Gray_Lensman

well that completely blows So basically you're saying I would have to buy a digital copy off from Steam and then play it directly off from Steam for it to work...? and would I need both copies of the orginial SimCity 4 plus Rushour or just only Rushhour? No, you do not have to play SimCity4 or almost any other game purchased via Steam, directly off Steam for them to work (unless the particular game has a multiplayer mode and you WANT to play multiplayer). You can choose to play it (SimCity4) offline (and for that matter set Steam to offline mode) and only choose to go online on Steam when you WANT to.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/28544-sc4-launcher/

@‌TekindusT Did you by chance try installing to a custom folder (NOT including .../Program Files or .../Program Files (x86))? In other words install directly into something like C:/SimCity 4 and NOT C:/Program Files (x86)/SimCity 4 This of course assumes that Windows 10 still uses the goofy .../Program Files sub-folders.

You can disable the steam overlay by right clicking your game in the steam library, properties and uncheck "Enable the Steam overlay while ingame" in the general tab. I've done that since the beginning and I am able to use the backward option. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've been trying to figure out how to disable that annoying overlay for several games, but it really irritated me with the SimCity4 NAM menus. Now, I can Shift-Tab backwards thru those long NAM menu choices when I fat-finger the TAB key.

What exactly did you mean? To be honest, I didn't come across any annoying restrictions there. But if you warn me like that, I'll rather consider to buy it somewhere else then My main objection to DRM sites is the privacy one. I don't want to log in to some site to play a game I own. Once I set Steam to Offline mode, this is what I get whenever I startup any of my games. I have gone well over a month choosing "Start in Offline Mode" to start my games without ever logging into Steam. The ONLY reason I ever log on to Steam is to check for updates and browse occasionally for a game that might be on one of their frequent 50% to 75% off sales. edit: (or play one of the grandsons head to head in Civ !V)

Under my STEAM installation, I have installed 1. SC4Bat 2. SC4Terraformer 3. SC4Mapper 4. SC4 Landscape Designer 5. ILives Reader 6. SC4PIM 7. Lot Editor All of them start up and work just fine except I'm not too proficient at using them yet. The ONLY alteration I have run across that gives me problems is STEAM taking over the Shift-Tab key combination. Once you get into heavy SC4 menu usage (mostly after installing the NAM), you miss the ability to go backwards in the menus.

What tipped the scales for me to start using Steam was the fact that I got tired of scratching up my CDs/DVDs because of the requirement that most of them had to be running (some of them quite noisily) in the drive to play the game that I paid for.

I've been off-line from Steam playing games for more than a month at a time with no issues. The only thing that you now miss out on are updates which at times can be a real nuisance since they are erratically automatic (you're supposed to be able to disable automatic updates from Steam, but it sometimes goes ahead and does so anyway, hence my setting it to offline mode until I deliberately decide to go online to check for updates at a more convenient time should they be available). I suspect others have more issues due to their usage of user account controls within Windoze. which can be mostly avoided by NOT installing Steam into the default ...\Program Files (x86)... folder. edit: I have close to 20 games purchased thru Steam in the last 5 years and all of them run just fine (offline in single player mode). I rarely play online except to placate a couple of grandsons who are occasionally up for a Civ IV Beyond the Sword game. I suppose those that like head-to-head online might not like the auto-update feature of Steam that much either especially IF it's an update for the game they are getting ready to play (because once that update starts, there is no playing of THAT game until the update has completed). If it's NOT the game they are getting ready to play, the auto update is not that much of a hindrance since Steam is defaulted to pause downloading while any game play of any game is proceeding.

Don't know about the Origin installation but you have a mistaken misconception about Steam DRM. You can now download any of their games and play any them ON or OFF line no complications at all and I don't have to worry about where the original disk went. I almost always start my games with Steam in Offline mode. SimCity 4 Deluxe works almost flawlessly with the installation in the /Steam/Steamapps... folder and the My Documents/SimCity4/plugin folder is identical in use to a non Steam installation. The ONLY negative I'm finding with a Steam installation is the diversion of Shift-Tab for Steam purposes interferes with reverse tabbing thru some long menu selection if you accidentally TAB thru the menu selection you were looking for. p.s. I'm an old timer that started with manual game installations under DOS 3.0 and was hesitant about Steam usage myself until they perfected the online/offline play choice.

Yes... It's called SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition: Prima's Official Strategy Guide available on Amazon. Don't confuse it with the Prima Strategy Guide for the original vanilla SimCity4 which is also available.

Thanks for the tip. I finally got it to work haphazardly. Wow, what a ridiculous pain.

I can delete text inside the quote box easily enough... the empty quote box... no, nada, zip... edit: FYI, I have used over a dozen or more gaming forums and never encountered this behavior.

Off-topic: timmie: I just tried to do as you suggested. Worked fine but would not delete the quote box... just the text.

Okay, issued resolved... It was indeed the population needing to be high enough to achieve Stage 2 for the 2x1 lots to appear. I can see that I'm going to be happily immersed in this city simulator with all its inner working challenges.

edit: this erratic reply quoting is driving me nuts. It seems I can't delete quoted statements once they are embedded in the topic and if I exit the browser entirely and come back to the site, it is persistent in saving what I have accidentally started... What gives with this behavior? Is there a setting to inhibit or stop this behavior?