The SimCity 2000 Retail Demo Disk for DOS

Maxis released this Sim City 2000 3.5" HD Interactive Demo Disk to promote SC2K back in 1993. I've known about its existence for ages but only recently found an original copy in its cardboard sleeve with the manual! Let's try it out under MS-DOS.
Download an archive of the disk here:
archive.org/de...

[@GiladTeller]

I played this demo back then... The power plant blows up when the 20 minutes are up. I remember trying to build as much as possible in those 20 minutes. Oh the memories...

[@aw4483]

I know you can kind of recreate that with disasters on, so that the plants age and die, but also having it as a game mode sounds amazing

[@Linuxpunk81]

Ha ha yes! This demo is what got me to pirate the whole game!

[@Simone-xe9cw]

And just like this sc2000 battle royale was born in 2021.

[@JG-nx3jg]

@@Linuxpunk81 I'm sure that's the outcome the marketers had in mind when green lighting this demo release

[@1101-f6z]

Same lol yes!

[@BjornThePiper]

I love how casually Clint just grabs the Japanese special edition for a simple size comparison.

[@lexluthermiester]

@LGR Blerbs Clint, I was working at a Software ETC at the time those demo floppies were available. You indeed had to make a purchase, but it was free with ANY purchase, including the $.99 bin items. We got a big box of them and after the first month we were instructed by the regional manager to just give them away. I tried the one you have in this video and was impressed by it! So much so that I was hyping people up for the SC2k release. I think we sold out of the full retail game the day is went live and sold through most of our second shipment a few days later. Good times!

[@LGRBlerbs]

Ahh, nice to know!

[@Toonrick12]

Shocked how a city builder back in the day would sell out so quickly. Then again, how many copies did they carry, usually?

[@lexluthermiester]

@@Toonrick12 IIRC, our first shipment was 40 copies, our second was 60. That was Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake City back in the early 90's. Selling out of anything was really something back then.

[@Toonrick12]

@@lexluthermiester Do tell! That's like a whole shelf of boxes, right?

[@lexluthermiester]

@@Toonrick12 We never kept them all on the shelf. Some on shelf, some in the back room. We were constantly heading back to get more the whole day.

[@ZONEsama]

I had this for Macintosh, it came on a floppy attached to a Mac magazine. I definitely remember that demo city, I still have the save of it. But the Mac version I had definitely had sound.

[@Fir3Chi3f]

Zone toons watching LGR? Always strange seeing unrelated KZbinrs interacting.

[@Therapscalion]

This is the last place I ever expected to see you

[@lasarousi]

It's this comment because Clint commented on one of the out of context SFW video?

[@Aggs_TV]

Fancy seeing you here, Zone!

[@AlexVanChezlaw]

Holy cow what are you doing here

[@kildogery]

Holy shit, I played Sim City 2000 for years. How did I not know you could shoot the helicopter? Nearly 30 years of ignorance. Man!! I feel such a fool.

[@ROTTERDXM]

I never got to the Arcologies as a kid... but I did when I powergamed SC2k 8 years ago or so, finally learned how to properly played it. Turns out building an airport next to an Arcology can be a very bad idea...

[@kildogery]

@@ROTTERDXM I filled every square of the map with archolgies. Still never shot down a helicopter.

[@ROTTERDXM]

@@kildogery that's not what I meant... planes will crash into arcologies *every time* when taking off or landing if the arcology is right next to the airport, and the arcology is located one tile of elevation higher than the airport and in the path of the planes. Try it out some time ;)

[@HardwareLust]

Don't feel bad. I've got hundreds of hours in SC2K and I had no idea you could do that!

[@slammy102]

Wait...what?

[@robinevans4402]

I don't know how many people found it, but way back in the day someone somewhere uploaded the full version of SC2000 to a university FTP, I think my first copy was that one downloaded. Wierd it was just there open to the public. Was there for a good while too. Bought it for real a while later on a budget label but I'm still amazed I found it like that. The old internet really was the wild west.

[@50factsabout]

Clint, you are the Bob Ross of the video game world :)

[@KingLich451]

@Jani Akujärvi exactly! I love this

[@SevenCompleted]

Bob ross sucks, fucking boring ass bullshit

[@YoBGS]

*goes to RCT World and some of his Sims reviews* Devs don’t make mistakes, they just release happy accidents!

