Introduce Yourself Here!

[covenant 1]

Hi everyone, I just bought SimCity 4 (and 3000) during the Steam sale. I have both the originals, and the boxed version of the 3000! I hadn't played these games in over a decade, and I wanted to get back to them out of nostalgia.
I immediately ran into a resolution/screen issue, and while googling how to fix it, I discovered this fantastic community.
I read some of the various initial guides on this site, and now I've installed sc4pac, which I find really easy to use.
I immediately installed the "pinned" mods: like CAM, submenudll, namlite, and others found in the "ultimate guide" for graphics and performance, like sc4options and startup performance.
And before I started looking for other mods to download, I wanted to know if there were any modpacks. I was interested in playing with new builds, features, etc., but I don't know exactly what to look for, or if I'll create conflicts. I've seen while browsing around sc4pac that many mods require different texture packs and many dependencies, and I don't want to get lost for days when there may already be some ready-made packs and collections.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,414]

47 minutes ago, covenant said:

Hi everyone, I just bought SimCity 4 (and 3000) during the Steam sale. I have both the originals, and the boxed version of the 3000! I hadn't played these games in over a decade, and I wanted to get back to them out of nostalgia.
I immediately ran into a resolution/screen issue, and while googling how to fix it, I discovered this fantastic community.
I read some of the various initial guides on this site, and now I've installed sc4pac, which I find really easy to use.
I immediately installed the "pinned" mods: like CAM, submenudll, namlite, and others found in the "ultimate guide" for graphics and performance, like sc4options and startup performance.
And before I started looking for other mods to download, I wanted to know if there were any modpacks. I was interested in playing with new builds, features, etc., but I don't know exactly what to look for, or if I'll create conflicts. I've seen while browsing around sc4pac that many mods require different texture packs and many dependencies, and I don't want to get lost for days when there may already be some ready-made packs and collections.

The only officially released modpack is this one.

If you are installing mods using SC4pac, you don't need to worry about dependencies, as they will be installed automatically. 

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

3 hours ago, covenant said:

Hi everyone,

Hiya! Welcome to Simtropolis.  

I'll leave the modding advice to the more active members like Ulisse and others.  

[Hanschristian2 2]

Two hundred years playing to SimCity 4! Maybe more! Another two hundred years of experience with SC3000. I don't know why it took me a billion of years to create a profile in this forum : )

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

@hanschristian That method of counting time makes me very, very old.  

Welcome to Simtropolis!  

[Masi 23]

Not really a new user per se, but new to posting. I used to play quite a lot of vanilla sc4 since its release and found the modded gameplay in the early 2010s while studying at the university (hence the account from 2013). Haven't really played since around 2015.

Didn't become a city planner or an architect irl, but I do have masters in engineering. Does that count as being close enough?

Got the game from Steam last weekend with my kids and they seem to enjoy it about as much as I did SC3000 when I was their age. Anyways, thought I'd hang out and paticipate here just out of appreciation towards all of you who have kept the best city builder of all time alive.

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

@Masi 

Welcome to active posting.  

 

55 minutes ago, Masi said:

I do have masters in engineering. Does that count as being close enough?

As long as it was at least partially inspired by the SimCity games, yes it does indeed count!  

[Mr. Mutt 1]

Hey all, totally new user here. I am so out of practice with posting on forums since the vBulletin 4 days, and Discord was saying that I needed at least one post to be verified as an "active user." 

I grabbed SC4 on a whim a couple of years ago when I was on a bit of a Maxis kick, and never got around to cracking it open. Truth be told, it's my first city builder. CS1 didn't have as many of the managerial aspects of city building that I thought that I would enjoy, and SC4 seems to be chock full of it. I say "seems" because I've been spending the last three evenings setting up every recommended QoL mod and its dependencies. Don't take that as a complaint, though — I've adored every second of it! I love the level of customization that mods themselves offer, and sc4pac makes so much of this a breeze.

I'm delighted to be here and meet all my fellow mayors! I will undoubtedly be back to ask questions should Google prove to be useless. (Spoiler: It will.)

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Mutt said:

Hey all

Hiya! Welcome to Simtropolis.  

[dollish.exe 2]

Hihi everyone!

I'm Star, and I've been playing SimCity 4 since launch, plus other Maxis games since the mid 90s. I love city builders, but SC4 is the only one I ever find myself going back to again and again. I don't think we'll ever see anything else quite like it, and I'm so glad I found this modding community... 22 years later. LOL

Better late than never, I say!

