The Spirit of 2005: SimCity and Simtropolis

The full span of SimCity lasts several years (not just 2005), but I will begin with it. The genesis of my SimCity love began with when my older brother got SimCity 2000 in 1995, nearly ten years prior to 2005. It was quickly installed on the new Performa 550 and he played it extensively, making all sorts of cool cities. Eventually, the Performa would see the expansion pack, SimCity 2000 Scenarios Volume 1: Great Disasters and the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, a separate application used to create different “tile sets” that would change appearances of buildings. Eventually, SimCity 2000 was moved onto the PowerWave tower and got a noticeable speed boost, and it continued on. Unfortunately, two DOS/Windows-only games that utilized SimCity 2000 cities, SimCopter and Streets of SimCity never came to Mac. By the actual year 2000, my brother had moved onto other things, and SimCity 2000 was relegated to the “occasional playing”, even by me. Sure, I tried to make a few cities, even ones that grew to a sizable size, but my brother was no longer playing.

One day in 2002, I found in in this very OfficeMax a promise of a new SimCity: SimCity 4. It was on the cover of Computer Gaming World, and I still regret I didn’t buy it. I was surprised that it wasn’t named “SimCity 4000”, but just the simple 4 was much better. However, I did not actually play 4. Despite looking at screenshots of the promised game that summer, it would likely not run on the iMac G3 we had. Very likely it would require a G4, something we did not own. In 2003, I settled for a copy of SimCity 3000 for Mac. It did not a massive leap like 2000 had from Classic (originally, it WAS to be full 3D, but it was axed) and it was very slow. It did have admittedly much nicer-looking graphics than SC2K and upbeat jazz instead of the 8-bit tunes of SimCity 2000 (I eventually realized that the Mac version of SC2K had far better tunes than the DOS counterpart...) but after a while, I got tired of the new features.

I was fascinated with 4, though. I played some of it at a friend’s house for starters. In fall 2003, the game was released for Mac by Aspyr Media, and Rush Hour was released for PCs. SimCity 4: Rush Hour was an expansion pack with drivable cars, signage, airports for fire-fighting planes, four-lane roads, monorails, ferries, and parking garages. I eagerly went to various “Sim” sites, starting with the now-defunct SimStuff, then SimGlobal, SimCity Central, and finally a large site that occasionally struggled with funds: a site called Simtropolis.

That summer (2004), I finally got a copy of SimCity 4 for Mac. There was no Rush Hour Mac yet, but I had high hopes. After all, by the time Mac users got Rush Hour, there would probably be news, if not release, of a new expansion pack. The Sims had gotten seven expansion packs, each with different themes. The Sims: Livin’ Large hadn’t added new aspects of gameplay, but subsequent expansions added vacations, pets, and even magic. I wondered how it would translate into SimCity.

Unfortunately, SimCity 4 was kind of slow (even for a screaming fast G5) but that didn’t deter me. Armed with a thick Prima guidebook I got in the GameStop of the Vista Ridge Mall (and for only $10, too...a bargain!). Soon, the BAT came out, and my favorite site at the time, SimCity Central started creating buildings for it. I dreamed up many buildings that I could build, but obviously none ever came to fruition. It wasn’t helped that once again, the BAT (Building Architect Tool) was PC user-only.

Rush Hour was released that fall for Mac. Sadly, there was no new expansion packs released for SimCity. Unfortunately, my brother started using the G5 for work purposes, but in late 2005, I rediscovered it for the iMac G5. My first goal was to get cool buildings. The coolest by far was SimPEG’s “Hydroelectric Dam".

With my experience at Nintendo Database Forums, I decided to sign up for Simtropolis on September 11, 2005, just to get structures like that. That day, SimGoober released a real-world BAT: Ace Hardware. It was on the newly-posted part of Simtropolis many years ago. Regrettably, complications came up. The buildings were too long to be downloaded on a 56k modem with my time limit on the Internet, so I set up a way of my family downloading it on faster computers at their work sites. Furthermore, a few buildings were in .EXE format. My first question on the Simtropolis forums dealt with toggling the tile view, something swiftly answered.

The music of SimCity 4 was by far my favorite aspect, and I loved it. When I got from Galveston I wanted to recreate basically the entire stretch of Houston to Galveston. The strip malls that lit up at night. The theme park. The office buildings. The elevated stoplight. I wanted it all. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really possible at that time, especially with the fact I had a Mac, no skills to speak of, and not even Google Maps to help with BATting. It was also on that same post where I learned that in order to make a post on Simtropolis you had to possess some minimal HTML.

Ultimately, my relation with Simtropolis went through ups and downs, possibly stemming from the very unpleasant political section. The unbalanced political discussion was one of the major turn-offs of Simtropolis and I was grateful not to see that in SimCity 4 Devotion, which I joined in 2006. During fall 2006, I found New York CJ, a cool blog about NYC in SimCity 4. After realizing my computer was getting way too packed with mods and ultimately I quit playing. It was too slow, some of the mods weren’t showing up (especially some of the weird Japan ones), and the buildings weren’t lighting up at night, just in time to see everyone erupt with anger at the first screenshots of SimCity Societies. Those were dark days, but also a bit fun: it was great to see most of everyone sided together again on protesting this travesty to the SimCity name.

I restarted playing SimCity 4 in late 2008, but then the iMac G5 decided to have a “graphics breakdown” in early 2009. I kind of took the frustration out on SC4D and was punished severely (they haven’t forgiven me yet...) but I refused to let them me and founded Pseudo3D’s SimCity 4 as a “renegade” site similar to how SimPeg.com is separate. Didn’t work as well as I had expected.

Meanwhile, at Simtropolis, hate was brewing for Cities XL, formerly Cities Unlimited (announced around the same time of SCS). By this time, it looked like a joke that was not worth playing. That didn’t deter some people, and Simtropolis was part of a massive beta testing giveaway. Cities XL arrived buggy, missing most of the features promised, and all focused on a cheap MMO gimmick that didn’t work well as it should’ve. The developer closed nearly six months later.

With renewed faith in SimCity, I decided to try again BATting the following summer (I had intended to use SketchUp) but ultimately delayed it until college hit. That’s my Simtropolis and SimCity story in a nutshell, and I hope to make an actual BAT this year. Thanks for reading.

I intended for the release of this post (in Spirit of 2005) to come with an actual BAT, but I have not done so. However, now that I've finished with this, I intend on making a few new items to Pseudo3D's SimCity 4, including an actual BAT when I make one.