SimCity | Cheerful Ghost

LGR Reviews SimCity on DOS

If you didn't know you needed an LGR styled SimCity retrospective in your life, here's your moment to fill the void. Clint's YouTube reviews on esoteric PC hardware and old games are some of my most favorite and this one is one of his best. If you were wondering what influences SimCity as well as some information on its various ports, this is for you. Personally, I owned the DOS version as well as my favorite port of it on Super Nintendo.

NintendoAge Community Finds Extremely Rare Copy of Prototype SimCity on NES

"We still can't believe it's happened, but SimCity for the NES has been unearthed! Back from the depths of a closet, two protoype carts have appeared like Bowser on the loose in Tokyo, stomping, smashing, and ripping up all guesses on what their value may be!

Yesterday, a longtime NA member BIGDADDYRAMIREZ posted the above two minute video showcasing the first footage seen of this unreleased NES game since it appeared on Johnny Arcade in 1991. Where exactly did they come from? Well, turns out BIGDADDYRAMIREZ is the owner of Back in Time, a chain of game stores in the Seattle area, and like unicorns are want to do, they both walked in the other day. We just got off the... Read All

PortsCenter: How SimCity SNES Created Mario Kart 8

PortsCenter with Ben Paddon is quickly becoming on of my favorite new YouTube shows about gaming. PortsCenter is essentially a review show but focuses on a particular game port and all the ports and history surrounding it. Sometimes the port is bad and sometimes it's good and in the case of the Super Nintendo SimCity port it's transcendent. In this episode Ben talks about that and how the SNES SimCity port was created by Nintendo under license from Maxis, something I didn't know before. I agree with Ben here as SimCity on Super Nintendo is the only version of classic SimCity I return to. I've never personally built a Megaopolis city as that's quite hard to do but i've... Read All

The Mayor of SimCity Is a Crazy Lunatic

"That's a nice town we have here, be a shame if a tornado or earthquake were to destroy it."

Kind of puts the power you have playing SimCity into the spotlight.... The... unlimted.... power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1TTN-Ev2KI

SimCity launch (Or how EA murdered a great game)

UPDATE: So with all the outcry for offline mode EA/Maxis held firm that the game could not be played offline. I voiced my suspsions to my friend when we were playing and the servers went down and I wasn't booted. Anyone who has played server dependent games (ie: LoL, D3, PoE, any MMORPG ala WoW/GW2) is well aware that when their servers go down, you get the boot. But as I stated below, I played for an hour before getting booted. This showed me that the majority of the game was running on my PC and not on their server. Well Rock, Paper, Shotgun has released an interview with an EA dev who remained anonymous that CONFIRMS always on DRM is NOT a necessity for this game... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 03/07/2013 at 06:22pm

I was hoping someone with first-hand experience would post something about this. From everything I can tell, this is one of the worst-handled launches yet. At least with Diablo 3, when you were unable to play, it didn't look like you were playing.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/07/2013 at 06:31pm

I actually forgot about getting to the end of the insanely long login queue only to have it instantly reset...

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/07/2013 at 06:40pm

Yeah. The feeling of hope they give you and then tear away made it so much worse. However, I will say when the game would connect and the servers would load all the info, it is a really great game. There are small complaints, but not enough to tarnish the game for me so far. Maxis made something amazing. EA locked it in their basement and beat it bloody with a server rack.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/07/2013 at 06:41pm

Holy crap, that's a really bad experience. It really shouldn't be acceptable when you've bought a game for it to work that poorly.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/07/2013 at 06:45pm

I think what bothers me the most is that everyone, literally EVERYONE, forecasted this happening. EA did it anyway. The tragedy is that it's a great game... when you can play it. I'm sure it will be fine some time down the road, but people (not me mind you... I kind of got it for free) paid good money for a broken product.

Tungsten wrote on 03/08/2013 at 12:52am

How is this compared with the Diablo Launch? Is this something that will get ironed out as online only games become more common, or are these 1st day hiccups here to stay?