Anywho, a little more about me: I have an AS in Architectural Engineering, which has been my passion since I was about 8 years old. I'm 37 now, and I love to do art, sing, play games and read tarot. I'm very interested in science and technology, as well as sustainability and humanitarianism. I also love cats! c:

I hope to connect with some likeminded people here and find some good inspo for my own cities and communities in SC4. 

<333

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

3 hours ago, dollish.exe said:

I'm Star

Hiya, Star! I'm Cori. Welcome to Simtropolis.  

You've picked a great time to pop in with sc4pac and DLL modding becoming more and more refined. 

[MegaMiku 21]

Hello folks!

Recently got back into my city builder bit again and decided to grab a copy of SimCity 4 from steam, and wanted to see how things changed since 2011.

Wow! Things sure have changed since then, NAM is now on beta 50, theres a whole full 3D camera mod for this game, a mod manager?! and a whole new mod for managing RCI demands. Quite the shock to see how much has developed in the decade and a half since I last played this game.

More than anything else though, I'm happy to see this community still going strong even after Cities Skylines' release and the general passage of time. Looking forward to getting back into my all time favorite city builder with a whole lot more to explore this time around it seems

Anyhow, another thing for me is that in that decade, I went from knowing nothing about game development to getting a good bit of experience about, and I'm interested in learning about creating mods for this game, not before having fun exploring everything thats changed since then.

With all that said, finally happy to get on these forums after all this time. 

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

2 minutes ago, MegaMiku said:

Hello folks!

Hiya, MegaMiku!

Welcome aboard. This is a great place to be while exploring the game and taking up modding.  

[user_838230 2]

Hey everyone! I played SimCity 4 what feels like a thousand years ago, and I wanted to get back into it. I decided to check for updates or expansions and stumbled upon this site. It's absolutely amazing. There's so much stuff here that you probably won't find anything like it anywhere else on Earth! The only problem is that I don't speak English, so I use browser extensions for translation. This makes things doubly difficult... But I'll try to figure it out  

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

On 20/02/2026 at 2:45 AM, user_838230 said:

Hey everyone!

Hiya, @user_838230! Welcome to Simtropolis.  

 

On 20/02/2026 at 2:45 AM, user_838230 said:

I don't speak English, so I use browser extensions for translation.

Translation software is amazing now-a-days. Your message reads perfectly fine in English. Also, depending on your native language, we have Clubs in other languages. 

[DaM0n 1]

Hi there

I bought the SimCity 4 Deluxe box set when it came out, give or take a year.  Recently had a stroke and was looking for something creative to do with one hand. Remembered SC and went and downloaded it from Apple.  A friend told me about your site, so I'm here. WOW! OMD, where to start? What do I need? What do I need to know and should download to make beautiful cities? Should I get the STEX collection? It's all a bit overwhelming. Happy to learn.  Thank. 

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

6 hours ago, DaM0n said:

Hi there

Hiya. Welcome to Simtropolis.  

 

6 hours ago, DaM0n said:

Remembered SC and went and downloaded it from Apple.

That version has been updated to 64-bit, but they never did get around to adding the Maxis updates and fixes. It's still a good game, but you won't be able to use any of the fancy new DLL mods.

 

6 hours ago, DaM0n said:

Should I get the STEX collection?

Do this purely because you want to help ST pay its bills to stay online. 99.94% of everything on the STEX discs is available free for download and what is here online live will often be more updated than the discs. So yes, get the discs if you want to help the site financially, but don't get them if you are looking for a quick and easy way to get extra content.  

[Landon Brandon 4]

Hello there! Landon Brandon here, a schmuck interested in SC2K and SC4 (both for Windows). My favourite things to do with these games involve just looking at the scenery, admiring in all those buildings in a bustling environment, as well as the music! Oh, my word, the music is extraordinary and very memorable. Perhaps SC4 has the best music I've ever listened to out of all the SimCity games I've tried. I tend to treat SC4 and SC2K more like sandboxes where money is no object by usage of the cheat console or Cheat Engine itself, but I do play legit every once in a while, and it's such a refreshing experience; I like a challenge every once in a while. My favorite thing to do when installing SC2K is to completely usurp the name and title of the former chief developer of SimCity of Maxis, Inc for literally no other reason other than because I can say I'm Will Wright (no I'm not)! Glad to be here and surrounded by fellows interested in the same things, as well as people who I can go to for assistance.

