anonymous1234

Hello! I'm a big fan of The Sims. My goal is to play atleast all of it's 4 principal iterations. I already have played 2, 3 and 4, so I want to play the 1st one. The thing is that my new laptop doesn't have disc reader... so I need it to be digital. I browsed on Google but it didn't gave me a clear answer. I've found it on piracy sites, but I don't want to do something illegal. So I ask if the box/disc comes with an activation key that I can use or if there's a site who sell it legally in digital format.

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Skyscraper district at night and 3d ;-)

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The best one I could do (although unfortunately the buildings are distorted).

Hi again! This time I'll show you the ongoing revitalization of my downtown, which was decaying rapidly. I decided to give it a more modern appearance and also a bigger avenue-style road to help with traffic issues:

Hi, nice to read you, as always ;-) Sorry for not replying sooner, it's been a while since I've posted anything here. And the truth is, it makes a lot of sense what you say. I guess it started to sound exaggerated to call the games with units of thousands at a certain point

NOTE: This is the 5th entry in a series that is recommended to be read in a chronological order. Hi again, fellow forumers! Today the time of being featured in this non-typical Diary has come for the favorite game of many of us here. As always, I will talk about everything that you need to know about the game: history, gameplay. And of course, memes! Life is better when we laugh and have fun. So let's get started! As always, we will start with the history of the game: History SimCity 4, as its name suggests, is the fourth installment of the series. As you probably know the 2 previous ones were 2000 and 3000. It is not known at what point they decided to go from the thousands to a single digit number, or why, but however they did it ;-) This game was released in January 2003 for Windows, varying the days depending on the countries. In June of that same year, it came out for Mac. A year later the "Rush Hour" expansion came out. It marked the difference with the previous ones by finally incorporating 3D, although not completely, but in a mixed way. Also like the previous ones, it won several awards and was among the best-selling computer games of 2003. To tell the truth, there is not much information about the game's story. It seems like nothing remarkable happened during its development like in the previous ones. Something fully comprehensible now that SC is a very well established franchise under the umbrella of a big company like EA. The really noteworthy things about SC4 are in the gameplay. Like in SC3K the soundtrack was composed by Jerry Martin, and its length its from about 3 hours. Remember, in SC2K it was from only 10 minutes, what a improvement! One very interesting fact that I do know after having been searching for information is that SimCity 4 was literally prototyped in Excel. Yes, in Excel, you read that right. It was also the last SimCity game to be made with Will Wright at Maxis (he left the company in 2009). Before ending this section, I would like to dedicate a moment to a very important person for this game, who passed away in 2021. We're talking about Paul Pedriana, lead programmer. You may already know this, as it has been posted in the forum before. The loss of a human being is always a sad news, especially for his loved ones. I send my condolences, and my best wishes for his family to do well. I truly hope he rests in peace. After this little break to remember Paul and his legacy, I will talk about what makes this game shine like few others, its gameplay. Gameplay The SC4 gameplay at first glance seems to be nothing new compared to what we've seen before, and at the same time, it's better than ever. The formula that we all know and love, created mainly in SC2K, and perfected in SC3K, reaches its peak here. Let's start as always, with our city El Progreso. As you know since SC2K (where I got confused and put a wrong name to the city LOL) I've been trying to make it similar looking to the previous ones. So, there is our city in its first days: *For new players, please