Anyone used SC4 off of steam?

[Dewm 177]

So I am going to be getting a MS surface pro when it comes out, which as you probably know can run windows games.. and on that list is SC4, but because the lack of disk drive I was looking into getting SC4 off of steam.

Has anyone done this? and how does it work with installing bat files?

Thanks!

[Xenocity 343]

The Steam version works just like any other version of Simcity 4.

All mods work with it and must be placed im the plug ins folder which is my documents.

The only difference is you must launch the game through Steam.

It may be a little buggier than usual due to it running on Windows 8.

[Dewm 177]

Thank you!

Has anyone upgraded to windows 8? and if so how is SC4 running?

[Xenocity 343]

Thank you!

Has anyone upgraded to windows 8? and if so how is SC4 running?

I used to have Windows 8.

Simcity 4 suffers from graphical issues while running on Windows 8 as a many older games.

When selected buildings to place in your city, the blue placement image of hte building will hover on the screen taking up at least a 1/3rd of the screen.

When zooming it takes a few minutes for the screen to readjust.

The cursor also has issues as well.

Sometimes the screen jumps and tears.

I since went back to Windows 7 for other reasons and older software.

Also if you run Steam on Windows 8 you cannot run anything else in Steam while playing a game in Steam.

The ability to run mutliple functions in certain programs on Windows 8 is missing.

So run older games at your own risk.

To point out my Laptop is an i7, 4GBs of RAM and 512MB graphics card from late 2011.

[Superbacon 380]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

[Xenocity 343]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

[Superbacon 380]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

I know.

[Dewm 177]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

[Xenocity 343]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

There is no compatibility/emulation mode in Windows 8.

Microsoft purposely left it out to force developers to use Windows 8!

[Superbacon 380]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

It does as far as I know. But what you can do is partition your system to bring up previous operating systems as long as you have them installed.

[Dewm 177]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

It does as far as I know. But what you can do is partition your system to bring up previous operating systems as long as you have them installed.

Yeah, I'm sure there are a ton of work arounds.. but the whole purpose of the tablet/windows 8 is to be fast and convenient..

bah, guess I'll spend 2-3 hrs at bestbuy installing and testing games before I buy :/

[Xenocity 343]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

It does as far as I know. But what you can do is partition your system to bring up previous operating systems as long as you have them installed.

That's virtual machine which you have to buy.

Windows 7/Vista had an XP mode which you accessed in the right click menu.

That XP mode has been removed from Windows 8 along with many other legacy codes.

[Dewm 177]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

It does as far as I know. But what you can do is partition your system to bring up previous operating systems as long as you have them installed.

That's virtual machine which you have to buy.

Windows 7/Vista had an XP mode which you accessed in the right click menu.

That XP mode has been removed from Windows 8 along with many other legacy codes.

Which version of 8 did you have?

[Xenocity 343]

I haven't heard good things about people playing SC4 on Windows 8... or Windows 8 in general. In theory it should be compatible but don't count your blessings.

Older games have issues with Windows 8 due to the change in Windows code.

In your experience did you try "emulating" windows 7 while playing that game? or does windows 8 even have that function? (I know 7 did)

It does as far as I know. But what you can do is partition your system to bring up previous operating systems as long as you have them installed.

That's virtual machine which you have to buy.

Windows 7/Vista had an XP mode which you accessed in the right click menu.

That XP mode has been removed from Windows 8 along with many other legacy codes.

Which version of 8 did you have?

The professional version.

[Dewm 177]

(going to stop the quotes now )

Thank you for the information!

I did a little bit of google work, and found an older thread on here that addressed SC4 on W8, and it was talking about the "target" and addressing it so it specified only 1 core. By any chance did you do that?

(want to make sure I can do what I want to do before I drop $900.00)

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

A couple of points:

• Windows 8 kernel is calling itself NT 6.2, so it can't have changed much.
  
• You should download DirectX 9.0c and add it to the system. It should run with whatever DirectX version is on 8. It has in the past.
  
• I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.
  
• You should be able to use all the command line capability on 8 that you could on 7. Some digging around may be necessary because MS likes to hide things.
  
• All plugins are essentially data files, so what software base they run on is irrelevant.
  
• If your new system doesn't have an optical drive, consider getting a stand-alone one with a USB interface. There will be times when you want to write some stuff out: Backups for example. I don't know about you, but I do emphatically not trust cloud storage. I have some free standing HDDs.
  
