Streets of SimCity
Streets of SimCity | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Maxis |
| Publisher(s) | Maxis, Electronic Arts |
| Engine | SimCopter engine |
| Platform(s) | Windows 95, 98, Me*, XP* * These operating systems, can run SOSC, but are highly uncompatible with the game |
| Release | 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Racing, Combat |
| Mode(s) | Freeplay, Story, Online Play |
Streets of SimCity is a 1997 racing and vehicular combat computer game published by Maxis. The novelty of this game stemmed mostly from the fact that the player could race cars around cities that had been created in SimCity 2000. The game is in full 3D, which was a departure from Maxis's normal fare. It was almost universally considered a flop. It is one of the few games in the Maxis series that Will Wright did not work on. Despite features such as being able to load cities from SimCity 2000 and an excellent soundtrack, the game was known more for its bugs, including unexpected crashes, issues with vehicles stuck in buildings, people walking backwards and being able to drive through trees.
The game is known to be the black sheep of the "sim" line, since it in no way actually simulates driving with precision. It instead focuses more on the goals of blowing up other enemy cars, winning races, evading cops, and hitting the occasional cow. The game can be controlled with a keyboard, a joystick, or a gamepad. As a result, the game was mostly only popular with SimCity 2000 users, which like SimCopter, allowed players to explore SimCity 2000 cities, created by themselves or otherwise. There is also a network mode in which players can play deathmatches with up to seven other individuals.
Objectives
The game offers a few different modes of play:
- The free roaming mode, where the player can cruise around cities built in SimCity 2000 or the more than fifty included in the game. In this mode, there are four modes of difficulty: Sunday Driver, Bad Hair Day, Commuter's Revenge, and Crush Hour, the first having no enemies or even traffic, and the last being a living nightmare, with countless well-armed and well-protected enemy vehicles attacking the players' vehicle. With the exception of the Sunday Driver mode, packages can be found scattered all over the city waiting to be picked up and delivered to their destinations; if the packages are delivered within a delivery time limit, players may receive cash rewards, which may be used to purchase ammunition, new weapons or new vehicles. Custom maps may be created with SCURK.
- SCURK (SimCity Urban Renewal Kit) is packaged with the game, for people that do not own SimCity 2000 already. It allows the player to create courses (creating cities for other reasons is basically useless if he/she does not own SC2).
- The career mode, in which the player takes part in one of four television shows, with missions being presented as episodes. There are four different episodes to choose from, each with a set of "episodes" that increase in difficulty. Zippy's Courier Service has players take the role of a simpleton who must make a certain number of deliveries in a certain amount of time, Galahad's Watch tasks players with first weeding out corrupt cops, then discoving an even bigger plot players must stop, Granny's Wild Ride has players playing as Granny, who has discovered alien plans for invasion in her attic and must stop them at all costs, and Race for Your Life has players play a race-car driver trying to win enough money to afford treatment for a terminally-ill child.
- The Online mode, where a player can establish a deathmatch with a selecion of four different connection options. The player can join a room, or create his/her own, give themself a name, a car, and establish rules. The player can also select the map in which it will take place on. Once the right amount of players have joined (the amount the player wants), they can start. Up to seven at a time may play. There are two online play specific options: Deathmatch, where once a player's car is destroyed, they are out. Last one standing is the victor. Freeplay, where the players aren't wthrawn from the match when they are destroyed. The second mode uses a point system. Players may also team up (unfortunatly, to team up. you would need an even number, while 7 players is not even). Unfortunatly, because few people play the game (or at least online mode), the only way to play with others is to know them.
Trivia
Music and Sound
- The game has many different styles of music to choose from, using a radio control while driving. The stations range from jazz, techno, country, and rock. The garage has a tune composed solely from power tools and machines to make a unique style. Some consider the music to be one of the game's best features, compared to the lack-luster gameplay. In addition, some of the music lived on, and was included in the best-seller game The Sims, as music for "action" television programs, as well as tracks on radios and audio systems.
- Many of the sound effects came from the 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds.
- On one of the rock songs, the lyrics in one section are "...I'm in the driveway! 'Cause I'm walkin' sideways!...". This is ironic ,as pedestrians in the game tend to walk backwards and sideways.
Cities
- One city's file name is Anthrax, which is a fatal disease.
Vehicles
- The StreetRat is modled after an older 60's Volkswagon model
Other
- The game's codename during development was "Watery Grave" (In the game, your car will sink in water)
Vehicle and Game Accesories
Weapons
There are 5 different types of weapons players can purchase for their car. The number of weapons players' car can be equipped with depends on the type of car they have, the "bread van" being able to hold the most, while racing vehicles hold the least.
- Machine guns and rocket launchers are the two offensive weapons, and are placed on the front of the car.
- Land mines, smoke screens, and oil slicks are the defensive weapons, and are placed in the back. The number of mines placed at a time depends on how many mine layers the car is equipped with. The oil slick is useless when used againest spiked tires, as they always maintain a grip on the road.
Wheels
There are different types of tires, each with their own rates of handling, durability, and cost. Standard tires are the default, cost the least amount of money, but don't handle well off-road. Off-road tires handle the terrain better, but can't turn as well on the road. Solid tires are the toughest, and are in between standard and off-road in terms of handling on-and-off-road, though they cost more. Racing tires are nearly useless offroad, but can turn on a dime on the road. However, they wear down quickly under heavy strain. Spiked tires have a special advantage — with them, players can safely drive over oil slicks without losing control.
Modifications
There are few mods available for this game, but the ones that are the easiest to find are skin packs, which give players more cars to choose from in the game. Most are still based on the original cars design, however. Some examples include the Delorean from Back to the Future, an ambulance, a fire truck, and new race cars.
List of Bugs/Glitches
There are many more bugs that occur with SOSC on later computers (such as XP) due to heavy incompatibility. Also, all the previous bugs occur quad-fold. A gamer using a typical modern computer can expect up to at least 48-100+ bug ecounters and crashes in only a two-hour period of time. Because the game was actually more noticed in more modern times (with XP, in which more bugs occured), this explains why the game was panned.
Windows 98 and lower
- Players can get stuck inside buildings
- If one were to use the hopper (if they have one) while inside a building, their car would begin to fall indefinitly into/below the ground until the game crashed (a good alternative to escaping is destroying the building)
- Players can get their cars stuck at lamposts in parking lots
Windows 2000 and later
- Same three glitches listed under "Windows 98 and lower"
- If a player uses a hopper constantly on uneven terrain (such as off the map) the car will start to spin uncontrollably.
- NPC cars will hop around uncontrollably (as if using the hopper)
- Missles that are flying can eventually cause the game to crash if they never hit anything.
- If "too many" buildings in an area are destroyed (as in destroying one after another), the game may crash
- Custom created skins can make the player's car be invisible, and no longer a solid.
- A physics coding error that was hidden on earlier computers, cars will jump much higher than they should when driving off a slope etc.
- The game will commonly crash to the desktop for no reason
- Enemy vehicles can randomly "warp" (a glitch) to a different place. Many times a vehicle will suddenly materialize right where the player's car is, resulting in an error message or both cars being destroyed
- Radio tends to be choppy, and many times will play commercials, without any music.
- If the player were to quit the current game while 50/50 on water, the next time the player plays (if he/she hasn't already quit the program), an unusual bug can occur that causes land to act as water and water to act as land
- A graphical glitch, sometimes, if a map that was loaded that contained actual neighbor connections (as from SC2K), the "wild" (the outside of the map), may be completely gone.
- There are many more undocumented bugs and glitches.