6 posts tagged “simcity”
Okay- these new screens from IGN looks much cooler than the shot I posted the other day- which I now think may be from the DS version of the game.
Besides curved roads... Night Time and Urban Sprawl FTW!
CURVED roads (finally) FTW!
Tonight I came across gameplay video on Youtube of Simcity
64 for Nintendo's N64 add-on... the 64DD.
The 64DD was only released through limited channels (you couldn't just
walk into a retailer and buy one off the shelf) in Japan towards the
end of 1999. Years in development- the add-on was considered in the
gaming community to be Nintendo's 'answer' to the now-standard optical
disc (CD or DVD) media used by consoles at the time- and today. The
system worked much like an IoMega ZIP Drive in that the games were
stored on high-capacity megnetic disks (64MB, conveniently enough)-
still several times smaller than a CD's capacity, but more than most
N64 cartridge titles at the time.
64DD was long believed to be vaporware- and it's release appeared
almost more like a PR ploy by the company, who took considerable heat
from developers and gamers alike for continuing to adopt the silicon
chip cartridge format (which, despite being considerably faster than
optical drives in the retrieval of data- held much less data, to the
tune of several times less, than a CD)- over the CD-ROM drives found in
the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn consoles. Nintendo also had a
history of vaporware consoles- notably the release of a CD-ROM add-on
for the Super NES- which likely influenced their decision to release
the 64DD to thwart the image of a company with yet another failed
add-on device.
All that aside, the system was actually released, and had a total of 9
titles published for the platform. One of them, was Simcity
64. After seeing the Youtube video, posted below, I was
pretty blown away. No, the graphics aren't amazing- especially by
today's standards, but this is Simcity at a higher eschelon than usual,
I believe. I've been a Simcity fan since the days of DOS- so I know
when I see something I like... and I really like the look of Simcity
64. It would have been interesting to play- for sure. I certainly am
more intreagued with this than I am the recent installations of the
series on Nintendo DS (I'm not holding out any hope for Simcity DS 2).
I certainly hope Nintendo opts to give the rest of the world a taste of
what could have been by releasing 64DD titles on the Wii Virtual
Console. We've already seen Sin and Punishment hit
North American shores for the first time ever on the VC- so why not the
64DD?
Ah- one can dream at least...
'Oranga' is doing *much* better than 'orange' city did. I fired that other 'advisor' (Options -> Delete All Data) and started fresh. Unfortunately I ended up with the same land area- but I took a very different approach to city development this time around. Now 6 'Simyears' in and I am *making* money at the end of every month and have yet to even consider a loan. By comparison, 'orange' was over $70k in debt- unable to get *another* loan in order to begin to rebuilt a power plant- both of which blew up within 'months' of each other- leaving the city essentially a ghost town.
I have uncovered other gripes I have with this installation of the SImcity series- notably the map selection. Unlike previous Simcity titles- which allowed you to select from a vast array of maps on which to build your city- Simcity DS gives you one 'large' map which is sectioned off into a 4x4 grid. You pick one of the grids- and that is your map. Kinda sucks. Worse yet- the difficulty, and thus, the amount of money with which you start off with to build your city, varies according to which grid tile you select. Naturally there is only one $100,000 tile- in probably one of the most uninteresting Simcity maps I have ever seen in over 15 years of playing this series. The fancy maps closer to the ocean typically go from about $5-10k in initial funds. And despite having played this game for a very long time, there is NO chance that I could survive starting with a mere $5000.
The city of 'orange City' is no more.
Tonight I was effectively checkmated (?) by circumstances beyond my control (somewhat) in Simcity DS. After just 5 Simyears (almost to the day)- or just 3 'Earth' days, my fair city of 'orange' lies in ruins, a victim of it's own success in many ways. In the first few years, people flocked to the city, residential demand shot through the roof- topping as high as 90% of the classic 'RCI' ratio chart (that the Simcity series has used since it's origins- which graphically interprets citizen demand for 'R'esidential, 'C'ommercial and 'I'ndustrial city land). Why the 'Sims' flocked there, I have no idea. The economy was based on nothing- I actually somewhat believe they came to the city just because of it's 'europosh' name: 'orange' (note all lower-case). Commercial development tanked- despite low taxes (5%). Industrial demand shot up unexpectedly for a period, but it ultimately cooled and fizzled as well- again, despite low taxes. You couldn't keep up with the residential development. Just as you finished building the infrastructure around the newly-designated 'community/block', it would be nearly filled with new development- and you would now have to create another residential area, and so the cycle went.