• The hardware decor (x86) hasn't changed. Whatever ran before should continue to run, even if you have to do some handsprings with the desktop decor, GUI, and the general interface. Windows still launches programs with a console command.
  

[The Wrench 24]

I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.

Darn. Got my copy off of a Steam sale.

[Dewm 177]

A couple of points:

• Windows 8 kernel is calling itself NT 6.2, so it can't have changed much.
  
• You should download DirectX 9.0c and add it to the system. It should run with whatever DirectX version is on 8. It has in the past.
  
• I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.
  
• You should be able to use all the command line capability on 8 that you could on 7. Some digging around may be necessary because MS likes to hide things.
  
• All plugins are essentially data files, so what software base they run on is irrelevant.
  
• If your new system doesn't have an optical drive, consider getting a stand-alone one with a USB interface. There will be times when you want to write some stuff out: Backups for example. I don't know about you, but I do emphatically not trust cloud storage. I have some free standing HDDs.
  
• The hardware decor (x86) hasn't changed. Whatever ran before should continue to run, even if you have to do some handsprings with the desktop decor, GUI, and the general interface. Windows still launches programs with a console command.
  

Thanks for the detailed post.. although it didn't really answer any of my questions about windows 8. "Should run it" and "do run it" are totally separate things.

And as far as steam goes, I was looking at that because the tablet doesn't have a optical drive, and while I do own one with a USB cable it would be nice to be able to play SC4 without lugging around the extra drive.

[The Wrench 24]

Mmm, I think .exe files (the SC4 appliation, for example) should be able to run on Windows Surface Pro.

Isn't the capability to run legacy Windows programs one of the main selling points of the Surface Pro?

[Xenocity 343]

Mmm, I think .exe files (the SC4 appliation, for example) should be able to run on Windows Surface Pro.

Isn't the capability to run legacy Windows programs one of the main selling points of the Surface Pro?

The problem is some old software is not compatible, especially those that are graphical heavy.

Also Surface Pro uses an Intel HD Graphics 4000 (crappy integrated graphics card) which is bad for gaming and the $900 model only comes with 64GBs of storage.

I suggest you get a laptop with an i7 processor, with lots of RAM, bigger SSD/HDD, bigger screen and a dedicated graphics card which you can do for under $900 with right brand.

[Turjan 1,048]

I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.

Darn. Got my copy off of a Steam sale.

There's nothing wrong with the Steam version of the game. You can set all load parameters under "Properties" "General" in the library. Modding is exactly the same as without Steam. No idea about Win8, though.

[The Wrench 24]

I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.

Darn. Got my copy off of a Steam sale.

There's nothing wrong with the Steam version of the game. You can set all load parameters under "Properties" "General" in the library. Modding is exactly the same as without Steam. No idea about Win8, though.

Yeah, but I still have to access Steam to access SC4. If the Steam servers were to shut down, I can't access the game anymore.

[Turjan 1,048]

I suggest avoiding Steam and Origin. You can get the game from Amazon or Gamersgate with no strings attached and normal setup. No special directories (folders) required.

Darn. Got my copy off of a Steam sale.

There's nothing wrong with the Steam version of the game. You can set all load parameters under "Properties" "General" in the library. Modding is exactly the same as without Steam. No idea about Win8, though.

Yeah, but I still have to access Steam to access SC4. If the Steam servers were to shut down, I can't access the game anymore.

Most Steam games run well enough in offline mode. And I guess it was bought there because the game was less than $5.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Well, don't look for answers on Windows 8 from me. The last MS system I ran was XP. I've been on Linux ever since. However, as a teacher and developer of operating systems, I can speculate. I also report what information I've been able to glean from the forums.

I believe that MS took the opportunity to put the O/S on a diet with the release of Windows 8. With all the extra overheads for the touch desktop, some things probably just had to go. The usual ploy with operating systems is to denigrate stuff that is around 20 years old, then drop it in the next release. There is usually a warning period, but who pays attention to such things except old O/S hacks like me.

[Dewm 177]

Mmm, I think .exe files (the SC4 appliation, for example) should be able to run on Windows Surface Pro.

Isn't the capability to run legacy Windows programs one of the main selling points of the Surface Pro?

