The idea that Clint had "pin-ups" in his bedroom of SimCity screenshots is somehow both the nerdiest thing I've ever heard, and also the most relatable thing I've ever heard.
I imagine his parents exasperated downstairs after he has gone to bed, cutting out pictures of women and trying to sneak them onto his wall while he is sleeping.
I remember printing a similar promo image from The Sims 2. It look literal ages and I think my mom had me stop the thing before it finished because of the absurd amount of color ink I was 'wasting'.
my dad was a middle school computer teacher in the 2000s and I was in his class briefly. Sim City 3000 Unlimited was installed on every PC in the computer lab and we were allowed to play it if we finished our work early. He even assigned us the game as a project at one point, because he really believed in the ability to adapt ideas from games to the real world. We were rural fifth graders and I think this is the closest some of us felt to a city. He also assigned Oregon Trail at one point. This brought back a lot of memories.
@@LGR I agree that these videos are some of the best content. Are you a big fan of the CC Red Alert series? Would love to see some in-depth history on these classic. Thanks for all your work ❤
I always appreciate how these retrospectives are both a really nice overview of the game with it's history and Clint's specific experience with the game.
I'm surprised that SimCity 3000 is often forgotten/overlooked when folks talk about the franchise. People think about SC2K but honestly I feel 3000 was the absolute peak of the franchise from all angles, and oh god, that SOUNDTRACK. Jerry Martin was firing on all cylinders during this time with both this and The Sims 1's music.
2000 was the first one I played but it was with 3000 I really enjoyed the game and the music is great. I have a lot more nostalgia for 3000. 1999 was all about Sim City 3000 and C&C Tiberian Sun for me. Peak 2D games. No 3D card needed to play.
The music is great but the game overall feels like an awkward stepping stone between 2000 and 4. It doesn't add enough to justify itself over 2000 the way 4 does, and actively takes away many of the more fun features like the arcologies, and hydroelectric.
@@parrot998But at the same time, having simcity 3000 just be a more refined simcity 2000 was a pretty good choice when you considered the development history. And honestly I perfer simcity 3000 over simcity 2000 when it comes to it's gameplay refinement, and just having it look way better than 2000. It may have removed arcologies but they only existed to get around sim city 2000s extremely limited population numbers, but now you can get over a million people living in a single city without the need of a special building to artificially increase the population. Also removing hydrodams while forcing you to build the expensive power plants early game, weren't that necessary in my opinion (although I wish they could keep flooding from past games) Basically, if you want a more user friendly while also a more complex version of sim city 2000, SC3000 is your friend.
I feel so validated by this video. I spent an unholy number of hours playing Unlimited back in the day and just as you say the "aura" of the game is so perfect. From those perfect shades of green to the style of the buildings to the vibe of the jazz soundtrack.
I feel bad for having played this with the music off back in the day. Speaking of, I've always loved the sound design of this game. Highlights for me include: clicking on the power lines (clunk-whirrr-zzt-zzt), putting down the subway stations and hearing the ambience in their view, clicking on abandoned lots (all too common for me, sadly). Lowlights? How about the library?
I think I put more time overall into 2000 and 4, but 3000 definitely had the tightest balance to complexity ratio of any City Sim on the market. And it did so in keeping a utopian sort of focus on the city population itself instead of the sadly overcomplicated real world problems in dealing with traffic (or in exploiting some mechanics to create infinite power and money loops)
I was lucky enough to perform with Marc Russo when I was a kid (I grew up in the East Bay, and he and a couple of other Tower of Power guys played with my middle school jazz bands on a concert). He was an incredibly nice guy, and I won’t pretend his compliments didn’t help with my push towards wanting to become a pro musician myself! It’s fun to see him get a shout-out!
@@drgribb ALSO YES! I thought it might be you based on the username but didn’t want to assume!! Small world (though not super surprising to find you on an LGR video all things considered)! Hope you’re doing well!
@Swanfeatha Oh man, what a small world haha! Those special gig opportunities with the Tower of Power folks, or playing the Warfield, or Yoshi's, or what-have-you really made a big impression and were important and formative for me too. Apparently they knocked down the old Guitar Center on San Pablo and replaced it with a luxury apartment building called... The Credence -- I hate it lol. I'm convinced there's another universe where I moved to New Orleans and became a full-time musician though. 😅 So cool to see you on an LGR vid (coincidentally, I now live not too far from where Clint's based). Hope you're doing well too.
I love the optimistic vibe of this game. Like no other game it captures that feeling of the late 90s that the future was going to be awesome and that society was on the right track and headed for greater things. Even though the game itself stuck to current gen tech of the time, it felt like it was all about turning the world into a clean fancy cityscape with lush parks and gold plated logos on luxurious buildings everywhere.
Honestly that was my favorite thing about the Maxis brand. Instilling not only optimism but wonder in their games. I'm a huge fan of one of their later games, Spore
I didn't expect to get misty eyed over UA-cam this morning, but SimCity 3000 does that for me. It's funny, I found out about SC3K's existence the same day I got SC2K after playing the SNES version of SimCity forever. I got the SE edition of SC2K in 1998 and it came with a little print-out flyer for 3K. Those graphics! How could a videogame look so GOOD? It's probably my favorite for being able to just jump in and play. SC4 is a much deeper game, but that also means it's got a much higher time commitment.. that and the hours needed to get mods set up.
