SimCity was first released in 1989 – essentially a game of urban economics and planning the game was first developed in 1985. The four year wait for release and further development was due to publishers unwillingness to commit to a game a) about city planning and b) with no winning or losing.
In 1989 SimCity formed part of our MSc in Town and County Planning, then running on high end PC’s. It is now available for a wide range of platforms, most recently the Nintendo DS.
The 15 second Japanese Advert below is interesting in its rearranging of the urban backdrop:
In terms of gameplay it looks similar to the previous PC and Mac incarnations of SimCity, although tailored to a younger audience. The movie below provides a good preview of the gameplay:
SimCity DS is a city in your pocket complete with the old school urban planning and economics. Yet, and maybe this is an age thing, we cant help but to be drawn back to the original version without all the ‘blowing into the microphone’ to put out fires….