SimCity 3000 25 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective
video description
oh and 3000 has probably one of the best boxes of any PC game and thats saying something.
Date: 2024-02-09
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Comments and reviews: 19
DynamixWarePro
I have SimCity 3000 Unlimited. It was the first SimCity I owned. I got it after it came out and it has become one of my favourites, although I rarely get my cities to sustain a high population without breaking even at the end of the year or losing money. Even when I thought I was doing everything right there would be complaints from Sims. About fire or police being scarce as hen's teeth even though I seemed to put those buildings all over the place. I then increase the budget for Police ever so slightly to see if that would help, I would often then get complaints about police oppression.
I also could never seem to have enough parks or green spaces even though I put lots of small and large parks, playgrounds, ponds and trees throughout the city and purposely would keep areas full of trees and put trees along roads and all over the place but it was never enough. I never knew what I was doing wrong.
I still listen to the soundtrack today. As a fan of Jazz music and as a saxophone, piano and clarinet player, I love the SC3000 soundtrack. I also liked City of Dreams, City Lights and Desert Sand from Unlimited. I don't know if it is just me, but whenever I hear the start of UpDown Town I can't help hearing in my head I hear the blues a-callin' Tossed salads and scrambled eggs from the Frasier theme.
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I have SimCity 3000 Unlimited. It was the first SimCity I owned. I got it after it came out and it has become one of my favourites, although I rarely get my cities to sustain a high population without breaking even at the end of the year or losing money. Even when I thought I was doing everything right there would be complaints from Sims. About fire or police being scarce as hen's teeth even though I seemed to put those buildings all over the place. I then increase the budget for Police ever so slightly to see if that would help, I would often then get complaints about police oppression.
I also could never seem to have enough parks or green spaces even though I put lots of small and large parks, playgrounds, ponds and trees throughout the city and purposely would keep areas full of trees and put trees along roads and all over the place but it was never enough. I never knew what I was doing wrong.
I still listen to the soundtrack today. As a fan of Jazz music and as a saxophone, piano and clarinet player, I love the SC3000 soundtrack. I also liked City of Dreams, City Lights and Desert Sand from Unlimited. I don't know if it is just me, but whenever I hear the start of UpDown Town I can't help hearing in my head I hear the blues a-callin' Tossed salads and scrambled eggs from the Frasier theme.
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weckar
Hey LGR. I wonder if you could help me with a Simcity 3000 mystery I have been pondering for the better part of 20 years.
When I got the game, I had different advisers.
A redheaded lady for City Planning
A poorly shaven round-headed man for Utilities
A grey fox type male character for Public Safety
A grey haired lady teacher for Education
(note that all of the above were definitely white-coded)
However, in NO release of the game I've found since do these alternate characters exist, nor have I been able to find any trace of them online. Any clues Thanks.
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Hey LGR. I wonder if you could help me with a Simcity 3000 mystery I have been pondering for the better part of 20 years.
When I got the game, I had different advisers.
A redheaded lady for City Planning
A poorly shaven round-headed man for Utilities
A grey fox type male character for Public Safety
A grey haired lady teacher for Education
(note that all of the above were definitely white-coded)
However, in NO release of the game I've found since do these alternate characters exist, nor have I been able to find any trace of them online. Any clues Thanks.
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OfficerHotpants
I always wanted to play this after being introduced to the Sim series via Sim City 2000 but it wasn't available anywhere. I was obsessed with that SC2000. Even though I couldn't manage a city to save my life. I'd just build cities in the editor. Used the graphics tools to edit the building sprites. Think that was my very first experience with making custom work like that (mostly just adding the flashing color option to things.
Come to think of it, I _still_ suck at Sim City. I'm no better at 4 now than I was at 2000 25 years ago.
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I always wanted to play this after being introduced to the Sim series via Sim City 2000 but it wasn't available anywhere. I was obsessed with that SC2000. Even though I couldn't manage a city to save my life. I'd just build cities in the editor. Used the graphics tools to edit the building sprites. Think that was my very first experience with making custom work like that (mostly just adding the flashing color option to things.
Come to think of it, I _still_ suck at Sim City. I'm no better at 4 now than I was at 2000 25 years ago.
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confuzzly3089
This was my first proper city building game. I bought this a game at a Scholastic Book Fair for $10 when I was 9 or 10. I asked my mom for $20 to buy books and proceeded to buy the game, hide it in my backpack, and then buy $10 worth of books. I pretended the books actually cost the full $20. In retrospect, I don't know why I bothered since I'm pretty sure she would have been fine with buying the game if I had just asked, but I was a dumb kid.
I played the hell out of the game though. Good times.
