Have you posted here: http://community.simtropolis.com/forum/51-cit … -building-games ? It is the most active forum I could find with simcity 2k players. I like that version of simcity, too!

I also found web links featuring Ocean Quigley, perhaps he could be contacted for the "Harsh" city.

Didn't Maxis release a simcity 2k version with fan-made cities?

truth5678 wrote:

Have you posted here: http://community.simtropolis.com/forum/51-cit … -building-games ? It is the most active forum I could find with simcity 2k players.

Will do, and thanks for the info! 😀

truth5678 wrote:

I like that version of simcity, too!

I've enjoyed SC2K for many years now, and recently started to play the game again. I also had purchased SC3K Unlimited back on the day, and while I really enjoyed playing that one as well, it never really felt like it had the magic of SC2K to me 😀

truth5678 wrote:

I also found web links featuring Ocean Quigley, perhaps he could be contacted for the "Harsh" city.

Again, thanks for the info. I'll see if I can dig up some contact info for him.

truth5678 wrote:

Didn't Maxis release a simcity 2k version with fan-made cities?

Yes, that would be the version that I have... the SimCity 2000 Special Edition CD. It indeed has a ton of fan-made cities included on the CD, but unfortunately none that were featured in the SC2KPP&P strategy book.

SC3K certainly had interesting graphics and I liked the special buildings that would appear, but I agree it was not (nearly) as enjoyable as SC2K. It's one of just two or three games I play in dosbox.

I did find this site which mirrors maxis files, but I couldn't find the cites by their common name:
http://ftp.games.skynet.be/pub/ftp.ea.com/maxis/patches/

On second thought, those cities may be in the Special Edition already. 🙁

truth5678 wrote:

SC3K certainly had interesting graphics and I liked the special buildings that would appear, but I agree it was not (nearly) as enjoyable as SC2K.

Not to mention, plagued by numerious unfixed bugs. See my old rants here -> http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … 00/sc3kubug.htm <grin>.

truth5678 wrote:

It's one of just two or three games I play in dosbox.

I use DOSBox extensively for all of my TON of older DOS games... WAY to many to mention here 🤣! I also have my copy of Windows 3.11WFWG installed under DOSBox, for those Win3x games that don't behave too well under newer Windows versions 😀

truth5678 wrote:

I did find this site which mirrors maxis files, but I couldn't find the cites by their common name: http://ftp.games.skynet.be/pub/ftp.ea.com/maxis/patches/ On second thought, those cities may be in the Special Edition already. 🙁

Thanks for the link, but like you said, a lot of those already come with SC2KSE.

Sort of off-topic:

BTW, some things you might find of SC2K/SC3K interest:

Re: Simcity 2000 Midi Synth
Re: Simcity 2000 puzzling exit
Re: Strange SimCity 2000 Mac Graphics

http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … s/simcity_2000/ / http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … 00/sc2stuff.htm

http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … s/simcity_3000/

Thanks for the links! I look forward to reading them.

An off-topic comment:
Another game I like is Chessmaster 3000 (3.1 version). It runs well in dosbox/3.1 and also runs in the host (XP) where some of the older versions of Chessmaster don't, but I particularly like the full screen scaling in dosbox. 😀

Edit: thank you for creating the soundfont for sc2k! I tried it out in dosbox/fluidsynth. I tried it for one song but is it best to replace the midi files, too? Or even possible?

truth5678 wrote:

Thanks for the links! I look forward to reading them.

You're welcome! 😀

truth5678 wrote:

Another game I like is Chessmaster 3000 (3.1 version). It runs well in dosbox/3.1 and also runs in the host (XP) where some of the older versions of Chessmaster don't, but I particularly like the full screen scaling in dosbox. 😀

Damm... now you've gone and done it 🤣! I'm NOW going to have to go and dig up my old CM3K install floppies 😀

truth5678 wrote:

Edit: thank you for creating the soundfont for sc2k! I tried it out in dosbox/fluidsynth. I tried it for one song but is it best to replace the midi files, too? Or even possible?

I'm not quite sure what you're refering to. The SC2K Mac SoundFont was created from samples ripped from the Mac version of the game.

I then used the SC2K Windows version's MIDI files (that are included in the pack), but they had to be edited so that the patches/presets in the MIDI files were the correct instruments for the custom SoundFont.

Now... if you wanted to use them for the Windows version of SC2K, you could simply load in the my custom SoundFont, and then replace the existing MIDI files in your existing installed copy of SC2K for Windows with the edited versions in the ZIP.

