Ever since I saw Citizen Kane, I always wanted to be a “Washington fat cat;” the kind of guy that ruled his berg with an iron fist.
I would pump the local coffers with so much money that I controlled the police, fire and city workers to do my bidding. However, seeing as my cash flow as of present makes me second guess if I should get the “Big Bite” or “Super Big Bite” hotdog for 50 cents more, I doubt highly that I will be jockeying for position on any political level.
Nevertheless, there is a simulator that has always been a way to circumvent the political workings and mold your own city that has been out for decades.
Something that, even today, people can play in various forms.
I’m speaking of SimCity.
SimCity was introduced to the world in 1989 as a virtual city building game for all ages – the level of difficulty could be adjusted so both children and adults could enjoy themselves.
The overall object was to take a blank landmass and, from a top-down view, drop all of the necessary things to create a fully functioning city. You had control, but you had to make sure there were enough power (through a selection of power plants and electrical poles), police departments, fire departments, and roads.
Oh, and depending on the level of difficulty, you had to work within your annual budget to provide the above.
You would then have to decide whether available plots of land were residential, commercial or industrial sections. There were factors as to how popular these areas will be, as well as zoning laws to be aware of.
SimCity’s brainchild was Will Wright, a pioneer in game development and co-founder of Maxis games (now a division of uber-developer Electronic Arts). Originally, it was intended to platform off of urban planning theories in the academic world:
SimCity started as a simulation based on the urban planning theories of an MIT professor named Jay Forrester, and all his other games have some link to academia.
What it spawned was a mega-franchise that spanned through its sequels SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, SimCity 4, SimCity Societies, a 2013 version of SimCity, The Sims and a number of other spinoffs.
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| SimCity today |
When I was younger, SimCity was a cool little game that gave me the feeling of ultimate power; especially when I could control natural disasters that befell my little town of “Charlie’s Berg.”
Like Tetris, this game was a monumental time spender – I wouldn’t call it a “time waster” because it obviously stretched the user’s knowledge and ingenuity to make a successful city. Regardless, you could easily spend hours hovering above your MPC, fine-tuning the roads and city access to your power plant.
For the article, I downloaded Micropolis; basically, a SimCity port using its original source code released legally by the One Laptop Per Child program, a “non-profit organization set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational devices for use in the developing world.”
As I thought, the game held up. Sure the graphics are simple, but the gameplay as I remembered neither suffered from modern developments nor frustrated me as an adult. I actually had a pretty good time. Although I didn’t extensively explore the game as I will when I get a chance, the mood was fun and I felt a good amount of pride as I watched my city expand.
The only downside was that 8-bit soundtrack. Some people dig it, but I’m not a fan.
Although I doubt I’ll ever be a land baron or a head-of-state, I can always get my jollies pretending to run “Chuck-Topolis”…
…then destroying it with a massive, Godzilla-like monster.
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| Attention citizens of Chuck-Topolis, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! |
Until next time, dear readers.
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