zwolanerd

 

First thing, get off my lawn because I am about to sit in my rocking chair and tell you stories. When I was about 11ish (I say 9 in the video, but that would have required time travel now I’ve looked up the release date), Dad brought home a lovely 1989 sort of a lap top for work which happened to have Sim City on it. We hooked it up to the colour monitor because lap top screens in those days were two shades of pink, and my brother and I spent the weekend building and destroying cities.

Over the years I have played very many Sim games from Sim City (all of them, newest one is disappointing), SimAnt, SimEarth, SimPark, SimTown, My Sims,  SimFarm, SimTower, Streets of Sim City, SimCopter… if it said “Maxis” and “Sim” on it, I’d buy it. All the “The Sims” games up to 3 (my computer will explode in a hail of plastic shards if I try to run 4 so that will have to wait). My first MMO? The Sims Online. Oh yes.

Compared to later Sim City versions, this one is very simple. You plonk zone blocks about the place, drop in some power lines and call it good. There’s a bit of money management and some pollution issues to think about but over all, it’s a very basic game. Water, schools, fire and police zones, hospitals and so on don’t come into it, although hospitals will pop up in residential zones. Personally, while I enjoy the newer Sim City games, I think they’re getting too far away from this basis. Adding in an extra 9,000 things to consider and think about makes the game more of a chore. A good balance was struck with Sim City 3000 I think, after that it got a bit meh.

I’m going to be honest, I had a total blast playing Sim City again. I also need a new headset apparently, I’ll get around to that. If you feel nostalgic, you can play it online at the Internet Archive.

Tags: LynPlays

Written by: Lyn