Video Game / SimCity 2000

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— Steen Eiler Rasmussen (1898 - 1990^note The game's manual erroneously recorded Rasmussen as still living when it was published in 1993), architect and urban planner

SimCity 2000 is a 1993 city-building simulator and the second release of the SimCity series. It was initially released for DOS and Mac computers, eventually getting ported into a large variety of home computers and consoles over the years. It changed from the first game's overhead perspective into an isometric plane, and introduced dramatic changes such as customizable elevation and underground infrastructure such as road tunnels, subway systems and water pipes. There are also new building types introduced that cover healthcare and education, and especially arcologies that would support a dense pocket of people in a futuristic setting.

Given the game's massive commercial success, two expansions were released:

• Scenarios Vol. I: Great Disasters: Adds a variety of new scenarios to the game, where the disasters would destroy the city and would require a rebuilding effort within a certain amount of time.
• SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (or SCURK for short): A tool that allows users to use an alternate tileset for the buildings in the game, and also allows the creation and editing of save files for the base game. The tool has also been released for Sim Copter and Streets of SimCity, which both have the ability to play in an existing SimCity 2000 savefile as a selling point.

YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON TROPES LISTS! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!

• Abnormal Ammo: The beams that the alien monsters use usually set your city on fire. On some occasions, their beams plant trees, create surface water, or even buid wind turbines, while still destroying the intervening buildings and infrastructure. Perhaps they're Well Intentioned Extremists who thought the Sims' environment needed some help?
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Most of the buildings are obviously asymmetrical but appear exactly the same when viewed from the north or south. When viewed from the east or west, the sprites are simply mirrored.
• Arcology:
  • The Plymouth Arco, invented in 2000, is "Solid as a Rock", or so claims Plymouth Arcologies, Inc. It's known that they have stood through several earthquakes, notably in the NeoRepublic of Mexico and the Taiwan CoProsperity Region. Plymouth Arcologies are designed primarily to support heavy industries, as visually demonstrated by the sewage and pollution literally oozing down the grungy outer walls of its obelisk-like design. Combined with the giant television screen built at the base, this arcology and its 55,000 industrious citizens has a distinct 80s dystopian cyberpunk theme going for it.
  • Going in the complete opposite direction from its predecessor, the Forest Arcology, invented in 2050, is a series of habitat rings built on top of each other, and is named for its attractive forest setting on the top level. Throughout the structure, citizens utilize recycling, operate ecologically sound industries, and maintain a rich verbal heritage that replaces television and radio. Unfortunately, the youth of Forest Arcos are bored silly and roam out into your city where they stare mindlessly at soap operas and sports programs displayed in the electronics department at local malls. Most of its 30,000 residents are tree-hugging hippies.
  • Invented in 2100 is the Darco — slang for "De-Urbanized Arcological Construct". Originally designed by the twisted genius of Dante McCallavre, the artist/architect proclaimed it a reactionary response to the rigid, archetypal arcologies of his day. No one really knows what this means, and many engineers are frankly baffled at how the thing stays standing. Inside, the ill-lit corridors twist into odd, meandering corkscrews that mysteriously turn back on themselves. Non-Euclidean would be the best way to describe it. There are rumors that a strange sub-species of man inhabits the air ducts. The Darco can attract up to 45,000 brave souls.
  • "Launch" Arcologies, invented in 2150, were nicknamed for their resemblance to modern orbital launchers. The resemblance is not entirely coincidental, as sophisticated methods of biological support were necessary to oxygenate and feed the thousands of inhabitants. While never tested, the manufacturers claim the occupants could stay self-contained for up to two decades. The sides of the arcology are equipped with vernier jets to stabilize the structure during storms and earthquakes. A small nuclear facility independently powers the building; spare energy is stored by electrolyzing water into two tanks for oxygen and hydrogen. The "Launch Arco" holds 65,000 inhabitants, but are also the most expensive to build. Build 450 of these in your city and the Exodus will occur. All of the launch arcos will explode, demolishing themselves while a message appears on your screen: "Your launch arcos have departed into space to find new worlds. You have been compensated for the construction." Note: building 450 of them will take up roughly 90% of your entire city's area, meaning you will need to destroy most of what you've already built just to accommodate them. This is, however, considered the unofficial "Win Condition" in a technically unwinnable, unending game.
• Artistic License – Medicine:
  • The newspaper prints random nonsense, such as bogus medical advice for earwax build-uppus, hypertension, llama pox, or pimples.
    According to the [source], everyone should be aware of the early warning signs of [disease]. These signs can include: vomiting up [second disease], loss of [body part] control and occasional fits of guppy violence.
    "If you are experiencing all of these symptoms, then it's probably a [adjective] idea to take massive amounts of medication," representatives say.
  • The newspaper may also warn about "prolonged contact with any kind of simulated city."
