The Story of the Cancelled SimCity NES Game | Friday Night Arcade
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Did you know that SimCity was almost released on the Nintendo Entertainment System? Find out about this cancelled prototype, what it would have looked like as well as where you can play it right now on this edition of Friday Night Arcade.
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SimCity was written and developed by Will Wright of Broaderbund. It was originally conceptualized and developed for the Commodore 64 in 1985, but Broaderbund did not think the game would sell and ultimately the project was shelved until the end of the decade. Will Wright met up with Jeff Braun and the two decided to form their own company, Maxis. A deal was eventually struck between Maxis and Broaderbund to publish the city simulation game in 1989 for various computer platforms as well as the C64. The game went on to sell over a million units and due to the game's success, Will Wright was contacted by Nintendo.
Shigeru Miyamoto personally flew to California to meet up with Will Wright and Maxis and discuss publishing the SimCity game on Nintendo hardware. A deal was struck and SimCity was eventually published on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System with much success. However, a prototype was initially in development for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
In a late 1990 issue of Nintendo Power, SimCity on the NES was featured in the upcoming games section and a Spring 1991 release was teased. The article also featured two screenshots. A playable NES version of the city simulator was also featured at the 1991 Winter Consumer Electronics show and footage of NES SimCity in action was featured on an episode of Video Power. Host Johnny Arcade is seen playing the game and describes how it works.
However, the 8-bit version of SimCity was quietly cancelled and the 16-bit version was released on SNES instead. The NES version of SimCity was shelved never to be heard from again in any official capacity until a 2006 issue of Nintendo Power in which one of the editors mentioned he had a working prototype sitting on his desk. Unfortunately, there was no mention again of it for over a decade until August of 2017 when a retro games store owner out of Seattle spoke out that two prototypes of the game had wandered into his store.
A video published on RUclips and Nintendo Age showed the prototypes to indeed be SimCity on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The prototypes were auctioned off at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. One copy went to a private collector while the other was purchased, thankfully, by a founding member of the Video Game History Foundation, Steve Lin. Steve made an agreement with VGHF Owner Frank Cifaldi to dump the ROM from the prototype cartridge so that it could be examined, preserved and ultimately made public for the retro gaming community to see. Thankfully Lin swooped in to make this last minute deal so that SimCity on the NES would not be lost once again to history.
A special digital archive of SimCity on the NES including the ROM, soundtrack, source code and press documentation can be downloaded on VGHF here:
► archive.org/de...
WORKS CITED
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6:00 I have still yet to encounter any litter
Lol I missed that!
So you're doing a damn fine job it sounds like.
He probably mixed it up with pollution
The guy who let the video game foundation make a rom is a true hero.
100% agreed. I can't believe someone would spend an insane amount of money on one of these just to lock it up for nobody in the community to look at ever. The guy that made it available for VGHF, Steve Lin, was one of the initial investors of VGHF so thankfully he was hip to the cause.
I remember first hearing about this game from another video about Earthbound Beginnings where a magazine featured both this And Earthbound Beginnings ON THE SAME PAGE
Yep! That was that episode of Nintendo Power lol!
My mother played the crap outta Sim City on SNES. 🤣🤣
Bro-der-bund. Not broader bound. Other than that, awesome video. Really like your channel
And might I add that the super nuntendo sSimCity has a CRIMINALLY underrated sound track?
Man i love these stories for games that were thought to be lost and hereing a new one is amazing
6:40 my math sucks lol
I knew about this...but I didn't know the story. If a C64 can run a version of Sim City then the Nes should be able to do a damn good version of it. I bet it plays really well too.
Loved to play the SNES version as well as the original PC version. I tried getting into SimCity 2000 and it just wasn't the same.
Awsome vid. Always love a new “good” games channel. Sign me up!
Cheers!
Awesome Aaron, just awesome. Just the sheer amount of research needed to make this video alone is outstanding. Thank you so much for your hard work on this one. Your best one yet!
Thank you, Mike.
Another amazing and informative video. Fantastic as always
Thanks, mate.
That's very kind of you... thank you!
