SimCity 2000 (PC, 1993)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7 Control-8.5 Challenge-6.5
Level Design-8.5 Frustration-6* Fun-8 Originality-7
Overall Score-8.5
*Without disasters
+
More to build and better building variety within zones
Some new mechanics (bonds, individual tax rate per zone type, water systems, subways, height differences (tunnels), )
Isometric perspective (with three distances to zoom in and out of, more detailed graphics and view rotation)
Military base (built for you at 60k pop provided you have room for it, can be used to counter disasters)
Difficulty options
New rewards/gifts which can also be rebuilt after destruction (missing some old ones from the SNES version of the first game though) Improved interface (build more than one zone or piece of road at a time, cancel anything you can build more than one of at once by pressing Shift, longer names, name educational/recreational/security buildings, some hotkeys), you can manually build schools and hospitals now (along with libraries and zoos) as well as decide the size of the sea- and airports (these also aren't bugged anymore) Easter eggs/secrets (bull moose, crashing the chopper, etc.)
Improved terraforming (raise/level/lower land, place trees and water, do landfills etc.)
Adds four neighbours (compare population, increase commercial and industrial demand by connecting your roads to them)
Network edition lets you build with up to four other people on the same map (this mode is rather limited though and you need to buy land to build on which could've been made less cumbersome to do)
Some advanced mechanics (best zone ratio in relation to city size, finding the most efficient zoning, magic eraser)
Save feature (unlimited slots?)
New advisors (one for each aspect of city building/management)
Somewhat comical
Map and building editors
Faster game speed
Place signs anywhere
More advanced random map generation
Newspapers (these report on events both in your and others cities, gives you more of a connection to your citizens)
Better disaster control (apart from demolishing around the disaster area you can place police/firefighter signposts near the disaster area, one post per station)
Launch a space colony
Private boats
Loch ness monster and alien attacks
Some unlisted disasters
+/-
Drought and abundance of water depending on the weather
Still don't need road connections for security/health/educational/power plant buildings
Bonds aren't worth it (they do provide a challenge though)
Terraforming is pretty cheap (the limited options in the SNES version of the first game made sure that using what was given to you made the game challenging when trying to reach a high population)
The music isn't synced to how large you city is like in SC1 SNES (lessens the sense of progression but also makes sure you aren't stuck with one (possibly bad) track for too long)
Most power plants have a limited lifespan (turning off disasters prevents them from blowing up but also auto-rebuilds them so you need to have the money for it when the time comes)
Citizens won't complain if you drastically change the tax rate from year to year (lets you gain quick money) or if you bulldoze buildings (they will complain if you build too many power plants near each other or bulldoze a bunch of trees though and there are now riots if crime gets too high)
Water isn't that important unless you want to max out your population
No replay function
Money and year limits (check)
Some of the more efficient ways to build (placing roads and subways) doesn't make sense realistically
Airplanes will crash into tall enough buildings in front of the airport runway
No skiing resorts
Can't build power plants or service buildings at the edge of the map (not sure why?)
Can't view neighbouring cities in detail (this would spoil some tactics so it's understandable),
-
Rail- and highways are pretty inefficient
Some annoying music (some off beat midi in the DOS version - a bug?, mostly short tracks with silence in-between them)
No seasonal weather effects
More hotkeys could've been used
Can't ask the advisors questions (such as how to build an efficient air- or seaport or control which military base you get)
No tutorial (you can hold Shift and click on pretty much anything to get an explanation or stats on it though)
Can't cancel an already placed building
A few interface problems (placing duplicates of zones and some other things wastes money, the game doesn't save window settings after quitting (main window size, map window, zoom level etc.), can't use mouse wheel to zoom in/out)
Somewhat choppy animation
Leveling tool is somewhat unreliable (it can destroy nearby structures if you're not careful)
Some tedious stuff (laying down pipes and subway tunnels in the same area, placing the subway stations efficiently (sometimes citizens will build one tile away but not right next to it), making the citizens build 2x2 buildings efficiently)
Sometimes buggy water pumps?
Churches (they work like hospitals and schools in the prequel and serve no purpose except for an easter egg joke)
Hospitals can all be placed in the same spot (unlike police and fire stations, not explained in-game)
No. of military/police/firefighter forces available to dispatch are only displayed in a submenu (there's also an annoying pop-up message whenever you click an area they can't reach)
Bugs:
-1 million+ money bug
-laggy firefighter dispatchment at times?
Notes:
-Create pictures with the game engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_5gcdLM3s
Tips:
http://www.angelfire.com/games2/zealgames/simcity2000/tipsandtricks.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue18/misc/zen.html
http://www.theshrubbery.com/simcity/2ktips.html
https://www.somacon.com/p606.php
IcthyoidMecha: "In the Windows 95 version, nothing bad happens to subways if you remove funding. They will still function properly at 0% funding without loss of track, unlike roads or rails."
