SimCity2000: Screen Shots and Building Tips

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I busted out my copy of SimCity 2000 and DosBox and went to work as the mayor of a thriving metropolis. But it wasn't a metropolis right away. I built this city, slowly, from the ground up. I was surprised that I had forgotten some of the intricate details and strategies for building a successful city. However, these mistakes only set me back a couple of decades of development as I waited for my coffers to refill. 
So, just for fun, here are a few screen shots of my city as it grew throughout the years. Enjoy!

"Commerce needs connections."  I kept getting this message until I realized what it meant. The commercial sector needed a way to do business with the world outside of my immediate city. Building roads that extend to to the neighboring cities is one way of connecting your city to the outside world. Additionally, building seaports and airports will also do the trick. Another tip regarding ports - they need roads and power like any other zone - however, unlike residential, commercial, and industrial zones, do not stretch power lines across the available squares to speed up development. The power lines actually hinder growth at ports. So, only stretch the power lines across the road in a few places and let the ports grow from there.

Your sims need to travel. You can use the query tool to check on how much traffic a section of roadway is getting. Add subways and rails, or build a complete highway system with on ramps and off ramps. The bus system, however, is one of the most effective at moving your sims along. This allows them to travel further distances and reduces pollution. Sims will only attempt to travel so far. They need to be able to reach each of the different zones. They need to live and go to work and go shopping. The better the transportation infrastructure, the further they can travel and the more valuable the zoning arrangement will be. Remember, this game is all about developing the most expensive real estate because property taxes are what fill your coffers at year's end.

As property values increase, you will notice the building types to look cleaner and crisper. Use the query tool to view each property and its characteristics.

Hydroelectric power is the overall cheapest method to power your city. Every other power plant looks cooler, is more expensive per megawatt, may produce lots of pollution, and also has the expensive requirement of needing to be replaced after every 50 years. Hydro is also nice because it can fit in nicely where ever you have a slope with water to build it on. While this is not very realistic sometimes, it also has the added advantage of spreading out your power supply. During an earthquake, any number of buildings could be lost - and if one of them happens to be a costly power plant - your city could be without power while you try to recover from the wreckage. Disasters are the primary reason it is recommended that your power and water grids be as interconnected as possible. In the event of a disruption on one block, power can still be rerouted around the problem center. Take the time and place extra power lines around the block.

Another trick I remembered was how well water pumps perform based on their location. The amount of water each pump can produce is directly dependent upon the number of fresh water squares that are adjacent to it. That is why most of my water pumps are sitting next to my hydroelectric dams - it increases their output tremendously. One adjacent square of fresh water will increase output by nearly 50%. This will ultimately help reduce the number of water pumps you need to quench your thirsty city.

The military will come knocking on your door when your population reaches 60,000 residents. Apparently, you need to have a pretty hilly terrain in order to get the elusive Army base. They are useful when you have a disaster because they are additional units to deploy to assist your police or firefighters in containing riots and fires and whatnot.

If you do not want to play the original SC2000 inside of DosBox - you can pick up SimCity4 along with its expansion and a few other games in the SimCity Box. I have been wanting this latest version for some time. If you have it and have played both, please share your comments below.

Favorite Games: Carcassonne

One of my favorite games to play during grad school was Carcassonne. What? That doesn't sound like any map you ever played from Counter Strike? While I played plenty of Counter Strike, mostly so that I didn't end up as fodder for my friends when we had our LAN parties, I discovered my preference in gaming was actually board games. Carcassonne is an excellent board game to play with friends. It is not the American norm that we grew up with. I found it after my foray into European gaming. Carcassonne is a tile lying game - one where the playing board grows as the game progresses. You take turns laying new tiles that feature fields, castles, roads, etc. You play different 'meeples' that can farm, rob, or be knights to gain more points from the unfolding countryside.

To win at Carcassonne, you have to plan ahead and react to your opponents actions. Sometimes it can be difficult to know which player is going to win before the game ends and the points are added up. The player must take risks in going for larger point events or just scoop up easy rewards.

