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LGR - Streets of SimCity 27 Years Later
🕑 Added 2024-05-13 19:54:26 +0000 UTCRevisiting Streets of SimCity 27 years later – or really 14 years later for me! Yeah the last time I covered this on LGR it was 2010 when the game was 13 years old... it's now 14 years later so I think it's high time for a revisit!
It's crazy to look back at that old video and what the channel was back then. For example, when the original review of this went live in 2010, the video got a grand total of 240 views the first day and about 1,000 in the first month! And for me that was spectacular, heh.
But yeah, both the channel and myself were still underdeveloped when I initially covered this, and it should be no surprise that I left a lot unsaid and did not do the game justice. Now, whether it not it deserves justice is debatable, but I personally think it's worthwhile despite how utterly broken it is. There's really something oddly special about it. And after finally making my SimCity 2000 30th anniversary retrospective last fall and seeing the huge number of people bringing up Streets of SimCity in the comments, I felt it was finally time to dedicate myself to making a much beefier video about this flawed jankfest of a game.
So I hope you enjoy and have a good week! Not sure what video's next but it'll certainly be something a bit simpler in scope after spending two weeks tackling this one.
Comments
Vince Fond
Honestly same! Great to see the box art in the video
Udo Krawallo
Alright, yeah, I remember some of the old mags, bought some of them now and then. At 3:40 the PowerPlay, they even had different pictures of their writers that mirrored the score. As you can see, Jan Binsmaier was not really happy! Just looked up his name and saw he now works for THQ Nordic. Well, that´s fine. PowerPlay mag was discontinued in 2000. I also noticed that Patreon refused my Paypal payment a few days ago, but now it seems to be accepted again. Will of course stay on board with the support.
LGR
Now there's another game I really need to re-review someday
LGR
Thanks! That funky jazzy Streets of SimCity theme song goes hard.
LGR
Heck yeah I have a shortlist of candidates to re-review, we'll see how this one goes over!
LGR
😄 As it should be. I'm glad it wasn't just me!
LGR
Ha, yeah that's the core Streets experience right there. Bursts of real fun in between random aggravations.
LGR
Yes it was, and usually not favorably! One of the reviews I showed in the video was even subtitled "SimCity Meets Carmageddon"
LGR
Yes that was real Glide running on a Voodoo 3! Although I wasn't able to get it working with the patched SimStreetsX executable, only software mode, so the simulation speed was wildly inconsistent. Thanks again for making the patches, it really is a treat to have for these odd little games :)
LGR
Yeah I hear that! I can't imagine I'd be nearly as fond of it if I hadn't experienced it when new. There's still a charm but the jank is hard to ignore.
LGR
Fart engines never cease to amuse, ha
LGR
German lineage, but I've never learned the language. Just happened to be that German PC gaming magazines were very prolific with reviewing games like this back in the late 90s!
LGR
I'd say check out the SimStreetsX patch I mentioned, it makes it super easy to play in the modern day :)
LGR
I'm familiar with and have a fondness for each of those! The N.I.C.E. games in particular I've wanted to cover
Thomas Vanek
For some reason I skipped sc2k altogether as a kid (played a lot of sc1 and 3), but oh my god, I would have played the crap out of that if it woud have come out for sc3. The cover and the weaponry remind me of "Death Rally" and "Have a N.I.C.E. Day", my two favourite "Cars 'n guns"-games back then. I remember beating the final opponent in death rally together with my cousin by building a road-block out of mines and shooting and stinging that guy. Good times. While I don't think Death Rally has enough to show for a LGR video, N.I.C.E and NICE2 (or BreakNeck) should be plenty. Hope to see it someday. In the meantime I'll enjoy all the other great videos!
Stephen Staver
SimCopter and Streets of SimCity were absolutely amazing playing them when they came out. The graphics were fantastic at the time, and the quirky humor was spot-on. The games haven't aged well, and it's sad that I probably won't be able to ever play them again, but I'm glad that videos of them exist. Thanks for making this.