• Artistic License – History:
  • The Newspaper can mention things which are anachronistic to the time period your city is currently in. For instance, the news will sometimes mention communist takeovers (In Zaire) or tank columns being destroyed by rebels in a war... In 1903. Sometimes, you will have snippets which describe programmers and computers, completely oblivious to the time period your city is in.
  • Sometimes, a picture of 2 Vietnam-War era soldiers or a bunch of 80s protestors is shown in the newspapers- again, completely oblivious to the time period.
  • Somewhat averted with period-accurate utilities only being available within their specific time period (e.g. oil power plants are only available after the 1930s, while airports are available after the 1950s). Despite this, there are no graphics changes to represent cars or different building styles, and newspapers can say completely anachronistic things which do not match the time period of the city you're currently in.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do NOT cut transit funding. You will regret this.
  • Bulldozing too many trees consecutively will trigger a popup message (with a booing crowd sound) that your Sims are protesting your destruction of the forest. It doesn't seem to have any effect on your approval rating, though.
• Bizarrchitecture: The "Darco" arcology is said to be designed around what is best described as non-Euclidian. There's also rumors that a sub-species of human crawls around in the depths within.
• Bland-Name Product: The newspaper mentions some fake names. Journalists may win a Bullitzer (not a Pulitzer). Professors can receive the Nodel Peace Prize (not the Nobel Prize in Medicine). Athletes may win a gold medal at the International Games (not the Olympic Games). The game scenario for Barcelona mentions the 1992 Global Games (not the 1992 Summer Olympics).
• Boom Town: The Dullsville scenario requires increasing the city to 20,000 within 10 years and have $5000 outside of bonds, but gives the standard amount of starting funds rather than a reduced amount.
• Cargo Ship: The newspaper discusses this In-Universe (and Played for Laughs), under the headline "Man Loves Computer". A man in a Love Triangle spends more time with his computer (who has a female name) than with his wife.
• Cheat Code: Older versions of SimCity 2000 have codes that unlock all perks (including Arcologies) and give you a pile of money. There's also the classic "double fund" code where you buy two municipal bonds via "fund", then one through the city management menu, triggering a Good Bad Bug where you end up with a loan with a ludicrous negative interest, meaning you get piles of money you'll probably never run out of every year.
• The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: The treasury specialist recommends floating a bond to take advantage of low interest rates - ignoring the fact that it's sometimes hard to get a stable enough cash flow to maintain power plants that self destruct every 50 years.
• Creator Cameo: Using the Query Tool on a sailboat will result in a caption naming the boat "First Light", and listing the captain as J. Scirica, who was the then-Vice President of Product Development at Maxis.
• Critical Existence Failure: A newspaper article quotes a scientist who cites a law of physics stating that all forms of power generation will instantaneously collapse exactly fifty years after they're built. This happens to be true for every power plant except hydroelectric and wind. Make sure you budget for replacement power plants.
• Cyber Cyclops: The Monster is one of the flying alien laser-shooting variety.
• Deadly Gas: Volcanoes and chemical tanks that are destroyed by fire unleash a big cloud of noxious smoke onto your city, which causes any building it touched to immediately abandon. The debug menu even has a disaster called Toxic Spill that spawns a whole bunch of them at once.
• Easter Egg:
  • We have Nessie and Maxis Man. Also the Moose: if you start clear cutting too much forest, the sims will protest. Eventually you're asked if you want to hear the moose...
  • Clicking on the library building has the option to ruminate, which displays an essay on cities by Neil Gaiman.
  • The Inspect mode turns the cursor into a cross-hairs. If you click the mouse while that cross-hairs is over a helicopter, the helicopter will then go into a tailspin and crash. And depending on where it crashes, this will also start a fire.
  • In the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, typing "vaudeville" will cause a crudely-animated Launch Arcology with a top hat and cane to dance across the screen twice to some (presumably) vaudeville music.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: A minor example in the instruction manual. The manual at one point says that you have the option of turning disasters off..."if you're a wimp".
• Eldritch Abomination: The Monster. It's unclear whether it's a robot, a Living Ship, or even if it's actually from outer space and not just a movie prop gone berserk.
• Game Mod: The SimCity Urban Renewal Kit was an official expansion that allows you to customise city layouts and building sprites and tilesets.
• Hated by All: Downplayed and Played for Laughs with the Tax Advisor (from the Budget screen). Anytime you ask him for advice, his dialogue will be accompanied by the sound of a crowd booing (and he's apparently the only advisor who gets this treatment). And it doesn't matter what he says, as they will still boo him even if he advises you to lower taxes. Then again, it's kind of justified since he is trying to influence your decisions that could affect the financial well-being of your citizens.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Rioters can be snuffed out by fires that they started themselves.
• I Want My Jetpack: The old manual tells players not to "come to us in 2050 and complain that we don't have fusion power yet."
