SimCity 2000 30 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of SimCity 2000 with an LGR retrospective review! The sequel to the classic Maxis city builder was a true game changer in 1993, improving nearly every part of the game and adding so many things that would become staples of the genre. So let's take a look at the MS-DOS version, the many ports and releases, and its legacy decades later!
● LGR links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● All background music licensed from:
www.epidemicsound.com
#LGR #game #review #retrospective #simcity

[@MrMastercatfish]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard something so unshocking as the fact that Clint went trick or treating as the box for SimCity 2000

[@dauntae24]

He was in deep.

[@camotech1314]

​@@dauntae24still is 😅

[@TheTrueFool]

I read your comment before I started watching the video, and for some reason I was picturing adult LGR trick-or-treating as the game 😂

[@slimebuck]

@@TheTrueFool i can see it happening

[@davidt3563]

That was wild!

[@sjk5845]

10 yr old me - “im gonna be Darth Vader for Halloween, I’m gonna be so cool!” Clint at 10 yrs old - *dresses as a copy of SimCity 2000* 35 yr old me - “Clint was the coolest 10 yr old, why wasn’t I that cool?”

[@Aelffwynn]

I dressed as the AOL icon (little yellow running guy) for Halloween one year. No one thought it was cool. 😂

[@snowfoxxie]

I thought this was a joke and had a chuckle… until I got to the part of the video 😂

[@Dr-Weird]

Me dressed as Optimus Prime: *I have failed my clan*

[@d3drummerboy]

Dressed up as spongebob for halloween 1999 everyone thought i was cheese lol

[@changedmynamee]

@@d3drummerboy😂😂😂 tragic

[@MothBird]

Your story of your grandparents being the most technologically distanced being the ones to get you a game hits me right in the feels but also warms my heart, I miss my Grandma, this is the first Christmas without her

[@gideonmele1556]

Condolences

[@AnArchyRulzz]

Condolences. I relate to this as well because my grandparents are the ones who got us all gameboys growing up. I also played Sim City 2000 at their house a lot lol

[@cmangrum1]

We have good grandparents

[@eaglevision993]

Condolences. My grandma bought me Duke Nukem 3D.

[@paddleswake8372]

My Grandma bought me an NES for my 6th Birthday. Shes been gone now 6 years. I still have it and the original box.

[@Keen3]

Building a city in Sim City and then flying around it, responding to calls in SimCopter, was probably peak childhood for me.

[@JohnDoe-ej3wp]

Same. The concept of interacting with a construct from a different game was mind blowing to me as a 7th grader.

[@skunkwerkz777]

I was obsessed with Flight Sim and Sim city so this was a no brainer.

[@austingee238]

I forget the name of it, but there was also another game you could your SC2K save into and drive around it. But highways always bugged it…

[@randsnyder2533]

​@@austingee238Streets of Sim City (I think)

[@michaelcook7107]

Yes. Though it sadly was a pretty crappy game. SimCopter was awesome.

[@tripled4me]

"I knew everything about computers! I was 10 years old!" Man that quote resonates with me deep. I was the exact same way in my childhood. Too computer literate for my own good.

[@veggiet2009]

Same

[@surject]

Dito. Unfortunately I didn't knew about ALT-X to skip the 18+ quiz at the start of LSL1 :/ But I just made my own "guess + write the correct answers down" game out of it.

[@Twi66e]

Yeh after watching the movie Hackers and coming up with my own “handle” I thought I was gunna take over the world

[@Syniron]

Nothing makes me feel older than a game I played as a child being 30 years old.

[@childofcascadia]

@surject What I find really funny is without the internet I could only answer about 2/3rds of the LSL1 questions. Im in my late 30s-early 40s.

[@ArnoldWind]

I miss the days when getting just a single game for the year was a massive experience. The game was complete and it would offer countless hours of enjoyment.

[@Blackadder75]

If you were lucky, old games had plenty of bugs already.... I collected and zealously read game magazines since 1987, trust me the reviewers had a lot to complain about for games of the late 80s early 90s . Especially in the roleplaying / adventure genre I was interested in. And shipping incomplete games isn't a new thing either. The big software publishers usually got things reasonably under control, but sometimes you had to ask for a patch disk

[@CustardCream22]

Same. Now it's bug after bug and pay 10x more for the dlc to make it an actual game.

[@mullaoslo]

​@@Blackadder75that's not what he's saying.. He's saying for us 90s kids whatever flaws was there we looked passed since it was most likely our one game for the year and we where able to have fun with that one for a loooong time.. Ofc non of them where perfect but they still came in a compete package with hours of content

[@manoz6194]

Yeah most of my childhood was playing SimCity, Civ 2 and Industry Tycoon lol

[@mr.smileytm]

You just miss being young. There are and were tons of shitty ripoff games and plenty of great ones. I'd say we live in the best era of gaming ever if you're willing to look for it.

[@henryballing8164]

30 years later and this still gives me warm and fuzzy feelings. This and Oregon Trail are some of my first video game memories.

