Back to the game! But first...

[Terring 6,476]

If everything goes right, I'll be back to the game! That's right, soon I'll be able to customize the game, play Simcity, build my cities and work on my lotting projects. I think that 2 years of not playing Simcity are way too much. But first, 2 questions:

1) I'm going to use Windows 7. I've never played Simcity on Windows 7, so I want to know if there is something I have to know.

2) I have a physical copy of the game, but I wonder if downloading a legal digital version of it will be a better option.

Cross you fingers. Here I come!

[rsc204 21,866]

If Windows has been fully patched, the CD will fail when it tries to verify the DRM upon running SC4. There are workarounds for Windows 7, see this thread for full details.

A digital version might be a better long-term solution.

[Mandarin(a) 35]

Hi

I am also playing on Windows 7 and using physical copy, and so far I haven't experienced any problems. One thing: I had to run SC4 in compatibility mode for Windows XP Pack 2 and as an administrator. I don't know if this is necessary since I have to run as an administrator almost every program I have, but it works properly and fine

And yes, I have not enabled that problematic update for Windows.

[cogeo 960]

AFAIK there is no prob with running the disk version under Win7. You can even create CD images and use some virtual CD program to avoid using the physical CD and damage/wear (both for the CD and the drive).

I downloaded an electronic version from Origin - I'm running on Win10. Had to supply them images of the CDs and the cases/manuals, but their support is good. The Origin software  is of the kind commonly known as "bloatware" - runs in the background, accesses the web, downloads various things, ads etc, but it is possible to log out and configure it so that it doesn't run automatically on startup. Strange thing, the shortcut (menu) disappears when Origin doesn't run, but I made a copy to the Desktop. The game itself looks otherwise identical, only it is installed under C:\Program Files\Origin Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition, rather than C:\Program FIles\Maxis\Simcity 4 - and as far as i can remember I wasn't asked about the path during installation. If you are going to use an electronic version, I would strongly recommend that you backup everything under that folder (incl the executable(s) and the datfiles - the whole folder) before installing anything, as I don't know what happens if the installation is (for any reason) damaged; the NAM installer patches the executable, while certain mods, like the I-HT jobs fix or the CAM, require patching simcity_1.dat. It would be good to be able to easily revert to the original (clean) installation.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, I don't run Windoze at all.  I've been running on Ubuntu for more than 10 years now using wine (currently wine-1.9.9 (Staging)).  But today, I ordered a new machine because this one will no longer run any version of Ubuntu past 14.04 LTS which goes out of support next year. 

My new machine will be a level 3 Intel I5 (a refurbished machine) with an SDD-128GB (I have lots of external rotating storage for backup) and an appropriate AMD GPU with 2 GB on-board memory in place of the default built-in chip set.  If what I believe of this machine is true, it will run like a scalded cat compared to this six or seven year old trooper.  I don't anticipate any problems running SC4 deluxe except I might be able to run my city that has over a million Sims with some kind of sanity.  The new box has four cores so I asked to up the memory to 8 GB.  I am not sure what will happen when Ubuntu is installed on the SDD, but I will keep my heavily written files on rotating storage along with my general backups.

My current wine decor is Windows 7 and I don't have any issues with the game.  Runs with DirectX, software, or OpenGL rendering.  HD textures do not cause crashes in software mode, but look funny in OpenGL, probably because my current chip set is rather old (AMD 780).

[fdjw88 39]

i have the electronic version from Steam, and my pc is windows 7, so far it runs smoothly. but if you computer have multiple CPUs like mine, make sure you set the CPU number to 1 in order to avoid constant crashes.

[Prophet42 1,503]

I run SC4 Deluxe under Windows 7.  I use the CD version and avoided apply the security patch that disabled being able to read the security layer on the CD.  With the 4GB patch applied and setting SC4 to run on one CPU, I find that SC4 is very stable under Windows 7.  As a side note, I don't have to run the game under compatibility mode or as adminstrator.  As a matter of fact, the user account I run it under is a standard account.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Running with a single core is mandatory.  My testing has shown that the game will use multiple cores but has a problem and crashes after about five minutes.  I think this was never properly debugged due to the pressure to get the game out the door.

[Terring 6,476]

The above suggestions made me seriously thinking the possibility of downloading a digital copy, instead of using the physical one I already have. We'll see...