[CaptCity 4,806]

Hey @Landon Brandon, 

Welcome to the site. Lots of great folks here who can offer suggestions or provide assistance.

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

15 hours ago, Landon Brandon said:

Hello there!

Hiya! Welcome to Simtropolis.  

[Lab Rat 14]

Automated Notice Message

All posts after 1 March, 2026 @ 01:37 GMT were lost in the site crash.

We've added this message thread divider in every topic across all forums for what were then active threads. (We decided active is if the most recent extant post (from the backup) was on or after 1 January, 2026.)

This divider serves as notice that the conversation was interrupted. Answers and further discussion which used to be here have been lost. Keep this in mind when replying. Our hope is to rebuild what is missing.

[SK5 6]

Hello people of the internet!

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

1 hour ago, SK5 said:

Hello people of the internet!

Hiya and welcome to Simtropolis.  

[SDEESEE 7]

hello all!

 

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

1 hour ago, SDEESEE said:

hello all!

Hiya, one!

Welcome to Simtropolis.  

[Waldemar 4]

Hi,

I stumbled upon SimCity4 a long time ago (must have been 2012 or so), as it was recommended as the "best" of the SimCity series.
As I even played quite a lot of the original SimCity (yes, the original...) everyone can guess, that I am not so young any more. 

The game was played, then lay in the shelf for years, then played again, somewhen I figured out that there are quite a lot of mods to improve and alter the game, so I started applying the "basic ones" as recommended all over the place (4gb patch, opera house fix, NAM, something called "modernes Müllkraftwerk"). 
Over all the years I never stopped playing it, as it is really fascinating. For me it has something between meditation, solving puzzles or playing with Lego... 
But I already realised that I will probably be long dead before I even make it "halfway" through the "whole game" (however you define that), as the possibilities are endless.

Main reason for registering is actually that I wanted to install CAM, but then the site crashed... Now I am waiting for that stuff to become available again and I hoped with "looking at the inside" that I might get a better grasp on when the mods required for CAM become available again. I also saw that "STEX collection discs" but am not sure if those are "available" now (due to the site crash) and if, which one of those might contain CAM + the required dependencies (could not find anywhere a list of "what disc contains what").

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

13 minutes ago, Waldemar said:

I also saw that "STEX collection discs" but am not sure if those are "available" now (due to the site crash) and if, which one of those might contain CAM + the required dependencies (could not find anywhere a list of "what disc contains what").

The STEX Discs are ancient.

They are provided free for certain donation amounts. The key aspect here is the donation. That's what supports the site and pays the ongoing expenses. So do send a donation if you can and that helps Simtropolis, but never feel like the discs are going to be anything more than interesting trinkets.  

The donation and the discs in .zip format are handled via a separate site called Gumroad so yes, you can get them right away if you want.

[Waldemar 4]

9 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

The STEX Discs are ancient.

Was my guess... 🤣... but allow me to say that then maybe you should update that at some time, as they are advertised quite prominently on the pages here.
Not sure if you do not run into more troubles by "disappointed customers" as it is worth, either really keep that stuff up to date or (probably more realistic) really state that it is just a possibility to donate money.
You somehow say that, but not so clearly, to be honest, some people might feel scammed or ripped off. (I will donate anyway, as I already was using e.g. NAM a lot, but now at least I know "what I will get" and why there is no list of content or stuff like that...).

Thanks for the info!

[CorinaMarie 29,642]

17 minutes ago, Waldemar said:

list of content

A while back I did a hack job on the index.html which comes with each disc. Instead of pages and pages, I made it so they are all shown in one long list with pics and file names. Then I made Single File versions of each of the discs lists.

Zipped up it is 531 MB (557,686,784 bytes). If you'd like a copy, I could toss it on a temp File Transfer site. 

[Waldemar 4]

As those "disks" (nowadays simply downloads ) sound from what you say "not so well maintained and not really up-to-date anyway", do not bother. 
As far as I understand you are currently working on restoring the files anyway, and I guess CAM will be restored sooner or later. I'll just wait for that. (One of the advantages of age: patience). 

Thanks for the offer, though! 

P.S.: I am really impressed, that there is a quite stable community investing time and work into that game dekades after it's release.

  Edited May 29 by Waldemar  
P.S. has been forgotten.