YES! I was waiting for someone to mention this. I absolutely love and guide and have read it cover to cover too so many times! It is so fascinating and informative. Maxis manuals....I wish they kept making them...they were the best!
Hey LGR. Just want to thank you for your contents. We’re of a similar age and we’ve been enjoying the same games. I’ve been moving around a lot of countries when I was young when there was no internet so I lost contact with my old friends which I had very few for not staying in one country for long. So watching your videos make me feel like sharing old memories with an old friend whom I never had and takes me to a journey of inocent and happy times. For that reason you have a special place in my heart. :)
This one hits home the most of any LGR retrospective for me. Like Clint, I was an avid SC 2000 player when 3000 launched. I got it for my birthday in early 1999, but my Pentium 90 MHz PC was too slow to run it. I spent the entire year either not playing it, or struggling to play it. Then Christmas 1999 came and I got a Pentium III PC. I spent my entire Christmas break from school playing Sim City 3000. It was a core experience of my middle school years. This retrospective brought it all back. I still play SC 3000 occasionally, and just like Clint, it brings back all the great memories and hooks me right back in.
Ah, the year 3000! Where holographic historians narrate tales of pixelated pasts and AI archaeologists dig up ancient floppy disks labeled "SimCity 3000." Imagine the excitement as they uncover relics of our primitive simulations, marveling at our attempts to play god with virtual cities. But who will create the video "SimCity 3000, 1000 years later"? Will it be human historians, cyborg cinephiles, or perhaps a sentient AI with a quirky sense of humor? Picture this: a holographic AI host, decked out in a top hat and monocle, narrating the rise and fall of our simulated civilizations with a blend of scholarly insight and sarcastic wit.
The cynical part of me says that a game called SimCity 3000 in the year 3000 will be a simulation of what “cities” used to look like before the great climate disaster/world war/biological destruction, or whatever thing we do to ourselves lol
i LOVE the advisors in SC3K, in terms of the charm they provide and personality they embody when comparing other instances of Sim City, they are unmatched.
I first played SimCity 3000 on my dad's PC. He had the game burned on a CD among other games like Commandos and SWAT 3. At first, I did not understand a thing about city building but after spending hours and hours playing I realized I still did not understand how to play it LOL. He later helped me to build a city and fell in love with this genre. The graphic style, the cozy feeling of watching your creation slowly grow, everything in this game is perfect to me. I later played SimCity 4 and the experience got even better!
LGR is the reason I got into city building games such as City Skylines as a younger teenager, so it's always a special kind of treat to sit down early in the morning and listen to him gush about something he's so fond of. Thank you for sharing your passion with us, sir! It has a long reach!
I also have to add, your channel takes me back to earlier points in my life and, for a split second or two, I can feel like I am back in that moment. Thank you for this.
I remember sitting in our gray folding chair at the computer desk playing Sim City 3000 on a snow day. Just building my city all day long, listening to that timeless soundtrack. This game got me, and I'm sure for countless others, into city building sims and other management sims out there. An absolute classic game with lots of fond memories
Far and away the best of the SimCity games. The soundtrack was amazing. The aesthetic was perfect. The fact that your advisors and petitioners were distinct CHARACTERS in a CITY BUILDER made it much more immersive. And it still had that old school Maxis kind of humor. Truly a masterpiece.
@@gyppygirl2021 SC4 is almost perfection, great simulation, but too fiddly in some aspects and the segmented regions that allow you to make HUGE cities are not that friendly. BUT... Custom buildings... Mods... Day/night cycle... SC4 has tons more to offer.
2K for me. There was something about the simulation in this one that I didn't like as much for some reason. I remember being quite frustrated with this game.
So many memories... I was 10 when it came out (11 when my dad got pirated copy from a friend for me) No idea of english, used just colors, icons and stuff to try to understand the mechanics... and yet my city (Robertopolis) was functional... from then EVERY city in EVERY builder is called Robertopolis. I have like Robertopolis v17.3 in cities skylines now. Looking forward for SC4
Thanks for a great review, you are a really a superb critic and it must’ve been such a thrill to finally revisit one of your all time favorite games after all these years with the channel - great work!
Thanks Clint for finally covering SC3K. It's easily in my top 5 growing up, and even with my adolescent mind, I knew it was special. I distinctly remember the P:TB demo and playing the same 3 levels over and over for months. Funny you mention the cheats; covering old cheat sites, printing out countless pages and how they extended the playability of many games would make for a fun retrospective. Keep up the good work!
@@YesterGearPCii Yeah, I obviously didn't wait to comment. But unlike other people who don't wait for the end of the video before commenting, I was totally right.
Whenever I need to focus at work, I still play the soundtrack to this game on Spotify. The music brings me right back. I spent the entire summer in 2000 in my room playing Unlimited. Life was good.
The fact that you still have printouts from 1998 is just so cool. Makes me think of small things like that i got rid of when I was young, and would be cool to have today.
I still remember playing SC3K for the first time at my friend's house, being obsessed with it for months after that, and then waking up early on Saturdays to play it after we finally got it!
My favorite SimCity, and the main reason I was ridiculously excited my family got a new Windows 98 tower in 1999. Another awesome LGR retrospective, so many good memories!
