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SimCity History: SimCity Classic
work on SimCity. It was released in 1989, being the first computer game simulation to accurately model a city and its inner workings. Using the software, players could build their own utopias of bustling megalopolises or quaint little towns. The game provided intricate detail at the time: a realistic traffic model which featured roads and rail, a zoning system made up of residential, commercial, and industrial zones, and a complex simulator that made it all run together. Players could place airports, seaports, police stations, fire stations, parks, power plants, and stadiums to suit the needs of their citizens. Added scenarios challenged the user when merely building new cities became second nature. Building on the success of SimCity, Maxis followed up with subsequent add-on packages, including a terrain editor, additional scenarios, and graphical expansion packs.
SimCity is now part of Computer Gaming World's hall of fame as a pioneering achievement in the industry. In addit
ion, Interplay has since released a multimedia CD-ROM version of the program, with added video and voice that allowed players to see their city's disasters and watch news reports. SimCity Classic quick facts Objects: ~66 Transit options: 2 Zone types: 3
Sim City Classic Cheats
Instant building: Hold [Ctrl] and attempt to build over objects.
Hint: Keeping citizens happy: To keep the citizens happy with you as mayor, lower taxes to zero. Just before the end of the fiscal year (December 31), pause game play and raise taxes to the maximum. . Then lower them again in January. Taxes are not collected until the end of the year, so they do not have to be raised to the maximum until that time.
Sim City in the Sky - Sim Tower
SimTower were released back in 1994 and was an event that went by pretty much without notice. What’s special with this game is that despite its age it’s Windows compatible. This means that you can run it with Windows XP without any problems. In SimTower your task is to build and manage a big skyscraper and eve
ntually to reach a five star skyscraper. Of course this is by no means easy and you have to start from scratch with the first floor and then work your way up. 
In the beginning of the game you can place offices, condominiums and coffee shops on the floors. It is recommended to place the offices and coffee shops near the lobby since the generally like it better there. After a while you will gain stars as your population grows. New stars means more things that you can place on your floors, for example, restaurants, medical centers, shops, cinemas, recycling centers, parking lots (in the basement) and so on.
To connect your floors you generally use elevators, there are several types of elevators. Express elevators, ordinary elevators, service elevators and a couple of others. You can also use escalators and stairs to connect floors, for some odd and stupid reason there is a limitation on how many stairs and escalators you can build. This might be memory related or some sort of odd balancing within the game. I’m not a fan of limitations in game, however this is a small limitation.
After a while thousands of people use your elevators, and then you will probably have to come up with some sort of strategy on which floors the elevators should stop on so that they don’t get overcrowded. This will eventually lead to that people are more stressed and this will affect your rating.
Th
e rating and evaluation by the people living in your tower is something you constantly need to monitor, they change their minds quickly and when they do they move. Here is some lack of detail though, inhabitants complain about that conditions are terrible but they fail to inform you in what way. This leads to that you don’t really know what measures that have to be taken to improve their conditions. During the development of your tower you will get VIP guests to your hotel rooms. You also need security since you will receive threats from terrorists that have placed a bomb in your building. There is always something going on in the tower. However in the beginning of the game you just have to get yourself through a couple
of hell years before the real power of the game comes to you. SimTower is definitely a game you get stuck in, I love it despite the flaws within the game. Why do I like it then? The personal view of all your inhabitants living their lives, going to the office, going home, or security searching for a bomb. All these things enhance the gaming experience a lot.
Developer: Maxis Website for game: N/A Publisher: N/A O/S: Windows 3.1/95/98/ME/XP, Mac OS Cost of Full Game: About $15, Can be found on Amazon.com Used&New.
Requirements: 386, 33 mhz, 4 mb RAM, 2x CD-Rom
Tested on: Pentium III Mobile 850 mhz, 384 mb RAM, Windows XP
Synopsis: SimIsle presents the opportunity to become King of the rainforest. The player must consider the ecological effect as they develop each of the 20 islands. The islands are modeled after the SE Asia islands. Reasoning skills must be applied, as you are faced with a variety of problems including natural disasters, poache
rs, petrochemical companies, etc. This program seems to require a lot of trial and error exploration to control the agents that help you complete the missions.
Age-Appropriateness: Several of our teen reviewers had a difficult time figuring out how to get started playing this game.
Replay Value: On older systems (that still met the system requirements), this game seemed pretty boring. When we checked this program out with newer machines, it was considerably more interesting.
Another disappointment was the navigation techniques. Players complained that they would have preferred to be able to use the arrow keys and side scrolling for navigation instead of clicking on a ball on the screen that allows one square of movement at a time.
Educational Value: SimIsle is designed to encourage the user to consider the cause and effect of their choices.
Graphics: Three dimensional graphics allow you to zoom in close enough to see the buses full of tourists, the huts in the village, and oter items of interest. Actual photographs show real rainforest plants and animals and provide habitat information.
Short videos show the happenings on your island, such as the logging camps and lumber production in the saw mills.
Sound: Sound effects include singing birds, natives chanting, ocean sounds etc. Sounds can be turned off to allow better concentration.
Suggestions: Print out the the costs of building material from the Read-Me.
Conclusion: Reviewers initially found this program frustrating, the teenagers expected to find t
his game fun to play, but were frustrated that they needed to invest so much time learning how to play. After continuing to learn to use this program they found SimIsle to be more enjoyable.
System Requirements:
PC Win 95 486/33 MHz or higher (66 MHz recommended) 8 MB RAM 10 MB hard disk space 2x CD-ROM drive Microsoft Mouse or compatible SVGA card (640x480) 256 colors
Macintosh 68030 or higher System 7.0 or higher 8 MB RAM 3 MB hard disk space 2x CD-ROM drive Mouse 8 bit color monitor (640x480) 256 colors