[@thestoneworks]

it was ridiculous how fun and immersive Sim city was, owned every one of them, and SimCity 2000, and 4 was mind blowing

[@LewisCollard]

The "2000" thing is my favourite thing in retrospect. Back when the year 2000 was the future - and being a child at the time, time passed differently and it seemed like the _distant_ future. Thank you for the nostalgia :)

[@T25de]

Hey remember that show Beyond 2000! 😂 damn it’s been a while

[@dijoxx]

Everything had a 2000 in its name around late 90s.

[@ashley-paul]

My AoL screen name was my name with 2000 at the end. We all did this.

[@andrewross6863]

That the year was going to be 2000 was such a deal! So exciting (and scary with the news about Y2K or the 'millennium bug' as it got called in the UK - that name evoked interesting imagery when I was a child, still does).

[@stevethepocket]

@@andrewross6863 "Millennium Bug" would make a good _EarthBound_ enemy.

[@shikonaori]

That story about your childhood was so precious lol. It was like a nerdier, contemporary version of A Christmas Story 😂

[@WebeloZappBrannigan]

SC2000?... you'll get a DOS prompt kid! Why don't you have a copy of John Madden Football instead?

[@KabukiKid]

"You'll burn down the city, kid."

[@Birdie_]

Probably very autistic, too.

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

Man I can relate to so many parts of that story, I thought I loved sc2k but lgr took it to a whole other level! The part where his grandparents gave him the game made me tear up a bit

[@ken131]

He even looked like Ralphie a bit 😂

[@SLagonia]

I was obsessed with this game as a kid. I had so many strategy guides that I would just read through them for fun. I became a master of every scenario and could get the full Arco-city in no-time. When SCURK came out, it became my passion. I was designing buildings left and right. I even made statues of cartoon characters. I still play SC4 - There's a thriving online community for it.

[@SamsonScorpio]

Get your old computer running, dig up your files and make a video!!!

[@PadChennington]

that OG simcity aesthetic / isometric view is so magical

[@Roxor128]

I wonder how hard it would be to make a procedural system for generating sprites for use in one?

[@eekee6034]

@@Roxor128 Ask the OpenTTD community, they're still making sprites for a similar game. :) I'm pretty sure they have guides on their wiki. They use Blender to ease the workload, though I think they usually do some touching-up by hand. They tried introducing 32-bit color at one point, but it didn't take off. The 256-color sprites ended up looking better. Wesnoth have made more of a success of 32-bit isometric graphics.

[@freeculture]

This game had a few things that others didn't, like the Arcologies and "auras".

[@eekee6034]

@@freeculture Oh yeah, I remember some people hating arcologies. Couldn't understand it myself, because I'd grown up on art & sci-fi which featured essentially the same concept. But now I think about it, if the game is city planning, arcologies feel a little bit like a cheat. :)

[@Sorvetedchocolat]

​@@freeculturedoesn't SimCity 3000 has auras as well?

[@Dhips.]

One of my most played childhood games. That "Zzzt" sound effect is so ingrained in my memory I still hear it when I play modern city builders.

[@phillipgrammer9429]

It was the first thing I thought of when I started this video.

[@jmal]

For me, it's the "KA-POW" sound when you bulldoze a building.

[@thegamingwolf8755]

Sim City 2000 is one of those games i enjoyed playing the most, it was such a great game.

[@Knight_Kin]

ZZZT... ZZZT ZZZT... ZZZT ZZZT ZZZT....

[@Checker201lol]

I didn't even play sc2000 and solely know it from lgr videos, but it feels like I was born wit that sound in my head

[@fritzdog19]

Back in high school, i was a pizza delivery driver in Walnut Creek California. I guess Maxis had an office building there and fairly regularly they would have us deliver like 20 large pizzas. The offices were nice stylish similar to their brand graphic design style. They always tipped extremely generously.

[@Toonrick12]

Walnut Creek is close to Redwood City, so it's not a surprise they might of had a second office in the former.

[@Niberspace]

Dude! No frikkin way! Did you ever try to slip in your CV between the boxes?

[@alexyo3927]

The tip system in America is dumb

[@Skyggespil]

You need to travel more if you think tips are normal in most countries.

[@Niberspace]

This guy shared a epic nostalgia story and u ppl argue about tips lol

[@tyrus1235]

SimCity 2000 and Civilization II were two of my favorite games for my PSOne back in the day. As a kid (and a non-native English speaker), a lot of its more complex details escaped me, but the whole spectacle of building your own city/civilization and watching it grow was mesmerizing. The soundtrack of SC2K is something I treasure to this day as one of the soundtracks from that era that stuck with me. Back then, I didn't have unrestricted access to a PC, so those PS1 ports were my jam!

[@condemned1982]

SC2K and Civ2 are two of my biggest childhood touchstone games (but for PC) as well!

[@nazaryn]

Your Christmas story about wanting Sim2K warms my heart and is one of the most pure things I've heard on KZbin in recent memory, including your box art costume. I too, wanted Sim2K and couldn't get it, it was through the Scholastic Book Fair and my parents never gave me any money. Now, 20-30 years later, it's abandonware and I've got a machine around 1.4 million times faster than what I had back then. Keep making videos dude, you make us smile.

