It's been ages since I first covered this so it's high time for a revisit! Streets of SimCity was a flawed jankfest of a game, yet I've always had a fondness...
The game idea itself was pretty cool, flying around a city that you could create yourself. But the controls for the helicopters were very strange. And the gameplay itself was not all that good. Mostly, I just liked the Apache helicopter you could use to blow everything up
I liked how SimCopter actually used the same systems as SimCity 2000, with cop cars coming from police stations and fire trucks from the firefighters. Well thought out SimCity maps actually made your life easier, rather than being window dressing.
I wish someone would bring back the concept. There was a SimCopter mod for Cities: Skylines back when it first released, though I think it was abandoned. That would be the perfect game for it, since half of SimCopter was dealing with traffic and Skylines had an amazing traffic simulation.
Mostly, I just liked the Apache helicopter you could use to blow everything up
Until you hit a nuclear power plant and it wiped out half the city (and probably fried your copter too) once it burned down.
UFOs would also start spawning when an Apache was present on the map and start abducting civilians and blowing up buildings until you shot them down. I think that was the only other disaster the game simulated?
What we need is the ability to both build the city, and jump into anyone’s body and go about their lives. Get in their car, go to their home, kill their family, pet their dog/cat.
While it was extremely limited due to the tech at the time, I truly enjoyed this and SimCopter for the ability to drive/fly around your created cities. Would love to have seen some semblance of physics included. I just recall any cars you drove up/down hills just conformed to the terrain. Was still extremely fun.
I loved that game back in the day.
It’s was really cool. I would just drive around for hours. Did you play sim copter? Same thing, just helicopters.
I did! I feel like they must have been sold in a bundle. I was so bad at sim copter. I kinda want to get them And see how bad they are now
The game idea itself was pretty cool, flying around a city that you could create yourself. But the controls for the helicopters were very strange. And the gameplay itself was not all that good. Mostly, I just liked the Apache helicopter you could use to blow everything up
I liked how SimCopter actually used the same systems as SimCity 2000, with cop cars coming from police stations and fire trucks from the firefighters. Well thought out SimCity maps actually made your life easier, rather than being window dressing.
I wish someone would bring back the concept. There was a SimCopter mod for Cities: Skylines back when it first released, though I think it was abandoned. That would be the perfect game for it, since half of SimCopter was dealing with traffic and Skylines had an amazing traffic simulation.
Until you hit a nuclear power plant and it wiped out half the city (and probably fried your copter too) once it burned down.
UFOs would also start spawning when an Apache was present on the map and start abducting civilians and blowing up buildings until you shot them down. I think that was the only other disaster the game simulated?
What we need is the ability to both build the city, and jump into anyone’s body and go about their lives. Get in their car, go to their home, kill their family, pet their dog/cat.
You may enjoy Dungeon Keeper.
Oh that looks fun!
While it was extremely limited due to the tech at the time, I truly enjoyed this and SimCopter for the ability to drive/fly around your created cities. Would love to have seen some semblance of physics included. I just recall any cars you drove up/down hills just conformed to the terrain. Was still extremely fun.
Anyone know the easiest way to play these lately? On Linux?
Both can be played on modern Windows with Krimsky’s patches. They’d probably work in Wine, but I’ve never tested them.
Holy shit thank you. I spent so much time setting up a windows 9…5 or 98 vm just to play streets and copter again but it just crashed.
Iamtheceoofmcdonnelldouglas
This was probably my favorite game as a kid.