SimCity 4 Deluxe - Origin version - Unpatchable

[JurisicSantiago 23]

Hello fellas!

I am starting this topic because I've got an issue while trying to patch my digital copy of SC4, bought via Origin Games platform. A few years ago I managed to patch my game correctly, but now it seems impossible.

My SC4 version is 1.1.610.0, but I can't apply the 1.1.638.0 version I need to start using mods again (I formatted my PC some time ago and I didn't reinstall the game until today).

Is there someone who's experienced the same problem?? Please let me know if you found a solution.

Thanks!

[rsc204 21,805]

See here:

Here and here for a full breakdown of the problem. Basically Origin are being rotters and you should push them for a refund and buy a copy from a digital retailer who cares about customers instead.

[Ke|is 3,333]

Well... I'm going to tell you my experience about origin and the coy that I bouth there...

Almost 2 years ago I got the copy from Origin, I installed in my computer and everything was working perfectly, I had the updated copy  (1.1.638.0 version) on my computer and I've been playing the game for almost two years without any problem... two months ago I had to formatted my PC, like you and then I re-install the game from Origin, what was my surprise ?

I just was able to get the version (1.1.610.0) and that version means problems... I tried all kind of things to get the good copy, the updated version or at least a refund, I spoke with some menbers of EA using their chat... I wrote a public letter and even a private letter to another group of people in Origin... I always got the same answer... "our game works perfectly and now after more than 1 year later is too late to get a refund..."

Finally... I just give up, I wasted my money with Origin and I did not want to do the same with my time... now I have a copy from steam and everything is fine with the game and with me...

The options are STEAM or GOG... Right now the price is a bit Hight, but normally they have some sales in SimCity 4, so just try to take a look everyday and buy the game as soon as the price is lower than 6 or 5 (Euros) (I write from Europe)...

Greetings and good Luck !!

 

 

[JurisicSantiago 23]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

See here:

Here and here for a full breakdown of the problem. Basically Origin are being rotters and you should push them for a refund and buy a copy from a digital retailer who cares about customers instead.

Thank you for your answer rsc204, I've read the entire posts you linked and I'm a bit disappointed about the decisions Origin made. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything on their website advising users they won't be able to patch their copies. Seems like a "fraud"   

 

21 minutes ago, kelistmac said:

Well... I'm going to tell you my experience about origin and the coy that I bouth there...

Almost 2 years ago I got the copy from Origin, I installed in my computer and everything was working perfectly, I had the updated copy  (1.1.638.0 version) on my computer and I've been playing the game for almost two years without any problem... two months ago I had to formatted my PC, like you and then I re-install the game from Origin, what was my surprise ?

I just was able to get the version (1.1.610.0) and that version means problems... I tried all kind of things to get the good copy, the updated version or at least a refund, I spoke with some menbers of EA using their chat... I wrote a public letter and even a private letter to another group of people in Origin... I always got the same answer... "our game works perfectly and now after more than 1 year later is too late to get a refund..."

Finally... I just give up, I wasted my money with Origin and I did not want to do the same with my time... now I have a copy from steam and everything is fine with the game and with me...

The options are STEAM or GOG... Right now the price is a bit Hight, but normally they have some sales in SimCity 4, so just try to take a look everyday and buy the game as soon as the price is lower than 6 or 5 (Euros) (I write from Europe)...

Greetings and good Luck !!

 

 

Thank you too, kelistmac, for taking some time to answer!! It's a pity for us and the people who'll get a copy from Origin. As I stated above, It's a shame that Origin doesn't inform this situation. I will follow your advice and stick around GoG and Steam looking for sales, because I too find a bit expensive to pay $20 for a game that I've got 2 copies already (one physical, not Deluxe nor Rush Hour, and one digital via Origin)   

[huzman 445]

oh man. Can't people stay away from Origin? They are the worst! There are a lot of posts about it... NO MOE LINKS TO ORIGIN!!! Go to gog.org for the move dependable softs and Jesus on a bicycle!!!

[JurisicSantiago 23]

10 minutes ago, huzman said:

oh man. Can't people stay away from Origin? They are the worst! There are a lot of posts about it... NO MOE LINKS TO ORIGIN!!! Go to gog.org for the move dependable softs and Jesus on a bicycle!!!

Haha I would stay away from them but I bought the digital copy in 2015, time when it could be patched!!   

[rsc204 21,805]

1 hour ago, kelistmac said:

Finally... I just give up, I wasted my money with Origin and I did not want to do the same with my time... now I have a copy from steam and everything is fine with the game and with me...

I get it, you will get the run around, but persist enough and eventually they will refund you... why... just as in the original post I linked to, if you take up enough of their time it costs them money. At some point when they realise you aren't going away, it's simply cheaper to give you a refund (or maybe credit for another title) than deal with you. BUT, you have to be persistent.