Excellent video and I totally agree about everything about the game. I even sometimes load up the complete soundtrack here on UA-cam to play in the background while I work on a project. Just a perfect late 90s vibe and the best Sim City-game by a mile.
I remember getting the unlimited version and loving it so much. 3000 unlimited was my first sim city so it will always hold a place in my heart. I loved the advisor art it was so cartoony
Undoubtedly one of the best video games I have ever played. You can spend hours and hours imagining, designing, re-locating, creating your terrain, managing it while you keep expanding your cities… it's kind of a huge challenge to successfully maintain it all and reach a big, self-sufficient city. It was not an easy game indeed. I had a 1.4 million people city and I still have my gameplay saved after over 10 yrs!! Incredible how this game can be infinite. This game has given us so much. Besides, it still has the best soundtrack, simple but very nice graphics, the best landmarks, the best utilities and the best special buildings and power plants. Simply amazing. I need a remaster or something, imagine the possibilities we have now for a game that was already perfect🥰
I very specifically remember riding my bicycle on one hot summer day to the nearest CompUSA 10 miles away to pick up this game. And then returning by bicycle to pick up a new memory stick to boost performance.
As you were playing bits of the soundtrack I was thinking to myself "ah, so this is where LGR got it from" as you go on to confirm my suspicions moments later lol. Great video!
This is definately my favorite SimCity series ever. 'SimCity 3000 Unlimited' was localised as 'SimCity 3000 Korea' at South Korea when I was a teenager and this video reminds me a good old days.
I found a sealed copy of Sim City 3000 Korea last year (2023). It is a jewel case with a thin sleeve. The text is localized in hangeul - and there is a prominent EA logo and EA hologram on the front.
It was called Sim City 3000 Deutschland here. I only know the full version with Europe and Asian building sets but one of my favorites was the building editor. You could build anything yourself and import it into the game. And that while being 2D and running on lowend PCs.
I so enjoy these relaxing trips through a visit to LGR. Like a soothing balm containing all the nostalgia of the 80's and 90's and imaginings of the heady scent of glorious NIB items from yesteryear.
I just found this video and it brought back a shitload of childhood memories. So bad I never managed to make this run on my modern PC and sold it for 10€... I'd still be playing it.
This game got me into Jazz, and eventually playing the saxophone. Been a musician since then, 20 years of laughs and tears and Simcity 3000 is glued to every PC I buy,
I am so glad I wasn't the only one who had printed out the SimCity 3D pictures back in the day and ogled at the incredible detail for days! It's hard to fathom nowadays just how mind blowing that was.
Been following this channel for the last 8 years and it's still a treasure. When he said "I was 11 when this game came out" I realized we are the same age and now it makes sense why I relate to this channel so much.
I still have my Cambridge SoundWorks speaker setup that I bought back when I had my AMD 350 powered rig that I played THOUSANDS of hours (it seemed) of this game on... in fact, I still have the speakers hooked up to my work PC all these years later, and am watching this video on. SimCity 3000 still sounds great through them. Thank you for the memories of all the time I spent just sitting there, watching my city grow. I even made it to the year 3000.
I think Sim City 3000 was my first exposure to any kind of jazz. Absolutely love the soundtrack and the straight ahead jazz tunes were always my favorites!
got it from the latest steam sale and it's a lot of fun, I remember playing it back in my high school's computers shame they don't have 2k there, I would have liked to try it too, I really like its graphics
The most I remember from this game is the soundtrack. It introduced me to jazz and to this day I get nostalgic from all these tunes. I should jump back into these games. I didn't even realize there was an unlimited version.
Yep same here. SC3000 introduced me to jazz. Later games like Fallout 3 and GTA IV would continue the jazz influence, and today it's one of my favorite genres.
These Simcity retrospectives are always a delight to sit down and watch. You can really tell how much LGR loves and appreciates the series and wants these games to celebrate their milestone years the way they deserve and I just want to say how much I love it.
A lot of maxis games ported to SNES were so much better than the PC counterparts. Sim Ant, Sim City, and Sim Earth stand out today and I still play em. SC2k on SNES was a missed mark, though. Terribly slow.
It also had the music, also I liked the look of all the buildings. It's surprisingly playable on the controller for what you'd expect would be bad. It even had an entertaining manual of its own with that green hair caricature of Wright.
SC3k was actually the first SC I played. It got me into the Simcity series. Still somewhat regularly play it. It does what every Simcity game does best: turn my laptop into a time machine. I blink my eyes and BOOM turns out it's 4am, not even drinking a single sip of water for sometimes as much as 8 hours. Even the Sims doesn't suck me into it nearly as much as Simcity. Also, you can still buy the Linux version online in Germany, but it's relatively expensive and an utter pain to install, run, and keep running. Apparently it works much better on FreeBSD, but I still gotta try.
Unexpectedly, this game is now available for cheap on Steam, alongside Dungeon Keeper, Populis, Alpha Centauri, The Sabotuer and the Command & Conquer collection.
