far from 2000’s core mechanics or simulation approach.
- ido 3y ago
  I still occasion play 3k!
- qball 3y ago
  >without departing too far from 2000’s core mechanics or simulation approach SC3K is similar enough in structure to SC2K that it can actually load SC2K city save files directly; SC3K being a relatively strict superset of SC2K in terms of available elements and their sizes certainly doesn't hinder that backwards-compatibility at all. The only things that would actively break when you did this were related to maximum terrain steepness for underground elements (metro, water pipes), 90-degree rail connections would sever (at least, graphically), and hydroelectric power generators as they're the only power building not implemented. The arcologies were also dropped from SC3K, but to be fair those were mostly just designed to be population boosters in SC2K- something that wasn't necessary in SC3K now that the simulator was allowed to keep track of more than 250 buildings (or at least, so the manual and the query tool say).
  - BearOso 3y ago
    I wasn't aware of a 250 building limit. Is there anywhere I can read more about this? Searching turns up empty.
    - qball 3y ago
      I misremembered; it's a 150-buiding microsimulator limit. The buildings still function, but if you query them you get the generic popup rather than the detailed one. Earlier versions of SimCity 2000 are more limited in this regard as arcologies after the first 150 special buildings don't count towards the population count; the later versions do, however.
- rl3 3y ago
  SC3K's soundtrack and art was magical. Especially the advisor portraits.
xixixao 3y ago
Age of Empires 2, Sim City 3000, Diablo2 and Red Alert 2. Released in the span of 3 years. What an incredible era. Can’t shake off the feeling that 3D took away as much as it gave gaming. Also can’t believe it’s just my age-based selection bias.
- wtvanhest 3y ago
  Red Alert 2. That was such a fun game. One thing that has been majorly lost in games now is the ability to create levels too. I loved the creation part
  - meowtimemania 3y ago
    it's still kinda there. Halo forge, fortnite creative mode, starcraft 2, mario maker 1+2, etc.
  - genocidicbunny 3y ago
    Creating a competent and usable level editor that you can publicly release is a lot of work, and unless you can somehow turn it into a major selling point for the game, you will be hard pressed to afford it. Dev time for games is expensive and if you're hacking together levels using a bunch of disparate tools including some third-party ones it might not really be worth it to make a tool that you can release.
    - zamnos 3y ago
      The ultimate "level editor" was released - Unity. It's infinitely moddable and you can even sell your mods for money.
      - short_sells_poo 3y ago
        There's a world of difference between making a new map/level and making a new game. The effort required for the former is measured in years, whereas the latter is mostly weeks to months (ignoring open world games where the level spans the whole game universe).
trackflak 3y ago
3000 was just a modernised and polished expansion of 2000. Maxis had plans to do a successor to 2k that was fully 3D but they kept hitting frustrations and setbacks. So they just stuck to what they knew and made a faithful successor.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  > Maxis had plans to do a successor to 2k that was fully 3D but they kept hitting frustrations and setbacks. Graphics hardware at the time wouldn't be able to handle a city builder with the depth and scale of SimCity 2000. Heck, it wouldn't have been able to handle a 3D version of the original SimCity unless the draw distance was limited to like 300 feet. For proof, check out SimCopter. I can't imagine trying to play a city builder with those graphics.
titzer 3y ago
Bought but almost never played 4. Simcity 2000 was pretty clunky and 3000 was the right amount of updated graphics and mechanics while maintaining the original fun. It seems impossible to get my original Simcity 3000 CD working on modern hardware...
- numtel 3y ago
  GOG has sc3k that works on modern hardware. Also, wine runs the original afaik.

JonathonW 3y ago

Same here— SimCity 3000’s the one that really hit the right spot gameplay-wise for me. Prettier and deeper and more polished than 2000 without departing too far from 2000’s core mechanics or simulation approach.

ido 3y ago
I still occasion play 3k!
qball 3y ago
>without departing too far from 2000’s core mechanics or simulation approach SC3K is similar enough in structure to SC2K that it can actually load SC2K city save files directly; SC3K being a relatively strict superset of SC2K in terms of available elements and their sizes certainly doesn't hinder that backwards-compatibility at all. The only things that would actively break when you did this were related to maximum terrain steepness for underground elements (metro, water pipes), 90-degree rail connections would sever (at least, graphically), and hydroelectric power generators as they're the only power building not implemented. The arcologies were also dropped from SC3K, but to be fair those were mostly just designed to be population boosters in SC2K- something that wasn't necessary in SC3K now that the simulator was allowed to keep track of more than 250 buildings (or at least, so the manual and the query tool say).
- BearOso 3y ago
  I wasn't aware of a 250 building limit. Is there anywhere I can read more about this? Searching turns up empty.
  - qball 3y ago
    I misremembered; it's a 150-buiding microsimulator limit. The buildings still function, but if you query them you get the generic popup rather than the detailed one. Earlier versions of SimCity 2000 are more limited in this regard as arcologies after the first 150 special buildings don't count towards the population count; the later versions do, however.
rl3 3y ago
SC3K's soundtrack and art was magical. Especially the advisor portraits.

xixixao 3y ago

Age of Empires 2, Sim City 3000, Diablo2 and Red Alert 2. Released in the span of 3 years. What an incredible era. Can’t shake off the feeling that 3D took away as much as it gave gaming. Also can’t believe it’s just my age-based selection bias.

wtvanhest 3y ago
Red Alert 2. That was such a fun game. One thing that has been majorly lost in games now is the ability to create levels too. I loved the creation part
- meowtimemania 3y ago
  it's still kinda there. Halo forge, fortnite creative mode, starcraft 2, mario maker 1+2, etc.
- genocidicbunny 3y ago
  Creating a competent and usable level editor that you can publicly release is a lot of work, and unless you can somehow turn it into a major selling point for the game, you will be hard pressed to afford it. Dev time for games is expensive and if you're hacking together levels using a bunch of disparate tools including some third-party ones it might not really be worth it to make a tool that you can release.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    The ultimate "level editor" was released - Unity. It's infinitely moddable and you can even sell your mods for money.
    - short_sells_poo 3y ago
      There's a world of difference between making a new map/level and making a new game. The effort required for the former is measured in years, whereas the latter is mostly weeks to months (ignoring open world games where the level spans the whole game universe).

trackflak 3y ago

3000 was just a modernised and polished expansion of 2000. Maxis had plans to do a successor to 2k that was fully 3D but they kept hitting frustrations and setbacks. So they just stuck to what they knew and made a faithful successor.

Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
> Maxis had plans to do a successor to 2k that was fully 3D but they kept hitting frustrations and setbacks. Graphics hardware at the time wouldn't be able to handle a city builder with the depth and scale of SimCity 2000. Heck, it wouldn't have been able to handle a 3D version of the original SimCity unless the draw distance was limited to like 300 feet. For proof, check out SimCopter. I can't imagine trying to play a city builder with those graphics.

titzer 3y ago

Bought but almost never played 4. Simcity 2000 was pretty clunky and 3000 was the right amount of updated graphics and mechanics while maintaining the original fun. It seems impossible to get my original Simcity 3000 CD working on modern hardware...

numtel 3y ago
GOG has sc3k that works on modern hardware. Also, wine runs the original afaik.