[@manospondylus4896]

16:57 Fun fact for those who don’t know, the SimCity 2000 UFO reappears in Spore as a character you meet when you manage to reach the galactic core. It introduces itself as Steve and gives you the staff of life, which can instantly terraform any planet.

[@ilfardrachadi2318]

I never connected the dots on that one, I just remember being very underwhelmed that the staff had a limited number of uses.

[@SardonicSays]

Amusingly the Maxis UFO can also be seen in Simcopter occasionally

[@tripweed]

@@ilfardrachadi2318 42 uses to be exact. Which is also the Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

[@OscarScheepstra_Artemis_]

@@SardonicSays And you can shoot it down with the Apache.

[@Rabbitlord108]

Go figure since that was Will Wright's final game before leaving Maxis.

[@jhampdoc]

I remember trying to install this in my computer, probably late 1995, only for it not to work. So, my mother had to call long-distance call Maxis support in California so they could make some custom DOS script so it could run on my computer. What a memory!

[@ciscornBIG]

They guy at best buy created a boot menu so that we could either boot in to win3.11 or boot in to sc2k. It was so cool.

[@andrewhudson7108]

Back in the day when installing a game felt like you needed a ph.d in computer science. Miss the 90s but enjoy now just being able to click “download and install”

[@joekenorer]

I must have wiped my friends hdd a half dozen times experimenting to get games to work. It wasn't fun reinstalling 3.11 by 3-1/4 floppy. I've never done a 95 or 98 floppy install but I've seen the stacks they come in and I'm just glad.

[@Eman-vp5wk]

My Packard Bell had no ram upgrades, so I learned out of necessity how to make a boot disk.

[@cericat]

By the time I got it (SC2k SE) I was extremely used to dealing with the fact a lot of games hated my SB Pro 2 or had specific memory requirements that caused fuss so custom bootloaders were something I learned to handle for myself before I hit high school (years 7-12 here).

[@tyelerhiggins300]

I got a PS2 for Christmas when I was 9 or so, and my parents got three games with it: Nascar Thunder 2003, a Scooby Doo game, and PS1 SimCity 2000. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved those games.

[@whatshisface04]

The hours my brothers and I spent playing both SimCity 2000 and 3000. They were staples of my childhood.

[@JenniferinIllinois]

I knew Clint was obsessed with SimCity but going trick or treating as a SimCity 2000 box is a whole new level of obsession (and I love it!!!!! >

[@ainlLeek]

There's plenty of stuff I did as a kid that that makes me cringe when I remember, but I never went that far.

[@banban5568]

​@@ainlLeekwhy was it cringe? he was a kid who loved his simcity 2000

[@Crypted112]

@@ainlLeek dressing up as a copy of simcity 2000 is pretty tame imo

[@alalalala57]

​@@ainlLeekMan, this comment is pretty cringe.

[@novaprospekt]

Clint, you really captured that feeling as a kid of obsessing over a new game and the excitement of finally getting your hands on it. Its just not the same as an adult anymore when I can just log onto Steam and have any game I want with the click of a button. Aaaaah nostalgia.

[@DarshUK1]

Reading game manuals in the car on the way home is a ridiculously cozy memory for me lol

[@TheOtherBill]

@@DarshUK1 Sadly, game manuals are but a cozy memory now.

[@MrWolfSnack]

I don't use steam, I buy every game I want on disc, so I can still be excited over the new games.

[@megapro125]

@@MrWolfSnack if you're "lucky" you buy a disc with an online installer. Most of the time it's an empty box with a download code. The only game that I bought on disc in the last ~3 years that actually included the game on the disc was Cyberpunk 2077 and that game probably doesn't have a single file in common with the disc version in it's current patch version.

[@MrWolfSnack]

lol the delusions of people that have no idea what they are talking about. @@megapro125

[@metaleggman18]

I saw Will Wright at the grocery store a couple months back. It was funny because he seemed so familiar and it took until I left to realize who it was. Apparently he still lives in town. My sister even had the chance to interview him back in high school. Kind of wonder if he'd enjoy someone telling him thanks for all the memories his games gave him as a kid, or if he's at an age where he just wants to be left alone.

[@msaliceusername]

This has unlocked a deep memory for me. In the early 2000s, I seem to recall getting an chocolate egg for easter that came with a CD rom copy of SimCity 2000 (or possible the OG SimCity, hard to remember all these years later). Does anyone remember this? This was in the UK and I think they did other CD rom game + easter egg combos.

[@Twistingfergus]

Reading through guidebooks before getting the game was such a 90s thing. I knew how to play through the entire Joan of Arc campaign from AOE 2 and Pokemon Red long before I finally got them.

[@BirdmanDeuce26]

Or reading Tips&Tricks back to front so thoroughly you had fully formed opinions of games on systems you didn’t even have 😂

[@russianbear0027]

I really miss this and detailed back of box blurbs. I feel like I'm going in nearly blind nowadays when picking up a physical game

[@limelizard1]

I was such a dork as a kid. I was obsessed with Apple and would check out a giant book called the Macintosh Encylopidia from the library. It was the first place I heard of MYST and I had to have it. Also got that for Christmas one year.

