SimCity (also known as the retronyms Micropolis or SimCity Classic) is a city-building simulation video game developed by Will Wright, and released for several platforms from 1989 to 1991. SimCity features two-dimensional graphics and an overhead perspective. The game's objective is to create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure, and collect taxes for further city development. Importance is placed on increasing the population's standard of living, maintaining a balance between the different sectors, and monitoring the region's environmental situations to prevent the settlement from declining and going bankrupt.
SimCity was independently developed by Will Wright, beginning in 1985; the game was not released until 1989. Because the game lacked any arcade or action elements that dominated the video game market in the 1980s, video game publishers declined to release the title for fear of its commercial failure until Broderbund eventually agreed to distribute it. Although the game initially sold poorly, positive feedback from the gaming press boosted its sales. After becoming a best-seller, SimCity was released on several other platforms, most notably on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991. Its gameplay was significantly revised with Nintendo's involvement.
SimCity is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time, marking the beginning of the urban simulation genre. It was met with critical acclaim for its innovative and addictive gameplay despite the absence of traditional action elements, with reviewers describing it as instructive and beneficial to players’ understanding of urban planning, politics, and economics. SimCity sold 500,000 units on home computers and 1.98 million units on the SNES, and received numerous awards from news publishers and industry associations. The game’s success also established publisher Maxis’ tradition of producing non-linear simulation games, one of which—The Sims—would surpass all its predecessors in popularity and become one of the best-selling franchises in the video game industry.
Gameplay The core concept of SimCity is to build and design a city without specific goals to achieve. The player may divide land into commercial, industrial, or residential zones, add buildings, change the tax rate, build a power grid, build transportation systems and take any other actions to enhance the city. Once able to construct buildings in a particular area, the too-small-to-see residents, known as "Sims", may choose to construct and upgrade houses, apartment blocks, light, heavy industrial buildings, commercial buildings, hospitals, churches, and other structures. The Sims make these choices based on such factors as traffic levels, availability of electrical power, crime levels, and proximity to other types of buildings—for example, residential areas next to a power plant will seldom appreciate the highest grade of housing."SimCity Classic: History and Review" , Eric Albert, February 2001. Fetched from URL March 15, 2011. In the Super NES version and later, the player can also build rewards when they are given, such as the mayor's mansion or a casino.
The player may face disasters including floods, tornadoes, fires (often from air disasters or shipwrecks), earthquakes and monster attacks. In addition, monsters and tornadoes can trigger train crashes by running into passing trains.
Scenarios SimCity features goal-oriented, time-limited scenarios that are contingent on the player's performance and could result in either a win or a loss. The implementation of scenarios was suggested by Broderbund, as a means of transforming SimCity into a more traditional game format. This addition was intended to enhance the overall experience for players, by introducing clearly defined objectives and increasing the level of challenge in the game. In SimCity, the initial cities were modeled after real-world cities and endeavored to replicate their general layout. Although the majority of scenarios featured in the game exist within a fictional timeline or involve a city besieged by an imaginary catastrophe, a select few are based on genuine historical events.
Development
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 rather 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 or lost; as a result, game publishers did not believe it was possible to market and sell such a game successfully. Broderbund 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 Broderbund to formally clear the rights to the game in 1988, when SimCity was near completion. After Broderbund 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
After the original release on the Amiga and Macintosh, the game was released on the Commodore 64 and IBM PC compatibles, and afterward saw more releases for computers and video game consoles: Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 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.
Shortly after the game's initial release, Maxis released the SimCity Terrain Editor for the original versions of the game, which was sold as a mail-order add-on in North America but gained a standalone retail release in Europe. The Terrain Editor is a simple tool that allows the user to create maps with forest, land, and water portions. In 1990, Maxis developed two "Graphics Sets" packs for the MS-DOS and Amiga versions: "Ancient Cities" and "Future Cities". Each pack contained themed sets which changed the graphics and messages in the game to fit certain themes.
In 1991, an enhanced version of the game was released for Windows 3.0/3.1. It runs in the Windows GDI with new sounds and music, either PC-Speaker type or digital/MIDI type. In 1992, to coincide with other re-releases of their games, Maxis re-released the Windows version of SimCity as "SimCity Classic", which bundled the game with the MS-DOS version of the Terrain Editor. The Graphics Sets were also reissued to run on Windows 3.1 as well. SimCity Classic was re-released in 1993 as part of the SimClassics Volume 1 compilation alongside SimAnt and SimLife for PC, Mac and Amiga. In 1994, a DOS-compatible "SimCity: Enhanced CD-ROM" version was released by Interplay Productions, which included new 256-color graphics and sound, and FMV movies that would trigger events. Then in 1995, Maxis released a Windows 95 compatible version of the game titled "SimCity Deluxe". It also included new 256-color graphics and sound, and bundled the 6 Graphics Sets and an updated Terrain Editor together with the base game. The CD was a Win3.1 / Win95 hybrid, it also included the original 1991 Win3.1 port of the game as well.
Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) followed a mid-1989 call to Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun from Nintendo expressing interest in porting the game, as Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto was very interested in how the game allowed the player to create their own world. Braun flew to Nintendo of America's headquarters to meet with chairman Howard Lincoln and president Minoru Arakawa. They offered Braun to do all the porting to the Super NES, paying Maxis $1 for every copy sold, and offering Braun a $1 million check for accepting the deal on the spot, which Braun accepted. During this development time, Miyamoto would work alongside Wright to develop means to bring the game to the console.
SimCity for the Super NES 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 can be placed 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 of 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 is called Freeland. Freeland has no water, and no rewards for 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. Dr. Wright was inspired by Miyamoto, at time known to fans as "Dr. Miyamoto", and Nintendo had come to recognize the value of cartoonist mascots for games, leading to Dr. Wright's creation. 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 SimCity Machizukuri Taikai was broadcast to Japanese players via the Super Famicom's Satellaview subsystem. Later, a sequel titled SimCity 64 was released for the 64DD, the Japan-only Nintendo 64 add-on.
According to Chaim Gingold, a former Maxis employee, he believes that the time Wright spent with Miyamoto helped to influence the direction of SimCity 2000.
Cancelled NES version
A version for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was announced alongside the Super NES version and had been showcased at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, but the NES version was never properly released. However, prototype cartridges for the NES version were discovered in 2018, and one copy was obtained by video game preservationist Frank Cifaldi, who extensively documented its features compared to the original PC and Super NES versions. It featured a completely different soundtrack (also composed by Oka) from that of the Super NES version; besides Metropolis Theme, a composition that Oka herself considers one of her best works.