The problem is some old software is not compatible, especially those that are graphical heavy.

Also Surface Pro uses an Intel HD Graphics 4000 (crappy integrated graphics card) which is bad for gaming and the $900 model only comes with 64GBs of storage.

I suggest you get a laptop with an i7 processor, with lots of RAM, bigger SSD/HDD, bigger screen and a dedicated graphics card which you can do for under $900 with right brand.

Yeah the main reason for getting the surface is the fact that its a tablet, and if I am going to spend 400-1000 I wanted to get one I could also game on. And TBH 64GB should be plenty, even more so you can expand it with a SD card (another 128GB)

the games I really want to run in "windows mode" would be AoE2, SC4 & Minecraft...

so I really think I'll just have to sit down and play around with it for a few hours.

[Xenocity 343]

Mmm, I think .exe files (the SC4 appliation, for example) should be able to run on Windows Surface Pro.

Isn't the capability to run legacy Windows programs one of the main selling points of the Surface Pro?

The problem is some old software is not compatible, especially those that are graphical heavy.

Also Surface Pro uses an Intel HD Graphics 4000 (crappy integrated graphics card) which is bad for gaming and the $900 model only comes with 64GBs of storage.

I suggest you get a laptop with an i7 processor, with lots of RAM, bigger SSD/HDD, bigger screen and a dedicated graphics card which you can do for under $900 with right brand.

Yeah the main reason for getting the surface is the fact that its a tablet, and if I am going to spend 400-1000 I wanted to get one I could also game on. And TBH 64GB should be plenty, even more so you can expand it with a SD card (another 128GB)

the games I really want to run in "windows mode" would be AoE2, SC4 & Minecraft...

so I really think I'll just have to sit down and play around with it for a few hours.

Well have fun!

You may have to run Simcity 4 in the lowest setting to get it to work.

[SimRico 968]

The Steam version works just like any other version of Simcity 4.

All mods work with it and must be placed im the plug ins folder which is my documents.

The only difference is you must launch the game through Steam.

It may be a little buggier than usual due to it running on Windows 8.

Ive recently bought a set of sc4deluxe cds awaiting their arrival, then got a tip from A Nonny Moose! I didnt know about Amazon Downloads but as soon as it was mentioned, I sold the cds and was able to play the game immediately, And so far, no online influence or connectivity durimg play.

[SimRico 968]

Well, don't look for answers on Windows 8 from me. The last MS system I ran was XP. I've been on Linux ever since. However, as a teacher and developer of operating systems, I can speculate. I also report what information I've been able to glean from the forums.

I believe that MS took the opportunity to put the O/S on a diet with the release of Windows 8. With all the extra overheads for the touch desktop, some things probably just had to go. The usual ploy with operating systems is to denigrate stuff that is around 20 years old, then drop it in the next release. There is usually a warning period, but who pays attention to such things except old O/S hacks like me.

Awwe, now, Mr. Moose! You are not "old"! just wiser and more experienced!

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

One is only as old as one feels. I consider 75 as late middle age. I may be a physical wreck with my set of chronic diseases, but they are all under control and my little grey cells are hitting on all cylinders, thanks.

[The Wrench 24]

Mmm, I think .exe files (the SC4 appliation, for example) should be able to run on Windows Surface Pro.

Isn't the capability to run legacy Windows programs one of the main selling points of the Surface Pro?

The problem is some old software is not compatible, especially those that are graphical heavy.

Also Surface Pro uses an Intel HD Graphics 4000 (crappy integrated graphics card) which is bad for gaming and the $900 model only comes with 64GBs of storage.

I suggest you get a laptop with an i7 processor, with lots of RAM, bigger SSD/HDD, bigger screen and a dedicated graphics card which you can do for under $900 with right brand.

Yeah the main reason for getting the surface is the fact that its a tablet, and if I am going to spend 400-1000 I wanted to get one I could also game on. And TBH 64GB should be plenty, even more so you can expand it with a SD card (another 128GB)

the games I really want to run in "windows mode" would be AoE2, SC4 & Minecraft...

so I really think I'll just have to sit down and play around with it for a few hours.

Well have fun!

You may have to run Simcity 4 in the lowest setting to get it to work.

Wait, WHAT?

I am currently running SC4 on the integrated graphics of a first-generation Intel Core i3 processor, and I'm doing OK with the highest settings!