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This was my first proper city building game. I bought this a game at a Scholastic Book Fair for $10 when I was 9 or 10. I asked my mom for $20 to buy books and proceeded to buy the game, hide it in my backpack, and then buy $10 worth of books. I pretended the books actually cost the full $20. In retrospect, I don't know why I bothered since I'm pretty sure she would have been fine with buying the game if I had just asked, but I was a dumb kid.
I played the hell out of the game though. Good times.
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dappertron
Playing this as a little kid alters your brain chemistry.
3k had a nice aura of humor around it, with the lighthearted news ticker bits and caricature art for people. There was a lot of personality there that future city building games didn't really focus on very much - even SC4 made the jokey news blurbs into more of a bother than anything since they got in the way of more important things, and petitioners were just characterless words on a screen.
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Playing this as a little kid alters your brain chemistry.
3k had a nice aura of humor around it, with the lighthearted news ticker bits and caricature art for people. There was a lot of personality there that future city building games didn't really focus on very much - even SC4 made the jokey news blurbs into more of a bother than anything since they got in the way of more important things, and petitioners were just characterless words on a screen.
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hexachord4828
I played the iOS SimCity game on my old iPad. I don't know enough to about the other games to compare it to them but it was a lot of fun. While watching your video I logged into the Apple app store to see if I could download it on my modern iPad, but it's gone, as you later said in your video. Irritating that I can no longer play the game that I purchased, but that's the problem with all digital purchases, it's not really yours.
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I played the iOS SimCity game on my old iPad. I don't know enough to about the other games to compare it to them but it was a lot of fun. While watching your video I logged into the Apple app store to see if I could download it on my modern iPad, but it's gone, as you later said in your video. Irritating that I can no longer play the game that I purchased, but that's the problem with all digital purchases, it's not really yours.
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Specz187
I still have my og disk and case from back then. Threw out the box years ago. My 233 k6 could barely run it also lol have a few floppies with Sim city saves on them. Those were the days. Have nfshp3 and roller coaster tycoon along with 3d ultra pinball creepnight and midtown madness. those were my games as a kid in the 90s on pc. Then came Duke nukem, Doom, strife and Hexen. Oh can't forget Ken's labyrinth still have the old floppy.
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I still have my og disk and case from back then. Threw out the box years ago. My 233 k6 could barely run it also lol have a few floppies with Sim city saves on them. Those were the days. Have nfshp3 and roller coaster tycoon along with 3d ultra pinball creepnight and midtown madness. those were my games as a kid in the 90s on pc. Then came Duke nukem, Doom, strife and Hexen. Oh can't forget Ken's labyrinth still have the old floppy.
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pineapplesalad6494
It was like some kind of torture living through the 90's with an old 386 pc incapable of playing all those cool games that came out after the first 2 years of the decade. So this, or more specifically World Edition was the first game I bought when I finally got a new PC around 2001. And I was so excited that I just kept looking at the box art and browsing the manual for the week while I was waiting for the PC to arrive.
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It was like some kind of torture living through the 90's with an old 386 pc incapable of playing all those cool games that came out after the first 2 years of the decade. So this, or more specifically World Edition was the first game I bought when I finally got a new PC around 2001. And I was so excited that I just kept looking at the box art and browsing the manual for the week while I was waiting for the PC to arrive.
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mpettengill1981
Oh wow, I remember buying this pretty soon after it came out, with some of my hard-earned Burger King wages. I still have my original boxed copy sitting on a shelf here in my office! Haven't played it since SC4 came out though, but maybe I'll get it going on my windows 98 rig soon.
I got hooked on SC classic and was always eager for the next iteration of Sim City. I remember this being a big step up from SC 2000.
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Oh wow, I remember buying this pretty soon after it came out, with some of my hard-earned Burger King wages. I still have my original boxed copy sitting on a shelf here in my office! Haven't played it since SC4 came out though, but maybe I'll get it going on my windows 98 rig soon.
I got hooked on SC classic and was always eager for the next iteration of Sim City. I remember this being a big step up from SC 2000.
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Jenkinsmum
I remember owning this very game. It had the three-level playable demo of Populous: The Beginning with small differences in the levels compared to the full version ones. There was also the cutscene demo of Tiberian Sun. I spent hours trying to establish my own city, but failing a lot to make profit. It really annoyed me how many sims kept abandoning houses, shops and factories.
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I remember owning this very game. It had the three-level playable demo of Populous: The Beginning with small differences in the levels compared to the full version ones. There was also the cutscene demo of Tiberian Sun. I spent hours trying to establish my own city, but failing a lot to make profit. It really annoyed me how many sims kept abandoning houses, shops and factories.
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Swanfeatha
I was lucky enough to perform with Marc Russo when I was a kid (I grew up in the East Bay, and he and a couple of other Tower of Power guys played with my middle school jazz bands on a concert. He was an incredibly nice guy, and I won’t pretend his compliments didn’t help with my push towards wanting to become a pro musician myself! It’s fun to see him get a shout-out!
