Introduction
There are many versions of the original SimCity; however, they are similar enough that this one guide will cover them all. The canonical (but not original) version of the game is the first MS-DOS version, however, most of those who have played the Super Nintendo version prefer it instead.
Game play
Controls (SNES)
- D-pad - Move cursor around
- B - Accept/build
- Y - Move entire screen
- X - Show/hide menu bars
- Select - Shortcut to side menu bar
- Start - Shortcut to top menu bar
General strategy
Build your city with three layers: an outer ring of industrial zones on the edge of the map, with an inner ring of commerical zones, with your residential zones taking up the center of the map. You'll want your industrial zones on the edge of the map because some pollution will go off the edge of the map, keeping it away from your other zones, and because the edges of the map seem to have lower land value than the center of the map. The commercial zones will act as a buffer between the industrial zones and the residential zones.
If you have a river, and the space on the other side of the river is relatively small, consider filling it with industrial zones, keeping them away from your other zones. (Accordingly, you would use fewer industrial zones elsewhere.) Make sure they're still well-connected to other zones across the river. The disadvantage of this strategy is that you lose the land value boost of having residential zones against the waterfront on the industrial side of the river.
Gifts (SNES version only)
All gifts cost $100 to construct. Some bring in additional money per year; others cost additional money per year. Most increase land value, which also brings you more money.
Not listed here is the "View" gift, which is not a building to be constructed, but a special model available from a menu. It has no use; it's just an alternate view of your city. You will get the View gift upon becoming a Capital (50,000 people).
- Amusement Park
- Build near residential zones
- Bank
- Prerequisite: Achieve city status
- Allows you to take out loans
- Build near commercial zones
- Casino
- Gives you $100/year
- Increases crime locally
- Build near commercial zones
- Fire Headquarters
- Prerequisite: Lots of fire departments (multiple available)
- Acts as a fire department with larger radius
- Maintenance cost of fire department ($100/year with full fire funding)
- Fountain
- Prerequisite: Year is 1950
- Industrial Expo
- Build near industrial zones
- Landfill
- Prerequisite: Use up a large portion of the land (multiple available)
- Converts a 3x3 water area to land. It must be all water, not some water and some land.
- Large Park
- Prerequisite: Lots of park land (multiple available)
- Library
- ?
- Mario Statue
- Prerequisite: Achieve megalopolis status
- Mayor's House
- Prerequisite: Achieve town status
- Build near residential zones
- Police Headquarters
- Prerequisite: Lots of police stations (multiple available)
- Acts as police station, but with larger radius
- Maintenance cost of police department ($100/year with full police funding)
- Train Station
- Prerequisite: Lots of rails (multiple available)
- Windmill
- Prerequisite: Lots of zones (multiple available)
- Zoo
- ?
The Police and Fire Headquarters gifts seem to boost land values above and beyond the inherent land value boost in reducing crime. Neighboring residential and commercial buildings will often achieve top status or become very close. This gives you a strong incentive to place them in residential or commercial zones, despite their most obvious usefulness in keeping down crime in industrial zones.
Scenarios
Some scenarios can be very easy if you use cheap tactics. This may include changing fire funding to 0% (for non-disaster scenarios, or after the disaster is over), bulldozing realistic but unnecessary roads, taking a huge and unsustainable yearly loss by the end of the scenario, or even taking advantage of a glitch or loophole to prevent a disaster from even occurring. On the other hand, the scenarios can be very difficult if you want to play them "straight up".
Hamburg (not in SNES version)
- Disaster: Bombing
Bern
- Problem: Traffic
Boston
- Disaster: Nuclear meltdown
Which nuclear reactor blows up depends on the version of the game. In most versions, a reactor to the south blows up. In the SNES version, the reactor to the far east blows up.
It's not possible to clean up the radiation, so just bulldoze the area and rebuild elsewhere. Try to do a good job, because you need a decent city score to win the scenario.
Detroit
- Problem: Crime
Dullsville (not in SNES version)
- Problem: Boredom
Rio de Janeiro
- Disaster: Flood
The easiest way to handle the flooding borders on cheating: at the start of the scenario, pause the game and bulldoze all the coastline. Be sure you get every tile. With no coastline, flooding cannot occur. If you're not careful, though, it'll usually turn out that you have one or two tiles of coastline left, and a flood will occur there.
San Franciso
- Disaster: Earthquake
Tokyo
- Disaster: Monster attack
Bonus scenarios (SNES only)
In the SNES version of the game, you can play these bonus scenarios if you beat the six scenarios.
Las Vegas
- Disaster: UFO attack!
- Goal: 100,000 population after ten years
This scenario can be very easy or very difficult depending on how you approach it. It will be especially difficult if you don't realize that the frequency of UFO strikes is proportional to your population. They probably won't come at all if your population stays below 80,000. Of course, if you do that through to the end, you can't win because you won't have enough people.
Set taxes to about 9% and fire funding to 0%. You'll be dealing with a lot of fires, but you're going to put off the invasion until you have lots of money, and then you can just bulldoze firebreaks around the fires and not worry about fire coverage. Do keep fire stations, however, because a few will probably get blown up, and your citizens will get mad if you let the last one go down. (It's weird: they demand fire stations, but not that they be funded.) Do not build anything. Tear out extraneous roads, and also bulldoze a few police stations on the outskirts of town, where they're not doing much. If you bulldoze a few too many and you get a crime problem on the outskirts of town, and there are only a few sparse and underdeveloped zones in the area, you could just bulldoze the zones and get rid of the roads there, too. Crime problem solved. Just let your city sit there. If a plane crashes, by all means put out the fire and rebuild, but don't go building other new stuff. Your population will probably constantly fluctuate between 60,000 and 70,000 people, sometimes dipping considerably lower or rising considerably higher, but it will generally stay near that range. That's OK, you should be making plenty of taxes (at least if you set them to 9% as suggested).
When there are about four years until the end of the scenario, you should have over $30,000. This should be plenty. Chop taxes significantly; you won't need the income anymore. 5% should be a good, stable rate. People should start trickling back into your city. Start zoning, first filling up the gaps. The aliens will probably come shortly after you get 90,000 people.
The first time the aliens come, you will be hit hard. They will take out many of the casinos, which is one reason you don't want to provoke their wrath too soon, because those casinos bring you significant income. Bulldoze around the fires, get rid of the rubble, and wait for the fires to go out. Fix up power lines and build more zones of all kinds elsewhere in the meantime. Get rid of industrial zones that are too near the city center, replacing them with residential or commercial zones. When the fires start to go out, rebuild there if it seems desirable. You'll probably encounter more aliens, since your population will still be rising, but you'll only face three per wave. They probably won't bother you too much, and they likely won't show up at all in the last two years of the scenario, no matter how well you're doing. By the last year, your victory will probably be assured, but you can lower taxes to 0%, build more police stations, and so on, just in case.
Freeland
- Build a new city on a landform with no water
This is not a real scenario, as there is no specific goal to achieve, but it is listed on the scenario menu and it has the restrictions of a scenario (that is, no bonuses except for the View feature). Despite what you may think at first, it is difficult to achieve a megalopolis even on this water-free landform unless you know what you're doing.
Trivia
- In the SNES version of the game, if you have a megalopolis, on the Public Opinion screen, it is spelled "megaropolis". This is because the SNES version of the game was developed in Japan, and in Japan, the letters 'r' and 'l' are somewhat interchangeable (the Japanese 'r' sound is sort of like saying 'r' and 'l' at the same time).