SimCity 3000

SimCity 3000 is a simulation and city-building personal computer game, released in 1999.

History
Originally, Maxis planned to make SimCity 3000 a full 3D game. Although employees thought the idea was impractical, the management pushed the idea. After a year of development, the game was graphically on par with SimCopter and Streets of SimCity. The game was displayed at the 1997 E3; the experience is still considered an embarrassment and the game was expected to fail at the time.

Later, in 1997, EA acquired Maxis. Luc Barthelet was assigned as general producer to Maxis. He decided that 3D graphics weren't viable and brought Lucy Bradshaw to lead the project. The 3D graphics were scrapped in favor of sprite-based graphics. Instead of focusing on 3D, they expanded the core gameplay. This version of the game did better at the 1998 E3 and was well-received upon release.

Gameplay
Most of the gameplay from SimCity 2000 remained in SimCity 3000. The concept of waste management was added as well as the ability to choose from three zoning densities. Also, farms could appear in certain industrial zones.

The idea of dealing with neighboring cities was much expanded in SimCity 3000. Players could negotiate deals to buy or sell electricity, water, and waste management services. The game also introduced business deals. Players would have the option of allowing a certain type of building to be built in their city. If they allowed it to be built, the player receives a certain amount of money, but also has to deal with an undesirable effect.

Players also were given better help. Advisors in SimCity 3000 gave the player in depth advice rather than simply discouraging the player from cutting funding as they did in SimCity 2000. The player also had petitioners, usually citizens from their city, asking for certain ordinances to be enacted or taxes to be cut. The newspapers were replaced with a news ticker. If something was wrong with the player's cities, the news stories would reflect this. If everything was going well, the stories would be humorous nonsense. The ticker would sometimes have a warning of a disaster to come.

Another new feature was landmarks. Landmarks were there mostly for aesthetic purposes, though building one would open the tourism advertising city ordinance. Landmarks were free to build, but limited to ten per city (though there is cheat that can remove this limit).

Graphically, SimCity 3000 improved upon its predecessor. Buildings were grouped together more rigorously by economic class, creating distinct neighborhoods. The ground had grass and varied in color with elevation. The land had five levels of steepness instead of one. Instead of only pine trees, SimCity 3000 added several types of trees, with oaks being prevalent. On the other hand,SimCity 3000 got rid of the waterfalls introduced in SimCity 2000.

Disasters

 * Earthquake
 * Fire
 * Nuclear Meltdown
 * Riots
 * Tornado
 * UFO

Unlimited-exclusive disasters
These four Disasters only appear in the Unlimited Version.
 * Toxic Cloud
 * Whirlpool
 * Plague of Locusts
 * Space Junk

Versions

 * PC - Released in 1999
 * Macintosh - Released in 2000