SimCity 3000 Unlimited Extras Unlocker mod

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I found a mod called SimCity 3000 Unlimited Extras Unlocker:

https://tetration.github.io/Simcity3000_Modding_Revival/extras_page.html

The github page states that it was last updated 8 years.

They are not very clear on what extra's are unlocked. Anyone tried this mod before?

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

I've not tried that one, but the 3000 HD patch they show at the bottom left of the page can also be done using a Hex Editor as shown by @Cool_Z here.

[Null 45 3,086]

It looks like the extras are all audio tracks that Maxis disabled in AUDIO.INI, the GitHub repository has the modified ini file. https://github.com/tetration/Sim_City_3000_Unlimited_Extras_Unlocker/blob/master/src/INI_Unlocker/AUDIO.INI

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13 hours ago, Null 45 said:

It looks like the extras are all audio tracks that Maxis disabled in AUDIO.INI, the GitHub repository has the modified ini file. https://github.com/tetration/Sim_City_3000_Unlimited_Extras_Unlocker/blob/master/src/INI_Unlocker/AUDIO.INI

I see. A quick read suggests I've heard these track on the OST albums. Might need to check it out anyways. Thanks!

[Gernot66 186]

On 29.3.2025 at 7:53 PM, Null 45 said:

It looks like the extras are all audio tracks that Maxis disabled in AUDIO.INI, the GitHub repository has the modified ini file. https://github.com/tetration/Sim_City_3000_Unlimited_Extras_Unlocker/blob/master/src/INI_Unlocker/AUDIO.INI

Not much to unlock except window washers and the jazzy track, both can be found in the original release of sc3k as well as the stereo versions of the mono jazz tracks (stumped for disc space i assume).

Would it be fine if i link the "updated" .xa (updated in the sense of that it uses the stereo tracks)?

(sure).

You will also find a tool on github to convert .wav to .xa and the turd really works (set "maxis-xa" as output format no matter what is stated).

One could listen to music on any player but i like to have a specific playlist for a game, means i heavy used the converter and filled the playlist with a lot of music, from SimCity Classic (DOS and both win versions, i used "fatboy" as soundfont near to realistic a baroque ensemble is nearly not to differ from a real one), the theme from SimCity CDTV version (it's really a cool track) and the funky jazz tracks from Streets (plus the soundtrack from "Driver" and an album from the same artists "American Powerhouse" and the soundtrack from twpga 08 because i like it). Besides the player does play as well uncompressed pcm but to keep a reasonable filesize one will have to stump it down to 22khz 8bit depth. There is a switch "high performance" in the music section of the .ini but i guess it does the opposite to what one assumes, it does not enhance quality it lowers it to use less processing time to decode it.

EAXAS (ea .xa)

https://github.com/lgdel/eaxas

my mini batch (drop a .wav on it) it also shows the proper switch for the used format.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\audiotools\eaxas\eaxas" %1 --maxis-xa

To play the turd back in GAP 132 you wil need to hack the header and change adress 0x02 to 0x4A for "music" (or to 0x49 for "sound effect"), the funny thing is the game overlooks this completely (it could be empty) while this old player totally relies on it (you define differences between fx or music in the .ini thus the entry in the header is passed by).

Another hint,

I use following two alterings to the options section in the .ini (apart from a enormous long playlist).

[Options]
...
MusicPlayerSongDurationMsec=600000 ;(instead 300000 milliseconds, 10 minutes maximum playing time instead of 5)
MusicPlayerSongDelayMsec=3000 ;(instead of 10000 i guess it was, it will shorten the delay between tracks to three seconds)

(i need ten minutes because of "Elefant", a midi track from "Buzz Aldrins Race Into Space", assumed you have tracks longer as 5 minutes this will be of interest else not, resp. else it will fade out at least at the time limit).

It is no problem to create subdirectories as long as you keep this stated in the .ini, i.e.:

0x15="SimCity",0,"music\classic\sctune.xa","",0,1,0,1

Furthermore, the tracks have an ID and i respected this but in principles you can forgo the hexadecimal ID (means using the same ID won't play no role) the tracks will be listed nontheless proper in the playlist and an occasion which would refere to the ID doesn't exists for music as far as i know.

In principles you can enter a path to any directory on your hd just set the switch for "path is absolute" to 1 (the third switch).

Unfortunately the player doesn't plays mp3 else this would be a cool way to setup a playlist and to use what's already on your hd.

Here's the link to my one-drive for the "updated" sc3k files (stereo jazz tracks and original sc2k theme recorded using "fatboy" soundfont, for the ease of it all the rest of it you already have)

SC3k_music.zip  (131 Mb)

 

(how could they record the sc2k theme using a standard stumped down win32 soundfont? It sounds like played back on a cell phone).

  Edited March 31, 2025 by Gernot66  
checked link

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Looking forward to checking out the new tracks!

Thanks!