Jumping/flickering mouse pointer workarounds in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Tony Benke, Kevin "Skatan" Dietrich, Eric Shock, David Weiss

The following may solve a jumping mouse cursor at the main menu:

Tony Benke and Kevin "Skatan" Dietrich reported problems with the mouse pointer being very jerky or motionless at the main menu with the IBM Aptiva E Series 240 system. The problem reportedly occurs when attempting to create a new city from the main menu.

To get around this problem, simply load one of the cities that comes with the game from the main menu. Then when the city loads, select "New city" from the "Change Settings & Exit" menu on the SimCity 3000 toolbar and work from there. This problem may not exist if you use bitmap cursors (see colored cursors link below).

If your mouse flickers during gameplay, the following may help:

Eric Shock suggests that you make sure you have pointer trails turned off before playing. Pointer trails can be turned off by going to the mouse setup in Windows (under Control Panel). Otherwise, your mouse pointer may flicker in the game, or won't be visible at all. This problem may not exist if you use bitmap cursors (see colored cursors link below).

If you run SimCity 3000 on an IBM Aptiva 240, try this suggestion from David Weiss:

If your mouse pointer jumps and/or bounces around the screen during the game choice menu and during gameplay, try this fix:

In the Windows control panel choose display. Then click Settings. From there choose Advanced settings. You should see a slider bar labeled "Hardware acceleration". Slide it to the second to last point on the left side. This will fix the problem, but you may have to reset the acceleration to maximum when you play some other game.

See also
Getting colored cursors in Windows