[watercitymadero 805]

I have the GOG one = amazing.

 

P.S. - I only recommend to not install GOG Galaxy for this game, is not need it, waste of space, I downloaded SC4 deluxe directly from the page and then, I installed directly in my HDD local disk C.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

I use to play SimCity 4 on Windows 7 on a bootcamp partition on MacBook Pro and it was very unstable it would crash a lot. I moved everything over from the old computer over to Windows 8.1 and it runs very smoothly, doesn't crash nearly as much. It was very unstable on a different Windows 7 computer as well. SimCity 4  and Windows 7 don't go well together for some reason. I have the UK double CD version. So the version of Windows might effect your experience. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Interesting.  I'm running the digital version on Linux/wine with Windows 7 decor.  Seems fine to me.

[Prophet42 1,503]

42 minutes ago, AprilAero said:

I use to play SimCity 4 on Windows 7 on a bootcamp partition on MacBook Pro and it was very unstable it would crash a lot. I moved everything over from the old computer over to Windows 8.1 and it runs very smoothly, doesn't crash nearly as much. It was very unstable on a different Windows 7 computer as well. SimCity 4  and Windows 7 don't go well together for some reason. I have the UK double CD version. So the version of Windows might effect your experience. 

Odd...I've been running SC4 under Windows 7 for several years and find it extremely stabe.  When I installed SC4 I did not use the normal Program Files(x86) folder.  My install folder is C:\Program Files-Games\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe.  I remember reading somewhere that the way Windows 7 handles the Program Files (x86) folder privileges could mess with the game so I avoided it by creating my own install folder.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

1 minute ago, Prophet42 said:

Odd...I've been running SC4 under Windows 7 for several years and find it extremely stabe.  When I installed SC4 I did not use the normal Program Files(x86) folder.  My install folder is C:\Program Files-Games\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe.  I remember reading somewhere that the way Windows 7 handles the Program Files (x86) folder privileges could mess with the game so I avoided it by creating my own install folder.

were you running the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version?? I was only able to install the 64 bit version. 

[rsc204 21,866]

I've run SC4 fine on both 32 and 64-bit systems. In reality, SC4 would run the same way on either, since natively it's a 32-bit application, so 64-bit OSs are still running it in a 32-bit environment.

If you've installed the game patches, SC4Fix.DLL, set to a single core and have sufficient resources to run the game (RAM mainly), then you really shouldn't be having problems. In any case, almost certainly those can be resolved with some troubleshooting to get to the cause.

17 minutes ago, Prophet42 said:

I remember reading somewhere that the way Windows 7 handles the Program Files (x86) folder privileges could mess with the game so I avoided it by creating my own install folder.

No issues with this personally. I think though that depends on your privileges, since Admin permission may be necessary for accessing Program Files (x86). Since I full with full admin privileges and with UAC disabled, I don't run into those.

[Prophet42 1,503]

I run Windows 7 64 bit professional.  However,  I run SC4 from a Standard User account.  I reserve the Admin account for admin activities and the standard account for everything else.  IMO this is the 'safer' way to run a computer since if for some reason you get a nasty virus or malware on your computer in the standard account, it only has the same privilieges as the account (unless the you grant it higher privileges).  If the standard account gets too corrupted, it simply can be deleted leaving the computer intact (most likely).

[rsc204 21,866]

Yes, I probably should state that it's not advisable to run with full Admin access and UAC disabled, unless you know what you are doing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Windows has changed considerably with respect to security since I ran it last (XP).  I always ran from an Admin account, but that might not be the best course of action these days.

My Ubuntu system has only one user account (mine) and it has Super User privileges (Admin), but each time you want to execute a privileged command you have to use the prefix sudo (Super User Do) and give your password.  It may be awkward, but it works. 

One can also, if one has the real Super User password, enter the root by executing the su command which asks for the root password.  The difference is that once you are in root you can destroy the whole O/S with one sloppy command in the heat of the moment.  The one that does it is rm *  The system asks "Are you sure?" and if you answer y it deletes the entire file system then halts.  This wipes out everything that's not backed up off line including everything in all user accounts. 

ONE DOES NOT RUN IN ROOT, EVER, UNLESS THINGS HAVE COME TO SOME DESPERATION SITUATION.