SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago • Hacker News Board

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#201

Post by leononame » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #195

When I was growing up I obsessed over this game for a few years. Of course, being very young, I didn't quite understand how the game intended you to launch it... it was a 2 disc install (for the deluxe edition at least) and there was something about the disc order. It was either something like "1 -> 2 -> auto launch on completed install but 1 -> launch after" or the other way around "1 -> 2 -> auto launch on complete…

Thanks for sharing, great story. Thinking back, for me it's incredible just how much more energy I spent as a kid with computers and games. That patience really allowed me to discover and explore much more than I do today.

If I play a game today, I just get straight to it. I don't wander around too much in the open world or try to game the mechanics for some weird bugs or try the same thing over and over again.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#202

Post by cheeselip420 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

The soundtrack to SC3000 is a straight banger. I wish they'd make an exact port to the iPad (instead of that gimped version they released years ago that didn't have subways or highways or anything like that)

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#203

Post by hexane360 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:17 PM UTC

Anyone who has nostalgia for SimCity should definitely give a listen to its amazing soundtrack: https://youtu.be/PSv37HwwojU

Jerry Martin, the composer for most of The Sims franchise, is a legend. The music is like vaporwave before vaporwave.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#204

Post by massysett » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:28 PM UTC

Sargos wrote: post #144

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s not forget all the Paradox games: City Skylines, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron. Very much content over graphics.

The others help your point but Cities Skylines is memed because it's graphics over substance as it's basically a city painting game with shallow mechanics that most people use to make little city dioramas which is still fun but not deep gameplay.

The transportation mechanics in Skylines are quite complex and fun. The player can trace individual trips, and some of them matter quite a lot: the businesses need to get and ship their raw materials and finished goods, and the shops need customers.

The budget mechanics are a joke, before long the player has practically endless money.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#205

Post by caycep » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #5

I prefer SimCity 2000. I feel like it hit a pretty good sweet spot between simulation and fun (which is to say, not even a vague gesturing at anything remotely realistic). Realistic simulation in games is almost universally less fun than simple, predictable game logic. Probably the most extreme example of this is chess: way more enjoyable than real warfare. Back on topic though. My beef with SimCity 4 is that it adde…

ahhh that brings me back

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#206

Post by xvedejas » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

dr_orpheus wrote: post #194

xixixao wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age of Empires 2, Sim City 3000, Diablo2 and Red Alert 2. Released in the span of 3 years. What an incredible era. Can’t shake off the feeling that 3D took away as much as it gave gaming. Also can’t believe it’s just my age-based selection bias.

I think Age of Empires 2 will always be in my top 10 list of favorite games. It's in a similar vein of just upgrading graphics, but I also really enjoyed the spin-offs built on the same game engine: Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and Age of Mythology.

It's especially exciting that it's more popular now than it's ever been. With the 2019 re-release, it's pretty consistently been around #50 in top active players on Steam at any given time. And they keep updating it still. It's been a blast to get back into it and try to actually get decent at it. And the pro scene keeps getting bigger and bigger tournaments too.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#207

Post by db48x » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:47 PM UTC

tracyhenry wrote: post #24

db48x wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s actually why I like the game. Logistics is everything. A city is not merely a beautiful arrangement of buildings, it is a machine with many moving parts. If you neglect the movements, the city won’t function and your people will move out. Unless it kills them first.

The problem is that the traffic issue is nonstop and affects things, so you have to fix it. In reality at least the traffic will resolve itself overnight.

I'm not sure how that can be a problem. If traffic couldn’t have any effect on your city, then why bother simulating it? The whole point is to make you think ahead and plan the capacity of your road network so that traffic jams are less likely and fixing them is easier.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#208

Post by Tokkemon » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:50 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #135

jordemort wrote: post #31

My only complaint about this game is that even the largest region size feels too dang small. I'd pay full retail price for a SimCity 5 that was just SimCity 4 with larger regions.

Basically that was what the entire community wanted + deeper gameplay, but instead EA chose to go the complete opposite direction, screwing the entire community and letting Cities: Skylines be the spiritual successor instead. Let's hope Cities 2 don't repeat the same mistake.

C:S also has limitations, like the agent limit of 70k, which means even moderately large cities of 100k are not realistically simulated. Not to mention the nonsense of every building having essentially a single family. And the garbage system being gorked.

Still better than Sim City in the long run though. The incredible building flexibility made up for shortfalls in the simulation.

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#209

Post by cooperadymas » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:57 PM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #174

xixixao wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age of Empires 2, Sim City 3000, Diablo2 and Red Alert 2. Released in the span of 3 years. What an incredible era. Can’t shake off the feeling that 3D took away as much as it gave gaming. Also can’t believe it’s just my age-based selection bias.

Homeworld, quake 2, Half-life, counterstrike, starcraft, diablo, 97 to '00. I cannot think of a more revolutionary span of games over 3 years.

85-88 is unrivaled. I am willing to fudge the 3 year span a bit because games were still released at significantly times in different countries, though you could sheer off either end and still have an extremely impressive list.

  Super Mario Bros 3
  Zelda II
  Mega Man
  John Madden Football
  Battle Chess
  Tetris
  Contra
  Double Dragon
  Street Fighter
  Castlevania
  Metal Gear
  Metroid
  Mike Tyson's Punch Out
  Final Fantasy
  The Legend of Zelda
  Dragon Quest
  Super Mario Bros
  Adventure Island
  Paper Boy
  Gauntlet

Re: SimCity 4 was released 20 years ago

#210

Post by mrguyorama » Tue, May 23, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

fendy3002 wrote: post #129

boredhedgehog wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What amazes the audience might be relative, but there are objective components to different styles of graphics. Take clarity in communication. Pong is maximally clear: the background is black, an interactive object is white. Every white object is integral to the game. The further you move away from this ideal towards photorealism, the less clear this distinction becomes. You must add more UI elements on top to compen…

Playing witcher 3, I don't think it'll be enjoyable for me without the witcher senses. It really emphasis the interact-able things over the environment.

It's why "just make everything have a billion polygons" is actually terrible game development. Scenes are so goddamn noisy nowadays that it's really hard to parse them.