SimCity 3000 Unlimited was THE game of my high school years. I do think SC4D was the best of the series, but SC3K was a full-on obsession. I would play all throughout the night until my family PC's virtual memory was all used up and the game automatically shut down. It was such a formative time in my gaming history that I couldn't completely give it up--to this day, I still have the original game on CD, along with all the cities I made back then. I see you as a kindred spirit. What an incredible retrospective you've made! Thank you for all the work you put in, the love you have for the game shines through in every shot.
Soundtracks were always good on the SC 2000, 3000 and 4. Playing Cities Skylines with THOSE soundtracks really improves the game they weren't written for, that's amazing. I used to spend time watching the military guys doing push ups around the military base... Not to mention in my very first city, my nuclear plant overloaded because I didn't check the power consumption in time, resulting in a Tchernobyl like disaster that rendered an entire corner of the map unusable with radiation for at least 200 years... And back in the day, I used to play 3k Unlimited on New Years eves for years.
I really hope this game to be remastered. Nothing fancy, just better OS compatibility, widescreen support, maps larger than 256x256, and more unlockables after fusion powerplant and space port.
The idea that Clint had "pin-ups" in his bedroom of SimCity screenshots is somehow both the nerdiest thing I've ever heard, and also the most relatable thing I've ever heard.
Rivaled only by the fact clint dressed as SC2K on Halloween as a kid
I imagine his parents exasperated downstairs after he has gone to bed, cutting out pictures of women and trying to sneak them onto his wall while he is sleeping.
It does 100% qualify him as the person to make these retrospectives though.
I remember printing a similar promo image from The Sims 2. It look literal ages and I think my mom had me stop the thing before it finished because of the absurd amount of color ink I was 'wasting'.
Who hasn’t released to Mr Wright?
my dad was a middle school computer teacher in the 2000s and I was in his class briefly. Sim City 3000 Unlimited was installed on every PC in the computer lab and we were allowed to play it if we finished our work early. He even assigned us the game as a project at one point, because he really believed in the ability to adapt ideas from games to the real world. We were rural fifth graders and I think this is the closest some of us felt to a city. He also assigned Oregon Trail at one point. This brought back a lot of memories.
That is very good honestly, video games can be a good medium for teaching
Legend
thats how i got into it too but it was shop class which had a computer lab too. i got hooked on this game lol
W dad
W teacher
From Oregon? Or did other states play Oregon trail also
Printing out SimCity 3000 pin-ups is such a peak nerd thing to do. I would expect nothing less of LGR. 😋
They were his "Pictures of Lily", I'm sure. 😉
This game really encompasses mid-late 90s optimism. When people were quite optimistic about the future
Before the late stage capitalism hit
The future isn’t what it used to be.
Cold War was over. Dot Com was booming. Everything seemed fantastic.
Then... 9/11. Nothing was ever the same after that.
@@WhatAHorribleNight amen to that
sorry any Millennials, you lucked-out
No we weren't.
The mayor of Nuketown being a Duke Nukem-lookalike was a nice touch! Great episode, and great series!
These lengthier retrospectives from you are an absolute gem and so cozy, your best content
Thanks!
@@LGR Are you going to review (in my opinion) the best of the series simcity 4? i've been waiting patiently....
@@LGR I agree that these videos are some of the best content. Are you a big fan of the CC Red Alert series? Would love to see some in-depth history on these classic. Thanks for all your work ❤
@@LGR also here for the cozy vibes, i watch your content to relax and go through memory lane! keep it up
I always appreciate how these retrospectives are both a really nice overview of the game with it's history and Clint's specific experience with the game.
Thanks, I'm glad to hear!
I'm surprised that SimCity 3000 is often forgotten/overlooked when folks talk about the franchise. People think about SC2K but honestly I feel 3000 was the absolute peak of the franchise from all angles, and oh god, that SOUNDTRACK. Jerry Martin was firing on all cylinders during this time with both this and The Sims 1's music.
100% agree
2000 was the first one I played but it was with 3000 I really enjoyed the game and the music is great. I have a lot more nostalgia for 3000. 1999 was all about Sim City 3000 and C&C Tiberian Sun for me. Peak 2D games. No 3D card needed to play.
The music is great but the game overall feels like an awkward stepping stone between 2000 and 4. It doesn't add enough to justify itself over 2000 the way 4 does, and actively takes away many of the more fun features like the arcologies, and hydroelectric.
@@wertywerrtyson5529 we are the same person lol
@@parrot998But at the same time, having simcity 3000 just be a more refined simcity 2000 was a pretty good choice when you considered the development history.
And honestly I perfer simcity 3000 over simcity 2000 when it comes to it's gameplay refinement, and just having it look way better than 2000. It may have removed arcologies but they only existed to get around sim city 2000s extremely limited population numbers, but now you can get over a million people living in a single city without the need of a special building to artificially increase the population. Also removing hydrodams while forcing you to build the expensive power plants early game, weren't that necessary in my opinion (although I wish they could keep flooding from past games)
Basically, if you want a more user friendly while also a more complex version of sim city 2000, SC3000 is your friend.
I feel so validated by this video. I spent an unholy number of hours playing Unlimited back in the day and just as you say the "aura" of the game is so perfect. From those perfect shades of green to the style of the buildings to the vibe of the jazz soundtrack.
I feel bad for having played this with the music off back in the day.
