It's good to be mayor! Let's Play SimCity 3000!

I, too, hunger for the sandbox nature of the various SimCities! However, I'm a little taken aback by the fact I can't buy a legitimate copy of SC2K Gold Edition as a digital download from someplace like GOG.com. Also, I no longer have a floppy drive to install my original DOS copy from.

CURSES

You gotta have middle ground. High-density is too expensive at this stage, but I suppose it may be too early to consider medium-density either.

If you have a bigger computer, try SimCity 4. It's wonderful.

Wait, they made a Gold Edition? All I have is the Special Edition. Granted, I have an actual disc, as well as the box and manual (which is an impressive feat in itself), but other than the Network Edition (which didn't work >(() I didn't know about any other SC2K varieties.

Gold Edition is for chumps. You need to get the secret edition.

Apparently SC2K-Gold is also known as the "Network Edition." From Wikipedia:

Also, here's an early official announcement video for a super-early version of SimCity 3000 that was originally planned to be fully 3D, before Maxis realized it would be totally impossible for anyone to run it on their circa-1999 computers. Note the overly dramatic music and clever use of just a couple of mock-up images to make it really seem like something exciting and new was in development, instead of the incremental update we actually got.

Go play Mario Paint, then.

Yup, I think I mentioned that earlier (I'm sure I've got the PC Gamer issue with coverage of that inside) - they had no idea what they were in for. I'm sure the thing ran fine with smaller cities, but when you look at the scale of the cities in 3000 it would've just been ridiculous.

As noted, the restriction of their ambitions to the point where 3000 isn't much more than a graphical update of 2000 allowed them to focus on the mechanics of running the cities and fixing all of 2000's issues. The end result was worth the trouble.

You have to plan ahead - if you just do tons of medium-density growth, your city will be larger in surface area, but you're going to wind up bulldozing and replacing those zones anyway. Smaller, higher-density zones both cut down on extraneous costs (you can get by with only one police station for a LONG time as a result) and wind up paying more taxes in the long run. They pay for the upgrade pretty quickly.

Legitimate question: has anyone ever figured out what the gifts actually DO? There's some that are obvious (courthouse and City Hall both boost commercial), but shit like the University always baffles me.

That's some cool stuff.

Hell, feel free to ignore my advice. We build cities like we build cities. And as for your legitimate question, try looking on here. It's got a TON of good information and stuff on it, and i'm sure the answer is in there somewhere. They have similar sites for SimCity 2000 and 4; go check them out too!

I'm working on it! Don't rush me!

So is there anyway to play SC3000 without the CD? Also any good recos on where to get the latest patches for it? The built in updater doesn't seem to work.

Note: I have the game and it is installed. But it wants the CD in the drive all the time. I'm running this on a netbook and the cd is an external that I'd like not to have to lug around everywhere...

Same question, but for Sim City 4. :/ Currently it's my only PC game that I need a CD for, thanks to Blizzard's downloadable Starcraft/Warcraft/Diablo launchers.

I suppose you could pirate it or get a no-cd crack, but you can't update the game if you do that. Also, in my pirated copy of SimCity 3000 Unlimited Edition the music doesn't work. Takes an extra 30 seconds to boot up Windows Media Player and set it on shuffle. I want to buy SimCity 4 Deluxe however, because it's a masterpiece that deserves every penny.

Rip the disk image to your hard drive and then mount it? That's what I do for most disk games...

Rip... Mount huh?

Uh, is there a tutorial for this procedure?

http://teamtutorials.com/software-tu...-virtual-drive

That good enough?

I recommend Daemon Tools.

Though really, it's not like you have much of a choice in the matter.

It's either that or Alcohol 120%, yeah.

ARGH! Can't rip the CD because it is all scratched up. Good enough to play the game off but not good enough to make a image of!

EDIT: Trying simcity 2000 now... We'll see.

one of the best games of all time, good job mate

I wonder when this will be updated.

Today. And hopefully more frequently in the future.

When we last left off, I was broke!

At some point, the transportation advisor bugged me about gridlock, which I didn't screenshot for some reason. But I did investigate:



This is the view data screen, which allows me to replace my minimap with various maps of city data, like this traffic map here.

It seems to be busiest at this one corner:




Not the best graphical representation there, game.



What are these "busses" you speak of? Are they perchance related to "buses", a transportation form which will not be known to our sleepy hamlet for another seven years?

