SimCity 2000
Overview
SimCity 2000 was one of the first reviews I wrote on the site, because it was a good game. (It originates with something I wrote back in 2012. By 2023 I had rewritten the page. It previously merited the highest rating I had on this site, a "GREAT" (5/5). The current review is a major rewrite of what was on there previously and incorporates some of what I wrote in 2020.
Review
Has there ever been a game that does everything its prequel does and does it a million times better, all while holding up years later? Yes, that game is called SimCity 2000 and from the day I first played it after my brother received it as a birthday present August 1995 (we had a new color Mac that could actually run it), I still come back to it from time to time.
The game excels at every category, fantastic pixel art (I mean, look at this GIF), programming that was simple enough for early computers to handle but complex enough to breathe life into the program—through random number generation and math, variables bounce off of each other to make a sort of dressed-up "Conway's Game of Life"—yet still feels realistic enough that it feels like a realistic, breathing city. While it's not "realistic" by any modern standards today, it was relatable. With SimCity 4 I always got bored and start searching for more "real life" buildings...but with games like SimCity 2000 (and a bunch of other games from that same era) it works because your brain will fill in the rest of the details. Now, I grew up in Texas (SimCity 2000 is very California-inspired—I've never been to California) but felt at home with the graphics, because I could identify with the nicer houses (they aren't gaudy mansions, they're cool two-story houses with swimming pools) and the apartment complexes alike (not so much the office buildings, but a trip down Northwest Freeway in Houston, at least at the time, was closer to that ideal.
For some time, it was a shame that the only commercial version of SimCity 2000 that you can legally buy is the DOS version, which is awful if you're used to the Mac version. The 1.1 and 1.2 updates brought numerous features (launching Launch Arcos, the African Swallow speed, etc.), which the DOS version does not have, the resolution is much lower. The Mac version is 800 x 600 (by default, can go higher) while the DOS version puffs along at a fixed 640 x 480. The music is terrible with the built-in options and only with an expensive Roland MT-32 system can you get something that sounds anything remotely close to the Mac version.
But you don't have to be stuck like that, because you can download the DOS2WIN patch (or if you want to short-circuit the whole process, find the game on the Internet Archive) and then download the excellent Sc2kfix and your crummy DOS version of SimCity 2000 will turn into a complete version of SimCity 2000 you can play on modern Windows.
One of the things that made SimCity 2000 great was that it was a complete product on launch. Sure, the 1.1 version improves on it on a bunch, but it was still a complete product and it had a lot of little touches that weren't truly necessary but made it all the more special, like the newspaper features. There were no major bugs that were present as it was rushed out, there was no significant content that was dummied out to sell later (if that), there was just a game that everyone could be proud of. Granted, it did get some expansions, namely a scenario add-on pack (though only one, despite the name of "SimCity 2000: Scenarios Volume 1: Great Disasters") and the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (or "SCURK"), which allowed you to edit some of the buildings (or "tilesets") to create a new appearance in-game. These were packaged together when it was re-released on CD-ROM a few years later. One of the features that the CD version of the game has is "WillTV" on the CD-ROM. These were short interview clips of Will Wright. If you check out the link (someone uploaded them to YouTube), there's the implication of something great: the future ability of Maxis products to create an entire "world" by having products that focus on a single component to build something larger, something greater. This was partially implemented in future games with some cross-compatibility between SimCity 4, The Sims, and The Sims 2 but in the pre-EA days that only saw use with SimCopter and Streets of SimCity, both of those turned out to be both forgotten games limited by time and budget. The latter demonstrated that the very way that SimCity 2000 drew roads was a disaster to actually drive on them in 3D. As bad as Streets of SimCity was, it demonstrated a need that SimCity 2000 needed a "Version 1.3" or "2.0" release (or just wait for the 3D stuff until after SimCity 3000). There were a still a few odd bugs I've found--sometimes tiles would not cooperate properly (couldn't be queried or built on, only affected by adjacent tiles), the total number of dispatches only have a set number (which doesn't seem to be consistent), and can't be sent back if you need more fire trucks (or whatever), as well QoL upgrades that would've been helpful (like letting parks carry power, which they don't)...and maybe throwing in something else would be nice...but the aforementioned SC2kfix seems to be taking up the slack. (Not quite the definitive version of the game, but it's getting there.)
Despite its age I would highly recommend playing SimCity 2000 to anyone...at least the computer versions, some of the ports not so much.
Player Notes
The two versions I've played recently are v1.2 on a Mac emulator and the Windows version with SC2kfix. SC2kfix excels at better integration with the host system but still suffers from some shortcomings.
Port & Rerelease Notes
See mini-site under "Additional Content".
Additional Content
For SimCity 2000 specifically, I built a SimCity 2000 mini-website (I guess that would make it a site-within-a-site-within-a-site?) which you can check out here. This features a number of other things that you should definitely check out, including "The SimCity 2000 Newspaper Project", information on microsims, tips & tricks, instruments used in the Mac version of the game, notes on SC2kfix, and a lot more.
Screenshots
Recommended Guide
See mini-site under "Additional Content".