Sim City Classic (or a slightly watered down version of it) is playable online from an Electronic Arts' website (Hat tip Catholicgauzette).
The game is well known to many computer gamers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many people look back at it as a fun game played on a map but nothing more. Sim City its successors should be remembered as a serious game for introduction to city planning and even an introduction to GIS.
The game had users design a city by zoning off land, building infrastructure, and keeping the people happy. No one wants to live next to an industrial park, water pipes and power lines are a must, no police equals no peace. My geographical mind loved the fact traffic conditions impacted the virtual people. Want to know if your kid has a future in planning? See how they take to Sim City.
The GIS nature may seem like a stretch but when you think about it makes sense. In Sim City 2000 one had to flip through various views (data layers) to see underground construction and above ground. The two layers were interconnected and impacted each other's development. One could also click on squares and see a data report on property value, location, connectivity, the works. Sounds like Sim Arc to me!
So remember your youth (or at least a younger age) and play Sim City today!
2 comments:
Great post.
In SimCity 4, there is a terrain generator where players can create a map based the 48 contiguous US States using data from the US Geological Survey.
Growing up, I also loved to play SimAnt!
I still miss SimCity 2000 and even
kept an old computer just to play it. Are there any online links for SC2000?
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