In other words, any normal MIDI files will sound quite strange when played using the my SC2K Mac SoundFont (to say the least 🤣!), and vice-versa (the edited MIDI files in the pack will sound weird wehn played using a standard General MIDI mapped SoundFont).

If you're refering to replacing the MIDIs in the DOS version of SC2K, unfortunately that's a no-go.

Anyhow, a side note: I've played the Macintosh version of SC2K quite a bit using the "Basilisk II" macintosh emulator, and although my SC2K Mac SoundFont/MIDI pack sounds fairly close to the ACTUAL Mac version of the game, it really doesn't do it justice <grin>.

I remember seeing this a while back about some guy and his "endgame" for SimCity 3000:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtB2ZfVuLhY

My favorite bit is the city's geometry is "inspired by the wheel of life and death".
This guy spent a ton of time on this.

Thank you for the details on your MIDI work! I'll try out those different options.

(I believe the floppy version of CM3k was for dos and the CD for 3.1. The latter runs in XP, but the former is nice because it doesn't require 3.1 in dosbox. I don't know of other advantages of the CD version, perhaps the voice files?)

snorg wrote:

I remember seeing this a while back about some guy and his "endgame" for SimCity 3000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtB2ZfVuLhY My favorite bit is the city's geometry is "inspired by the wheel of life and death". This guy spent a ton of time on this.

THAT is the coolest SC3K video that I've ever seen! And an amazing resulting city as well 😀

You know you're a nerdy geeky PC gaming freak when you start making "tribute" material for your own cities 🤣!

Hehe, nevertheless, NO WHERE NEAR the quality (or amount of work) of that guy's video, my own little and meager tributes to a couple of my own SC3K cities <grin>:

http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … /Weedsville.htm

http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … 0/weeds_key.htm

truth5678 wrote:

Thank you for the details on your MIDI work! I'll try out those different options.

Yer welcome! 😀

truth5678 wrote:

(I believe the floppy version of CM3k was for dos and the CD for 3.1. The latter runs in XP, but the former is nice because it doesn't require 3.1 in dosbox. I don't know of other advantages of the CD version, perhaps the voice files?)

My floppy version of CM3K is indeed for Windows 3.1. To tell the truth, I never even realized that there was a DOS version of the game. Of course, it's been EONS ago since I first bought it though.

P.S. For anyone interested:

A poster over at Wren Weburg's SimCity discussion forums ( http://www.weburg.com/forum/ ) managed to dig up Matt Kim's "Mattropolis" SimCity 2000 city file 😀

Anyhow, I figured that I attach a ZIP here with the afore-mentioned city files that I've managed to track down, and it NOW includes "Mattropolis".

Readme (also included in the ZIP):

1Cities referenced by the book "SimCity 2000: Power, Politics, and Planning"
2---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Title: SimCity 2000: Power, Politics, and Planning (Revised Edition)
4Authors: Nick Dargahi, Michael Bremer
5Release Date: April 5, 1995
6Publisher: Prima Publishing
7ISBN: 0-7615-0075-8
8LCCN: 94-80099 / 94080099
9
10City Name: Calebopolis
11Mayor Name: Caleb John Clark
12File Name: CALEBOPO.SC2
13Book Reference: Color Inserts, 261, 275-280
14
15City Name: Harsh
16Mayor Name: Ocean Quigley
17File Name: Unknown
18Book Reference: 261, 266-270
19
20City Name: Mattropolis / Mattropolis II
21Mayor Name: Matt Kim / Daniel Russo
22File Name: MATTROP.SC2
23Book Reference: Color Inserts, 261, 270-274
24
25City Name: MaxiANC
26Mayor Name: James Alton
27File Name: MAXIANC.SC2
28Book Reference: XIX, 222, 223, Color Inserts
29
30City Name: RUBigger / Biggest City Yet
31Mayor Name: James Moore / Jerry Moore
32File Name: RUBIGGER.SC2
33Book Reference: XIX, 222, 224, Color Inserts
34
35City Name: Tari's Kingdom
36Mayor Name: Tari Kobylanski
37File Name: Unknown
38Book Reference: 261, 262-266

The city MaxiANC in that zip file is actually Spiralopolis with Arcos. The neighbors of a city uniquely identify it like a finger print and those neighbors match those of Spiralopolis. You can see the actual neighbor signs in the the colored insert in the book Power, Planning and Politics. You can also see the road pattern in the book which is a grid, not a spiral. The real MaxiANC shown in the color insert has more Launch Arcos on the side as well.

Thanks for the info and correction, Pat! 😀 I don't suppose you would have that city archived somewhere, or some of the other lost ones?

BTW, I've been a follower of your ClubOpolis site for 20 years 😀