[@carmenwinstead693]

@@SevenCompleted damn he must be so boring that you had to edit your comment

[@SevenCompleted]

@@carmenwinstead693 i added the part after the comma to clarify why he sucks

[@matthewadunlap]

1:40 of course Clint has the Sim City serial numbers committed to memory 🏘

[@starchildluke]

LGR doing a great Nero impression at the end watching his burning city.

[@TheDexterFishbourne]

We gave those out with computer purchases at Circuit City if I remember correctly....but that was long ago when I was back in my teens.

[@emalinedickinson7492]

Man, I remember Circuit City. Last thing I bought there was a hard copy of Battle Realms. It got turned into a Savers lol

[@FlippytheMasterofPie]

I miss Circuit City if for no other reason than it provided another option for nationwide electronics retail. Now we only have, what, Best Buy? Where’s the competition?

[@semuta2752]

@@FlippytheMasterofPie Though locations are limited nowadays, Fry’s Electronics is still a bastion for those browsing sessions reminiscent of expensive edutainment toy stores, Circuit City’s big-boxness and Radioshack’s electronic component selection (except way higher quality). If anyone reading this is a Portland Retro Gaming Expo attendee, there’s a rather massive Fry’s in Wilsonville (16 miles SW of Portland). There’s also ‘Bullwinkle’s Miniature Golf’ and go karting there as well.

[@RobertJW]

@@semuta2752 RIP Fry’s Electronics, now gone.

[@FlippytheMasterofPie]

@@semuta2752 Fry’s just announced they were closing up shop effective immediately the other day. Can’t even go in the store to get clearance deals. Siiiiggghhh

[@lonewretch]

man, hearing that drive wake up when you hit enter on a: brought back sublime memories... haha

[@cowgoesmoo3850]

I remember when my dad bought me this, I always had to wait till my mom got off the computer to play, she always took forever playing her POGO and Gamesville games. Especially 3 eyes bingo. Man brings back my childhood memories. Good ole days.

[@YodaPagoda]

When I moved last year, I found my old SC2K box, still had the floppies and manual inside, plus the Urban Renewal Kit! I spent thousands of hours playing this game.

[@angrodNumenesse]

Ah SCURK! Spent waaaaay to much time in that editing cities to then be played in Streets of SimCity or SimCopter.

[@tjsynkral]

Me: "You had to pay for the demo? How lame." Me a few seconds later: "If those were free I would have grabbed 50 of them and formatted them."

[@Penoatle]

Someone scrounged for AOL disks. I like it.

[@alastairward2774]

@@Penoatle I remember doing that, they never minded sending discs to the same address, same person, several times a month.

[@robr4662]

@@alastairward2774 , @Penoatle yeah remember having family members save them for me so I didn't have to buy floppies, memories.

[@truegregthompson]

I always loved to find these demos at stores as a kid. A buck or 2 to get something that downloading myself may not have always been possible and getting that "new game" feel on a whim

[@mattb9664]

I remember purchasing this game back in the early 90s and feeling so disappointed that my computer didn't even meet the minimum spec requirement, even with a boot disc. Never got to play it.

[@klwthe3rd]

You weren't alone. Tons of games back then needed more memory than most people had in their home computer.

[@erazorCTF]

Clint I would have loved to see what happens after 20 Minutes!

[@sam08g16]

After 20 min the game plays Never Gonna Give You Up videoclip

[@wta1518]

@@sedme0 Yes, your copy of Microsoft Office will explode if you get to 20 minutes.

[@m4rgin4l]

Uuuuh...I'd love an OS/2+SimCity show and tell.

[@mrsvcd]

Me too

[@Penoatle]

Hell yes

[@ChaseMC215]

He did that in his main channel

[@Fortuna1]

Wow, played in a shop long time ago, and remember clear Has 20 minutes of limit time before the city was destroyed for the all events of destruction, but in these years can "delete" this limit time via Hex editor (need find in old groups for find this software)

[@witeshade]

My favorite demo disk was the 4-disk demo for Tie Fighter. It started you off right in the middle of a basic mission and it was pretty awesome. The fun part was that it was a bit glitchy, so sometimes when you started it, your tie fighter would have concussion missiles, or some other weird shit would happen from time to time.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

sc2000.exe - There's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

Well of course I know him, it's me!