Speaking of, I've always loved the sound design of this game. Highlights for me include: clicking on the power lines (clunk-whirrr-zzt-zzt), putting down the subway stations and hearing the ambience in their view, clicking on abandoned lots (all too common for me, sadly).
Lowlights? How about the library?
I think I put more time overall into 2000 and 4, but 3000 definitely had the tightest balance to complexity ratio of any City Sim on the market. And it did so in keeping a utopian sort of focus on the city population itself instead of the sadly overcomplicated real world problems in dealing with traffic (or in exploiting some mechanics to create infinite power and money loops)
Hanging computer print-out pin-ups with sticky-tack has gotta be the most relatable 90s kid bedroom thing I've seen on LGR.
I still listen to this game's OST these days.
Absotely golden soundtrack for playing other simulation games.
I feel like getting it on vinyl :D
it's also on spotify, top quality music.
This game's OST still plays occasionally in my head.
I have a Spotify playlist that I made called "Music that Cities are Built From" that has these soundtracks and much more to prevent repetition.
Congratulations LGR! The UA-cam community has spontaneously put on a parade in your honour.
I was lucky enough to perform with Marc Russo when I was a kid (I grew up in the East Bay, and he and a couple of other Tower of Power guys played with my middle school jazz bands on a concert). He was an incredibly nice guy, and I won’t pretend his compliments didn’t help with my push towards wanting to become a pro musician myself! It’s fun to see him get a shout-out!
Wait, Portola Middle??
@@drgribbYES!! Almost 20 years ago at this point!
@@Swanfeatha Wait. Liana???
This is Gribble. Graduated EC 08
@@drgribb ALSO YES! I thought it might be you based on the username but didn’t want to assume!! Small world (though not super surprising to find you on an LGR video all things considered)! Hope you’re doing well!
@Swanfeatha Oh man, what a small world haha! Those special gig opportunities with the Tower of Power folks, or playing the Warfield, or Yoshi's, or what-have-you really made a big impression and were important and formative for me too. Apparently they knocked down the old Guitar Center on San Pablo and replaced it with a luxury apartment building called... The Credence -- I hate it lol. I'm convinced there's another universe where I moved to New Orleans and became a full-time musician though. 😅
So cool to see you on an LGR vid (coincidentally, I now live not too far from where Clint's based). Hope you're doing well too.
I love the optimistic vibe of this game. Like no other game it captures that feeling of the late 90s that the future was going to be awesome and that society was on the right track and headed for greater things. Even though the game itself stuck to current gen tech of the time, it felt like it was all about turning the world into a clean fancy cityscape with lush parks and gold plated logos on luxurious buildings everywhere.
Too bad Jews derailed our entire civilization
Little did we know...
Honestly that was my favorite thing about the Maxis brand. Instilling not only optimism but wonder in their games. I'm a huge fan of one of their later games, Spore
your research and inclusion of archival photos, newpapers etc. is what makes your retrospective videos a cut above the rest. much love!
I didn't expect to get misty eyed over UA-cam this morning, but SimCity 3000 does that for me.
It's funny, I found out about SC3K's existence the same day I got SC2K after playing the SNES version of SimCity forever. I got the SE edition of SC2K in 1998 and it came with a little print-out flyer for 3K. Those graphics! How could a videogame look so GOOD?
It's probably my favorite for being able to just jump in and play. SC4 is a much deeper game, but that also means it's got a much higher time commitment.. that and the hours needed to get mods set up.
Simcity 3000 Unlimited had one of my most favourite manuals of all time. I must've read it cover to cover dozens of times.
Definitely kept it! Such a bigass book!
Game publishers also kind of doubled as book publishers with how packed those old manuals were.
I'm more of console player so that giant brick of a manual got my attention lol
I loved game manuals, ah, a beautiful era long gone.
YES! I was waiting for someone to mention this. I absolutely love and guide and have read it cover to cover too so many times! It is so fascinating and informative. Maxis manuals....I wish they kept making them...they were the best!
25 years old.... oh my god...
🎵 Hello Darkness My Old Friend...
Came to say the same. Damn
You're old. Get over it. Batman is over it.
Yep, we be old gamers
feels like it was just yesterday I played it.
Hey LGR. Just want to thank you for your contents. We’re of a similar age and we’ve been enjoying the same games. I’ve been moving around a lot of countries when I was young when there was no internet so I lost contact with my old friends which I had very few for not staying in one country for long. So watching your videos make me feel like sharing old memories with an old friend whom I never had and takes me to a journey of inocent and happy times. For that reason you have a special place in my heart. :)
This one hits home the most of any LGR retrospective for me. Like Clint, I was an avid SC 2000 player when 3000 launched. I got it for my birthday in early 1999, but my Pentium 90 MHz PC was too slow to run it. I spent the entire year either not playing it, or struggling to play it. Then Christmas 1999 came and I got a Pentium III PC. I spent my entire Christmas break from school playing Sim City 3000. It was a core experience of my middle school years. This retrospective brought it all back. I still play SC 3000 occasionally, and just like Clint, it brings back all the great memories and hooks me right back in.
I used to play SC3KU on a Pentium 100. 😅
It was slow as molasses and crashed sometimes, but I still played the heck out of it.
"you know you want it, you little dirty city planner" just GOLD
I still have it. 😁 The same copy Grandma bought me for Christmas in 1999. Shame it won't run on modern machines.
