Sim City 512KB, question?

[bloodline]

ok, it wasn't megadrive port

The Amiga SimCity2000 was a port from the Mac version, and had zero amiga acceleration... It is painfully slow on AGA... Though FBlit and an 040+ make it quite playable

[Varthall]

There were several different versions of Sim City, each one having different menu graphics (and maybe other improvements, too): 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.2 and 1.3. Also, two data disks were released (Architecture 1 and 2), plus a Terrain editor and some additional graphics sets.

Varthall

[ChaosLord]

If you are playing Sim City 512K then you are doing it wrong

I never ever ever played Sim City 512k.  The 1MB version came out at the same time.  Then Sim City 1.1 came out quickly thereafter and that is the version I played the most.

I can't remember what the enhancements were... Larger cities... Maybe some slightly enhanced gfx?  Donno.


As to Sim City 2000, the trouble with that one is that it was just unplayably slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  omg.  They coded it total newbstyle.  The gfx were programmed all wrong and were ridiculously slow as a result.

So to actually play Sim City 2000 on an Amiga back in the old days, you had to get the Mac 256 color chunky version and run a Mac Emulator on your Amiga and then play the game.  Yes it was massively faster to emulate a foreign computer playing Sim City 2000 than to just play Sim City 2000 directly on your Amiga. :insane:

[spirantho]

As to Sim City 2000, the trouble with that one is that it was just unplayably slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  omg.  They coded it total newbstyle.  The gfx were programmed all wrong and were ridiculously slow as a result.

The gfx were programmed in a system-legal way, and were not "newb-style" at all. In fact I believe the programmer (John Jones-Steele) had a heck of a job getting it to work given the hardware at the time. It was not a simple job and he's a very experienced (and talented) coder.

I can't remember exactly what the problems were but I know there were distinct difficulties with it (because he told me a few years back).

It's because it was coded properly that we can use programs like FBlit and mode promotion and stuff. It is slower than emulation on fast RTG machines because it was done using 256-colour AGA - so I would recommend emulating the PC or Mac versions if you have a fast enough machine and a graphics card (as they use RTG) - but the comment above about the coding doesn't do him justice at all.

[itix]

What is the difference between the 512KB and 1MB version? What did they leave out in the 512KB release?

1MB version had better graphics and I think that was it.

[mikrucio]

Iv got an immaculate boxed original version of sim city for the Amiga
both low res and high res version in the same box.
if anyone is interested.

[Florida]

Is Sim City for the Amiga considered free to download and use?

[Florida]

"More commercial zones needed." You got it.
 
http://www.amiga.org/forums/album.php?albumid=183&pictureid=1112

[ElPolloDiabl]

There is the goal of having a high population. I got to the really hard goal of Megalopolis.
 You have to put up with a high crime rate. A city that isn't very pretty. You need to wriggle the tax rate back and forth. But it can be done.
 I really lost interest in the game after that achievement. SC2k is much better because you design something.

  I never won any of the dullsville scenarios (SC and SC2k). Give that one a try and let us know how you did it.

[Florida]

I think I did alright.
 
http://www.amiga.org/forums/album.php?albumid=183&pictureid=1113

[desiv]

The gfx were programmed in a system-legal way, and were not "newb-style" at all. In fact I believe the programmer (John Jones-Steele) had a heck of a job getting it to work given the hardware at the time. It was not a simple job and he's a very experienced (and talented) coder.

Looking at his Amiga bio, he does have quite a bit of Amiga experience.  And not all his previous games are "system friendly" so I think he knew the Amiga..

However just because he was a good programmer doesn't mean it was the "hardware at the time" that was the problem.

It could have been the developer/production house.  If they didn't give him enough time to do a proper port, his first job is to get it up and running and working.  After that, you work on optimizing it, and it's possible (likely) that Maxis didn't feel it was worth the effort (time/money) to do that.  They probably felt it was "good enough."  It might have even been the right call at the time..
I think SimCity 2000 was released about the same time Commodore was going bankrupt.

desiv

[som99]

I bought the game back when it came and still got the box and floppies, back then I got used to the slowness but now it's nearly playable on my 030, I play it from time to time, tho I have for long promised myself to try the Mac version via shapeshifter as it will run a bit better