[@Asmund648]

@@fryncyaryorvjink2140 «Oh boy, Im glad to see you!»

[@ardentdrops]

It's midnight right now and I'm winding down from a busy day. Usually your script is so organized and articulate, but in this video your laissez-faire, non-committal, meandering way of speaking is just so soothing. Like listening to a technological Joe Pera, it's really what I need right now. Keep up the good work.

[@glitchedoom]

"The Joe Pera of Computers" is a pretty apt description of this channel.

[@DougVandegrift]

I bought this exact demo cd at my local “All a Dollar” store. I had a little change left over from buying a full copy of Warcraft II

[@FinestCitizen]

Nice! How much did you pay for it?

[@seththebeatmxchine]

Even though I wasn't a super hardcore PC gamer...I still felt this

[@seththebeatmxchine]

Got the original Warcraft on sale for like $10-15 when I was like 7 or 8 I think. Soooo pretty much the same price it is now 😂

[@DougVandegrift]

@@FinestCitizen It was 1-3 dollars.. I can't remember the price exactly

[@me2olive]

1:16 Maybe they sized the case to accept a 5 1/4" disk as well, if that design is used for other things/formats? That manual looks about 5 1/4" size.

[@Ascania]

This is the correct answer. Practically everything was offered in both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" in parallel at that time.

[@theprinceofinadequatelighting]

I can confirm that the construction sprites you pointed out are not used in the full game, having spent some time staring at SC2K sprites for a project you covered in another Blerb. The game has 256 "building" assignments ("XBLD" values in the code), including things like roads, trees, the actual buildings, etc, and each of those 256 data values is used in-game; none are associated with anything that looks like the construction sprites you pointed out. My guess, given my limited knowledge, is that either the demo was completed before all the XBLD data was finalized, and those sprites were later removed; or, they used values associated with buildings they removed from the demo in order to include the extra construction sprites. Someone else may be able to correct me. Either way, great Blerb - always fun to see new SC2K content!

[@ColonialPuppet]

HOLY SHIT. I played this demo all the time as a kid on my family’s PowerBook 3400c. It was part of a demo pack cd I still have. I remember getting the full game for Christmas after begging my parents. Good times.

[@roughneckwolf]

Hell YES! This was my first taste of SimCity waaaay back when. Edit: They had this wrapped in plastic and with a little hang tag stuck to the back of it for like $2 on one of those end shelf display hanging things - like you see at the grocery store, at the local Compusmart computer/game store about 30 years ago...

[@downhillcrasher]

I bought one of these new at MEI MicroCenter in the 90s. It was located in the regular software section. And yes, I paid money for it. I think it was $3.00.

[@darkowl9]

There's such a charm to the pixel-art SC2000 city buildings.

[@erebostd]

oh, sim city content 😊👍

[@Rab1dGAMER]

Reminds me of the Spore creature creator that you could buy for a few bucks at checkout counters.

[@aw4483]

You mean the only good part of Spore?

[@Rab1dGAMER]

@@aw4483 Pretty much yeah, and that at a fraction of the price minus the 5 times key activation limit

[@kaitlyn__L]

They also released the creature creator for free download!

[@Rab1dGAMER]

@@kaitlyn__L I did not know that, but also internet in South Africa back then was a luxury (Can argue it still is) so I couldn't browse the net willy nilly back then unfortunately

[@boden_staendig]

This was the first PC game I've ever played. Very fun game at the time, and one of the best looking.

[@REDDF1VE]

I got that demo disk as bonus when I subscribed to the German magazine "PC Joker" back in I think March of 1994. Greetings from Hamburg, Germany. :)

[@ArthurDWolfe]

SimCity 2000 was my jam as a kid, played it everywhere except at home since I did not own a copy of my own until years later. Also, Home of the Underdogs reference? Coolio.

[@twocvbloke]

Ah demos, from a time when you couldn't afford the full game and had to make do with feature-limited, time-restricted demos... :P

[@marciomaiajr]

Always great to see a new LGR video on my recommendations.

