Sim City 2000

Sim City 2000

Developed by: Maxis

Released: 1993

Platform: PC

 

This simulation game places city planning into the hands of the player. Create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure and collect taxes for further development.

Few games can claim to have influenced the industry quite as much as the Sim City franchise has. The original city simulator, Sim City proposed a completely new concept for its players – a game that doesn’t necessarily end.

Ahead of it’s time

 

Maintaining rather than completing a city was key in Sim City 2000, and initially, game investors couldn’t understand the point of an ‘unwinnable’ game. Players proved the investors wrong in the end, with an estimated 4.23 million copies of Sim City 2000 being sold worldwide. 

In interviews included in the game’s Special Edition from 1993, co-creator Will Wright dreams of a future where players will connect their videogames to each other, creating new worlds for communal play – correctly predicting the future rise of cloudgaming nearly ten years later.

Interesting Facts

 

• The game was designed by Will Wright and Fred Haslam for Maxis who developed the game. This was Will Wright’s last Sim City game. He would go on to design SimCopter in 1996 before designing the highly successful The Sims (2000).
• Maxis has given us 20+ simulation games, many of them now classics of gaming history. Alongside the aforementioned games these include: SimGolf, SimFarm, SimHealth, SimTunes and the obscure SimAnt!
• Some of the neighbouring towns in the game are named after characters from British Sci-Fi TV shows, most commonly Red Dwarf and Blake’s 7.