
One of the various cover arts for SimCity features a jukebox-like design.
Developer(s) | |
---|---|
Publisher(s) | |
Designer(s) | Will Wright |
Series | SimCity |
Platform(s) | Acorn Archimedes, Acorn Electron, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Browser, C64, CDTV, DESQview, DOS, EPOC32, FM Towns, GBA, iOS, Linux, Mac OS, Mobile phone, NeWS, OLPC XO-1, OS/2, PC-98, SNES, Tk, Unix, Windows, X11 TCL, X68000, ZX Spectrum |
Release | February 1989[1] |
Genre(s) | City-building game |
Mode(s) |
Single-player multiplayer |
SimCity, later renamed SimCity Classic, is a city-building simulation video game, released on February 2, 1989, and designed by Will Wright for the Macintosh computer. SimCity was Maxis's second product, which has been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned a series, consisting of several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1993, SimCity 3000 in 1999, SimCity 4 in 2003, SimCity DS, SimCity Societies in 2007, and SimCity in 2013.
Until the release of The Sims in 2000, the SimCity series was the best-selling line of PC games made by Maxis.Gameplay
SimCity on a monochrome Mac.
The game was ordinarily played in colour with a similar interface.
ScenariosSimCity includes goal-centered, timed scenarios that could be won or lost depending on the performance of the player. The scenarios were an addition suggested by Brøderbund in order to make SimCity more like a game. The original cities were based on real world cities and attempted to re-create their general layout. While most scenarios either take place in a fictional timeline or have a city under siege by a fictional disaster, a handful of available scenarios are based on actual historical events.DevelopmentA large developed city in Micropolis version (2007) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SimCity was developed by game designer Will Wright. While working on the game Raid on Bungeling Bay, in which the player flies a helicopter dropping bombs on islands, Wright found he enjoyed designing the islands in the level editor more than playing the actual game. This led him to develop increasingly sophisticated level editors. At the same time, Wright was cultivating a love of the intricacies and theories of urban planning and acknowledges the influence of System Dynamics which was developed by Jay Wright Forrester and whose book on the subject laid the foundations for what would become SimCity. In addition, Wright also was inspired by reading "The Seventh Sally", a short story from The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem, in which an engineer encounters a deposed tyrant, and creates a miniature city with artificial citizens for the tyrant to oppress. The game reflected Wright's approval of mass transit and disapproval of nuclear power; Maxis president Jeff Braun stated "We're pushing political agendas". The first version of the game was developed for the Commodore 64 in 1985; it was not published for another four years. The original working title of SimCity was Micropolis. The game was unusual in that it could neither be won nor lost; as a result, game publishers did not believe it was possible to market and sell such a game successfully. Brøderbund declined to publish the title when Wright proposed it, and he pitched it to a range of major game publishers without success. Finally, Braun, founder of the tiny software company Maxis, agreed to publish SimCity as one of two initial games for the company. Wright and Braun returned to Brøderbund to formally clear the rights to the game in 1988, when SimCity was near completion. After Brøderbund executives Gary Carlston and Don Daglow saw SimCity, they signed Maxis to a distribution deal for both of its initial games. With that, four years after initial development, SimCity was released for the Amiga and Macintosh platforms, followed by the IBM PC and Commodore 64 later in 1989. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ports and versions
Multiplayer mode on the SGI Indigo workstation
SimCity was originally released for home computers, including the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS-based IBM PC. After its success it was converted for several other computer platforms and video game consoles, specifically the Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which was later released on Virtual Console), EPOC32, mobile phone, Internet, Windows, FM-Towns, OLPC XO-1 and NeWS HyperLook on Sun Unix. The game is available as a multiplayer version for X11 TCL/Tk on various Unix, Linux, DESQview and OS/2 operating systems. Certain versions have been re-released with various add-ons, including extra scenarios. An additional extra add on for the Windows version of SimCity Classic was a level editor. This editor could be opened without use of the disc. The level editor is a simple tool that allows the user to create grasslands, dirt land, and water portions. A version was developed in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and another Japanese version was initiated in 1992 for the MSX computers, but these two were never released. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The IBM version of SimCity is notable for the unusually large
amount of graphics modes it supports; the game runs in CGA 640x200 mode,
EGA 640x200 mode (for users with 200-line monitors), Tandy 640x200
mode, Hercules, EGA 640x350 mode (for users with 350-line monitors) and
VGA 640x480 monochrome. A later release dropped all of the 200-line
modes and added 640x480 color mode. Unlike most commercial PC games at
the time, 320x200 resolutions were not used because they were inadequate
for the amount of graphics detail the game needed. A port of SimCity was released for Windows 3.0 in 1992. It runs in the Windows GDI and does not support 256-color graphics or sound.
In 2007 Don Hopkins released a free and open source version of SimCity, renamed Micropolis (the original working title) for trademark reasons, for the One Laptop per Child XO-1.[17][18] In 2008, Maxis established an online browser-based version of SimCity. A second browser-based version was later released under the name Micropolis. In 2013, a browser-based version was released, ported using JavaScript and HTML5, as micropolisJS. Super NESSimCity for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System features the same gameplay and scenario features; however, since it was developed and published by Nintendo, the company incorporated their own ideas. Instead of the Godzilla monster disaster, Bowser of the Super Mario series becomes the attacking monster, and once the city reaches a landmark 500,000 populace, the player receives a Mario statue that is placeable in the city. The Super NES port also features special buildings the player may receive as rewards, such as casinos, large parks, amusement parks, and expo centers; some of which would be incorporated into SimCity 2000. A bank can be built which will allow a loan of $10,000 to be taken, but it must be paid back before another loan can be taken out. The game includes schools and hospitals, though they cannot be placed by the player; instead, the game will sometimes turn an empty residential lot into one. There are city classifications, such as becoming a metropolis at 100,000 people. It has some of the same pre-set scenarios in the PC and Mac versions and two new ones. One is in Las Vegas under attack by aliens and another called Freeland. Freeland has no water and no rewards buildings are given. Also unique to the Super NES version is a character named "Dr. Wright" (whose physical appearance is based on Will Wright) who acts as an adviser to the player. The soundtrack was composed by Soyo Oka. The edition is featured as Nintendo's Player's Choice as a million seller.In August 1996 a version of the game entitled BS Sim City Machizukuri Taikai was broadcast to Japanese players via the Super Famicom's Satellaview subsystem. Later, a sequel titled SimCity 64 was released for Nintendo 64DD, the Japan-only Nintendo 64 add-on MicropolisIn January 2008, the SimCity source code was released under the free software GPL 3 license. The release of the source code was related to the donation of SimCity software to the One Laptop Per Child program, as one of the principles of the OLPC laptop is the use of free and open source software. The open source version is called Micropolis, developed by Don Hopkins. The Micropolis source code has been translated to C++, integrated with Python and interfaced with both GTK+ and OpenLaszlo. Since Micropolis is licensed under the GPL, users can do anything they want with it that conforms with the GPL – the only restriction is that they cannot call it "SimCity" (along with a few other limitations to protect EA's trademarks). This allows other, differently named projects to be forked from the Micropolis source code. Improvements to the open source code base that merits EA's approval may be incorporated into the official "OLPC SimCity" source code, to be distributed with the OLPC under the trademarked name OLPC SimCity, but only after it has been reviewed and approved by EA.Comparison of different versions
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