👀👀👀
I have the Ultimate version it is my favourite SIM City on the PC... I loved the SNES version, which was nostalgia as a kid more though!
I can never get tired of the jazz; it introduced me to jazz and will always have a special place in my heart - South Bridge and Night Life are my jam
I'll never be able to unhear that. haha
Can't help but wonder if in year 3000, someone will make "SimCity 3000, 1000 years later".
I will let you know brb.
maybe if we make it to Mars...
Ah, the year 3000! Where holographic historians narrate tales of pixelated pasts and AI archaeologists dig up ancient floppy disks labeled "SimCity 3000." Imagine the excitement as they uncover relics of our primitive simulations, marveling at our attempts to play god with virtual cities. But who will create the video "SimCity 3000, 1000 years later"? Will it be human historians, cyborg cinephiles, or perhaps a sentient AI with a quirky sense of humor? Picture this: a holographic AI host, decked out in a top hat and monocle, narrating the rise and fall of our simulated civilizations with a blend of scholarly insight and sarcastic wit.
If we democratized the tech industry we can insure this by voting to allocate resources to preserving all media.
The cynical part of me says that a game called SimCity 3000 in the year 3000 will be a simulation of what “cities” used to look like before the great climate disaster/world war/biological destruction, or whatever thing we do to ourselves lol
i LOVE the advisors in SC3K, in terms of the charm they provide and personality they embody when comparing other instances of Sim City, they are unmatched.
It’s so impressive the context you have. Like things you physically printed out back in the 90’s and random articles from websites back then.
Can I just say how much I love your retrospectives they really are so much fun. Thank you for them 😊
I appreciate it, thanks for watching!
I first played SimCity 3000 on my dad's PC. He had the game burned on a CD among other games like Commandos and SWAT 3. At first, I did not understand a thing about city building but after spending hours and hours playing I realized I still did not understand how to play it LOL. He later helped me to build a city and fell in love with this genre. The graphic style, the cozy feeling of watching your creation slowly grow, everything in this game is perfect to me. I later played SimCity 4 and the experience got even better!
SWAT 3 goated
Commandos 1&2 goated
Same
LGR is the reason I got into city building games such as City Skylines as a younger teenager, so it's always a special kind of treat to sit down early in the morning and listen to him gush about something he's so fond of. Thank you for sharing your passion with us, sir! It has a long reach!
Hey we only have to wait 4 years for Sim City 4 to be 25, time flies too quickly for sure.
SimCity 4 is a great game with a great soundtrack.
Damn old as me
In my teens I used to joke that every mayor should be required to manage a simcity before managing a real one.
I did too 😂!
your videos are the best. so chill, informative, and cozy. thank you dude!
I also have to add, your channel takes me back to earlier points in my life and, for a split second or two, I can feel like I am back in that moment.
Thank you for this.
I remember sitting in our gray folding chair at the computer desk playing Sim City 3000 on a snow day. Just building my city all day long, listening to that timeless soundtrack. This game got me, and I'm sure for countless others, into city building sims and other management sims out there. An absolute classic game with lots of fond memories
1:33 Ad says, "Mindwarp Will Suck" good thing they never released it then!
Can't wait to see SC4 review soon enough. This is a serious and challenging one when it's about city-building.
Thank you for putting the beta footage of the 3D version up, first time I've seen it in motion, so fascinating!
The scrapped 3D version looked like a completely different low-budget game.
sim city 3000 is still my goto, that OST is still a gem
I still play it... and yep the OST is a gem (but the SC4 ost is a very very close second).
Far and away the best of the SimCity games. The soundtrack was amazing. The aesthetic was perfect. The fact that your advisors and petitioners were distinct CHARACTERS in a CITY BUILDER made it much more immersive. And it still had that old school Maxis kind of humor. Truly a masterpiece.
I always go back to 2k and 3k. I have never touched SimCity 4.
@@gyppygirl2021 SC4 is almost perfection, great simulation, but too fiddly in some aspects and the segmented regions that allow you to make HUGE cities are not that friendly. BUT... Custom buildings... Mods... Day/night cycle... SC4 has tons more to offer.
2K for me. There was something about the simulation in this one that I didn't like as much for some reason. I remember being quite frustrated with this game.
@@Strideo1 I feel like 3k has more of a learning curve... I only recently figured out how to play it.
@@Strideo1 SC3K (and If I remember correctly SC3KU is worse) can be hard!!! I recall starting using SC3KU coming from SC3 and What... the...?????????
So many memories... I was 10 when it came out (11 when my dad got pirated copy from a friend for me) No idea of english, used just colors, icons and stuff to try to understand the mechanics... and yet my city (Robertopolis) was functional... from then EVERY city in EVERY builder is called Robertopolis. I have like Robertopolis v17.3 in cities skylines now.
Looking forward for SC4
Thanks for a great review, you are a really a superb critic and it must’ve been such a thrill to finally revisit one of your all time favorite games after all these years with the channel - great work!
Thank you, and yeah this was a thrill to go back to and become immersed in once again :)
Thanks Clint for finally covering SC3K. It's easily in my top 5 growing up, and even with my adolescent mind, I knew it was special. I distinctly remember the P:TB demo and playing the same 3 levels over and over for months. Funny you mention the cheats; covering old cheat sites, printing out countless pages and how they extended the playability of many games would make for a fun retrospective. Keep up the good work!