[@lazycomicgamer2313]

Wow awesome throwback I remember this was sold at my local radio shack of all places i think for like 2.99 maybe. you had a time limit as it states below.

[@Steampunk_Star_Raisin]

I remember It was sold at Babbage's in the 1990's at the store near where I lived at. These demo disks were sold the front counter by the cash register.

[@cairsahrstjoseph996]

Hi! First time commenting. Never seen the demo disk, but my brother did have SC2K for the SNES, which ran slow enough. Anyway, I always like the videos you make. God bless!

[@kroushtwilight5487]

The full version was a free promotion that came with the particular HP system my parents had bought when I was a kid. It came with some sort of voucher, though I can't recall too much about the specifics. Fantastic game in the golden Maxis days.

[@ollyshighlightreel6530]

Those were the days!!! Used to have stacks of promo and demo disks we used to play on our families PC, the only way a lot of people played the newest games. We would get them in newspapers, magazines, handouts at trade stands (got a Burnout 3 demo from a stand at the Birmingham NEC Motorshow) and my late father would thift these demos for little to nothing from thift shops and boot/yard sales. I remember one year one of the UK Newspapers gave away the full version of Croc and Croc 2 for PC!!! Collect tokens and redeem at a supermarket, my brother and I thought we struck gold!!! The disk looks like one of those you would get when buying a new PC or another Maxis product?

[@sideeggunnecessary]

Early demos are like the coolest thing ever

[@AmuletShadez]

So many memories from my early teens - so many hours after homework did I play this game :D Trip down Memory Lane for sure :) (on an old TOSHIBA CDS Laptop - or at least, I THINK it was a CDS)

[@Chris-cf1hs]

Dude I didn't know about /w for dir. This is a game changer

[@LGRBlerbs]

/p and /on are also useful, showing long file lists in single-screen pages and organizing files alphabetically.

[@Chris-cf1hs]

@@LGRBlerbs you're amazing thank you. I've started learning dos a few years ago but never really knew all these commands to make life easier

[@Chris-cf1hs]

@@LGRBlerbs what does /on do? In dosbox it doesn't seem to do anything.

[@Frostfly]

The Original SimCity was one of the first Graphics based games I remember playing(along with Ultima 3) Played it on an 11 inch green monochrome monitor on a duel 5.25 floppy, 640k memory Leading Edge 8088. It ran slowly enough that if you had a big city you could set the speed down and let it run over night. Still some great gaming memories.

[@DFXThomas]

Thank you so much for actually sharing the floppy disk image! Many people don't care to do this!

[@chubbycatfish4573]

I've been playing this game for 25 years and I never knew you could shoot down the helicopter... I know what I'm doing this evening.

[@OneVerySadPanda]

I remember playing this demo on the Mac. The 20-minute demo. It came on a disc called, 1000 Games in one.

[@HardwareLust]

Great vid Clint! I had no idea this even existed.

[@stevenbasnett881]

I put that on my 486 dx2 for my son. A few days later a mob was headed to city hall led by his mother. Good memory.

[@thomasg86]

Yes, that 2x2 construction tile is definitely not in the full game. I played this so much as a child each pixel of this pixel art is seared into my brain, that is definitely different!

[@GamerbyDesign]

I don't know the game suffers without that classic Sim City music.

[@GerbenWijnja]

Whenever I see SimCity 2000 I think of the "zzz zzz" UFO sound.

[@Dusty_B]

Before I saw the UFO part I thought Sim City just made you sleepy

[@MickeyD2012]

I found my Sim City DOS CD-ROM version the other day. Pretty happy about it.

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

Clint, people who registered their games, would sometimes receive free demo discs from Maxis. I remember my father receiving that Simcity 2000 Demo disc in the mail from Maxis, along with a newsletter of sorts. I hope this helps!

[@mrnicktwist]

I played this in 98 for the first time on the Sega Saturn.

[@paulgraham4567]

I love that version.

[@slodogg]

Dude!!! Home of the Underdogs!! Throwback! 👍🏼

[@brennyn]

A friend worked at a store that stocked these way back when. Despite the large package size, 100% of them got shoplifted and 0% were actually sold. Something about the low price point made people just not care, or not even realize that there was a fee. Now that I think about it, there was a similar phenomenon of 100% shoplifting with one of the Rollercoaster Tycoon addons.