[@kylercummins3445]

Omg I remember the Joan of Arc Campaign from AOE 2 haha AOE 2 was the first time I played a multiplayer game over the internet, I played my best friend from two houses down…it felt like a major event for us at the time lol

[@JoseMVelazquez]

There isn't a KZbin channel I can relate more than LGR! Listening to Clint talk about his childhood brings so many memories of my own growing up here in Mexico City, fills me with nostalgia. This channel is my happy place.

[@tristikov]

Legit. No matter what else is going on in life, revisiting the wonderous times of childhood with LGR and old games soothes the soul.

[@revoltosotintan]

La neta

[@Luisramcantu]

Absolutely agree with Clint's childhood Sim City gaming obsession, although for me was SC3000.

[@BleydTorvall]

I still recall playing a scenario involving massive fires in NYC that I solved by using the "lower terrain" tool to just drop every fire I saw into the ocean. By the time I was done, about 3/4 of the map was water, but all the fires were gone!

[@LeuNoeleeste]

I randomly got this video recommended. The sheer passion you exhibit for SimCity 2K is so wholesome I had to listen to the entire thing. Good job

[@Draugoth]

It's been 30 YEARS?! Way to make me feel old. I have so many stories of the thousands of hours I put into sc2000. I used to have SCURK as well, and it was the coolest thing to be able to design your own buildings and we had fan pages with custom made buildings back then. People made the WTC, Chrysler building, you name it. Pure magic.

[@andysorensen1737]

My dad and I used to play SC2000 together as well. The day he introduced SCURK my mind was absolutely blown as a 5 year old.

[@d3drummerboy]

I remember the SCURK and all the buildings i created as a kid so many custom ones and shared them online over dial up so many years ago cant believe its been so long ago

[@Draugoth]

@@d3drummerboy yup, good ol days of dial up, combing thru the net for SCURK builds. I never liked the abandoned building designs from the base game, so those were the first to get replaced.

[@MrJest2]

IKR? I was almost 30 at the time, and worked in software in Mountain View at the time... and yes; I went home and played SC2000 as soon as it came out. Those 30 years really flashed by, didn't they??

[@realpillboxer]

I bought the SE edition with Will TV and SCURK and the latter was key to truly getting the best experience out of Streets of SimCity. Just like in the modern Skate 2/3 glitch videos where people see how high they can launch themselves, I'd figure out methods and buildings which could be used to get my car as high in the air as possible.

[@jamesbernald2850]

Really cool episode! It’s like an LGR origin story.

[@Toonrick12]

It's basically Chapter 2 of him, between Crystal Caves and Duke Nukem 3D.

[@contrapasta2454]

I forgot how depressing the music was for the most part in this beloved game of my childhood. Then SC3k completely blew everyone away with Thomas Newman-style tracks, jazz, and light uplifting electronica to accompany your building. SC4's EpiCenter, deserves a special mention as what I imagine to be the culmination of the mini-genre.

[@timr8657]

I can still remember one of my earliest, if not 'the' earliest, memories of using a PC was playing the original Sim City and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on my primary school's original Apple Macintosh back in the day. I was obsessed!

[@PondScummer]

Holy crap I was just as obsessed with Spore as a kid! I lived, breathed and dreamed of spore 24/7, and growing up into my teens the spore community became my largest social circle. Many a school day was skipped because I was to stubbornly focused on perfecting every detail on my creatures. There's just something special in Maxis' games that cultivated child-like wonder (and maybe a dash of autism) unlike anyone else. The day Maxis Emeryville closed was such a devastating event to 14yr old me :,)

[@UndyingNephalim]

It is really hard to express in words how much of an insanely massive update 2000 felt like compared to the original.

[@JavierSalcedoC]

Civ 1 to Civ 2 comes to mind

[@DonaldDucksRevenge]

Totally different and better game

[@DPtheOG]

It was an insanely massive update to gaming in general. SC2k was the only game I had which ran in SVGA.

[@IainShepherd1]

Clint, you make a legacy of your own with things like these. Great package and very thorough just as the subject deserves. Hopefully KZbin is here another 30 years and we can watch it again. 🙂

[@superhooch]

Fantastic, this kind of video is my favourite on your channel and an absolute joy. The nostalgia is unreal! Some of your finest work sir.

[@telekineticguineapig7419]

My father died 5 years ago today. I am on KZbin trying not to be sad, and this video was timed with absolute perfection. It is a good memory. He was obsessed with this game. He used the editor and the color-changing spots to animate a man walking his dog, a carousel and a ferris wheel. If I recall, he replaced the power plants with those items. I wish I still had that old hard drive so that I could go back and look at his Sim City artwork. It was phenomenal.

[@HansLemurson]

That's amazing, and you have my sympathy for your loss.

[@IreneWY]

I am sorry for your loss.

[@18snej]

Thanks for sharing. Love. ❤❤❤

[@fluffyfoxbunny]

Sorry for your loss, I hope the good memories stay with you forever. It's nice to see video games bring families and friends together

[@coreymaley4519]

I also have SC2K memories with my dad. He loved the game and refused to move on to simcity 3000. My brothers and I used to make a backup of his city, then burn down half the original city, save it in mid-disaster, and then wait for the inevitable "ahh what happened to my city!?"