This is really cool. I've always been a fan of the different Sim games. Thank you
Soyo oka also did simcity snes
A shame we never got the nes version officially. I bet Nintendo worried it may have reduced the buzz for the SNES if they released it on NES also, especially it seems like a very competent version of it. I know the original was one of the main games advertised for the system.
Hmm, so this is kinda like SimCity 2000 for snes then? Which some say runs better than ps1 version, but definitely runs worse than the pc version?
Thanks for the info.
I played Sim City on SNES after college. I only played half a dozen games on NES, and one I liked the best, Xenophobe, only in the late 1990s. Well, maybe I liked it because I didn't "finish" it, like the others. The SNES version has one issue: you don't need to build roads, but can do all rail.
Generic Godzilla monster!? That's Baragon, you heathen! Just messing with you; I love your show and your chill attitude. This is a really neat prototype with some lovely music; thank you for sharing this!
Another great video! SimCity is yet another example of publishers assuming people wanting something lowbrow when we actually want something complicated.
Not just US console gamers dude, us in Europe liked SimCity
Are you sure back in time gaming is in seattle.... I know of one in bremerton. And one in port orchard. Which is across the water from seattle...
That NES SimCity title screen music has a very Little Nemo the Dream Master sound. I just adore the Sim City games.
wow i've never respected the NES more being master system kid. That's an amazing port.
I had this on the SNES back in the day and loved it. The music was great. Of course I always used the money cheat code every time I started a new city. Also, this was one of the first games I put on my SNES Classic.
Awesome! Yeah, I feel like there's no shame in throwing in the money cheat. It just gives you a head start, not like it alters the game. You're still free to make terrible choices lol. The game was meant to be fun and having more money up front amplifies that.
For some reason, seeing a Zelda II cartridge cannibalized into the Sim City prototype made me a little sad.
Shared this vid with everyone I know. This is a real gem you've got here... I've got nothing but fond memories of SimCity on SNES in '92. I remember seeing that games box art for the first time in a now defunct egghead computing store...
That's very kind of you; glad you enjoyed this one. And thank you for sharing, so many good memories. Our local computing store was a Walden Software (and there was a Walden Books nearby), not sure if that was national or something local.
I have the archive on my disk, file creation date 12-25-2018.
Broader bound??
Broardrwar Broundd
Hahaha omg I forgot video power existed! That’s great.
I played with it for a while, it seems to take quite a while for new zones to develop into anything compared to the SNES version. Some took a year or longer of game time to start going, which realistic compared to a real city I suppose but not much fun. Probably due to the NES struggling with all the calculations.
Agreed. I think you'd have to start by "less is more," literally just building 2-3 of each zone then sit and wait a year or so, sporadically adding. Not much fun. Still cool as heck to think it could have ran on an NES though.
Excellent video.
Thanks, Tom!
I would like to play the nes version now.
It's pronounced Broderbund
That attitude is what ruined all of my favourite simulation games. "It's too complicated, I don't want to manage sewers..."
A game having depth and requiring skill is what makes it replayable.
Look at the mess SimCity 2013 was. They dumbed it down to attract more players and ended up killing the franchise possibly forever.
I'm not saying they were bad games... They just weren't for me personally. I struggle with OCD which affects my gaming sensibilities. Giving me more tedious stuff to micromanage is detrimental to my health lol.
@@FridayNightArcadeOk, well just generally. Sim City and Civilization were my fave franchises. Both are junk now and it's because they dumbed them down for casual players ☹
Great video though.
I agree they completely frigged up Civilization. I didn't even bother with VI.
@@FridayNightArcade Both I got into from their SNES versions too. I just realized that.
That's interesting. I think I completely missed Civ on SNES.
Here from the ad.
Thanks for checking out the show.
Who thumbs these videos down?
Right next to Mother 1
Yes! Sewer and water lines are just plain stupid for a sim game. I'm glad you made that statement!
Well, how often do they need attention? Once every 50 or 100 years? If you have separate systems for wastewater runoff and actual sewers then no problem. But if you have a combined system that overflows into the river when there's heavy rains that could be trouble, and sooner or later needs the investment to make a separate system.