The problem started immediately after the city's 5 year anniversary. The city had been growing so fast that it had put a tremendous strain on the utility system- specifically the power grid. Financially, the city struggled- having taken our loan after loan just to try and keep up with demand, eventually the city had so much debt that no loan would save it. Unlike previous Simcity games- this game only allows you to take one loan out at a time, and are limited to a maximum of $50k. So when the compiled debt mounted beyond $50k- and the cost of running the city became more than the taxes coming in- even at 10% for residential, commercial and industrial- resulting in a loss of a few hundred dollars every month, it became impossible to recover since there was no way to make room for more residents. It was a vicious cycle- luckily the misery was about to get much worse. The first of the two strained power plants- the original coal plant (a mere 5 years old)- exploded.
This power plant was the primary interface to the rest of the electrical grid. The second- ironically more powerful -plant had no other connection to the rest of the power grid except through the first plant. So without the first plant there to connect it- and no money to build an extension power line, the city went completely dark. That second plant, however, itself was stressed to it's maximum. And despite no longer being connected to anything, it also exploded shortly after. No source of power- no way to build more plants- a completely hopeless situation.
I edited my budget to cut all funding to all programs- and raise taxes to their 22% allowable maximum- hoping to perhaps revive a city with socialist-minded 'Sims' who don't mind giving up an extreme portion of their living to the government in exchange for guaranteed services. Sadly, that didn't take- and the last few hundred residents, who had been without power or essential services- including police, fire, medical, among others -for over additional years (after the first plant exploded- yes, some of them stuck around for some reason), decided that the 22% tax hike was the last straw, and left 'orange' to rot as a barren wasteland. Nothing more than a handful of abandoned buildings, two explosion craters, and the thousands of trees and parkland that lined every boulevard of the city- even in the industrial areas.
So now I will take what I've learned from 'orange' and start anew once again in pursuit of creating a handheld megalopolis. But not with my 'city advisor', Mr. Kaishu Tachibana- who didn't once tell me what is wrong with the city, but only ever sand the praises of what was right. You can't fix what you can't see- and I should have replaced you with that robot when I had the chance!! Mr. Tachibana- I bid you adieu. You're Fired.
Tonight I made a deposit at the bank of happiness- and picked up Simcity DS. My poor neglected DS has been starved for some quality 'us' time for some time now, and a new addition to the library sounds like a pretty convincing reason to force myself to kick back a little and indulge in something a little different.
I've been a Simcity fan ever since the original PC (DOS) version- and have spent more than a fair share of time in the Super NES and SegaSaturn entries to the series, as well as a solid college semester with Simcity 3000. I have, however, never played Simcity 4- though from what I've read of the game, that may be more of a blessing than anything. Simcity 3000 was an enormous game for me. It's easily in my Top 5 all-time games I have put inhumane amounts of time into playing. So when I first heard of a DS entry to the series and that it would be based, essentially, on '3000'- there wasn't really a question of 'if' I would pick it up- it was strictly 'when' is it being released?
So tonight we get home, and sit outside in the balcony to enjoy the sunset with the DS in tow. I start the game, which takes you through a relatively short 'setup' of the game- including selecting a city advisor that will help guide you during the lifetime of your city. And then you get to name your city.
This is where I got stuck.
I tend to become a little 'personal' with the cities I create in a Simcity game- and I'm sure a lot of people do as well. For me, I'm not satisfied with just picking any name for something you are going to potentially invest a great deal of time into. Sure, 'gotkube' and 'Calgary' fit- luckily, you are limited to 7 characters -but those aren't really names I would consider 'original'. I want something that's very 'me'.
And so that's where I stopped playing tonight- the name entry. Kinda pathetic in a way, but probably a wise move on my part since it's not uncommon for me to get into an 8-10 hour long stretch of playing continuously on such a game. This weekend, however...