[@Blown4banger]

SimCity 2000 and Roller Coaster Tycoon were two of my most played games in the 90s. Soooo much nostalgia!

[@fuzzlewit9]

Haha exact same 2 games for me too! And I still play them occasionally for nostalgia sake.

[@awesome220]

Amen

[@STOCKHOLM07]

A man of culture.

[@JavierSalcedoC]

Railroad Tycoon to close the trilogy. And a very special mention to Theme Park

[@shanmarie4122]

I was Clint's equivalent obsessed child to Roller Coaster Tycoon. I loved that game so much.

[@ValhallaOrBust85]

If SC2K wasn't the first game I played, it was the first game I ever really got into. You nailed everything on your video. Dealing with DOS, the detailed books at book stores, and the spin offs it produced. I think you're the first person I've seen to even mention SimCopter, which I played the shit out of that one too. Great video, quite a throwback.

[@central3425]

SOOOO many good memories of this game. And the joys of 90s tech!! Great video

[@DrBananananananananananananana]

Clint's story about being mentally scarred on Christmas day has inspired me. Can't wait to do that to my own kids.

[@Blackadder75]

I see the future........ some lonely Christmas 2068 while your kids are on the Bahamas......

[@nickwallette6201]

If kids and pets aren't there to be targets for trolling and psychology experiments, then I don't know what they're for.

[@saeklin]

I highly enjoyed using money cheats right at the beginning and laying out an entire city grid while paused, then unpausing and watching it fill up organically. The challenge was planning for all the utilities and services ahead of time, and then finding out how efficient the layout worked.

[@rutgerb]

That was my joy in ttd and openttd, growing cities😅

[@a2d]

Priscilla

[@fb-ws3gb]

Thats exactly what I did, my record as a 13 year old was working 12 hours straight on my perfect City layout without getting up

[@Chunes3]

I'm really surprised the video didn't go into the cheats at all. It's an entire can of worms.

[@TheOG-GG]

OMG! This whole video is precious! My fave retrospective of yours so far! :D

[@whoami133]

Great video, sparked some memories from way back when, thanks!

[@sambrown9494]

It's absolutely amazing what they could fit on two floppy disks back then! Entire worlds. Why does my phone's "torch" app take 78MB of space?! - I love the enthusiasm here for the game! I was exactly the same with Elite II: Frontier, when it came out in 1993. The box was stuffed with dreams, even if the hardware struggled a bit! 😀

[@yrobtsvt]

Yeah what the hell was that? If you know this game, with all the graphics and sounds and algorithms, you know how crazy that is

[@cericat]

@@yrobtsvt loads of overheads involved sadly, and it's not uncommon people push to release and forget to remove stuff like debugging symbols (dev tools for tracking issues that shouldn't be on production but it happens) or include other stuff that's completely unnecessary, also ads, every app has its own ad cache on Android as I see whenever I do a cleanup of the filesystem. But then too the game is relatively simple graphically overall, beautiful for the time though, and was compressed on the disks so the install was more like 5.4 megs IIRC.

[@Roxor128]

Might want to look into whether you can switch your phone's OS to something other than what the manufacturer provided. I switched mine to LineageOS and jumped from Android 5 to 11. Also, the download was a third the size of Samsung's one (under 500MB, vs 1.5GB).

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

This video is exactly why I've loved this channel for so long. You make so many of us feel like we weren't alone in our incredible nerdy-ness and passion for this stuff. Your list of "hints" you left in order to get this for a holiday gift is SO familiar to many of us. I used to draw the logo for certain games and leave them on my dads desk or the fridge or even on the bathroom door LOL. I would draw the logo and a list of where the game was available. At one point there were several drawings around my house that had the Kings Quest V logo followed by the words "available now at Babbages, Software, Etc and probably Meijer" haha.

[@AM-vr4qy]

Yeah I feel like in another life we'd all be friends

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

absolutely!@@AM-vr4qy

[@robgwillim4009]

This hits right in the feels. Few years before release my aunt married a man who owned a computer store that sold Mac. We ended up with an LC 575 and I played this game to DEATH!

[@parrotofthesea7588]

Really cool video man. Your love story for Sim City is truly heartwarming. I’m subbing. Merry Christmas!

[@OscarScheepstra_Artemis_]

Sim Copter is still one of my absolutely favorite games of that era, and the game really deserved a proper remake. And the Sim City 2000 intro music still pops out in my head almost daily.

[@K.a.r.a.k.a.n]

@@ShadowAngel18606 Maybe he enjoys real life too. And isn't playing video games 24/7 like you braindead zombie.

[@Alianger]

It was my GTA 3 back in the day haha

[@chrislemery8178]

Sim Copter was awesome, I never did the driving one but I played the crap outta sim copter.

[@WackoMcGoose]

I did a SimCopter playthrough on my other channel a few years ago... Great fun, but I forgot how _brutal_ the difficulty gets in later levels with how fast missions come at you! Also, the ability to import your own SC2000 cities was _incredible_ for child me to be like "I built this, and now, I'm flying in it!"

[@Domarius64]

Oh man, that thing was so clunky, and awesome... I'll never forget how great it felt in the early days of 3D to explore these worlds from a more immersive perspective.