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I was lucky enough to perform with Marc Russo when I was a kid (I grew up in the East Bay, and he and a couple of other Tower of Power guys played with my middle school jazz bands on a concert. He was an incredibly nice guy, and I won’t pretend his compliments didn’t help with my push towards wanting to become a pro musician myself! It’s fun to see him get a shout-out!
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fisk0
Wow, a little surprised to see how well SimCity 3000 sold. It never seemed like it was the same kind of pop culture phenomena that 2000 was. Everybody talked about 2000 for many years, and I still occasionally hear people talk about it today. 3000 seemed like it was forgotten as soon as The Sims was released, but evidently it did well for itself anyway.
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Wow, a little surprised to see how well SimCity 3000 sold. It never seemed like it was the same kind of pop culture phenomena that 2000 was. Everybody talked about 2000 for many years, and I still occasionally hear people talk about it today. 3000 seemed like it was forgotten as soon as The Sims was released, but evidently it did well for itself anyway.
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NSHorseheadSD70
I remember sitting in our gray folding chair at the computer desk playing Sim City 3000 on a snow day. Just building my city all day long, listening to that timeless soundtrack. This game got me, and I'm sure for countless others, into city building sims and other management sims out there. An absolute classic game with lots of fond memories
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I remember sitting in our gray folding chair at the computer desk playing Sim City 3000 on a snow day. Just building my city all day long, listening to that timeless soundtrack. This game got me, and I'm sure for countless others, into city building sims and other management sims out there. An absolute classic game with lots of fond memories
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yanso8012
I may not be there when they release SimCity 3000 but the excitement is mutual when I was introduced to The Sims. Printing out the screen cap is definitely what I had done. I had no one to share back then. And now watching this video, I feel like I was not alone. Some people are just excited about a game like me. Thank you! Like your videos!
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I may not be there when they release SimCity 3000 but the excitement is mutual when I was introduced to The Sims. Printing out the screen cap is definitely what I had done. I had no one to share back then. And now watching this video, I feel like I was not alone. Some people are just excited about a game like me. Thank you! Like your videos!
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Mech4
For some reason I always had the impression that people didn't like SC3000 on release. I remember comments about its supposed cartoony graphics and the advisors compared to SC2000. Maybe that was just a review from a game magazine I read or one of my friends.
I did enjoy the game though. Never played the Unlimited version however.
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For some reason I always had the impression that people didn't like SC3000 on release. I remember comments about its supposed cartoony graphics and the advisors compared to SC2000. Maybe that was just a review from a game magazine I read or one of my friends.
I did enjoy the game though. Never played the Unlimited version however.
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skellsskells
I'm surprised that SimCity 3000 is often forgotten/overlooked when folks talk about the franchise. People think about SC2K but honestly I feel 3000 was the absolute peak of the franchise from all angles, and oh god, that SOUNDTRACK. Jerry Martin was firing on all cylinders during this time with both this and The Sims 1's music.
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I'm surprised that SimCity 3000 is often forgotten/overlooked when folks talk about the franchise. People think about SC2K but honestly I feel 3000 was the absolute peak of the franchise from all angles, and oh god, that SOUNDTRACK. Jerry Martin was firing on all cylinders during this time with both this and The Sims 1's music.
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LordKohaegan
Sim City Classic and 3000 were good, but to me they just didn't compare to the magic of Sim City on SNES. Sure it was a lot simpler but it was so much fun and very relaxing at the same time. Maybe it's because it was the first city builder I played as a kid, but every PC version was a disappointed compared to the SNES one.
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Sim City Classic and 3000 were good, but to me they just didn't compare to the magic of Sim City on SNES. Sure it was a lot simpler but it was so much fun and very relaxing at the same time. Maybe it's because it was the first city builder I played as a kid, but every PC version was a disappointed compared to the SNES one.
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janneaalto3956
I was excited to see the new SimCity when it came out, but the new features and slick graphics could never draw me in like the janky and low-rez but more stylized SC2000.
Admittedly I was already predisposed to feel iffy about it, after the increasing heaps of BS that EOA had been pulling over the previous years.
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I was excited to see the new SimCity when it came out, but the new features and slick graphics could never draw me in like the janky and low-rez but more stylized SC2000.
Admittedly I was already predisposed to feel iffy about it, after the increasing heaps of BS that EOA had been pulling over the previous years.
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dcchillin4687
Played 3k so much on an old windows 95 potato that didnt have sound that my parents let me put in my bedroom.
Did a school competition for future city architects that required a simcity submission, which I did 100% by myself. Then my little sister got on my pc and ruined the whole city after days of work
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Played 3k so much on an old windows 95 potato that didnt have sound that my parents let me put in my bedroom.
Did a school competition for future city architects that required a simcity submission, which I did 100% by myself. Then my little sister got on my pc and ruined the whole city after days of work
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