Travis Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 02:10am

It seems worse (to me, as an outsider who missed both launches) that it's worse this time because you get your hopes up that you're going to play.

And you'd think people would learn from previous launch kerfuffles and go bigger at launch, but...

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 02:29am

@SignalWarden: Sorry about not being able to build up Signaltonville when then game launched. Id be upset if that happened to me.

@Tungsten: I think we are entering "the new normal" for the whole always online game thing. Some games make 100% sense to always require a connection, like WoW but I think for these single player games, this is the "new normal" when they require you to always be online.

I am not saying I really want this to be the case, in fact I don't, but if a company is going to toss a server in front of ostensibly a single player game and force you to do that and then the game then this is going to happen. We all remember the Diablo III launch. They sorted that all out later and its fine now but what the fuck, that's not cool. Frankly I am a little nervous about the Heart of the Swarm launch now, but I remember that with Starcraft 2, it went smooth as silk.

I am seriously glad Indie games are taking a swing at the games industry because at least someone is making stuff that doesn't dump all over your Christmas in this way. Adding in some awesome sharing and ability to build cities close to your friends is awesome, but you can handle that gracefully while respecting people that doesn't step on your users launch expectations.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/08/2013 at 05:44am

Tungsten: Unfortunately this will be the norm. That doesn't even bother me that much though. As a PC gamer I'm always connected anyway (work out of the house). What bothers me is that companies the size of Blizzard and EA can't handle predictable server loads. This will get ironed out eventually, but for a $60 game (or $80 if you got the golden toilet paper edition) it should be ready out of the box. You don't stave off people's apprehension by showing them EXACTLY what they were afraid of on day one. I will say that as of this afternoon I was able to log in and had a blast with it for a few hours. Signaltonville is booming, Wardensburg is a killer mining/drilling town making a huge profit (at the cost of poisoning the entire region) and I made two more starter towns on a different region; one is a beachfront tourist trap and one is a university town. The university town is doing the best of all of them. This game is really deep and I'm looking forward to doing a thorough review of it. It won't be a video review but the game is amazing, so once I have 20 or so hours under my belt I'll sit down and write something up. So yeah, it's all day one stuff. As for it being worse than Diablo, yes and no. The server issues were definitely harsher as you couldn't just try to get in and get told you couldn't. You had to waste your time in a queue or finding work arounds only to get locked out anyway, so in that regard it was much worse. On the other hand there's nothing as toxic or disgusting as the real money auction house, so I feel comfortable knowing there is a good game on the other side of the problems, which was not the case with D3.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/08/2013 at 05:44am

J-Dod (I won't let it die): There is the argument being made that SimCity is very multiplayer focused. Here's the rub though. I have made four towns now. Two on a multiplayer map with other players and two on a private map with just me. Honestly, the difference isn't striking. This may change once I get to building the region wide attraction (monoliths, space shuttles, international airports, massive powerplants, etc are all in a single area outside of the town borders and share resources and revenue with everyone in the region) but as it stands the multiplayer interaction is so limited I can easily juggle things myself by switching cities and sending, selling or buying between my own cities with minimal hassle. Which makes me wonder, how much better could the game have been if I just had a single massive city, ala SimCity 4, instead of having to bounce between several tiny plots of land? If I were to hazard a guess I'd say much, much better.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 05:44am

Awesome Francis video about SimCities launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9VClRhU404&sns=em funny

Travis Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 03:22pm

So when I eventually get this (if I eventually get this) I just want to make a city in multiplayer that ends up struggling hard, so people have to turn to crime, then infest other people's cities with criminals. Better yet, entirely remove essential things after it's thriving so that other people in multiplayer have to take in refugees.

Apparently I want to play it like an RTS.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 04:54pm

@SignalWarden: That makes sense, it seems like in actuality the multiplayer aspect isn't as important as they make it out to be, which makes sense. I think if they created the game to operate in the way that doesn't need always online like it was seemingly designed then that would be good. Either way, some companies will throw the always online thing in the mix where it need not belong.

