Tommara

This is with a brand new install of Rush Hour and no mods. The game was unstable - would frequently crash to desktop, and even if I left the game properly, I couldn't get it to start again unless I rebooted. I used to play SimCity4 on another machine and remember this happening until I patched it. So I decided to get whatever updates were available, and got the patch from the official site. I had an existing city with the majority of the jobs in adjacent zones. It had a commute time of about 40 minutes pre-patch but sky-rocketed to 120 minutes after sku1 update. Thinking that this might be because pre-patch games aren't compatible with the patch, I started a brand new region, with residential in one zone, and industry/commercial in another. There were no connections to any other zone. Commute time was even worse, 160 minutes! Does the sku1 patch do this to everyone?

Thanks for the replies. I uninstalled and reinstalled and had no change. I have two copies so tried the other one, no change. I only have updates up to 638. I checked the official site and found it's available to registered users only. I input the CD code, and it said it's already in use, doh. Like I remember my username/password for a game this old. But there's a password recovery feature! Nothing happens when I hit the "send" button. I suspect that my e-mail address is no longer the same, and although I could provide them with my last two e-mail addresses, I no longer use those accounts and you have to log in to change it. But I'm in luck! I have 2 copies of the game. So I register the second one. I can't log in until I verify and it's been over an hour and no e-mail them. I check my ISP to see if they blocked it. I could see stuff they blocked, but it's not there. I really wish someone would release a new, decent city building game. Cities XL doesn't count. Edited note: So, would I be better off playing the game unpatched or patching it and building only in one zone?

Excellent information and very well presented, thanks frndofyaweh! Some thoughts - have you tried to do this on a budget? I was thinking of starting out using roads in a 7x7 grid, using streets where necessary in the approximate locations where avenues would replace the road/street combo when necessary.

Useful information for newcomers? It would be useful to explain why I need NAM or STEX exactly, and how they differ from using cheats?

I'm just starting out, and it would be useful to know what the max footprint is for each of the RCI type structures, but I've been searching for an hour, with no luck. So any help will be appreciated.

Wow, that large! Thanks, much, saved me lots of grief by not making tiny 9x9 old SimCity blocks