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SimCity 3000
SimCity3000Box
Developer(s) Maxis
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Release date(s) January 31, 1999
Genre(s) City-building simulation
Platform(s) PC, Mac OS, Linux
Media CD, download
Input methods Mouse, keyboard
Ratings ESRB: E
Series SimCity

Sim City 3000 is a simulation and city-building personal computer game, released on January 31, 1999, The game was developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts.

History[]

Example

Example of an Successful City in SimCity 3000

Originally, Maxis planned to make SimCity 3000 a full 3D game. Although employees thought the idea was impractical, the management pushed the idea. The game would have also allowed players to talk to their Sims, as seen in SimCity 64. After a year of development, the game was graphically on par with SimCopter and Streets of SimCity. The game was displayed at the 1997 E3; the experience is still considered an embarrassment and the game was expected to fail at the time.

Later, in 1997, EA acquired Maxis. Luc Barthelet was assigned as general producer to Maxis. He decided that 3D graphics weren't viable and brought Lucy Bradshaw to lead the project. The 3D graphics were scrapped in favor of sprite-based graphics. Instead of focusing on 3D, they expanded the core gameplay. This version of the game did better at the 1998 E3 and was well-received upon release.

Gameplay[]

Most of the gameplay from SimCity 2000 remained in SimCity 3000. The concept of waste management was added as well as the ability to choose from three zoning densities. Also, farms could appear in certain industrial zones.

The idea of dealing with neighboring cities was much expanded in SimCity 3000. Players could negotiate deals to buy or sell electricity, water, and waste management services. The game also introduced business deals. Players would have the option of allowing a certain type of building to be built in their city. If they allowed it to be built, the player receives a certain amount of money, but also has to deal with an undesirable effect.

Players also were given better help. Advisors in SimCity 3000 gave the player in depth advice rather than simply discouraging the player from cutting funding as they did in SimCity 2000. The player also had petitioners, usually citizens from their city, asking for certain ordinances to be enacted or taxes to be cut. The newspapers were replaced with a news ticker. If something was wrong with the player's cities, the news stories would reflect this. If everything was going well, the stories would be humorous nonsense. The ticker would sometimes have a warning of a disaster to come.

Another new feature was landmarks. Landmarks were there mostly for aesthetic purposes, though building one would open the tourism advertising city ordinance. Landmarks were free to build, but limited to ten per city (though there is a cheat that can remove this limit).

Graphically, SimCity 3000 improved upon its predecessor. Buildings were grouped together more rigorously by economic class, creating distinct neighborhoods. The ground had grass and varied in color with elevation. The land had five levels of steepness instead of one. Instead of only pine trees, SimCity 3000 added several types of trees, with oaks being prevalent. On the other hand, SimCity 3000 got rid of the waterfalls introduced in SimCity 2000.

Disasters[]

Most of the disasters from the previous games were removed. Along with the ability to dispatch police and firefighters, the ability to activate a warning siren to help your sims get to safety was added.

Unlimited-exclusive disasters[]

These four Disasters only appear in the Unlimited Version.


Scenarios[]

SimCity 3000 came with no scenarios. Scenarios were added in SimCity 3000 Unlimited along with the ability to create your own with the Scenario Creator tool.

Versions[]

SimCity 3000[]

  • PC - Released in 1999
  • Macintosh - Released in 2000

SimCity 3000 Unlimited[]

Main article: SimCity 3000 Unlimited

SimCity 3000 was released for the PC, Unix (FreeBSD) and Linux (by Loki) in 2000, also going under the name SimCity 3000 World Edition. The game included new landmarks, disasters, maps, music, terrain, scenarios, and building sets for Europe and Asia. Also new was Building Architect Tool, a scenario generator, and a landscape generator.

SimCity DS[]

SimCity DS was released for Nintendo DS in 2007. It is an enhanced re-release of SimCity 3000. Although almost entirely the same as SimCity 3000 (Besides the touch screen controls and removal of some buildings, such as the World Trade Center), it was renamed to SimCity DS for unknown reasons.

SimCity Creator[]

SimCity Creator is another port of SimCity 3000, however this time it added features from later games such as day and night cycles, season cycles and some more tiny features. It released in 2008. Another exclusive feature is the ability to share cities through Wiiconnect24 on the Wii, although this feature was shut down on June 28th, 2013 due to Nintendo terminating all online services for the Wii. [1]

Legacy[]

SimCity 4 is the sequel to SimCity 3000. Much of the new features and improved features from 3000 was later brought over to simcity 4 and improved upon. SimCity DS and Simcity Creator are both Enhanced ports of 3000, with minor changes. 

References[]

External links[]

SimCity series
Main series SimCity (Classic) · SimCity 2000 · SimCity 3000 (Unlimited) · SimCity 4 (Rush Hour · Deluxe Edition · The SimCity Box) · SimCity (2013) (Cities of Tomorrow · Plus Edition · Complete Edition)
Console games SimCity (SNES) · SimCity 2000 · SimCity 64 · SimCity DS · SimCity Creator (DS)
Spin-offs SimFarm · SimCopter · Streets of SimCity · SimTown · SimCity Societies (Destinations · Deluxe Edition · The SimCity Box) · The Sims Carnival: SnapCity · SimCity (iOS) (Deluxe) · SimCity Social · SimCity BuildIt
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