• Kill Sat: One of the disasters is a microwave satellite missing the power plant it's supposed to beam energy to, and instead blasting your city.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The newspaper may warn about "prolonged contact with any kind of simulated city." Better stop playing SimCity now.
• Level Editor:
  • An interesting example in regards to SimCopter and Streets of SimCity, which load SimCity 2000 levels, thus making SC2000 a level editor for them.
  • As for SimCity 2000 itself, there is a program called SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (or simply "SCURK") which was either sold as a stand-alone product or included with certain "special editions" of SimCity 2000 and Streets of SimCity. The Urban Renewal Kit allowed you to place buildings, roads, water, trees, and so on anywhere you like regardless of whether it would make the city functional or not (for SimCopter and Streets of SimCity levels or to even make a city you could print out as a physical picture). It also included a pixel editor for objects so you could change the appearance of buildings, which could be imported into SimCity 2000 as building sets.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Your city's Education Quotient (EQ) functions like this in regards to industrial zones. At first, your EQ will be low and you'll only be able to build low-tech, highly polluting industries. However, if you build enough schools, colleges, libraries, and museums, your EQ will go up. This will, in turn, make it easier to attract high-tech, low polluting industries. This is expensive and time-consuming, but the higher education level will eventually pay off with lower pollution, crime, and unemployment levels as well as higher land values that the higher tech industries will bring.
  • Mass Transit systems also function in this way. As you advance through time, you'll be able to build highways, bus depots, subway tunnels, and subway stations. Again, it's expensive and tricky to set up. However, once you get subways, buses, and highways functioning properly your traffic levels will be relatively reduced and lead to lower pollution levels and overall happier sims.
• Mascot Mook: The Monster in this game shows up pretty much all over the place, from the main menu to the GBA port's help screens. It's so iconic, it's impossible to think about SimCity 2000 without thinking about the Monster. Which is funny, since the Monster rarely shows up in-game, unless you deliberately activate it with the Disasters menu.
• Never Recycle a Building: The moment tenants move out of a building, it is instantaneously transformed into a dirty, run-down ghetto shack, regardless of what it was before.
• Running Gag: Newspaper articles have a running gag of declaring things to be bald. After a chemical cloud disaster, the headline in the paper is "Bald Pollution", and several people involved in the newspaper stories are noted as being bald. Sometimes, bizarre headlines such as "Bald Radio Found" crop up as well.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the buildings was styled after the historic Orinda Theatre in Maxis's then-hometown.
  • Many neighbouring city names are references to Red Dwarf and Blake's 7, and one of the commercial buildings is called "Cassidy's Toy Store", after Will Wright's daughter.
  • The three speed settings for the original version of the game were Turtle, Llama, and Cheetah. Later versions added a fourth, faster setting: African Swallow.
• Show Within a Show: A game within a game. The newspaper reports that school students may play mayor in a city simulation game. Some students go to the school nurse, afraid that they might live in a simulation.
• Torches and Pitchforks: The Riots disaster, which can be more accurately described as Torches and Protest Signs. The angry mob will light buildings on fire and rally other Sims to form more angry mobs. If left unchecked, they can potentially raze an entire city to the ground.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • One that overlaps with Easter Egg: You could shoot down the traffic copter with the Center tool. Though this can start a fire if it crashes onto a building and you have Disasters turned on.
  • You can get rid of rioters by lowering the terrain that they're standing on until it becomes water. That's right, you can drown your own malcontent citizens.
  • And start fires if "disasters" are switched on. Another amusing one is to build anything other than low-density residential next to an airport runway. Naturally, daily 911 disasters with massive fires will occur if "disasters" are switched on. If they are off, the planes merely explode. You can also blow up oil tankers by raising the land under them so they are lifted out of the water, and destroy trains by destroying the train tracks they are stuck on.
  • If you zone a high-rise in the way of an airport's runway, airplanes will crash into it. Repeatedly.
• What the Hell, Hero?: You get a notable one if you cut back on transportation funding even by a little bit, in all caps. You also get reprimanded if you bulldoze too many forests in short succession, as well.
• Word-Salad Humor: The newspaper stories can delve into this as a result of being semi-randomly generated. Remember when that star lacrosse player suffered a twisted kidney and a fractured uvula, or that scare about bogus handbags being sold as a snake oil cure for textured pimples?
• Writers Cannot Do Math: The newspaper cannot do math. Journalists just insert random numbers in their stories. So the "fifth" microwave accident in history can happen after the "ninth" one. Or this: "The victory all but assures August River a berth in the playoffs for the seventh time in 28 years and would only be trip number 3 in the history of the franchise."
• You Require More Vespene Gas:
  • Water supply. The manual mentions this is deliberate, because Maxis' headquarters are in Southern California, and as such, have its constant thirst.
  • The manual also mentions that, yes, the developers know that cities existed before electricity, but the sims themselves are electronic beings and therefore they require that electricity to live.