Oh and why are you not going to do a video of Simcity 5? Seems up your alley. Just curious.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/08/2013 at 07:59pm

One way to get EA to fix the servers would be to hang money in front of them. Considering that is the only thing they care about.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 08:51pm

I have heard there have been many refunds issued for this game.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/08/2013 at 09:09pm

Maybe EA will think twice before screwing people next time. God they make me mad. They ruin all my favorite games.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 09:34pm

jon-- the Origin purchasers are screwed. They've said they aren't bending on their ToS.

Also, they have suspended all advertising and asked all their affiliates to stop promoting the game.

This one just keeps getting better.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/08/2013 at 10:55pm

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-41018ted-Edition2-SimCity/dp/B007VTVRFA/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1362783250&sr=1-1&keywords=sim+city

The downloadable version and the shipped version both have one star on Amazon lol. Some really terrible reviews too ;)

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/08/2013 at 10:56pm

But there is this 5 star review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2MC4X10C5KZFO/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2MC4X10C5KZFO

"You'd think I'd be mega unhappy like everyone else at the constant waiting and lack of actually being able to play a game I purchased.

Well, you'd be wrong.

The hours upon hours since launch that I haven't been able to log in, whether it be sitting in queues, or server busy messages, or just plain old not working screens, I've managed to do a heap of things that I never do when I'm locked in my man cave playing video games.

I've washed the dishes, the laundry, changed the oil in the car, mopped the floors, dusted, did a spot of gardening, greeted my children who I hadn't really seen since Christmas, walked the dog, asked how my wife's day has been and listened to the entire response, restocked the groceries and many more things! My family has never been happier that they've got a father and husband again.

In fact, I feel like Simcity has given me a new lease on life. This wouldn't have been possible without the seemingly crazy decision to have constant online connections and server side save points even for single player.

So I can only thank EA and Maxis. Your failures have been my rewards. 5 stars!"

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 11:22pm

Hahahah, yeah thats awesome. I love satire!

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/08/2013 at 11:22pm

@Travis: Yeah, those are the ropes for that kind of store. Kind of solidifying my stance against not doing anything with Origin. I just don't need Call of Duty that badly.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/08/2013 at 11:39pm

Maybe buying simcity causes a magical increase in social life. MAYBE, this was EA`s plan the entire time. Instead of creating a fictional city, by not being able to play the game, we will all do better in our actual society, causing our cities to grow. :P

Tungsten wrote on 03/09/2013 at 02:19am

Amazon has pulled it from their "shelves". Talk about hanging money in front of EA's face; if they don't get this fixed, they stand to lose quite a bit.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/09/2013 at 02:45am

In the long run, I doubt they'll lose much. Anyone that has the game now, or wants it, will get back on it as soon as it's available and fixed. Maybe in the past, or even in a different market, a poor release would kill a product, but games seem to weather this storm better than most. Some refunds will go out, and people will call for EA's balls on a platter (as they should), but I think in a few weeks it will all be a distant memory. I mean, if Sony can survive a massive security breech and still keep it's user base, a bad launch won't kill SimCity. Sounds like from Signal's review of what he got to play, the game is actually worth it.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/09/2013 at 03:58am

I've been experimenting quite a bit with the game and discovered that not only was there the server issue (which is fairly stableish now), but this thing is laden with bugs. Major bugs that can ruin the game. As an example, say I have two cities: Aville and Btown. I set up Aville so that them make a product to sell to Btown and set up Btown so they make power to sell to Aville. Sounds sweet right? Problem is the game randomly glitches and decides to ignore the region from certain cities, so Aville can make bank selling to Btown, but Btown doesn't register that anything is happening and ends up in the hole with the only recourse being scrap the town and start over. This becomes an even bigger issue when you realize that they designed the game with very small working areas to force your hand, and as a result you HAVE to rely on the other cities for certain resources. The alternative is you can sell products to the global market (NPC market). So to put it briefly, they forced always on DRM and very small areas on you so you can play multiplayer, but the multiplayer is broken so you end up playing single player anyway... on a tiny map with 2/3 the options of previous games. If they get around to fixing the intercity transfers it will probably be a solid game but for right now, I recommend you stay away.