• They say it's too late to get a refund, explain that if you could have the same patched version you paid for, you wouldn't need one.
• Make it clear they have made a change that messes up the game experience and leaves bugs they patched years ago in your game.
• Point out that every single other seller of a game they made provides a pre-patched version. Tell them they should be embarrassed by this.
• Explain this happened before, after pressure from articles in the press, they made a patched version available. Ask why they are so incompetent this has changed again.

Whatever you do when dealing with customer support, never loose your calm. Clearly state over and over that they (Origin) are the problem and that they changed the product you purchased and nerfed it. That's the whole issue, them changing something from the item you were happy with. Simply refuse to accept the answer no, bothering them to escalate the issue when you get to the end of the line with a given rep. Eventually they will come around. If everyone did this, maybe they'd fix the problem, but sadly people don't hold such companies to account, because for most people a principle isn't worth their time. That is the exact reason the system is set up as it is, to make it so hard to get fair service, most people give up. Turn it on them and waste hours of their time, they will soon back down.

9 minutes ago, huzman said:

Can't people stay away from Origin? They are the worst!

Too right, if anything this whole situation should clearly demonstrate Origin are terrible.

[JurisicSantiago 23]

I have found a UK webpage (Gamesplanet) that has SC4 on sale right now! It's only $5.26; I think it's great.

This is the Steam version!!! Here goes the link to the website: https://uk.gamesplanet.com/game/SimCity-4-deluxe-steam-key--2376-1

[JurisicSantiago 23]

[rsc204 21,805]

Good find to get it for around $5 out of a sale

Just be careful if you use a thrid party site from another country, some content is region locked, i.e. if you buy it in the UK, you may not be able to use the code in another country. This isn't an issue for this code and the site you linked are very good about listing this information where it applies. But not all such resellers do.

Just goes to show what a rip-off the $20 normal cost is for SC4. When Maxis re-released the disks last in 2012 at retail, they were $5, digital is a joke, less costs but we pay 4x the price for our games, yet everyone (almost) seems to be OK with this?

[huzman 445]

5 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Just be careful if you use a thrid party site from another country,

Good counsel this. Most people (me included) don't pay too much attention to country of origin.

BTW, where is ST located at?

[matias93 7,535]

53 minutes ago, huzman said:

BTW, where is ST located at?

Originally in Canada, but now the current servers are in the US

[Edvarz 1,984]

Good to see another player is able to bypass Origin's nonsense. 

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Just goes to show what a rip-off the $20 normal cost is for SC4. When Maxis re-released the disks last in 2012 at retail, they were $5, digital is a joke, less costs but we pay 4x the price for our games, yet everyone (almost) seems to be OK with this?

A bit off topic, but could this is also be the reason why they don't release the code of a 13 year old piece of software?, gotta milk that cash cow till the bitter end.

[licoricebomb 93]

10 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Good find to get it for around $5 out of a sale

Just be careful if you use a thrid party site from another country, some content is region locked, i.e. if you buy it in the UK, you may not be able to use the code in another country. This isn't an issue for this code and the site you linked are very good about listing this information where it applies. But not all such resellers do.

Just goes to show what a rip-off the $20 normal cost is for SC4. When Maxis re-released the disks last in 2012 at retail, they were $5, digital is a joke, less costs but we pay 4x the price for our games, yet everyone (almost) seems to be OK with this?

I paid $20 for my Steam copy and I'm quite happy with it.

$20 is quite low when weighed against the hours of enjoyment I get from SC4. Compare this to the price of a new book, going out to see a movie, etc. and it's not so bad. Of course, I guess this depends on where one lives too... Where I'm from, $20 would only be two hours' work at a minimum wage job (we have very high cost of living) which makes it not seem so bad.

Now I'm not saying that everyone should take the same stance, and obv people have different financial situations, just thought I would give an example of why someone would pay that price for SC4. Of course I would've been even happier to pay $5 for the same product. But I don't at all feel ripped off. Considering the exorbitant markups on the things we buy day-to-day (groceries come to mind as a prime example) SC4 is actually one thing that I've bought recently which I haven't felt is a ripoff.

At the end of the day, there are so many more times in a day that someone tries to exploit me or rip me off in some way, to buy a game I can play every day for months and not get bored of, $20 is not much, although it is probably more than it needs to be...

[Fantozzi 4,067]

1 hour ago, licoricebomb said:

Compare this to the price of a new book,

Maybe- But some of the best books I bought for $1 as written words don't decay, only the covers. But you do right - you always should compare the prize with the fun/benefit you get from it. As this gives value to the things in life, nothing else. That's why communities like this you could call priceless.

[licoricebomb 93]

4 minutes ago, Fantozzi said:

Maybe- But some of the best books I bought for $1 as written words don't decay, only the covers. But you do right - you always should compare the prize with the fun/benefit you get from it. As this gives value to the things in life, nothing else. That's why communities like this you could call priceless.

