Simtropolis Returns!

[Koonam 519]

While Simtropolis was closed, I felt like one of the joys of my life was gone. I sincerely welcome and congratulate Simtropolis on its return! 😀👍

[justforfun 7,812]

OH YAY!!  Thank you so much @Cyclone Boom, @CorinaMarie, @Dirktator  and everyone involved in this heroic restoration effort. Fantastic job, you guys are phenomenal - granted we already knew that!  I've got a lot of new material to upload, and the old one to restore, so I'd better get to work. 

[Flann 1,709]

I'd like to give my sincerest thanks to the Simtrop team for getting the site back online and keeping our community alive!  Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Thank you to everyone involved in getting old faithful back! ST4Ever!  It looks like it's only affected one file of mine, I'll get it back up asap. Thanks again everyone! 

[Handyman 765]

Many thanks and cudos to the  SC4 ATeam. What would we do without you?

I have not played in quite a while but came to the site regularly to get the latest news about all the amazing advances in game play.
Now only months away from being able to get back to the game, I was absolutely panicked when the site disappeared.

Hopefully when you tell us what help is required I can contribute in some way.

[Lazarou Monkey Terror 1,820]

This is such good news, I was about to install that new 'painting props' addon when the site went down!

 

That old hosting company had better look both ways crossing the street, that's all I'm saying! lol 

[pedroac20c 132]

Thank goodness Simtropolis is back, I'm so happy!

[Foo 233]

I'm really glad to see Simtropolis back, big thank you to the team for bringing the site back up!

[CorinaMarie 29,614]

5 hours ago, HeXy said:

I'll look at cleaning up my files asap.

I saw your six in the Delete My File Message Banner! and I've done so now. (Should I ever accidentally miss any, but I've deleted your post from that request thread, do feel free to post there again.)

 

3 hours ago, justforfun said:

and the old one to restore,

I noticed two from you (since I follow them) and I deleted the Message Banners. (This is important because the banner contains code which hides the Download button and adds a File Unavailable message.)

Be sure to post in the Delete My File Message Banner! topic for any other restored STEX entries. This does not apply to brand new uploads.

 

3 hours ago, Ceafus 88 said:

It looks like it's only affected one file of mine,

Same too, once you fix it, post to let me know to remove the banner. 

[Haljackey 17,309]

Just chiming in here to say thanks for all the work that you have done with restoring the site. I know things won't be back to 100% for a while but that's fine. Take your time and get it right.

Regarding the outages- no issues at all. We're all just happy to see Simtrop return, even if it is just a blip for now as server issues are fixed.

Also feel free to ask the community regarding any restoration efforts you think we could assist with.

I've instructed the SC4E staff to keep the Temp-STEX channel active on Discord, as I know files uploaded since 2024 will still be tough to find. I'll continue to do what I can there to help out members find what they are looking for as things continue to be sorted out.

Give yourselves a pat on the back- it is good to see Simtropolis return!  

[justforfun 7,812]

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I noticed two from you (since I follow them) and I deleted the Message Banners. (This is important because the banner contains code which hides the Download button and adds a File Unavailable message.)

Thank you, Cori, I am restoring all the missing files in one go, so I was going to post all the links together. 

[TogaMasterJohn 705]

YES!!! IT'S BACK!!! TIME TO PARTY!!!

Like many others, I was going through major Simtropolis withdrawal. It's on my list of things to check out on a daily basis (and I do ~99% of the time )! I remember telling my father about the incident (he's the one who got me into SC4 as a child), and he was absolutely dumbfounded, too. I'm so happy it's back, and he's happy to hear it, too.

I'm thankful that prior to the incident, I had downloaded most of the files I had wanted from the STEX (at the time) through the website and SC4Pac. I had planned on starting a new region right before it happened, but that never came to fruition due to plans and other things. Thankfully, I had made note of most of the files that I was going to get at a later time, so that saves me some time (excluding the currently missing files). I look forward to going through the commercial and industrial pages again soon (starting with page one)!

I'll have to dig through my files, but I might have some of the files that are missing, too (attachments, pictures, etc.). I would be more than happy to help in the recovery effort in any way that I can!

Hopefully, most of the forum topics and city journals that were lost prior to the incident will either be created again by their authors or rescued from the Wayback Machine.   If memory serves me right, I believe my most recent post prior to the incident was either in CasperVG's topic about their EffDir-related discoveries or my celebratory ten-year post in "The Simtropolis Annuarians Club."

[Zephrine 10]

I'm so thrilled Simtropolis is back! I was in shock when I discovered the site was down.

Shame on the old server host for their wanton actions of deleting everything with no warnings!

I'm so thankful for those that are actively working on restoring this wonderful community.

[Taz the Mystic 51]

Cori & CB & Dirk,

Thank you so much for all the work you have done to bring ST back to us all.  I to went through withdrawels and I am a relative rookie!  SC4 is a major part of my daily schedule in retirement.   Thanks again!!!!!!

 

[Hernank 9]

I'm not the one who comes here most often, nor have I contributed, but the joy of seeing you all again is immense. It's so wonderful to see you all again, and I hope this time it's for good.

Welcome back Simtropolis 

[Aka 412]

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for getting the forum back up and running. I’m really happy to see it in this condition, even though some posts and files are missing. It’s really not a big deal—the bulk of the content is still there, and the forum seems to be in excellent shape. I don’t think it should be too difficult to restore it to a state that’s almost identical to how it was before the crash.

Thanks again to the entire ST team for taking care of everything, and for your professionalism (even though this is an amateur forum), you handled it like pros! 

As for me, I’m going to get my STEX files ready so I can post them again soon!

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Damn! Host shows no mercy over here... sorry you guys had to deal with all that

Looks like all my files back to '07 got wiped I think because you guys updated them all in the past 2 years for SC4pac. Assume those people have copies?