[@mattb154]

Speaking of one-disk wonders, I'd love to see a blerb (or more!) on the QNX demo disk released ca. 1998. QNX would later become an embedded real time OS, but back then it was a unix-y desktop OS and these absolute madmen and women managed to cram an entire desktop experience, complete with a browser on a bootable HD floppy! Genuinely the most impressive demo I have ever seen.

[@Netsuko]

Crazy to think that some of the games we used to play for hours and hours came on two 3.5" Disks. I just downloaded the demo of a new game (Outriders) and the DEMO was 21GB. How times change.

[@SUCRA]

The simcity song comes to my head, so cool and relaxing.

[@Angellmbrr]

I shouldn't be seeing this video. I'm a recovered SimCity addict. This just makes me want to install Sim City 4 or... god help me! Cities Skylines again and waste more hours of my life on a neverending game.

[@Penoatle]

SC4+RH is still a game I can lose hours in. I never modded it either just the game and the expansion is a great sink.

[@Angellmbrr]

@@Penoatle I love megacities so I need at least 2 mods: Air purifiers and trash removals. Yeah, it's cheating but your cities will look gorgeous and you won't have to worry about the pollution.

[@Penoatle]

@@Angellmbrr It is not cheating. How can you cheat with art? It assists you in making the best city you can. I am also assuming you did the fix to prevent crashing? I am glad something like that exists and is simple.

[@firewalker1372]

Don’t feel bad, I had this addiction to The Sims. Had the first sims along with all the expansion packs 😂. Then it went into The Sims 2 and all the expansion packs and 3. Stopped at 4, wasn’t a very big fan.

[@desepticon4]

@@Angellmbrr The trash removal mod I had was a sprite of a ramp you attached to the side of the map. Apparently it just got shoved off into the void.

[@Squish888]

I miss how hard it was to take the plastic wrapping off of the jewel cases. So much anticipation.

[@SirHalcyonSun]

YES! Sim City is my bag baby. I have all the media including this one.

[@Lindeman08]

So much nostalgia! God damn that game was great.

[@retropuffer2986]

I vividly remember the buzz this game was making back then!

[@TuxPeng]

I played SC2K on my mac, I never knew that the Newspaper Strike meant out of memory, I went crazy changing tax rates

[@tedwilliams9424]

At various points in my early life, my parents let me purchase this as well as the Descent and ROTT demo floppies from the local Babbages. I want to say the SC2000 one retailed around $5, was timed, and I played the crap out of it on my 486 Aptiva.

[@evergreengamer5767]

the collectors series release of sim city classic has a timed demo of sc2k but with sound, had alot of fun playing the demo city before getting special edition of 2k which also had option to play demo city but with no timer

[@MegaManNeo]

This would have been the perfect demo to distribute on these magazine diskettes or CD-ROMs of the era.

[@CharlesAnjos]

this timed demo thing remembers me the ones that i had of rollercoaster tycoon and GTA2. man, the memories

[@tiaxanderson9725]

Wow that was the most effective fire I've ever seen.

[@lupinzar]

A couple years ago I wrote an extractor for SimCity graphics (all of them, not just what SCURK allows). If I find the time I'll see if I can dig through the data files from this, as now I'm interested in what else might be different.

[@lupinzar]

Had a chance to look at the tile graphics. There wasn't much different besides what was already pointed out. The most notable thing is that one of the residential 3x3 buildings has extra features and the drive in theater has a blank screen instead of the ant animation. I've uploaded a sprite sheet to Spriter's Resource of the significant changes I could find if anyone is interested.

[@chicofuu]

A demo Disk episode! Nice!

[@CybershamanX]

(5:57) And that 20 minute time limit could NEVER be hackable... ;) I'm actually curious if it will freak out if it runs for longer. Oh! Here's an idea for the LGR floppy subscription service: send out copies of the game and run a contest to see who can build the best city within the time limit. Or have a couple of categories, like biggest population or largest city that isn't losing money. I don't know. There's potential there somewhere. Anyway, thanks for sharing this amazing little disk. Take care! :)

[@paulmuaddib451]

Always knew you were a size queen, Clint.

