SimCity
1989 · City Building / Simulation · Macintosh / PC
Overview
SimCity (1989) is Will Wright's city-building simulation, with no way to win, which grew out of the level editor he built for Raid on Bungeling Bay.
Deep Dive
Players zone land, build roads and power, and set taxes, while floods, tornadoes, fires, earthquakes and a monster threaten the city. There is no winning condition, though time-limited scenarios were added at Broderbund's suggestion.
Developer Story
Wright worked on it from 1985. Broderbund declined to publish it, so it came out through Jeff Braun's small company Maxis, with Broderbund later distributing it. It came out on the Amiga and Mac in February 1989, won Computer Gaming World's Game of the Year, and started the city-building genre.
Did You Know?
- Its working title was Micropolis, the name its source code took when it was released as open source in 2008.
- The 1991 Super NES version added a Bowser disaster and an adviser called Dr. Wright.
Sources & further reading
- SimCity (1989 video game) — Wikipedia