J-Dod: As for not doing a video review, I have a policy of only reviewing indie (and occasionally smaller AAA) titles. Large game companies don't need any free advertising and I don't want to do it just to get my subs up. I'll leave that for Pewdiepie. That and cancer. He can have cancer too.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/09/2013 at 08:47pm

That's a cool policy actually. I mean, "the bigs" get enough attention anyway. Certainly EA needs to help pushing its wares.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/09/2013 at 10:19pm

Well, that sucks :( Sorry to hear that it's that bug laden.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/10/2013 at 05:19am

I'm happy to report that as of right now the intercity bugs are 90% fixed. I am able to trade resources again and it definitely opens up the gameplay in a whole new way. I don't know if I would say this is the be all end all sim game, but it doesn't feel broken anymore at the very least.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/10/2013 at 07:06pm

So there is a sale on Tropico 4, anyone know if that is good?

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/10/2013 at 08:35pm

Tropico 4 is pretty awesome. The tropico franchise has been pretty consistently great. Tropico 4 has some great DLC too. If you like city builders with mission objectives, this is without question your game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/11/2013 at 12:09am

Awesome. So if I wanted to just build and do some missions that would be a good one to get?

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/11/2013 at 05:33am

Yeah. You'll have a ton of fun with that one. Plus you get to be a dictator. Who doesn't love that?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/11/2013 at 04:27pm

I downloaded a demo of Tropico 4 on my Xbox a while ago and really enjoyed it. Never ended up buying it, but I would recommend it.

SignalWarden Post Author wrote on 03/13/2013 at 04:02am

UPDATE in main article. EA/Maxis got caught out in a boldfaced lie. Bastards.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/13/2013 at 04:24am

Wow. Well, there we are. More proof of what kind of company EA is.

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Maxis let loose an awesome 10 minute overview of how to play

Maxis let loose an awesome 10 minute overview of how to play the upcoming Simcity slated for release in 2013. I wasn't too interested in this new version of Simcity after playing Simcity 4 and being thoroughly disappointed with it. I am likewise not excited about having to play it through EA's origin service. VIVA LA STEAM MIS AMIGOS!

That all said... The video is really well done and I want to play the game in that video. One reason Simcity 4 was such a disappointment was because it was so bloody complicated. I never felt the original SimCity, SNES SimCity, SimCity 2k or 3k were that hard to understand. All of those versions were tons of fun, the best of the lot I... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/05/2012 at 11:02pm

That looks really, really cool. I love how the water/sewer/electricity is tied to the streets, so you don't have to worry about complicated pipes (especially since that's what I do for a living lol).

It really looks like it can be whatever a player wants it to be. Simple to complicated, and I like that. I might have to get this one.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/06/2012 at 03:21pm

I know, I am going back and forth on if I should get it... Hmmm.

BR Supporter wrote on 10/07/2012 at 04:18pm

Wow, I'm really excited for this. It looks really well made. I like how the roads can be curvy and the water and electricity runs on the roads. I feel like they really incorporated the roads into this one. Also, I like how easy they made it to zone different areas although I wonder if you can make smaller zones or if they are always as large as they were shown in the video.

I love the sim city games. I played the 2nd and 4th ones and loved both of them.

Ben_Dodson wrote on 10/07/2012 at 06:51pm

I have always been a Sim City fan. I remember the first time I played back in High School on a Mac. Sim City 2000 and the cheat "porntipsguzardo" why I remember that I have no idea. I defiantly will be picking this one up.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/07/2012 at 08:48pm

Porntips... That takes the cake for one memorable cheat :D

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