[@siemenstraffic]

Grettings and welcome to an LGR SimCity 2000 thing.

[@Nickword1]

Loved the Snes version.

[@michaelhinkson6293]

There was a similar version on the scholastic book club cd version of Sim City, it was packed with other demos of Maxis games but I remember Simcity 2000's the most. It was this demo but more available, sound, and most if not all buildings. Only fire was available for choosing disasters. It had sound and what not. The only major thing I remember not being available was scenarios and most disasters. It came with the same demo map as in this demo. I do recall the Original simcity that this version of the demo was packaged with was different as well. If I come across the disc I should see if it has been archived over on the internet archive and if not put it up on there.

[@owtkast023]

Ah, such a great game. First game I ever bought. Saved my allowance for a bit.

[@christmas6666]

"This is SimCopter 1, reporting heavy traffic."

[@DarKnightKilla13]

Circuit City used to have (at the least the one near me) these and many other "demo" disks or CDs when you both first walked in on like an end-cap style metal shelf unit and also near the checkout area. Sometimes they offered freebies, but if I recall correctly this particular demo disk was about 2 bucks at checkout. The full game would come out a few months later and I believe it retailed for somewhere between $20-30 at most.

[@CuriouserArchive]

Someone probably already mentioned this, but shooting down the helicopter doesn't cause a fire if you have "No Disasters" enabled, which this demo city does by default.

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

Clint, people who registered their games with Maxis, would sometimes receive free demo discs from the company. I remember my father receiving that Simcity 2000 Demo disc in the mail from Maxis, along with a newsletter of sorts. I hope this helps!

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

Probably my favorite pc game of all time. Time to pull out my xp machine

[@Miasmark]

I got some retail disks like this before. they were usually like you said free with purchase or $0.99 ish.

[@DigitalViscosity]

I played this demo back then. I remember every time my parents would take me to the mall I'd go into Software Etc. they had a rack of "shareware" and demo disks that cost from 1.99 to 4.99. It was mostly Apogee games and Wolfenstein, Doom, and some other random stuff. I remember seeing this and being intrigued at it being a demo even though I didn't know much what it meant.

[@NathanielChristopher]

I remember this came bundled with an AST computer I had access to in 1993/1994.

[@gu4xinim]

Even the asphalt is specially flammable in the demo, damn.

[@trs-80fanclub12]

thanks for adding the jewel case for reference, I didnt know how large your hands were LOL (Kidding)

[@LuizHenrique-zb5if]

Wow, this bring back some memories. I remember the first time i tryed to run the sc2k and it needed 2 mb ram to run, but the computer the only had 1mb :(

[@DevinGates]

Even just seeing the black and white screenshots, I can hear the game :)

[@TenOfZero1]

I played so much sim city 2000 as a kid. I loved that game. It's a shame what happened to the franchise, but I'm very glad for Cities Skylines

[@Armaron06]

And the city was saved! :: endless rubble as far as the eye can see ::

[@thewesker]

I remember this exact demo. It came on the “SimCity Classic” CD-ROM I purchased I think in 1996.

[@Mech4]

I guess the system requirements on the sleeve are for the full game since it mentions sound cards there. I like how often demos were earlier version of games. Age of Empires 1 had some short, unique campaigns which weren't in the full version and you could see how some of the maps were later tweaked and changed around.

[@RynoDBones]

Saw stuff like this (probably even saw one of these) at CompUSA when I was a teenager. Definitely at the little spinning rack thing by the check-out lanes...Most of that stuff was like $2 to $5. Sometimes these were also free to pick from when you bought a big-box game. They just had a display with five or so different demos to pick from when you got a real game. I remember getting a Quake II demo.

[@Cursethedawn]

Hey! You mentioned El-Fish! I loved that "game." Still have my boxed copy. Unfortunate I can't get it to run on anything these days.

[@JohnDee1527]

Home of the Underdogs! Such a great site. I found out about so many awesome games there.

[@dennisdobransky5977]

i remember getting that game with a magazine, game was just inside the shrink wrap plastic, just like doom demo version and epic pindall