Udo Krawallo
Hm, that looks intriguing, turning the 2D cityscape into a full-blown 3D racing map. Why not? Wish they would have kept such cross-game concepts. Although the game for sure looks more like a wannabe Carmageddon, yes. Imagine if we could have the real Carmageddon on these maps! That would be kickass. The crashes and fights here, well...they have weapons as opposed to Carmageddon, but still, if I drive over a (of course only virtual) cow, I want my gore! Mooee! Or buzzing grannies on walking chairs with the car that shoots electric sparks. And the Fear Factory soundtrack! Interesting to see you included some german reviews, Clint. Can you read german? AFAIK your last name Basinger is of german origin, but not sure if you learnt a bit of the language.
Vladimir Vyun
That modified version at the end of the video, though. Especially sounds. Chef's kiss!
Beatrice
That's awesome! I haven't been able to find it ever since (only the SimMania one with Safari and Isle) so I was starting to doubt myself haha
Vince Fond
...I haven't heard the phrase "you're the czar, when you've got a kick ass car" for nearly 27 years! I had a lot of fun with this game for what it was, and never knew anyone else that had a copy.
Vince Fond
I had this same bundle!
Brandie Drown
This whole game is unhinged and ridiculous...if a meme was a game, this would be it
Pablo Rodriguez
I feel like I would have appreciated this game more had I played it when it came out and not many years later. By the time I got my hands on it it was way too obsolete for my tastes and nostalgia wasn't there to prop it up. I had no idea it could be modded so easily, though. That would have made it much more fun for me at the time, since I was really into filling games with my stupid self-made content.
Raymond Nichols
“The Streets of SimCity, a Quinn Martin production” Those of a certain vintage or who watched a lot of reruns will remember that.
Alek
Thanks for the shoutout, it's been a bit since I've worked on Streets. Loved seeing glide; I'm assuming that was real Glide and not nGlide? Streets and Copter both had high resolution in mind, moreso Streets than Copter. Most of the work to bring Streets into high res was already in place, I just had to fix the skybox. Also there was a hidden OpenGL mode that was partially implemented. Great video and awesome mods!
Michael A Berry
Oh wow, thank you for that. I received SimCopter as a review title for Family PC Magainze back in the day and got to play and write up a blerb about it for the magazine. (best kid job ever!) I found it delightfully silly but really enjoyed loading in my own cities and flying around. I had heard of Streets of SimCity but sadly, I read the criticism in various reviews at the time and I skipped it. I apparently missed so much more than anticipated. I, for one, am happy to say that I had no idea there was a "modernized-ish" engine for both SimCopter and Streets. I guess I'm going to have to break out SimCopter and give that and Streets a whirl now.
MrMattan
Oohh, the return of the "practice mode", long time no see
Nachts
Another banger! Love the intro music!
Jason Olshefsky
I can imagine having nightmares about the recurring pedestrian after playing for 8 hours straight until 3 in the morning ... FWIW, I didn't play the Sims games, but did that kind of thing more with the Doom derivatives...
Dan Scott
I love binge watching the old LGR game reviews Playlist on shuffle. Although that old intro makes me want a Dr. Pepper or a Coke everytime. Cool to see a re-visit! Wonder if more will be in the future if this one works out well.
Beatrice
This made my day! I absolutely loved Streets as a kid (Copter as well, to a lesser degree). We got a Maxis bundle of SC/Sc2k/Streets/Copter/Tower one year for Christmas, and Streets was *easily* the one I played most. The campaigns were so charming and as a kid I didn't mind the crazy physics. Might have to give StreetsX a try now, didn't know it existed!
Robert White
This was the first game I bought! I changed all those textures and recorded my voice doing burps and farts and goat noises over all those wav files. IT WAS MY BEAUTIFUL UGLY MASTERPIECE
Kyla Smith
YESS. I absolutely LOVED this game as a kid. Crashed to desktop every time I played it but didn’t bother me! I has however aged absolutely terribly. I remember I used to go around on the Sunday Drive mode and blow up all the buildings with my onboard rocket launcher. Great music too, and I loved the radio commercials. “Take the next right, drive to the edge of town, and make sure you’re not followed!!”
Dukefazon
This game came out almost half a year after Carmageddon and 2 years before Driver. Was it ever compared to Carmageddon?
Johannes
A big disappointment back then. I remember it being one of the games, I really got hyped for. Buying every magazine with the tiniest bit of info on the game in it. The expectations were so high, it was destined to disappoint, even if it were not that broken. The only good thing today is: finally a game that did age worse than I did.