If not lmk if you need anything I have it all backed up!

[Jardas 7]

Hi to everyone,

Like many others, I'm a simple guy who came to Simtro because of the love of SC4. Till now, the love is burning and it keeps going on. Simtro is part of my SC4 experience, which lasts since SimCity 2000. I'm not very active on Simtro, and honestly, I mostly come since 2007 to download files, and sometimes to lose myself on some beautiful city forums.

What I can absolutely and undoubtly say is that without Cori & CB & Dirk, without their hardwork and most of all their time (which is our most valuable good on Earth), that would have been the end of Simtro and the end of an era... and part of my SC4 experience death...

Fortunately for us, the passion has spoken louder and Simtro is back ! I already had bought the bundle to make a donation, so I just gave another free donation, as a deserved reward for all the work done. For me, that's a huge mark of respect to the Simtro community and to all the people using Simtro for any positive purpose.

I can't find another words if not THANK YOU SO MUCH to express my gratitude. You are all 3 saints for the Comunity !!! We love you !!!

[Tyberius06 12,189]

1 hour ago, Cockatoo said:

Damn! Host shows no mercy over here... sorry you guys had to deal with all that

Looks like all my files back to '07 got wiped I think because you guys updated them all in the past 2 years for SC4pac. Assume those people have copies?

If not lmk if you need anything I have it all backed up!

I think we have the updates, that @Ulisse Wolf and myself were doing in the last year before your return. However could you "re-upload/upload a new version" of the latest Aig Tower? That was relased in december by you.

 

[durbancic 9]

Thank you for all of your tireless work in order to get Simtropolis back up and running! I have only been back into the game for a few months, but was definitely missing ST while it was down.  What a great community!

[Creador2003 273]

It's great that this wonderful site is back, I'll catch up on my bats.

[Marc153 0]

SC4pac dont work at all for me !

[Ulisse Wolf 4,413]

19 minutes ago, Marc153 said:

SC4pac dont work at all for me !

Support for SC4pac is available here.

 

You'll also need to describe the problem, because saying “SC4pac isn't working” is too vague.

[Cyclone Boom 16,909]

Thanks everyone for the warm words! It means a lot to us.

It is truly wonderful to see the life returned to the community we call home, as a website is an empty shell without the people. ST is a haven and our special place on the internet (which are rare to find nowadays). A place where we can share a creative common interest of city building.

For the old host to do what they did was a repulsive and selfish act, born out of cold corporate greed. They treated us like an ID number out of thousands, showing no remorse or grace. Crucially though, they forgot that a community is built on its people, not its hosting provider!

But enough about them, as this is about us now. As a community we will prevail and recover from this. It's great to see all the restored STEX files already from a range of authors. Additionally, a few members have shared local backups of downloads with us, which will help immensely as part of the rebuilding efforts. More info will be posted soon in a new topic. Also I'm hoping to develop a dedicated "Restoration Tracker" page, where we can all view what's been recovered, and what still needs to be.

As an aside, I'm pleased to report the defective hardware has been replaced, and Dirk reports:
"Site’s been running for ~7 hours and none of the prior issues that would have appeared by now have appeared."

So it's now safe to say...
Simtropolis Is Back!

[Nomaran 7]

Not a big poster but I just wanted to come in and thank folks for getting this back up. I was really missing it during the down time. I appreciate all your efforts and time.

[Null 45 3,041]

On 5/26/2026 at 9:42 PM, CorinaMarie said:

We have a separate method for recovering STEX files. That'll be a new forum (or topic) or something where anyone can post a linky to the STEX entry and then also attach the missing files and/or pics. We want to be careful here to not duplicate each other's efforts so searching in there first is a good idea.

Then staff (and other peeps recruited to help) will patch up the STEX entries and then move the topic for that item to a Done forum.

Or such. We'll reveal more details once we've figured out a battle plan.

I was wondering about that. As far as I can tell, the STEX  interface available to regular users only allows uploading a new version of a file, not replacing the download attachment of an existing version.

For the DLLs that are on GitHub it may be possible for the replacement process to be automated by reading the STEX versions and grabbing the matching download from GitHub.

[Wiimeiser 444]

11 hours ago, TogaMasterJohn said:

rescued from the Wayback Machine.

Sadly it seems that they last visited ST on March 6, and not again until April 30...

 

1 hour ago, Null 45 said:

I was wondering about that. As far as I can tell, the STEX interface available to regular users only allows uploading a new version of a file, not replacing the download attachment of an existing version.

For the DLLs that are on GitHub it may be possible for the replacement process to be automated by reading the STEX versions and grabbing the matching download from GitHub.

If the regular update system is the only way to do it, then it should still work. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." as they say.

[Talentio 4]

grazie per essere ritornati

[CorinaMarie 29,614]

32 minutes ago, Wiimeiser said:

If the regular update system is the only way to do it, then it should still work. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." as they say.

No, no.

What @simmering and @Null 45 are talking about are the history versions where there are multiple updates available under the change log.

I didn't initially grasp it myself either, but the trouble is the text in the database exists for them while the older associated files do not. This'll be something @Cyclone Boom can repair under the hood or via Null's suggestion. It's not going to be something we can just say: Do this and then a member can follow some steps.

I believe the best method will be to zip up all missing versions per file and have those ready to upload to us when CB is ready. (There will be a few of the DLLs that I have every version for, but only like 3 or 4 or 5 or such.) I suspect we might even create a dedicated thread for this sort of repair since it'll be different from what anyone except CB can do.

[Dreadnought 8,226]

Yo -- !!  

I am most gratified to see that the Phoenix has risen from the ashes --   

MANY, MANY thanks to Corina, C-B, and Dirk for this Herculean effort......