SimCity 2000

SimCity 2000 (SC2K) is a computer game released by Maxis in 1993 for computers running the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

In 1995, SimCity 2000 won "Best Military or Strategy Computer Game" Origins Award.

Overview

The unexpected and enduring success of the original SimCity, combined with the relative lack of success with other Sim titles, finally motivated the development of a sequel. SC2K was a major extension of the concept; the view was now isometric instead of overhead, land could have different elevations, and underground layers were introduced for water pipes and subways. New types of facilities included hospitals, prisons, schools, libraries, museums, parks, marinas, zoos, stadiums and arcologies. You could build highways, roads, bus depots, and zone land for seaports and airports. Enacting city ordinances and connecting to neighbouring cities became possible. The budget and finance controls were also much more elaborate.

Sim City Urban Renewal Kit

With the release of SC2K came the introduction of a tool called the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (SCURK). This enabled players to modify the images used in-game to represent various buildings, in much the same manner as general image manipulation software. The player was able to create basic bitmap files of a standard size with a standard 256 color palette. A number of pre-altered graphics packages were distributed, including some which replaced the "reward" buildings with images of various well known international buildings, such as the Eiffel Tower, but most buildings were made by fan-artists and shared on the Internet. Several SCURK designs influenced the designs of SimCity 3000's original buildings.

Sim City 2000 Special Edition

A re-packaged version of SimCity 2000, SimCity 2000 Special Edition, was released in 1995 for Microsoft Windows and DOS PCs. In addition to containing SimCity 2000, it also featured the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, new cities selected by Maxis from a 1994 competition, additional scenarios, and movies. The movies, a first for Maxis, SC2K-SE was the first "Sim" game to feature "real" videos (compared to "animated bitmaps", such as the winning screen in SimAnt). These videos included the intro movie and four commentary videos by Will Wright; the latter were accessed via the "WillTV" application that came with the game.

Sim City 2000 Network Edition

A network version of the game, SimCity 2000: Network Edition was released in 1996 for both Macintosh and Windows.

The network edition had the ability to share in-game resources and to compete or cooperate with other cities. If the user is on an appropriate network (TCP or IPX), then SimCity 2000 Network Edition works in a similar way to SimCity 4, giving the ability to cooperate with other cities (for example, by trading electricity for money, and vice-versa).

This version also features a revamped user interface. Instead of a static toolbar, items are accessed via cascading menus from the right of the screen, resulting in more screen real-estate for SimCity itself, without sacrificing functionality.

Future releases based on SC2K

• SimCopter — A flight simulator based on the cities of SimCity 2000, SimCopter, was published in 1996. It had the capability of importing SC2K cities and allowing the user to pilot a helicopter around them and accomplish missions such as rescuing people or putting out a fire. The game is typically considered a success because of the opportunity to explore the user's cities.

• Streets of SimCity — Published in 1997, Streets of SimCity was a racing game based on the SimCopter engine. A seeming regression of graphics and control from SimCopter prevented this game from being a commercial success. However Streets of SimCity later inspired the feature "U-Drive-It" from the expansion pack.

• SimHealth Released in 1994, the game is relatively unknown. It featured a user interface that was based on a SimCity 2000 city.

See also

• List of Sim games