Simmars took over SimCity.

[lundym84 5]

I had a very strange issue recently and although I eventually solved the problem I figured I would post this to help anyone else should they encounter the same issue, since I couldn't find anything on it.

I installed Simmars (windows 7) shortly after installing Simcity 4 Deluxe Edition (via origin) and after several days of sucessful modding, I was in the process of creating my DAMN menu, when going back into the game using the SC4 quick Launcher, to check my progress with DAMN a very strange thing occured. Instead of SimCity starting Simmars started.

I was obviously confused so I immediately exited the game and tried again this time using the regular SC4 launcher (checking the file paths before doing so, both were correct) and again Simmars.

I was beginning to get agitated. I exited again and opened my control panel with the intent of uninstalling Simmars; however, there was no Simmars in the list. I went to the desktop and looked for the shortcut and noticed it to was missing. So I go to the start menu and enter simmars, producing only 2 files, the desktop shortcut and the uninstall shortcut. I immediately click on uninstall and receive a message telling me the shortcut refers to a path that is no longer valid, delete icon?

Hmm now I'm confused.

Again I search in the start menu for simmars and the result is the desktop shortcut, which proves to be dead as well. So after checking various files and directories I figure I will attempt playing in hopes it was just a hiccup.

I use the SC4 launcher to verify correct paths and start...Simmars.

I decide to check things out in the game and notice all of my regions are from SimCity, not simmars. So I choose to start a new colony, everything seems to be running ok. I establish a colony and begin looking through the building and zoning menus and all of them are from Simcity. I experiment and lay some down and they seem to be fine so i lay some residential development and know in my mind it would not develop. I was not disappointed. Again I exit the game.

I figure it must be a problem with the launchers so of course I proceed to uninstall said launcher. Now I can't find the shortcut to the game. I go to the trusty start menu and type in simcity4...nothing, SimCity4...nothing,SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition...still nothing.

Time to go digging.

I go into C drive (C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity4 (which happens to an an executable file) and click on the file. Now this is the direct .exe File to the game so I shouldn't have any problems, wrong. Again Simmars.

At this point I'm figuring I'm going to have to uninstall the game then download it all night, which is not cool. Before doing so I decide I'll try one last search (this is after spending nearly half an hour searching forums). I open up the actual Search in drive C and delete everything simmars, everything. I restart the computer locate the .exe and start the game, success! Luckily I hadn't invested any time in the game otherwise it would have been worse.

Anyway there you have it. Hopefully this doesn't happen to you but if it does deleting everything Simmars may be your only solution.

Hope this helps.

[simcity1999 34]

Uninstall simmars, copy SC4 folder into a different target (for example, C:/Simmars), and Install Simmars there.