1903



Now that we have some money, I've expanded the rail line to reach the industrial district so that it can actually fulfill a useful function. Of course, this takes up the entire year's budget. D'oh.



Meanwhile, the water shortage that made me notice the funding situation in the first place goes unfixed. I'm such a great mayor.



Visit Spiteville! You probably won't get murdered!



Oh good, some money at last. However, I'll want to be building this away from the city, but I don't have enough money to hook it up to the power and water grids, and until then we don't get any money. Which means more waiting game.

1904



Well, at least the investment did some good.









I can't remember if a road connection is necessary, but if it is, we'll have to wait another year. >_<



Apparently not. Note that although the income is listed "per month", it only gets paid at year end like everything else in the budget.



Meanwhile, the road to nowhere is inexplicably popular. You and your traffic algorithms, SimCity.

This certainly will not end badly.



Thanks to the prison deal, we actually turn a sizeable profit now. Urban development can begin in earnest next year.

1905



First off, some jobs that are actually a convenient distance away from the workers' homes.



Next, a second police station since Sims are a bunch of whiny cowards.

Some more ordinances have become available recently:



This one's fairly cheap and is really worthwhile if we get an earthquake, which we probably will at osme point since disasters are on.



At that hour, kids should be home playing video games, even if strictly speaking they won't exist for another 70 years. That hasn't stopped the ticker from referencing cell phones for whatever reason.



I think someone mentioned this one earlier. I haven't enacted it yet because it's more expensive than the other two and I'd probably zone things the wrong size out of habit. Maybe when I start making higher-density zones.



Looking at this plateau is giving me ideas.



Lofty ideas oh goddammit.

Screw this, I'm getting a loan.



Unlike the confusing bonds system of its predecessor, SimCity 3000 loans are automatically paid back over the course of ten years at 20% interest, going into deficit if necessary. Loans come in increments of �5000, so each yearly payment is �600








Work continues on my estate.



The hill is too steep for a road, unfortunately, so I'll need to mess around with the terrain tool.



This is as far as I get before the loan runs out. Man, this was such a stupid idea.

1906



Utilizing "radiation", I'm able to get power up the steep slope to my house. Water is coming in under the road. Now we can finally move on to more productive endeavours.



This is a good idea in principle, but there are two problems:

1) The city will be constantly expanding in the future, and it's hard to say whether the income will make up for the extra power plant construction we'll need.

2) Sometimes the game bugs out and "forgets" about the connection, resulting in a hefty cancellation fee.



This, however, is a much more sensible option, though I'm going to go with a road connection over an expensive seaport for the time being.



Seems we have some disagreement among the advisors. But seriously, we have plenty of trash capacity and it's easy to zone more.

Of course, anything that would make Coffers Corner a cleaner place to live is simply out of the question, so I'll connect to our other neighbor instead.



But not this year, it seems. (It costs �2500)

1907



Trying to get back into a civic mindset, I made some more zones over here, as well as our first hospital. Also shown: more train stations than strictly necessary. I think I may have a problem.





Multiple problems.

1908





Instead of building a lengthy road back to the city, I'll just build a designated import landfill out here. Hopefully it works the way I think it does.



It works the way I think it does.



And so our ink is getting blacker by the day.

So, my trusted council members: now what? I don't know how to make decisions; I'm a mayor!

Yeah, I have a copy of the original game but can't find that paper. I looked for it online a few years ago and even contacted Maxis but couldn't find it (Maxis wrote me back and claimed they no longer had a copy either which seems bizarre).

Great work on the LP, Spitesville is coming along nicely. You may, however, want to consider aerial shots of the map once in a while. Maybe you could do time-lapses! It would really help us with figuring out what to do and how to help build up the city.

As for my suggestions? Raise taxes and enact Parking Fines/Gambling. Money is always good.

Personally, I like the idea of a city where there are trains everywhere.

Seconding the request for some pulled-back shots of the city; I didn't get a good feel for where some of the newly-developed areas were in the latest update. Other than that, though, looking good!

More industrial, this time along the border (at least, if it's as close to the city as I think it is).

I *think* that's most common with water - you're generally safe with power, since I think you get hit with brownouts instead.

But, yes, there's no point to signing one of those yet. Start saving $1000 per year for your second power plant, though, as you'll likely hit the need for that pretty quickly.

Which reminds me: show off some of the graphs! Some of them are actually useful this time around (esp. the garbage one once you get the recycling plant).

Can we still set up the seaport like was suggested by the adviser?