Product:SimCity 2000

Developer:ZioSoft

Web Site: http://www.ziosoft.com
Category:Game – Simulation
Price:$29.95
Requirements:

Pocket PC:
Casio Cassiopeia E-115, E-125, EM-500, E-200
HP Jornada 540 and 560 series
Compaq IPAQ 3600, 3700, and 3800 series
NTT Docomo G-Fort
UR There @migo
Toshiba Genio
NEC Pocketgear

Software:
Microsoft ActiveSync
Desktop Windows 95 / 98 / Me / 2000 / NT 4.x

Pocket PC OS:
Windows CE 3.x for Pocket PC
Pocket PC 2002

Pocket PC CPU:
MIPS / SH3 / StrongArm

Color:
65K / 4096 Colors

Storage Memory:
4MB of RAM

In 1989, Maxis released SimCity and the world of simulation gaming has never been the same. The game was revolutionary and became an instant addiction to players all over the world. It has been translated to almost every gaming / computer platform and continues to be popular to this day. In the mid 90’s, Maxis released SimCity 2000, the revolutionary sequel to SimCity. And now, ZioSoft brings this game to the Pocket PC.

For those of you who have not heard of SimCity or SimCity 2000, there should be very few of you, the game is a simulation of creating, building, and maintaining your own city. You are the mayor and city planner rolled into one. The main goal of SimCity 2000 is for you to design, manage, and maintain your city while keeping your sim population satisfied and your city growing. There are even pre-built scenarios of real or fiction cities and situations to challenge your ability to reach certain goals or survive disasters such as monsters, hurricanes, or earthquakes. This is a game of creativity and creation, not violence and destruction like so many games these days. Since there are hundreds of reviews of SimCity 2000 on the Internet, I will not go into details about how the game is played. For specific questions about SimCity 2000, please consult one of the numerous guides and reviews you will find on the Internet.

For anyone who has played SimCity 2000, there is no need to explain how SimCity 2000 for Pocket PC works. It is a faithful and complete translation of the PC / Windows version to the Pocket PC. Other than a few changes, such as the toolbar / menu system and adjustments for the size of the screen, the game plays almost exactly like the full PC version. Every feature, option, and capability of the original game is here. You can even play cities created on the PC version. Just transfer the saved cities from your PC to your Pocket PC and enjoy. There are hundreds of cities and scenarios that you can download from the Internet. Even cities created with the SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit can be played on the Pocket PC version. SimCity 2000 for Pocket PC is such a true “port” of the PC game, that even the cheat codes for the PC / Windows version can be used.

Having contributed to the development of the original SimCity, it was a real pleasure to play this latest version. I did not work on SimCity 2000 or 3000 and have no ties to Maxis. So I will be completely impartial in my opinion of SimCity 2000 for Pocket PC.

ZioSoft has done a fantastic job bringing this game to the Pocket PC. It is very faithful to the original and I cannot find anything that is missing from the game. The graphics look beautiful on the Pocket PC and all the animations that bring the city to life are there. All the statistics, graphs, charts, and details of the original are there for those who like to micro-manage their city and its population.



The game performance will vary slightly depending on the speed of the CPU in your Pocket PC. The game is very playable on any StrongArm based Pocket PC. Performance is slower on other Pocket PCs, but not enough to prevent you from enjoying this game. Plus the more program memory you have available the better. Especially as your city grows. I tested the game on an Ipaq 3630 and Casio E-125. Both played well. The only real difference is the scroll speed as you move your view around the city.
You will notice some performance delays when using the terrain editor and creating large objects like mountains and rivers. So faster is better, but the game performs satisfactorily on all supported Pocket PCs.



As I mentioned, the toolbars and menus have been changed to adjust for the smaller screen of the Pocket PC. The original game used floating menus while this game uses a fixed menu at the top of the screen. Plus you need to scroll the toolbar left and right to reach the desired menu. This is slower than the original game, but I did not have any trouble getting used to it.

The game packs a lot of information on the screen. I would have preferred that they use a semi-transparent overlay for the information or made more use of pop-up information boxes. For the most part, the screen layout works well. The placement of building and objects can be annoying since there is no visual guide to help you when selecting the location. Plus there is no indication of the amount of space the building or object will need in the map. So many times you will place the building in the wrong place or discover that it will not fit in the prepared area. If you make a mistake, the only choice is to bulldoze the building and try again. Unfortunately, this will cost you money each time you build and destroy a building. A good solution would have been a transparent building that you can move on the screen and check the placement before you commit to building it. An “undo” feature would have been helpful. This was the most annoying thing in the game when building a city. Always remember to click directly on the ground square where you want to place an object. If you click too high, you will place the object north of where you really wanted it to be.

ZioSoft has done an excellent job converting this game to the Pocket PC. Anyone who enjoyed playing SimCity 2000 on their PC will enjoy it on the Pocket PC. The playability and fun of the game still holds up as well now as it did when it was originally released. I could not find any flaw in the game that would prevent a fun and enjoyable experience. The price is a little high compared to other games. They have to pay royalties to Maxis and the development is much more polished and high-quality than most games on the market. While it may be a little pricey, I think the depth, quality, and value of the game is worth it. Hopefully we will see more classic games come to the Pocket PC. I look forward to the next conversion from ZioSoft.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars.


---Harvey Lee
PocketPC Editor