You are right about books. But a new book- from a large corporate bookstore, would likely cost me $15 or more, and would probably not be very good. But in my city there is a large used bookstore packed to the ceiling with inexpensive books that have ugly covers and yellow pages... but I can get Shakespeare, or Keats, or Chaucer for maybe $5

[Silur 3,301]

This old game SC4 is not worth $20 today ...  MAXIS must us to pay $10 each for SC4 every month !!!

I think MAXIS and all offices that sell have to pay SC4 Simtropolis, SC4 Devotion, Japan Artists, GERMAN MASTERS, PEGASUS and etc. MAXIS created the crude product was not able to support it. SC4 lives only through fan sites. These sites almost there!!!

This is a story from 2003... Anyone knows the codes to the end - some do not. But the game lives but MAXIS no...   

[rsc204 21,805]

3 hours ago, Edvarz said:

A bit off topic, but could this is also be the reason why they don't release the code of a 13 year old piece of software?

I doubt it, it's just not EA's thing to be nice. It's their IP, they would rather burn it in flames than give it to a community. Sure that's somewhat about money, but I don't see things changing, even when they stop making money on the product, they'd still probably bring in the lawyers before allowing us to re-use the code somehow.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

19 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

they'd still probably bring in the lawyers before allowing us to re-use the code

The old code is probably only good as a design document. Given its age, obsolete  dependencies, and need to become multi-threaded, it would probably be necessary, desirable and easier to build a replacement using the old source as a mere guide. A rewrite would get away from the copyright lawyers too.

However, there's a good chance that after a dozen or more years of neglect, Maxis couldn't even find the source code, resources and project files if they wanted to. Future software paleontologists will have more luck decompiling the executable and libraries.

[Silur 3,301]

We all have to admit that SC4 is a game ancient. She has no future. It rests only on the great SIMTROPOLIS and SC4 DEVOTION. There are several rustic sites - but they exist for a narrow communication... I am very concerned about the future of SC4 ...

I  and my piggy Bank had more than 40 sites on SC. I got downloaded even all props and lots of Korean sites, it was very difficult. I don't know Korean language. I don't like war - but 90% of these sites are military equipment ...

I am very concerned about the future of SC4 ...

[Fantozzi 4,067]

Lately I get the impression we're making more worries about the future of the game than playing it.  I mean - not lotting, not playing not batting today but having a tons of worries if there will be still playing, lotting, batting tomorrow - were is the sense in doing so?

 

[EDIT]

For real - this kind of thinking can become a circle leading you straight into depression. You know, pschologists couches are crowded with people afraid of falling in love because they could be disappointed and get hurted and be abbandoned. And they become so scared by thinking about how their relationshships may end that they avoid the beginning. And so they become very lonely and depressed.

Maybe this thought helps: it's true the game is 13 years old, but still nobody knows what the highscore is or when you did win.

[Silur 3,301]

Hi, Fantozzi ... It's crazy, but it's fun 

No any depression - only smiles  

[Tarkus 6,932]

If EA did actually want to continue to make money off SC4, they would lower the price.  The main competition is a game which is 12 years newer (C:S), is selling for $30 (and often goes down to $15 on half-off sales--sometimes while SC4 is still at $20).  For someone who is coming to a decision about whether to purchase SC4 or C:S (particularly on Steam, which hasn't taken steps to optimize the base install of SC4 the way GOG has, leading to a bunch of recent, poorly informed mediocre reviews), the optics are unfortunately not in SC4's favor.  The Steam discussion board for SC4 is also routinely littered with questions about Steam Workshop support.  (IMHO, the lack of Steam Workshop support is a good thing, as if it did exist, it would pretty much be the end of the SC4 community as we know it.)

Simply put, even considering the enjoyment factor of the game (I've spent tens of thousands of hours with SC4, easily), keeping the price at $20 is more than the market will really bear in 2017.  $10 would keep it below C:S, even when the latter goes on a half-off sale.

With the price and the nerfing, EA/Origin is essentially shooting themselves in the foot.  SC2013 is also typically going for the same/less than SC4, and does not enjoy a particularly stellar reputation, so SC4 is essentially EA's flagship for the franchise on the PC/Mac platform. There's only two logical business explanations: (a) they're trying to keep SC4 from competing against some other interest they may have, unbeknownst to us, or (b) the much more likely scenario of simple neglect--they don't want to deal with it because they don't feel it's worth their resources.

I'm not sure how much control Steam and GOG have on their pricing for SC4, and how much of a cut EA is taking from them, but if there were a way for them to lower their regular price even slightly, they'd likely get more revenue out of it, and if Origin stuck to $20, unaware consumers looking at price would avoid the nerfed copy.

