SC4's Ninth Birthday!

[dedgren]

Less than a week away.  Nine Years!

Who would have thunk it, way back when?


David

[ivo_su]

Yes, David, I agree with you.
Who would  dare 9 years ago, to think that today this game will bring passion and excitement of so many people. Hardly anyone imagined that this game will build a society which connects over 150 countries.

- Ivo

[catty]

it was one of the reasons I got a home computer was to play SimCity 3000 and when I got SimCity 4 ... it was awesome ... and of course that meant I had to have a new computer to do it justice

[vortext]

nine years huh. .  and still new content is being released nearly every day. I sometimes wonder if people from EA / Maxis visit sites like these and would recognize the game any longer. It really is one of a kind.

[art128]

I sometimes wonder if people from EA / Maxis visit sites like these and would recognize the game any longer.

I'd like to see their face now with all the new incredible contents.

[weixc812]

Yeah, this game is a language that we all share 

[gn_leugim]

I sometimes wonder if people from EA / Maxis visit sites like these and would recognize the game any longer.

I'd like to see their face now with all the new incredible contents.

They would but, I dont believe they visit us, or show intress, because EA only wants profit, and they get it from FPS and RTS as not many people nowadays plays city simulation games =\

[WC_EEND]

I tend to disagree, if you look at the Anno series for instance, they are massively popular (granted, it's a bit of combination of an RTS and city-building game). But the general public indeed prefers FPS and racing games to city-builders, because in my view they have the stigma of being very hard for people new to the genre. The original SC4 was by no means an easy game if you're new to city-building games, but if you persevered, it rewarded you greatly.

[GMT]

it's not just that city builders (business simulations in general and to a certain extend RTS) are a hard genre to new gamers, as a matter of fact they are anything but a quick fun. they demand a lot of time to be enjoyed and give good results and not everyone can put this time into it. Most gamers are looking into fastpaced fun, call it arcade if you want, and that's more a matter of FPS and racing games (sports games in general I guess).
I see it with myself, while I totally love Sim City ever since I got the SNES version of the first Sim City I guess it's the game that followed me through (almost) my entire life and I recon it will stay this way till death do us part. But the more I'm running short on time I can spent playing, the more I tend to put SC aside and play other games that are less time consuming to get decent results. I can vividly remember times when I was developing entire regions and after like 6-8 hours (god I miss school) I realized all I've done was 1 big city tile in a region i want to turn into a sprawling city.

but damn, 9 years already. and still as young as day one... thanks to loads of plastic surgery from the community 

[Badsim]

What's that syndrome ruling now the entire world ? ... or something grows endlessly , or it is undeniably dying ! ( looks like SC4 has lost its AAA ! My goodness !  )

Future  is « undetermined events that will occur » . Frightening speculations allowed indeed ... 

After all I've just read  about the future of the community , I feel necessary  to keep in mind first that  we're free since creation tools ( LE , BAT , PM ) provided by Maxis ,  without thinking about the Internet revolution ( like all of us ) , have generated the emergence of free fan sites with free creators of free Modding tools and free custom content . SC4 , which isn't a game ( Tetris is a game , Hide-and-seek is a game . Race driver GRID is a game . Build and design cities is a hobby if not a dangerous addiction ...  ) , can be considered like kidnaped by its fans since the first upload on the STEX in 2003 , and it's not going to happen again soon that another City Builder developer commits that kind of  error . See CitiesXL ... ( I remember Da Silva from Monte Cristo naming us « the gardeners ... » ) "Gloria victis !" 


And no need to wish a long life to SC4 : with that kind of unstoppable asset , that's obvious .

Happy birthday SC4 !  

Last note ; SC4Devotion in its charter of good manners asserts that « This isn't a social site ... » . I'm afraid that , just the opposite , everything there is social ; BarbyW («  Don't complain , don't explain » , H. Ford but so British finally , isn't it ? Hope you're doing well ...  ) , Jeronij , Colyn , Ripplejet , Andreas ,Diggis , Wouanagaine , Ennedi and ... many many others , we miss you so ! 

Cédric.

[mike3775]

I still think SimCity 2000 for the Sega Saturn was the 2nd best version of the game because you could zone for the airports and seaports, so you could make them as large or small as you wished with zoning.

SC3000 was fun(I still have mine and have thought about installing it on my WinME PC to play it again), but SC4 took the cake when it came to the name.

And the game was made even better by modders who loked for things they could tweak and make thegame even better, or by some awesome lotters as well.

As far as most popular games, the sports genre(baseball, football, soccer/futbol) and war games will always be the top selling games

[gn_leugim]

As far as most popular games, the sports genre(baseball, football, soccer/futbol) and war games will always be the top selling games

That's way I believe EA wont make a Sim City 5 or other games like it. not to a scale of investment of "ModernWarfare" or something like it I mean. it is long gone the time where people had visions, dreams, and not profits only XD

I can name a few good games which got lost on History for not being profitable   

anyway, happy birthday SC4

[noahclem]

A happy birthday to SC4    My favorite number of years for my favorite game 

Given that I still play games as old as Master of Orion II or even Warcraft I or Civilization II occasionally, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm playing SC4 in another 9 years 

[Grneyes]

Holy cow!! Go SC4!!! 

[io_bg]

9 years already? Wow... And EA still haven't made a better game than it

[mike3775]

Given that I still play games as old as Master of Orion II or even Warcraft I or Civilization II occasionally, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm playing SC4 in another 9 years 

You to?  I honestly do not like most newer video games.  I have a 360, Wii, PS3, and yet I would rather play PC games like Civ II/III/IV, Command and Conquer Red Alert II/Yuri's Revenge, SC4, SC3000.  Heck I have thought about hooking up the Saturn and play SC2000 on it(that and Daytona 500 were the only two games I ever bought for it because by the time I got that system, a few months later the original playstation came out, which I immediately bought).

Its hard to believe that I first played SimCity on a SNES, and all it consisted of was red, yellow, and blue blocks to designate the zones, and when traffic got to bad, bulldoze the roads and replace them with train tracks, then get the train station.  To beat the game(I believe it was to become a megalopolis) you had to do a grid pattern of 3 at the top and bottom and 2 on the sides with a park in the middle so that they would all join together.  Then when you were out of land, they gave you 4 landfill tiles as rewards.  Man the memories

[apeguy]

A very happy birthday to SC4 indeed. Just the fact that this game has such a huge community of people who still play the game shows how good this game is. Games like SC4 don't come along very often. Even with other City-Builders that have come along, CityLife, CitiesXL, etc SC4 still sits comfortably at the top of the City-Building genre.

I'd also like to thank all the BATers, modders, lotters, and everyone else who contributes for making this game still so enjoyable after nearly a decade. To be honest, who needs SC5 with all you guys around? I'm certain that when this game reaches its tenth birthday there will still be a huge fanbase to celebrate it, just as we are now.

[Aaron Graham]

Happy Birthday Sim City 4!!! :O

[noahclem]

9 years old and my high-end-at-the-time 3-yr-old laptop still lags 

Its hard to believe that I first played SimCity on a SNES

You too?    I'd have to add Dune II to my old-school PC game list too...

[Rady]

Nine years old, and still outrunning all of the new games that I happen to try out. Even refrained from buying Anno 2070 'cause I knew returning to SC4 would only be a matter of weeks or months.

So, thanks to all the folks making this game worthwhile over such a long period.