Level Design-8.5 Frustration-6* Fun-8 Originality-7
Overall Score-8.5
*Without disasters
+
More to build and better building variety within zones
Some new mechanics (bonds, individual tax rate per zone type, water systems, subways, height differences (tunnels), )
Isometric perspective (with three distances to zoom in and out of, more detailed graphics and view rotation)
Military base (built for you at 60k pop provided you have room for it, can be used to counter disasters)
Difficulty options
New rewards/gifts which can also be rebuilt after destruction (missing some old ones from the SNES version of the first game though) Improved interface (build more than one zone or piece of road at a time, cancel anything you can build more than one of at once by pressing Shift, longer names, name educational/recreational/security buildings, some hotkeys), you can manually build schools and hospitals now (along with libraries and zoos) as well as decide the size of the sea- and airports (these also aren't bugged anymore) Easter eggs/secrets (bull moose, crashing the chopper, etc.)
Improved terraforming (raise/level/lower land, place trees and water, do landfills etc.)
Adds four neighbours (compare population, increase commercial and industrial demand by connecting your roads to them)
Network edition lets you build with up to four other people on the same map (this mode is rather limited though and you need to buy land to build on which could've been made less cumbersome to do)
Some advanced mechanics (best zone ratio in relation to city size, finding the most efficient zoning, magic eraser)
Save feature (unlimited slots?)
New advisors (one for each aspect of city building/management)
Somewhat comical
Map and building editors
Faster game speed
Place signs anywhere
More advanced random map generation
Newspapers (these report on events both in your and others cities, gives you more of a connection to your citizens)
Better disaster control (apart from demolishing around the disaster area you can place police/firefighter signposts near the disaster area, one post per station)
Launch a space colony
Private boats
Loch ness monster and alien attacks
Some unlisted disasters
+/-
Drought and abundance of water depending on the weather
Still don't need road connections for security/health/educational/power plant buildings
Bonds aren't worth it (they do provide a challenge though)
Terraforming is pretty cheap (the limited options in the SNES version of the first game made sure that using what was given to you made the game challenging when trying to reach a high population)
The music isn't synced to how large you city is like in SC1 SNES (lessens the sense of progression but also makes sure you aren't stuck with one (possibly bad) track for too long)
Most power plants have a limited lifespan (turning off disasters prevents them from blowing up but also auto-rebuilds them so you need to have the money for it when the time comes)
Citizens won't complain if you drastically change the tax rate from year to year (lets you gain quick money) or if you bulldoze buildings (they will complain if you build too many power plants near each other or bulldoze a bunch of trees though and there are now riots if crime gets too high)
Water isn't that important unless you want to max out your population
No replay function
Money and year limits (check)
Some of the more efficient ways to build (placing roads and subways) doesn't make sense realistically
Airplanes will crash into tall enough buildings in front of the airport runway
No skiing resorts
Can't build power plants or service buildings at the edge of the map (not sure why?)
Can't view neighbouring cities in detail (this would spoil some tactics so it's understandable),
-
Rail- and highways are pretty inefficient
Some annoying music (some off beat midi in the DOS version - a bug?, mostly short tracks with silence in-between them)
No seasonal weather effects
More hotkeys could've been used
Can't ask the advisors questions (such as how to build an efficient air- or seaport or control which military base you get)
No tutorial (you can hold Shift and click on pretty much anything to get an explanation or stats on it though)
Can't cancel an already placed building
A few interface problems (placing duplicates of zones and some other things wastes money, the game doesn't save window settings after quitting (main window size, map window, zoom level etc.), can't use mouse wheel to zoom in/out)
Somewhat choppy animation
Leveling tool is somewhat unreliable (it can destroy nearby structures if you're not careful)
Some tedious stuff (laying down pipes and subway tunnels in the same area, placing the subway stations efficiently (sometimes citizens will build one tile away but not right next to it), making the citizens build 2x2 buildings efficiently)
Sometimes buggy water pumps?
Churches (they work like hospitals and schools in the prequel and serve no purpose except for an easter egg joke)
Hospitals can all be placed in the same spot (unlike police and fire stations, not explained in-game)
No. of military/police/firefighter forces available to dispatch are only displayed in a submenu (there's also an annoying pop-up message whenever you click an area they can't reach)
Bugs:
-1 million+ money bug
-laggy firefighter dispatchment at times?
Notes:
-Create pictures with the game engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_5gcdLM3s
Tips:
http://www.angelfire.com/games2/zealgames/simcity2000/tipsandtricks.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue18/misc/zen.html
http://www.theshrubbery.com/simcity/2ktips.html
https://www.somacon.com/p606.php
IcthyoidMecha: "In the Windows 95 version, nothing bad happens to subways if you remove funding. They will still function properly at 0% funding without loss of track, unlike roads or rails."