What can you learn from playing Carcassonne? Management and risks and dealing with threats or problems as they materialize.
You are given eight little meeples that you can employ, one per turn, to use on roads, take control of castles, farm the countryside, or establish monasteries. With further expansions, you can build towers, evade dragons, and be a trader. As features like roads, castles, and monasteries are completed your meeple returns to you to be used again in another venture. Once placed as a farmer however, the meeple will stay on the board until game end. Sometimes you and your opponents can work together to accomplish the same goals, like finishing a castle because a finished castle provides twice the points than an unfinished one and returns your meeple to you for further use. Careful planning is necessary to make sure that you have enough meeples on hand to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. I have lost a game because all my meeples were placed on the board and an opportunity to score more points was effectively given to my opponent for my lack of meeples on hand.

Just like in the real world. Save up and keep cash on hand to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Favorite Games: Settlers Of Catan

Boardgame anyone? What that does not sound exciting anymore? Monopoly just not as appealing today?

There has been renewed interest in board games thanks to the recent success of some original European designed games and their English language publishers like Rio Grande Games, Mayfair Games, and Days of Wonder.

My first foray into the alternative board game styles was Settlers of Catan. Many people have found several new and exciting boardgames from Europe. A great site to explore more games is BoardGameGeek.com. They offer forums, user add-ons, photos, detailed descriptions, and more.

Settlers of Catan is a great family strategy game. Chances are, judging from its success, you have already played this wonderful game. From the game site,

Compete with your opponents to discover and settle the choicest lands and seaports. Gather resources, trade with friends and foes, and build roads and settlements—all in a quest to be master of Catan.

What can we learn from Settlers of Catan that applies to the world of Personal Finance?

Free Open Source Games

Yesterday's post about free productivity software made me think about the free software that I use most and enjoy most. Free Open Source Games!  We can't always be productive. Sometimes we just need time to unwind and have fun. And sometimes it is just fun to be on top of the world, be the conquering hero, whatever.

With computers always advancing and upgrading I found that some of my favorite games were being left behind. They would no longer run properly on my new machine and I really didn't have the space to keep working relics of an old 486 DX processor, an old Pentium II MMX, etc. But how do you go about playing those old classics?

Look for diehard fans on the internet. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many world wide open source projects exist solely to re-imagine our favorite games from times long before the advent of quad cores and 64bit processors. Here is a link to a list of open source games in all stages of development according to Wikipedia. You will be surprised at the wide range of possibilities. Some are very simply like you can find in your daily arcade downloads and some are behemoths that rival their paid counterparts.

Which ones are my favorites? My favorites stem back to the mid 1990's.

OpenTTD is an open source remake and expansion of the 1995 Chris Sawyer game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It is an 'Urban planning and simulation game'.You start the game in 1950 with a bank loan of $100,000. It is your job to become a transportation mogul. Use vehicles of the road, rail, air or sea to transport goods, commodities, and passengers. In order for towns to grow they need you to transport them goods from factories which require raw materials. The AI in the original game could be frustrating. As the years progress technology brings you newer and improved methods of transport.

OpenTTD duplicates most of the original game's features but also has numerous additions, including much bigger, or smaller, maps, a multiplayer capability, improved language support, better AIs and ports for several commonly used operating systems. It offers LAN and Internet play via public and worldwide servers for up to 255 players. OpenTTD also includes numerous usability improvements not present in Transport Tycoon Deluxe. OpenTTD also incorporates many features from TTDPatch.
According to a study, of the activity of the 61,154 open source projects on SourceForge in the period 1999-2005, OpenTTD was the 8th most active patch/contribution receiving open source project.




FreeCol is a clone of Sid Meier's Colonization. (The original, not the newly released CIV4 expansion)
FreeCol starts in the year 1492. With a few settlers, the player builds up colonies in the New World, struggling for power with other colonies from rival Europeans. The player gradually builds up these colonies with help from the European king until no help from Europe is necessary, meaning that the colonies can stand alone without any exterior aid, and declares independence from the King and, if the colonies are able to resist the attacks of the royal expeditionary force, victory is obtained.

The player may trade with Europe using various natural resources which are collected by cities or acquired from trade with natives. In each city the player can also build up industrial buildings to convert raw materials into processed goods, which sell for more in Europe, providing a significant economic advance. Some industrial buildings will convert materials into goods useful for running the colony, such as converting wood into Hammers and ore into tools.


 Finding re-imagined games via the open source community is a lot more fun than trying to keep your ancient PC running. Although, I have re-purposed a lot of old PC's in my day, too.

What is your favorite open source game?