SimCity 3000 Unlimited is a city-building simulation game. Developed in 1999 it was the third installment of the SimCity series. Currently, in 2020, many more players are familiar with SimCity 4 or SimCity BuildIt, modern variations on SimCity 3000. SimCity 3000 Unlimited allows the player to create a city of their own. With many different customization options, from creating urban housing to central city hubs. The standard of applying, plumbing, electrical, etc also are features present in SimCity 3000. This simulation game allows the player to create a megalopolis of their own from tall standing skyscrapers, carnivals, museums, etc.
Gameplay
SimCity 3000 is a Strategy game from Maxis Software published in 1999 and is free for download. SimCity 3000 Unlimited is a city-building simulation game. Developed in 1999 it was the third installment of the SimCity series. Currently, in 2020, many more players are familiar with SimCity 4 or SimCity BuildIt, modern variations on SimCity 3000. SimCity 3000 Unlimited allows the player to create a city of their own.
SimCity 3000 Unlimited has you starting with a few residential, commercial, industrial zones. After you begin creating capital, you can buy more and more upgrades. Some more lavish than others. Your city will be filled up with roads, subways, railways, plumbing, and electrical lines. Eventually, you will get to a point to expand into important items such as a police station, fire station, schools, etc. These buildings will allow you to keep your city in check, as well as improve the educational abilities of the civilians. SimCity 3000 Unlimited comes with its fair share of realistic simulation, from taxes to recreational areas, landfills, and city suggestions. It’s not just about making your city look beautiful, you must balance the city between a multitude of factors. Between crime, cleanliness, satisfaction, and traffic, there are many micro manageable settings the user has to adjust. For instance, maybe you would like to implement certain fines or taxes that would benefit the city but may reduce satisfaction. Or implementing more police stations would decrease the amount of crime in that area but may come with its fair share of complaints.
Graphics
The graphics one-up the graphics in SimCity 2000, naturally the next selection of the series should have upgraded graphics as well as gameplay. The graphics elicit a greater sense of detail and precision. Furthermore, the player can zoom in and see actual pedestrians walking on the streets of your city. This is similar to the likes of games like Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 where actual riders and pedestrians can be seen, and seen with great detail when zoomed up close. While SimCity 3000 Unlimited was released half a decade before Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, it certainly did not fail in the graphics department. While the graphics are certainly nice for 1999, SimCity 3000 Unlimited feels like a more aesthetic graphically intense SimCity 3000, those who have played the previous SimCity titles will be able to find their way around SimCity 3000 easily.
Game Comparisons
SimCity 3000 Hints & Tips Zones information Written By: Rand Huck Friday, May 5, 2000. For those of you who aren't sure where, or when to place your zones, I will give you some background information about them. Zones thrive on two mandatory sources: Roads and power, and will thrive more if you include water.
SimCity 3000 Unlimited at the time of release was only one of it’s kind in the genre. However now in 2020, the city building simulation genre has grown immensely. The more modern SimCity 4 or SimCity BuildIt are direct products of SimCity 3000. Other modern games such as City Skylines or the Tropico series also have the same idea of creating a city and managing the many settings each city contains.
Conclusion
SimCity 3000 Unlimited, while old, still holds up for its time as one of the greatest city-building simulation games. Without it, we would not have its modern variants. If you’re looking for a more rustic old style of city-building simulation or just a trip down memory lane you should look to SimCity 3000. Remember to try out the more modern titles, as those have many more customization options and modern settings.
Overview
It’s back, and better than ever! The latest in the SimCity series, SimCity 3000 (SC3K) is a very grown-up version of the game with tons of new features and a glossy new look. You’ll find a greater range of tools, lots of bug fixes and a whole new building tile set. One of the best new features is the huge library of actual landmarks included with the game (with more available for download.) It’s kind of cool to have a simple one-horse town with the Arc de Triomphe sitting in the middle of it.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
The control panel has been completely revamped from the last version, with an RTS-style playing field surrounded by controls. You also now have a ticker across the bottom of your screen with news and advice from your various advisors, instead of having to monitor the newspaper as in SimCity 2000 (SC2K). Access to charts, maps and graphs is much easier, too. The game speed is easier to control, as each time you load a city you start out in pause mode, and the various speeds aren’t so hugely different from what they were before.
You can even load in cities from SC2K, though there are some things that have been changed that will make them rather different in this version. Otherwise, the basic gameplay is the same as always and most of the strategies you’re familiar with for building cities before will work here. There are also some strategy updates, though, as some of the ordinances, pollution and crime data are different. The biggest problems I ran into when playing, aside from being a bit confused over seaports and farms, were never having enough schools and dealing with traffic congestion (though this particular aspect is vastly improved over SC2K). I also kind of miss having hydroelectric plants, since those worked so easily before. Building bridges is also a bit of a pain at first, but once you’ve done a few, they make sense.
Graphics
There isn’t quite as much improvement in actual game graphics as I had hoped for (I was imagining something closer to what the pre-game cinematics look like), but the overall look is much cleaner, clearer and more colorful. Buildings are much more detailed now, there’s actual animation on many items, and on the closest zooms you can actually see cars and people moving around. The terrain is also smoother and easier to work with, and you can even turn off the grid lines to watch your city in action.
Audio
Authentic sounds, especially on the closer zooms, and some really good (if oddball) music. No great need for a major sound card, unless you want the surround sound immersion effect.
System Requirements
It’s a hefty one -- be sure to have a fast system, or a large city will take forever to load.
Buy Simcity 3000
Minimum: Win 95/98, Pentium 166, 32 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, 2 MB, 16 bit Video card DirectX 6 certified, 230 MB hard drive space, DirectX 6 sound card
Simcity 3000 Download
Recommended: 233 Pentium or faster, 8X CD-ROM drive, 4 MB video card
Documentation
Simcity 3000 Mac
One of the largest play guides I’ve ever seen comes with this game, along with a 15-page reference 'card' that’s almost a play guide in itself. Both are very useful and handy. The SC3K website is also a great resource, as it addresses a few issues people have reported with the game, and has some great downloads and updates, too.
Buy Simcity 3000 Download
Bottom Line
Simcity 3000 Cheats
A great update. Lots of hard work went into this, and even though it took forever to finally be released, it was well worth the wait. They obviously listened very closely to what people wanted from the game and delivered very well. Many, many problems were completely resolved (such as water issues) and tons of new features were added that make the game all the more fun. There are still a few minor issues, such as difficulty with farms, seaports and bridges, but information on the website and in the play guide can help you get past those.