SimTower: The Official Strategy Guide

Authors: Rick Barba
Publisher: Prima Publishing, 1995
Pages: 164
ISBN-10: 0761500421

Like many of the best computer games, SimTower got a printed strategy guide, in this case, SimTower: The Official Strategy Guide. I always thought this would be cool to have as a kid, but I never did get it, and I still don't have it, I've only been able to view it digitally. My biggest problem with the strategy guide is that it doesn't cover a whole lot more information than what the manual does, and what is there isn't particularly well-written. (The manual has been scanned and is available online, though it's the British version, and it's not a good scan at that...though the only the British version really changes is renaming the Metro Station as the Tube Station, and a few other minor issues.)

I've always preferred printed strategy guides as they possessed (generally) a level of quality that Internet guides didn't have, not just in maps but in writing. Amateurish writing is what I've expected (and what I got) from unofficial works like the Pokémon Trainer's Guide but not games like this. An example is below, but there are a few other instances like this in the book.

There aren't a ton of other things...they have listings of every movie/shop/restaurant but they aren't complete, or in at least one case, cut off in an editing mix-up. (The movie, by the way, is "Farewell to Morocco"). The shops and restaurants both have one cut off. (For restaurants, it's "Steak House", but for Shops there really just are eleven stores. (I wonder if one got cut in development for some reason, or if it's bugged, that being said, there's an unused string for another movie, which I'll mention in the main page). Maybe things are buggy, the guide says that no more than 35 people can visit a restaurant but I've seen 42 regularly.

In general, there are some things the guide covers that the manual does not, such as:

- How much space each item takes up by floor space.
- What the symbols in the elevator window actually mean.
- All the various shops and restaurants (though again, they forgot a few).

However, there's things it doesn't cover, but could've, such as:

- Why some of my hotel rooms get bad evaluations despite the fact that they're clean and nestled amongst other good ones
- The importance of putting the metro station on the lowest level you can and not to put anything on B10 before then.
- Placing security stations and housekeeping so it doesn't come up to bite you later.
- The logistics of getting 15k in your tower which I've never met without cheating. (You have to make the tower WIDE).

I've added some of the better features to my main review page on Exor's Dungeon.

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