14 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

Lately I get the impression we're making more worries about the future of the game than playing it.  I mean - not lotting, not playing not batting today but having a tons of worries if there will be still playing, lotting, batting tomorrow - were is the sense in doing so?

I agree--this is a content-driven community, and more content typically equates to more activity, and prolonging the game's life.  That said, part of the joy of creating content or authoring a CJ is being able to share the fruits of one's labor with the broader community.  When critical mass is lost, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to sustain on a number of fronts.

Continuing to hold to that US$19.99 MSRP set eight years ago for digital copies (which cost nothing to produce at this point) is not helping that critical mass.  It's also worth considering the fact that a decent percentage of the digital copies out there are being sold to people who own older disc copies of the game, but now have Windows 10 (or the SafeDisc-killing update on Windows Vista/7/8/8.1).

-Tarkus

[huzman 445]

On 10/13/2017 at 12:01 AM, JurisicSantiago said:

This is the Steam version!!!

I just went to the steam link given by @JurisicSantiago and they are selling SC4 Deluxe for £ 3.99. Good deal!

[Fantozzi 4,067]

On 14.10.2017 at 1:27 PM, Tarkus said:

and more content typically equates to more activity

I'm unshure. I bought many books because they were on offer and I said to myself: I will read them later, when I have time. Lately I watched my bookshelf and noticed: this 'later' - many years ago seemed something big and plenty - became thinner and briefer. I'm unshure there's left enough time to me to read all those books I collected once ago to read them later. Could be, the affluent society is worst on words.

The same - I have a folder where I put  all the SC4-downloads in. It holds actually 246 items. To check and play and use 'later'. A 'later' like ice becomming thinner each year and still I want to put even more load on it. 

The same I downloaded NAM35 and didn't find the time to install and play until NAM36 was there.

Time becomes a bottleneck. And at a certain point you move data from one location to another, delete and refresh and update ... and the whole world become busy in processing data - like the valves on an engine moving rapidly up and down - being busy, making noise, runing economy, running business -  but the motor these valves are on does nothing - just noise, just running. You spend your lifetime collecting things you don't find the time to use and get some fun out of them because you are much to busy to hunt and collect them.

So I wouldn't call this an 'activity' - downloading things.

Like people collect colours. Millions of colours. Much to busy to notice - if you have three of them, you have them all. It's just a question to make good use of those three.

The same with books. Why to collect hundreds of them if there are only a handfull having a meaning to you. As meaning doesn't show up with simply collecting them.

And maybe the same with custom content?

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

@Fantozzi

While I do agree with your post in many regards, I feel the part of Tarkus's post you quoted relates more to the greater amount of content available for the whole community to pick from which equates to more overall activity. It's like an ice cream shop that has 31 flavors. That's not because they expect every customer to want some of each, but so that the customers have a variety to chose from.

[kwebs10 0]

I know its late in 2018 but I just checked with Origin and they are releasing 1.1.638.0 to all purchasers. 

[Duco 546]

On 15-10-2017 at 7:45 PM, Fantozzi said:

if you have three of them, you have them all. It's just a question to make good use of those three

But than again, when I use two of them, I get another color and now I have 4, and so on....

On 15-10-2017 at 7:55 PM, CorinaMarie said:

That's not because they expect every customer to want some of each, but so that the customers have a variety to chose from.

and I think the other way round, that the people who choose, are a variety of customers.

[Tarkus 6,932]

On 9/4/2018 at 11:17 PM, kwebs10 said:

I know its late in 2018 but I just checked with Origin and they are releasing 1.1.638.0 to all purchasers. 

If that is indeed their plan, it doesn't appear they've implemented it yet.  Over at SimTarkus, I received a report from a user who purchased the game two days ago (September 12th) and got 1.1.610 (and thankfully managed to get a refund). 

While 1.1.638 would be a big step in the right direction over 1.1.610, in that it'd support the NAM, it is still slightly "nerfed", in that it is missing the BAT Nightlighting patch that 1.1.641 (and 1.1.640 on the old disc copies) has.  GOG and Steam sell 1.1.641, and, inexplicably, Origin apparently has it in their possession, but has only been giving out to customers doing CD Key Redemptions--not retail customers who are purchasing the game through the service.

-Tarkus

[mizzmanners 4]

I was able to contact Origin and get a refund. I then went to Steam and purchased a copy from them and have been happy ever since. I went through the troubleshooting to appease them and then they pointed me to https://community.simtropolis.com/sc4-maxis-files/ where I quoted them from the page: "Note: Digital versions of SC4 do not require this, providing they are fully patched (1.1.641.0). A notable exception is the Origin edition which is both unpatched and unpatchable, and therefore not recommended." I then told them all I wanted was my money back so I could purchase a copy from Steam. They consulted a supervisor and refunded my money. Hope this helps anyone who was unfortunate enough to purchase from Origin after I did.