SimCity 2000

[Opry99er]

Just started playing this again recently. I had it on the Mac years ago and became something of a tycoon, if you will.

 

Recently I have been playing it in DOSBox and (while the music is less appealing) it is just about identical in gameplay.

 

 

I have recently reached 1969, I have 230,000 denizens, and I am filthy rich. 80% of the map is full, and I know that another hour of gameplay will have me at a 100% capacity map, tons of cash, and nowhere to spend it.

 

Arcologies are the next step, but does anyone remember when they are available? (What year?) in 1961, I crossed the required number of denizens to qualify for the arcologies and it gave me a little message about them, but I know they won't be available for several years.

 

What should I do in the meantime, and just how long do I need to wait?

[Opry99er]

Researching, looks like the year 2000 for the Plymouth Arco... Every 50 years after that until 2150, you get a new arco.

 

2150 has the Launch arco, which is the best and baddest.

 

 

I guess once my map is full, I'll just rake in taxes until 2000 when I can start building Plymouth arcos...

[carlsson]

I've never played SimCity 2000, but in the original 2D game it seemed the worst move against humanity you could do was to rake up the taxes to a level where they'd match your costs. I mean at 15% tax or so, your citizens would no longer worry about crime, pollution, traffic, housing, unemployment or whatever else there was to worry about, since the vast majority would complain about the outrageous taxes. Is this much different in SC2000, to the point that you can sit back and "rake in taxes" without bleeding financially?

[Opry99er]

I just let them complain. They complain about pollution, education, etc., but I do not listen. I keep the marginal tax rates fairly low, but I give very little in way of improvements. I have figured out how to groove the demand for growth by adjusting the zoning tax rates to keep demand up.

 

Right now I have more money than I know what to do with, the denizens are supposedly unhappy (as my approval rating is in the 30s) but they keep coming... The more I zone, the higher my population goes.

 

They may not like me, but they come... And they stay...

[Goochman]

What does the ARco do/provide - never heard of this in SimCity - then again never got 'rich' and always was unpopular

[Opry99er]

The arcology is a self-contained city. They cost anywhere from $100,000 and up, and are available after you reach 120,000 denizens and hit the year 2000. They can house up to 60,000 people a piece, and they only take up a 6x6 tile footprint.

 

On one game I played years ago, every single tile on my board was full of arcologies... I had millions and millions of inhabitants.

 

A neat deal with the "Launch" arcology... When you place your 301st launch arco, they all blast off into space to inhabit other planets. You keep the population, but receive your tiles back to build more arcologies (IIRC).

[jhd]

I so loved that game! It was the very first title I bought when I got my 486 PC (in about 1993); I may have even purchased it at the same time/shop. I recall that my system only had 4 meg RAM (I later upgraded it to 8 meg), so I had to use a special DOS boot disk to free enough memory to get the game to work.

 

There exists a very detailed, published strategy guides, with some excellent tips. This includes a detailed walk through for both the included disaster scenarios and those on the expansion disk. There is even a section about how to hex-edit a saved file to create your own disasters (and otherwise modify a saved city). The volcano was the most challenging disaster.

 

I ultimately also bought Streets of Sim City, which allows one to explore the city from ground-level. I did not get SimCopter as I do not much like flight sims.

 

I also briefly owned the PlayStation version, but it ran so very slowly as to be unplayable. I traded it in for something else.

[Opry99er]

I got SimTower shortly after. Was not as immersed in that one. Good game, but lacked the spectacle of SC2000

[Opry99er]

I got SimTower shortly after. Was not as immersed in that one. Good game, but lacked the spectacle of SC2000

[Seob]

Loved simtower, but was never good enough to get a good working tower. Always ran out of elevators.

[Opry99er]

I got pretty good at it after a while... The key was strategic positioning of crucial moneymaking businesses as close to mezzanines as you could get them. Also, more so than in SC2000, the out-of-pocket expenses of the businesses were the reaponsibility of the manager (you) and if you didnt manage the rent and upkeep well, you would lose tennants and not get them back.

 

 

Totally different simulation, but very fun and challenging.

[A2600]

Oh I thought I was the only one that bought into streets of sim city.

 

I remember playing sim city 2000 on my W95 Compaq machine instead of doing my homwork (which was copy and paste from Encarta)