Monsieur Adequate and myself have both been playing a lot of SimCity 4 lately. And the other day when we were playing it, the topic of just how long this game series has been around came up. Here, have a timeline:
- SimCity – 1989 – 22 years ago
- SimCity 2000 – 1994 – 17 years ago
- SimCity 3000 – 1999 – 12 years ago
- SimCity 4 – 2003 – 8 years ago
This thought– that this game has been around for 22 years, and we’re still just as engrossed by it– really hit me for some reason. The weird thing is that there are other game series that have been around just as long, if not longer, but they don’t seem to strike me that same way. For example, I’ve theoretically been playing Mario games since Donkey Kong in… whatever year that was that I first played Donkey Kong. Certainly before 1989. But Mario has evolved. Look at Donkey Kong– or even Super Mario Bros.– and then take a look at, say, Super Mario Galaxy. Beyond the titular main character, there is little to no similarity. Other series that have been around for just as long are similar. The characters, locations, and baddies may be the same, but the games and gameplay themselves are usually different.
SimCity, however, has essentially stayed the same. If you were a first time player and played SimCity 2000 for a while and then jumped to SimCity 4, you would have very little trouble adjusting. Everything is still there. The zoning is there. The roads are there. The water pipes are there. The power lines are there. Your schools and hospitals and fire departments are there. You still have your top-down, isometric view of the world. Your Sims still follow the same basic rules now that they did in 1994.
And it is this thought– this fact that an idea Will Wright had in the eighties is so very stable as to still be a thoroughly addicting and entertaining game today– that is a wonderful thing, I think. And I’m reminded of this whenever I play yet another incarnation of the series, geek out about something ridiculous like road signs, and realize that I’ve been in love with this game for twenty years.
One of the all-time greats? Yup. One of the all-time greats. And I love the fact that I grew up with it.
Any games or series you guys feel this way about?
I guess the one for me that best compliments this is Civilization. I’ve been playing that for what, twenty years now? And Civ V aside, it’s never really deviated from being an extremely compelling, turn based strategy game about building empires and fearing Gandhi.
Not counting Sim City 3000 – I missed that one, somehow – growing up with Sim City is true for me as well! And I think I remember the first time I played it… I puzzling over zone tiles…. and the happiness when, once I’d connected electricity to them, the houses started popping up. So fun!
I wish I could say that Zelda was a series I grew up with. Unfortunately I came to the series with Ocarina of Time, and belatedly at that (I think it was maybe around 2002).
Oh Simcity 3000 unlimited i first played around 9 years ago and it wasn’t bad, it just couldn’t hold my attention for very long. The nostalgia days of runescape classic and onwards is still probably my most favourite game to remember.
I feel that the Zelda series has kept true to its roots from the NES on upwards. The basic outline of the dungeons has always stayed the same, even as the puzzles and bosses have changed, and graphics have gone from 8-bit NES to full-on 3D GameCube.
Also, I think that they managed to transition Metroid very well from the SNES/GBA platform onto the Metroid Prime series; somehow they kept the feel of the game going from 2D to 3D.
I’ve played them all. But I think I love SC2K the most. It just had the right balance. And archologies! Boy did I ever love it.
/nostalgia :S
Mario back in the Donkey Kong days was called simply Jumpman
see pic of Donkey Kong control panel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mutantlog/38458596/
My tastes have changed so much that I can’t think of one game series that I still play now. I grew up on consoles but today except for occasionally playing the Wii with daughter, I play entirely on PC now. Im not even all that interested in current gen consoles.