[@LakesideGazer]

I refuse to believe that I was 20 when this game came out. Nope. I can't be that dang old. On a related note, listening to the music unlocks some very old emotions of fun times playing that game.

[@realpillboxer]

I heard that music at 17:55 and was immediately transported back to a sunny Saturday morning in my parents basement.

[@nobodies77]

when i first read it a couple years ago on a binge of old maxis manuals, i found it so cute that the simcity 2000 manual's bibliography has that section on related reading for kids, with stuff like the lorax, books on local governments and architecture, and a guide on how to read maps all listed. i've always thought it was a very sweet way to include the younger fans who might've wanted to learn more about cities and governments because of the game :)

[@TheOG-GG]

Yes! I loved this! I have been playing Maxis games since their inception at 1987. I was 3 years old. I always loved not only their games but their guides as well. One of my fave Maxis guides was for SimAnt and SimCity 3000. :)

[@RaleTheBlade]

Like you, I too got my first taste of sc2k at a friends house. I was absolutely obsessed with it in the mid-90s going so far as to draw cities in my school notebooks (while in class, of course), and obsess over it with friends. For what seemed like forever it was all i wanted to play and talk about. To this day, the box art, music, and sounds strikes an old childhood cord deep within my mind and it always takes me back.

[@rigell2764]

Sim City 2000 and Transport Tycoon were two games that basically defined my childhood.

[@Osprey850]

I loved Transport Tycoon. I wonder if Clint missed out on it, since I just searched and didn't find any videos from him on it. It came out around the same time as SimCity 2000, so it makes sense that he didn't get it if it took him years to get the game that he was most obsessed over.

[@mhuk1220]

Omg transport tycoon and TT delux. Take me back!!

[@davidmcgill1000]

ahh TTD, the game that never expects you to play for days in a single save to the point that inflation makes everything unaffordable, and every vehicle can no longer be bought because they got so old. Helicopters being the worst offender.

[@EmperorJake]

OpenTTD still has an active modding community around it

[@adonnis1]

This man has a way with words. His storytelling never disappoints!

[@DonaldDucksRevenge]

Clint you told your story but it is a generational tale as well. This is still one of the best games of all time imo. 3k and 4 didn't add much to it imo. Glad you got to play, same as me. Great game!

[@UmJammerChelle]

I loved SimCity 2000 as a kid despite never knowing what I was doing. I remember being weirdly obsessed the newspapers the game generated and would always read every new one in full. I still have fond memories of coming home from school and rushing to the computer to play it and Roller Coaster Tycoon.

[@IronHeel]

These LGR retrospectives are a thing of beauty

[@Jolgeable]

Yes, beyond the knowledge, he's a great storyteller. =)

[@onlysuffer]

Agree, its nostaligic comfot food.

[@afaultytoaster]

I had a lot of fun with SC2k as a kid, but my favourite was 3000. I just loved the jazz soundtrack and the cartoony aesthetic of the advisors. It felt like it had a stronger identity.

[@marcelievsky]

SC 2000 changed my perspective about games. At first I was so RPG, fighting or platform games, then when I first played SC 2000 in Snes I started to search about the entire franchise and I found amazing titles in other platforms! Still today I play city simulators and I always remember about Sim City 2000 legacy. Thank you!

[@smirkingrevenge6]

Oh the joys of having proper Instruction manuals.... I can completely relate to how much you pored over the manual here, for me it was Tiberian Sun - Couldn't tell you how many times I read that, fantacising about the different units and lore and just enjoying reading all the options available.... Kids these days just don't know what they're missing!!!

[@thomasg86]

This game shaped my childhood, it will forever be #1 on my list. The memories clicking away at SC2K are still so vivid. Adding SimCopter and Streets a few years later... pure magic. That being said, 30 years later I just learned about Maxis Man! What?!

[@Njuregen]

I liked Streets of Simcity racing through Sim City 2000 cities you made!

[@B0Boman]

I remember seeing "Maxis Man" and thinking it was some kind of friendly alien hang glider or something. Never knew it was supposed to be a super hero!

[@realpillboxer]

@@Njuregen using SCURK to custom-make arenas, racing tracks, or glitchy maps made Streets even better. Pretty sure I can still hear the "moo" of the cows and "CHECKPOINT!".

[@sahlstr]

Hearing that theme song makes my heart jump. What a beautiful video this is! Kudos!!!

[@victorchen5663]

SimCity 2000 was one of my favorite games growing up, I spent hundreds of hours on it!

[@dsallen7914]

As much as I loved Classic and spent hours with it, 2000 was such a total improvement over it in every way, that playing Classic was just never the same again.

