Contributor/author(s): Butlerboy
If you want to explore some hints into earlier stages of the development of SimCity 3000, you need look no farther than the \Game\Res\UI\Shared\Cursors folder of SimCity 3000 (I don't know about SC3KU). In this folder are all of the cursors that the game uses. Some were used for features that were removed before the final version and so can act as hints about what the tool did. The features listed here are just guesses based on the filename and cursor icons.
Here are the features that the game's designers were apparently planning to put in at some point:
- A tool that lets you plant more than one tree at a time
- A single tool that can raise and lower terrain (don't ask me how they thought this one was going to work)
- A river tool
- A tool that lets you build road tunnels (I want this one!)
- A sign tool like that in SimCity 2000 (I suspect that this is from before SimCity 3000 would let you rename certain buildings. Once you could do that, the designers figured that nobody would want a sign tool anymore. How wrong they were.)
- A stadium that could be constructed like a ballpark, rather than being selected from the Rewards & Opportunities menu.
- Wand of destruction (I don't know what this one did, maybe it's just an old icon for the trusty bulldozer.)
As well, the fountain had its own icon and police and fire dispatch seemed to be under one icon. For some reason there are two pairs of subway to rail connector icon files, but they both look the same.
Every cursor comes with a bitmap file with the same name. This can help to give you an idea about when in the development of the game the tool was removed. At some point 3D cursors were added (stored in the bitmap files). If a tool was removed before the cursors were added the designers wouldn't bother creating a 3D cursor for it. The bitmap versions of the river, raise/lower terrain, many trees and wand of destruction cursors are flat, so these tools were removed early in the game's design. The others are 3D, including those currently included in the game.
Game archeology is by no means unique to SimCity or even to Maxis. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has notes from one designer to another, arcane graphics and even a beautifully rendered "Baron Krypto Space Puppy" (those of you with this game may want to check "Icons.pcx" to see that picture).
This system of inefficiency actually benefits all those involved: graphic designers save time and game archaeologists like me get a fascinating look into a game's history.
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