note, this is not the original UI look. You can find this one in STEX (i'll post it at the end) Not too long after, this is what it became: Of all the games we tried so far, this is the one in which cities grow the fastest, without a doubt. To give you an idea, with each game I work in the city for an hour and a half. In SC2K I filled the original design. In SC3K I didn't have time enough. Here I filled the entire city, you will see. If SC4 has always stood out for something, it is for the care with which it is made, and the level of detail is proof of that. Let's see some graphs, which have always been a strong point of SimCity: Energy coverage Police/crime coverage: Traffic volume: Aerial contamination: Demographics (pop. on each age bracket) Some budgeting: As you can see, it is a videogame, but it could perfectly be a professional tool, and in fact, I promise that when I finish testing all the SimCity games I will tell you how Maxis had a division to produce games to be used in companies... But back to that, another sense in which the level of care and attention to detail that this game exudes is when you look at the streets up close: The animations are great. You can see events such as demonstrations, citizens celebrating or traffic accidents. Want to save money? Cut road funding and you'll see holes in the asphalt! Car crash: Citizens celebrating the inauguration of the Mayor's manor: What's more, in the funny driving mode they even took care to make each dashboard different, here are some examples: I always tell you: "the videos are not mine". Well, today, for the first time, I have recorded a video about what is probably the most humorous driving mission in the game. Hope you like it. I tried to be humorous too ;-) https://www.veed.io/view/bcead218-d17d-4255-8fcf-36828facc1df?panel=share&sharingWidget=true One thing completely new in this game was the inclusion of the "My Sim" game mode. It's worth remembering that this game was released in the space between The Sims and The Sims 2, so this was the perfect opportunity to remind people of the first The Sims game, and also let them know that there would be a second one. In fact, the nexus of this game with The Sims goes beyond this. Those of you who are also players of The Sims 2 will know that you can use the maps of your SimCity cities to create your custom Sims 2 cities as .sc4 archives were suportted by the game. But of course, the My Sim mode was more than hype. This mode provides the option to add 5 Sims to the city, and they give you first hand information about what is happening in the city, they are like your correspondents. They can walk as pedestrians or use vehicles. Some pics: Slots for sims The sims you can choose Their means of transportation: The options you have to control Sims The feedback they give you And we have reached this part. This is probably the worst part of the game. And yet, it's not all bad either. Yes, you guess right, I'm talking about those annoying advisors who keep telling you the same thing over and over again. Those who are supposed to be there to advise you but you do better when you don't listen to them. Yes, those same ones. But still, they have funny moments. The sarcastic comments are funny. At first, of course, when you don't know them by heart yet. It's a game from 20 years ago, you have to forgive it. And with this, I end my commentary on the gameplay of the game. I think that, although I've gone on for a long time, this only captures a tiny part of the wonderful whole that this game is made of. And that's not to mention the enormous work that all the modders of this community do to make better what already seems unbeatable. And you do it for free, with all your passion and knowledge, so, I take this opportunity to thank you for improving our games. Thank you very much! So I end this section to put more videos about the game (these as usual are not mine), memes and the link to the blue UI Links: 10 hours of SimCity 4: From Town to City: https://youtu.be/8a60EXbeX-M?si=ssOhZDxDSQ60Uhcr Blue UI: Memes: (This one's recycled) (This one's new) As always, if you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading, really. I also look forward to any comments you may have A really very very big thank you for reading!!