If you told me that this soundtrack was why Clint loves and uses jazz for his videos, I would not be the least bit surprised.
That's exactly what he said in the video!
@@YesterGearPCii Yeah, I obviously didn't wait to comment. But unlike other people who don't wait for the end of the video before commenting, I was totally right.
Whenever I need to focus at work, I still play the soundtrack to this game on Spotify. The music brings me right back. I spent the entire summer in 2000 in my room playing Unlimited. Life was good.
This was my favourite version too. Like you say, hits the sweet spot between the old and the new and is just beautiful to look at.
The fact that you still have printouts from 1998 is just so cool. Makes me think of small things like that i got rid of when I was young, and would be cool to have today.
I still remember playing SC3K for the first time at my friend's house, being obsessed with it for months after that, and then waking up early on Saturdays to play it after we finally got it!
My favorite SimCity, and the main reason I was ridiculously excited my family got a new Windows 98 tower in 1999. Another awesome LGR retrospective, so many good memories!
Simcity 3000 has a very special place in my heart. It was my first city building game and one of my first PC games. Thank you Clint.
8:45 That really gets the warm and fuzzies going. Like the first sip of coffee on a February morning.
Great retrospective! What a game. It was nice to see this game added to Steam today. For a couple dollars on sale, I had to get it.
still my favorite city builder. been playing this since i was 6 or 7 years old, dont think I'll be stopping any time soon
This is such perfect timing. I started playing this again about two weeks ago. I was surprised I couldn't find a video on it from you.
The one I've been waiting for! I played SC3k pretty much non-stop for 2 years straight. Easily one of my favourite games of all time.
You unlocked some core memories with those printouts I didn't know I had. 😮
The real addiction is to LGR’s content. I already know that I will keep checking from tomorrow for a new video. Simply my favourite.
Excellent video and I totally agree about everything about the game. I even sometimes load up the complete soundtrack here on UA-cam to play in the background while I work on a project. Just a perfect late 90s vibe and the best Sim City-game by a mile.
SC3K still has some of the most appealing graphics in video games. Just so crisp and vibrant and pleasing to look at.
Here’s to 25 years of SimCity 3000… still looks good.
I remember getting the unlimited version and loving it so much. 3000 unlimited was my first sim city so it will always hold a place in my heart. I loved the advisor art it was so cartoony
Loved this game back in the day. I spent hundreds of hours playing it.
Thanks for the vid mate.
Undoubtedly one of the best video games I have ever played. You can spend hours and hours imagining, designing, re-locating, creating your terrain, managing it while you keep expanding your cities… it's kind of a huge challenge to successfully maintain it all and reach a big, self-sufficient city. It was not an easy game indeed. I had a 1.4 million people city and I still have my gameplay saved after over 10 yrs!! Incredible how this game can be infinite. This game has given us so much.
Besides, it still has the best soundtrack, simple but very nice graphics, the best landmarks, the best utilities and the best special buildings and power plants. Simply amazing. I need a remaster or something, imagine the possibilities we have now for a game that was already perfect🥰
I very specifically remember riding my bicycle on one hot summer day to the nearest CompUSA 10 miles away to pick up this game. And then returning by bicycle to pick up a new memory stick to boost performance.
As you were playing bits of the soundtrack I was thinking to myself "ah, so this is where LGR got it from" as you go on to confirm my suspicions moments later lol. Great video!
This is one my first PC games and it'll forever have a spot in my heart. So munch to remember, the music specially.
cheatcc! Instant flashback. I always pick up something new when I rewatch an old LGR.
Picked this up for 5 bucks on Steam yesterday, reliving some old memories.
This is definately my favorite SimCity series ever. 'SimCity 3000 Unlimited' was localised as 'SimCity 3000 Korea' at South Korea when I was a teenager and this video reminds me a good old days.
I found a sealed copy of Sim City 3000 Korea last year (2023). It is a jewel case with a thin sleeve. The text is localized in hangeul - and there is a prominent EA logo and EA hologram on the front.
@momytik I wish I can get SC3K Korea hard copy disk as well. At least I still have an official Korean copy of SC3K original though.
It was called Sim City 3000 Deutschland here. I only know the full version with Europe and Asian building sets but one of my favorites was the building editor. You could build anything yourself and import it into the game. And that while being 2D and running on lowend PCs.
I so enjoy these relaxing trips through a visit to LGR. Like a soothing balm containing all the nostalgia of the 80's and 90's and imaginings of the heady scent of glorious NIB items from yesteryear.
These uploads make my Friday work day so much more bearable. Thank you Clint.
I just found this video and it brought back a shitload of childhood memories. So bad I never managed to make this run on my modern PC and sold it for 10€... I'd still be playing it.
Sim city is still an all time fave series of mine. I had the sane level of excitement as you when I was young. Great vid
You need to write a book of video game history. You are one of the best out there. Love your work!
This game got me into Jazz, and eventually playing the saxophone. Been a musician since then, 20 years of laughs and tears and Simcity 3000 is glued to every PC I buy,
I am so glad I wasn't the only one who had printed out the SimCity 3D pictures back in the day and ogled at the incredible detail for days! It's hard to fathom nowadays just how mind blowing that was.