I played the heck out of the super nintendo version, that said i didn't say i was particularly good at it, never even got close to a megalopolis even though i was darn well aware of the cheatcode for money. You awoke a serious nostalgia with this video, good job! :)
You can just imagine everyone screaming “boo! Hiss!” At the screen when the photo of that “private collector” is shown 😂
Earth Bound beginnings(USA) and Sim city where on the same page and both where canceled xD
My mind was blown when this was discovered, initially. Just think what else is out there...
I'm with you on one thing certainly, modern sims are impressive but they're just too complex. SNES Sim City, Railroad Tycoon 1, these are my sweet spots.
100% agreed! And you don't have to quit your job to have enough time to play them.
Oh, my.
Hey, hey, now. Sim City 3000 is a stone-cold classic, my man!
😎
@@FridayNightArcade Maybe. But when I saw the sequels were a lot more complicated I passed, too.
Dude, this episode was awesome! My first Sim City experience was Sim City 2000, even though Sim City had been out for several years. Great job Aaron.
Thank you, FishEye! Glad you enjoyed this one :)
I'd recommend giving 3000 another chance, it's the most user friendly of the more complex games once you get the hang of it. The original SimCity is charming on SNES but it's maybe a little too simple.
Good to know - thanks for sharing. I'll have to look into that one again.
Huh, judging by how the Zelda 2 label is torn on the cartridges at 6:35 and 7:17 (with little bits left on the left side), these might actually be the same cartridge.
That's what I was thinking too....
1337
I've played both. Nintendo was very wise to go with the SNES version. The SNES was much more powerful and capable a system for such a game.
Just came across your channel as was searching for simcity vids... Like what you did on this vid and watched some of your others... Very well done. New sub here. Looking forward to seeing more and greetings from Ireland!
PS... Simcity on IBM was my fav but recently got snes version so going to give that a try... My kids think I'm mad loving a game that has the "graphics of a heating timer" as my son called it! Pssst! Kids today!
This made me smile and also laugh. Kids are hilarious - thank you very much for sharing this and for checking out the show!
You must have some pretty rad heating timers around where you live.
Amazing bro
Thank you.
Nintendo really cut the life of the NES short, unnecessarily. It wanted to push sales of the SNES but knew it wasn't different enough from its successful predecessor, so it stopped producing as many games for it and stopped all support for the console which made the company larger.
Apparently, a good chunk of SNES games were easily portable to NES including Super Mario World with a playable Yoshi.
That's ridiculous. The NES' life wasn't "cut short" whatsoever. It had been around since 1985 (1983 in Japan), and by 1991 it was 6 years old. That's about the average life span for most consoles. Yes, far fewer games were released for it after the SNES came out. Why does that surprise you? It's totally normal and makes perfect sense. Sure, it's possible to make NES ports of most SNES games, but they need to be altered in order to work. The SNES was capable of doing far more then what the NES could.
I left for college seeing people play NES games like Super Mario Bros. I played computer games in college, then came home to see people playing SNES games, so got into that for a couple years. I think they made the right decision to cut the NES. Once released, every sale of an NES console is a potential lost sale of the SNES.
If Atari had pushed the 5200 in 1982, bundling it with its Pac-Man, then maybe the Crash of 1983 wouldn't have happened. There were a lot of 2600 games in 1982 made by Atari. I got Berzerk, Defender, Haunted House, Pac-Man, Star Raiders, Vanguard and Yars' Revenge. Centipede and Phoenix were good, though I got them much later. (For some reason they didn't update the catalogs I got to include 3 of these, plus E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark and Swordquest: Earthworld. Maybe they took them out of returned Pac-Man boxes to re-use?) But had they been released ONLY for the 5200, that system would have soared! By the end of 1982 about 2 million consoles of ColecoVision were sold as it was bundled with Donkey Kong, but it didn't save the company the next year. Likewise a large number of Atari 2600s were sold by people with Pac-Man Fever. Each sale was a lost sale of the 5200 and contributed to the Crash, in my opinion.
can you make a video on the original doom plz :]
It's on the list :D