[@IronSeagull]

This was my first SimCity game! Will never forget the music and being terrified as a kid of that UFO that made a very human-sounding “zzzt!” when it blew stuff up

[@Bootsect]

When I saw your drawing at 2:30, I was terribly surprised and thought, "Where did this guy get my children's drawings?" Because when I was 7-9 years old, my parents took me to the countryside for the summer to visit my grandparents. They did not have a computer, so I was terribly homesick for my favorite games. I drew their interfaces on paper, just like you, although I am from a completely different cultural background and lived thousands of miles away. Then I got a big notebook for drawing and let my imagination run wild. I came up with new buildings for SimCity and new mechanics. At that time, neither the SC3000 nor the SC4 had been released, but I accidentally came up with some of the ideas that appeared in those games later. My main treasure is a miraculously preserved floppy disk from 1999 on which my SimCity 2000 city was recorded. I took it to school to show my friends what I had created. Now, every year or so, I return to this savegame and start developing my city in a new way, starting from the same point, trying out different options. Thank you so much for this video and for the rush of nostalgia that I experienced. SimCity 2000 is still my favourite part of the series. After all, Will Wright created a masterpiece that will be remembered forever, and you created a worthy tribute to it.

[@happy_camper]

In my top 5 favorite games of all time. I spent countless hours playing this as a kid, and enjoyed every second.

[@CrS0CrashPL]

Holy crap, hearing Clint's SC2000 story unlocked a core memory in my brain. I remember being absolutely OBSESSED with the demo versions of MDK and Little Big Adventure 2 I had on one shareware CD as a little kid. Replayed these countless times, and while I was able to easily track down a copy of MDK, I spent literal years searching for LBA2. These two are still one of my childhood favourites and games I cherish to this day.

[@Thegreatreceiver]

Great story Fren! I too became obsessed with LBA after playing the demo on pc Format Gold CD Rom. LBA2 arrived on the scene shortly after that and I snapped it up from the shop lavisciously. I'm pleased to say that if I turn my head to the left slightly, i can see them sitting side by side on my Ikea Kalax. Full retail LBA2, EA Classics LBA1 :) I was devastated after I lent LBA2 to my best friend at secondary(high) school, and when he gave it back the box was all tattered around the edges where it had been in his school bag for days. We'll both be 40 next year and I still don't let him forget it XD

[@krux02]

I just want to point out that LBA1 and LBA2 currently get a remake and LBA3 has been announced.

[@Thegreatreceiver]

@@krux02 Thanks for this sir! Unfortunately from what I can see it looks like LBA3 has been cancelled due to no publisher/funding being secured, though the 2 remasters appear to going ahead. Here's hoping we see them soon, I'll be buying for sure :)

[@EntropicEcho]

MDK! Holy shit! That was just gone from my brain but I played that a lot as a kit. Gonna go dive into an internet hole. Thanks!

[@saykhia]

For me it was the main menu music. Core memory retrieved!

[@MaximumTips]

This was the game that made me loved city builders from when I was kid to today.

[@mpd2022]

I owe a great deal of my childhood gaming experiences to Maxis. My first computer wasn't until Windows 98, so SC2k worked pretty much out of the box without any video card issues. I think that and Sim Ant were my first two Maxis titles I got as a kid, and from there, I got quite a few more. It blew my mind that I could build a city in Sim City 2000, and then fly it in Sim Copter and cause carange in it in Streets of Sim City. It's a little impressive many of them still run on modern versions of Windows with minimal modification as well. Still have The Sims and a couple others installed and running on my modern machine installed from CD. I remember later on importing Sims families into Sim City 4 with the rush hour expansion and driving them around was also lots of fun. It was probably the last great Maxis game crossover, which pretty much started with Sim City 2000. Great recap! Brought back many memories!

[@NHNVrhythmguitarist]

New here and holy crap am I ready for a binge watch! I saw you already covered Empire Earth, G-Nome (which I was amazed someone remembered that game and I hope they remake/remaster - cause I was obsessed with this game), and Sim City 2000 (all games i fondly remember - and laughed when you said you too had/have a Packard Bell PC and recall the struggle)! I hope to stumble across a Midtown Madness 2 (I remember downloading cars people made and feeling so accomplished if the download worked and the car performed and was as cool as it looked), Streets of Sim City, Deadlock (AMAZING intergalactic conquest game that I think was forgotten ), Lord of the Realm 2, some Command and Conquer , Deadly Dozen (WW2 shooter game with historically relevant places), and this rare Chex Quest cereal space fantasy game I remember getting from a Chex cereal box (no joke - and when we got “prizes” from cereal boxes).

[@PRKLGaming]

Seeing how his love for city builders we all know manifested as a kid is so endearing. Clint is a treasure!

[@collisw8302]

Hearing your childhood stories of obsession with Sim City is very relatable. Thanks for sharing, Clint! My friend and I created our own paper board game version of Sim City at our after school care place. My friends last name was Sime so we called it Sime City lol. It basically had no rules and was just a chance for us to draw our favourite buildings and stick them to a map while we waited to get to go home and play the real thing.

[@crithon]

oh wow, you brought back so many wonderful memories. Great video!

[@larusmarinus529]

crazy how good this game still looks; that's some gorgeous pixel art! something about that style of graphics really resonates with my imagination, more so than more modern 3D city builders obsessively looking at magazines and documentation about a game you really wanted but couldn't get hits too close to home haha...that was my life for much of the 90s and early 2000s too 😅

[@zvndmvn]

Being a literal boxed copy of SimCity 2000 for Halloween is excellent in its own right, but genuinely doing it as a "subtle hint" is the cherry on top. 😂👌

[@7b7BenGazing]

*SUBTLE*

[@Nero_Jero]

I absolutely love 90s Maxis. To this day I still can't listen to the intro for the original Sim City without getting emotional

[@steeviebops]

My late grandmother got me the Special Edition as a Christmas gift in 1998. I was hooked, still have it today.