Been following this channel for the last 8 years and it's still a treasure. When he said "I was 11 when this game came out" I realized we are the same age and now it makes sense why I relate to this channel so much.
I still have my Cambridge SoundWorks speaker setup that I bought back when I had my AMD 350 powered rig that I played THOUSANDS of hours (it seemed) of this game on... in fact, I still have the speakers hooked up to my work PC all these years later, and am watching this video on. SimCity 3000 still sounds great through them. Thank you for the memories of all the time I spent just sitting there, watching my city grow. I even made it to the year 3000.
Being 45 years old this brings me back to a more …… time 😢
I was waiting for that retrospective and it did not disappoint ! Such a great overview and research.
Man. That intro. I forgot how amazed I was when I saw it for the first time. Thanks for the vid. Well done
I think Sim City 3000 was my first exposure to any kind of jazz. Absolutely love the soundtrack and the straight ahead jazz tunes were always my favorites!
got it from the latest steam sale and it's a lot of fun, I remember playing it back in my high school's computers
shame they don't have 2k there, I would have liked to try it too, I really like its graphics
HELL YEAH, Ive been waiting for an sc3 video from lgr. LGR did a fantastic job with his SC2 video.
After hearing how much you loved SC2000 as a kid I can't wait to hear how much your mind was blown when 3000 came out!
SC3000 has the best soundtrack ever. I listen to it all the time playing other games...
The most I remember from this game is the soundtrack. It introduced me to jazz and to this day I get nostalgic from all these tunes. I should jump back into these games. I didn't even realize there was an unlimited version.
Yep same here. SC3000 introduced me to jazz. Later games like Fallout 3 and GTA IV would continue the jazz influence, and today it's one of my favorite genres.
The sound, the sound, so amazingly immersive and enjoyable.
Great timing on this with EA releasing this on Steam this week.
SimCity 4 is my childhood SimCity game and I cannot wait for you to make the video on it!
These Simcity retrospectives are always a delight to sit down and watch. You can really tell how much LGR loves and appreciates the series and wants these games to celebrate their milestone years the way they deserve and I just want to say how much I love it.
Amazing how your reviews are so personal without losing objectivity. Long live to LGR and to old games reviews 🙌
25 years ago, dear god
I grew up on SimCity for the SNES and never liked 2000. 3000 was a huge jump to me and i played it non-stop until 4.
I'm curious to know his thoughts on Sim City for SNES
A lot of maxis games ported to SNES were so much better than the PC counterparts. Sim Ant, Sim City, and Sim Earth stand out today and I still play em. SC2k on SNES was a missed mark, though. Terribly slow.
Yea I liked Sim City 4 especially it has those mods like Pizza Hut, the Coca Cola building in America, Pepsi Can Water tower and more iconic buildings
It also had the music, also I liked the look of all the buildings. It's surprisingly playable on the controller for what you'd expect would be bad. It even had an entertaining manual of its own with that green hair caricature of Wright.
Some kids have a rough start in life
SC3k was actually the first SC I played. It got me into the Simcity series. Still somewhat regularly play it. It does what every Simcity game does best: turn my laptop into a time machine. I blink my eyes and BOOM turns out it's 4am, not even drinking a single sip of water for sometimes as much as 8 hours. Even the Sims doesn't suck me into it nearly as much as Simcity.
Also, you can still buy the Linux version online in Germany, but it's relatively expensive and an utter pain to install, run, and keep running.
Apparently it works much better on FreeBSD, but I still gotta try.
Great review of a great game. Thanks for bringing me back to Age 10.
got added to steam a few days ago too :)
Unexpectedly, this game is now available for cheap on Steam, alongside Dungeon Keeper, Populis, Alpha Centauri, The Sabotuer and the Command & Conquer collection.
No city builders have ever had the soul of simcity, there's just something about it
SimCity 3000 Unlimited was THE game of my high school years. I do think SC4D was the best of the series, but SC3K was a full-on obsession. I would play all throughout the night until my family PC's virtual memory was all used up and the game automatically shut down. It was such a formative time in my gaming history that I couldn't completely give it up--to this day, I still have the original game on CD, along with all the cities I made back then.
I see you as a kindred spirit. What an incredible retrospective you've made! Thank you for all the work you put in, the love you have for the game shines through in every shot.
Soundtracks were always good on the SC 2000, 3000 and 4. Playing Cities Skylines with THOSE soundtracks really improves the game they weren't written for, that's amazing.
I used to spend time watching the military guys doing push ups around the military base...
Not to mention in my very first city, my nuclear plant overloaded because I didn't check the power consumption in time, resulting in a Tchernobyl like disaster that rendered an entire corner of the map unusable with radiation for at least 200 years...
And back in the day, I used to play 3k Unlimited on New Years eves for years.
I really hope this game to be remastered. Nothing fancy, just better OS compatibility, widescreen support, maps larger than 256x256, and more unlockables after fusion powerplant and space port.
There’s the Sim City 3000 Revival Project that aims to modernize the game in some ways.
Knowing EA, I’m not expecting them to officially remaster old games, but the things you listed would be awesome to add.
@@Norweeg Is it on GitHub?