I've made this one to fulfill another purpose but I think it fits good in here

Thank you very much for your comment, I really appreciate it! SC4 is also my favourite game in the saga, in fact is my favourite city builder of all times.

Happy Birthday!!

NOTE: This is the 4th entry in a series that is recommended to be read in cronological order. Hi all!! First of all, I apologize for the delay. I had planned to buy the game at Christmas, but in the end I didn't, so I had to wait until now to write this But well, aside from this, what concerns us today is SC3K, a game that, although it was quite conservative compared to its predecessor, was still a great game and earned a place in the hearts of many people. However, did you know that the plans for this game weren't much like what it ended up being? We are going to talk about all this and more in this entry from this atypical diary in Simtropolis! Some history SimCity 3000 was published in 1999, no more and no less than 24 years ago. It seems like it was less ago, right? Well yes, this 2024 SC3K is celebrating its 25th birthday. It was the first to be published by Maxis as part of EA and not as an independent studio. Its development began in 1996, when the game was planned as a revolutionary full 3D city builder The employees working on the game (including Will Wright himself) were sure that this couldn't turn out well, but the company bosses ignored them as usual and pressured them to continue with it. Since the employees had a job to maintain, they obeyed their superiors and continued working on the development of SC 3D for a year. After that year, came what was a key event in the past of this industry, the E3 (R.I.P E3). SC3K was introduced, and the common thought was that it was pretty lame, ugly looking. In fact, some people thought that it was going to mean the definitive disappearance of Maxis, which had not released a profitable game since SC2K. What they had to offer at that time was so bad that even the game's creator, Wright, was worried about the future of his "empire", seeing how it could be destroyed by executives lacking ideas and money in equal measure. (I leave the 1997 E3 trailer here)? https://youtu.be/HCJHoNXETJw?feature=shared When it seemed that it was over for this game that we like so much, a hand grabbed Maxis and helped it not to fall off the cliff. What you might not have guessed is that that hand was EA. Because yes, although EA was the one who "killed" SimCity, it was also the one who rescued it previously. What a plot twist! Well, whatever. From here, under the direction of Luc Barthelet, a young engineer, everything started to go better for SimCity. They threw out that horrendous 3D from the 90's and began to remake the game, in a much more conservative way, taking the masterful SC2K as a reference. Basically what they did was turn a great game into an even better one. Another year passed, and another E3 was on the horizon. This one, fortunately, was much better for SimCity than the previous one. In fact, it even had the promotion of Ed Koch, at that time mayor of New York. Can anyone think of a better promotion for a game like this? 1998 trailer? 1999, the game released and we loved it as usual. It broke sales records, received good reviews and awards as was usual with this series. There is one thing about this game that deserves special mention, and that is the soundtrack. A true masterpiece composed by Jerry Martin, which gives the game a very special charm. Thank you Jerry Martin for improving the game with your good music. This would be a summary of the history of this game. Now we continue this entry with a review of the gameplay Gameplay Start menu (for me, one of the best main menus I have ever seen) Original menu Unlimited edition menu The beginnings of our city (I have tried to make it similar to the ones in previous iterations) A slight growth... This is the maximum I reached, I dedicate the same time to all the games at the time of writing this, and this is the one that took the city the longest to develop so far. Clouds (they're beautiful and not due to pollution as I stated before, my fault ;-) The also new board of advisors system (A text talking about the low value of the land) Budgeting and other graphics Neighboring cities Other media 1 hour Speedrun through all scenarios Magnasanti Tour Ed Koch with Lucy Bradshaw, Exec Producer of SC3K (photo from Gamespot) Memes And that's it for my entry on SC3000. As always, feel free to comment, correct or anything else. You already know that I love reading you ;-)

I also really like SC3K, especially that aesthetic it has! I prefer SC4 but I really like this one too. In general, I really like all the SimCity games I've reviewed so far... They're all good And about the clouds, you're right, my mistake, thanks for telling me ;-) The truth is, since they appeared just at the moment I started developing the industry, I thought that was why. I'm going to correct it. Nice to read you, it's always a pleasure!

Hi! I read it recently. Luckily for me, I have such a hard time with those glasses that I've never thought about buying them. But like you, it bothers me a lot when you have something at home that cost you a lot of money and from one day to the next it only serves to gather dust on a shelf. I also have a lot of useless things in my house that are no longer useful for anything, and the worst thing is that you can't sell them, because if they are not useful for you, they are not useful for your neighbor either. It's also another way of looking at it. I like your way of thinking. What I do see very difficult (not to say impossible) is that EA (and their investors) think like that. In recent years they only think about money. To guarantee that money they need a safe bet. And reviving a game that has been dead for years because of their own fault is not part of that safe bet, it could go very well, it could go very badly. Unfortunately, I see this as impossible. Micropayments are the new EA's drug. They are addicted to micropayments, and I don't think they can get rid of this addiction so easily. Their new "assembly line" video game model is clearly very profitable for them, and I don't think they're going to stop doing it just to give us a decent game. One thing I do agree with you 100% is that, unfortunately, we Sims players are (because I include myself in the group) much more tolerant of the strategy of buying a game by parts. In fact, I have to admit (and now, years later I'm ashamed) that I bought the whole game of The Sims 3. Absolutely all the expansions and even the content of the Store. Of course, that has not happened again. The Sims 4 I don't even like it very much, it's the first The Sims game I don't love.

All my life having a rich brother who works in Big Tech and here I am without knowing it😢

I'm glad you liked it! And yes, SC2K is a great game. Way ahead of its time in my opinion.