[@LordOfNothingreally]

Ahh, SimCity 2000! This game, along with Civ2, were my go-to obsessions. I would spend hours in the editors designing my own buildings and (in Civ2) units to create my own fantasy worlds. I made wild-west, sci-fi space and underwater themed scenarios. I actually think I spent more time in the editors than I did actually playing the games! I learned a lot about computers, editing software and especially pixel art from those two top-tier amazing games. Excellent video LGR!

[@MrKontestator]

I LOVE SimCity2000. When I grew up we only had an older PC and I only could play “older” games. It was around 2000-2001. When I finished my high school and didn’t knew what I wanted to do in my life, my then-girlfriend asked me what I adored the most in my childhood. It was SimCity2000. So I studied Architecture and Urban Planing. Playing this game now is always making me giggle about how a 4mb ram game affected my life and the choice to be an architect! Btw. I love your videos ❤

[@hylomane]

What a wonderful childhood story. It reminds me of me, when I was about the same age and wanted to play games so badly but did not own a PC. I used to buy PC games magazines and oogle at the games I could not play.

[@Benjiforthemoon]

That recounting of your Christmas of '96 definitely brought a nostalgic smile to my face

[@VanadiumBromide]

Simcity 2000 was the first PC game I was obsessed with. I remember not understanding how zones worked and was content just building roads and ploppable buildings and calling the result my city. It wasn't until I was bought a copy to play at home (SimCity 2000 Special Edition) that I built a city proper. I was hooked from that point on. A few years later, I was bought Simcity 3000 and couldn't get it to work. I too spent my childhood reading that manual cover to cover. Same with Simcity 4. Getting those games to run was a core memory I forgot until watching this video. Thanks for the fond memories. :D

[@greatscott175]

I forgot Jerry Martin did this soundtrack. The Sims 1 is one of my favourite soundtracks of all time - the guy is truly a legend, and a phenomenal musician.

[@VanadiumBromide]

Actually the soundtrack for SimCity 2000 was composed by Sue Casper. You're thinking of SimCity 3000.

[@ericfrancisrock9974]

As a kid my Grandma and Papa were always the ones who gave me whichever video game I was most excited about for Christmas. And I got my present from them on Christmas Eve!

[@acebailey2478]

I fricking love your nostalgia trip. Thank you for going to all the trouble to tell us your history with the game :)

[@andresbravo2003]

Finally, a SimCity 2000 Retrospective Video for over 30 years when this game came out. Amazing job Clint!

[@thebizzle413]

The 10 year old birthday pic is beyond adorable, we are all LGR.

[@watchandjewelryloft4713]

What a time warp. Love this video. I had an early version and then i definitely remember thst special edition! I believe I still have just the CD's somewhere! I need to fire this up again? The opening music...OMG YES! 😊

[@voyagerdeepspaceexploratio5023]

These games always appeared so magical, especially when being a child, but still even today. Thats what modern games just lack.

[@ClassicGameSessions]

It's always a great day for some SimCity 2000 retrospective from LGR!

[@Dusty78dk]

The story about your love for the game is so fantastic. With all the strategy guides you have digested, I would love to see you do a "let's play SimCity 2000", even though I know that's not really your thing here on KZbin. But I would love a video like that as a christmas gift ;)

[@chilis_no]

4:27 actually gave me tears in my eyes, hehe.. What a great present and suprise when you thought all hope was lost.. I`m born in 1979 and SimCity classic (and 2000) was a huge part of my childhood and time consume. Thank you for this great video! I gotta go, have to play SimCity 😉

[@asymptoticspatula]

Man, I loved this game so much back in the day. My family played it an awful lot. I'm sure my brothers and I got into many fights over whose turn it was. Our 30-year-old neighbor, who seemed so old then, used to come over and play it, and we'd eventually have to gently tell him to leave when It was time for all of us to go to bed (we were middle school/high school age). Great video!

[@treennumbers]

The 'wait until the very last gift to give the kid what they've had their heart set on' Christmas move happens ONCE. Parents learn their lesson and every subsequent year they shove the good stuff right up front so the kid is happy the rest of the day.

[@rmvbflght_]

My face is numb from smiling the whole time :) What a nice wholesome blast from the past! Times were a lot easier back then :)

[@Elias_Halloran]

glad I can share this 30th year aniversary with you. really great video. brings back many memories. π .

[@agustinmilano6839]

I got this game on my psOne. The game or disk was broken or something, because it didn't matter what I did, no buildings would construct. Once I left the game running through the night and the only thing I got was a random crane on a residential zone. I was so exited I woke up my family to show them. Never saw anything like that again until simcity 3000 and I loved every second

[@edgarbm6407]

I loved this game as a kid. I can't believe its 30 years old. Now I feel old.

[@cometchaser2117]

I love that you highlighted the power line building sound. It was vivid in my mind when I started this LGR episode. So many hours of gaming well into the morning hours. Just topped by Civilization.