Just wondering since many people complain the GOG version is DOS only.

Mainly it's because the Windows version supports larger resolutions since it runs in a window. Also it has an extra game speed setting that is missing from the DOS version. And admittedly the cheats for the Win95 version actually work. Also you can move the toolbar and budget windows around since they're actual windows, not just drawn UI elements. And the Special Edition comes with SCURK. It lets you create new scenarios, maps, and even design your own buildings to put in the game.

Better resolution, better cheats, better stability, better music, better speeds, better simulation, better port

Extremely smooth scrolling with the arrow keys makes a huge difference too

Ok, so we're probably not going to see the Win95 version of SimCity 2000, or any Windows game earlier than XP any time soon, and *here's why:

Windows uses an abstraction layer to run games. That means that games don't actually interact directly with Windows, to keep things neat, tidy, and secure. And the abstraction everything runs through sooner or later is the WOW system. WOW64 handles 64-bit programs; WOW32 handles 32-bit programs...And WOW16 handles 16-bit programs. As I'm sure you already guessed. ;)

So, simple, right? Just implement WOW16 in newer versions of Windows, redirect the old calls to the new methods, translate back, and old programs will just run again. Well...Not quite. See, now we hit a CPU problem: The 16-bit part of your CPU is two decades old. Which means its security is two decades old.

And updating that two decades old security to modern standards means your current 16-bit programs definitely won't run.

So WOW16 would have to be an **emulator. More or less.

So basically, Microsoft would have to pour a ton of money into a WOW16 layer...That would, at a generous estimate, increase their gross profit by a tenth of a percent, and result in a large net loss for the project. Because most people buy Windows, anyway.

* If you already know this, feel free to ignore it; if you know better, feel free to correct me. :)

** More likely some mashup of an emulator, an abstraction layer, and a portion of an OS. This does not make things better.

Ok, since for a virtualization/emulation solution gog either needs to provide a valid win95 (I would suggest win98SE as a better solution, or at least Win95B) license, i doubt releases for windows - But what about Wine and *Nix Systems? AFAIK there are packages available for wine to get Win9x 16bit Apps running even on an 64bit OS... (And installing Ubuntu on an external HD just for gaming purposes ain't that much of a problem)

Or for us, that still have their Win9x CDs/Keys at hand - just the Installer Files/DRM|CP freed CD Isos would be a solution, so that we could install the games within a Win9x VM and just be happy with that.

I'm going to ignore licensing issues here, and assume they're solvable for the sake of discussion, because I Am Not A Lawyer. I Am Not An Accountant, either.

The Wine compatibility layer is an option, but ironies...The effort to port it to Windows has basically been in a move/halt pattern for at least a decade.

Installing some flavour of Linux as an alternate OS is a possibility; but even then, my experience with Wine compatibility has been hit-or-miss.

Installing Win9x in an emulator is a definite possibility, with a few current caveats.

First, GoG is focused on getting games to work on current OS's. DOSBox works well for this as it's basically entirely transparent to the user.
Second, what you'd ideally want for an emulator is software that could boot, run the game, translate calls from low-level DirectX to high-level DirectX, run your old game at 1920x1080p (or whatever), 60+ Hz, and basically be just as transparent as DOSBox.

The second is the much more important problem, because it doesn't exist.

PCem is the only PC emulator for 90s/very early 2000s computers that I know of that's anywhere near completion, and its focus is on 100% accuracy, not speed - Meaning that you can run old games on it exactly as they would run on a computer no faster than about *230MHz, with the equivalent of a *Voodoo 2. Which is amazing...But still has some problems.

Setup - Requires quite a bit, including installing an OS.
Transparency - You have to install an OS. The only upside is that it's not nearly as slow as it would be off of a real CD drive. Enough said.

Overall, licensing aside, there's some issues. Overall, solvable issues, with enough money.

In short, leaving out licensing as stated: Money, money, and time.

* This is being optimized. This is also being optimized.

Narf: If you prefer Emulation, I can only say QEMU... Win2000 is far easier to setup im QEMU (last time I ventured into it, so more then some years ago) then Win9x, and I can't remember a Windows 9x title I owned which does not also had run under 2k (Which I couldn't say for XP).

Oops, ok - forgot, cycle accurate... sorry, qemu wouldn't do that for now (try CPUlimit on the task of Qemu, or within the emulated OS) -> Ok, as you said - time and money, m & m... (and demand of course)...

Best bet, from a programming perspective, might be to just put money and time into developing Wine.

*Shrug* They might be doing that. Who knows? I certainly don't... :)

I remember playing the Windows Version of SC2000 a while back because I was having issues with the DOS version locking up on me. I remember getting it to work under Windows 3.11 installed under DosBox it worked just fine. Plus the Windows version of SC2000 has another zoom in option on your city which is another difference between the DOS and Windows version of the game. I just installed SC2000 for Windows under an Windows XP Virtual machine and it ran just fine. All you need to do under the compatibility tab on the shortcut is to set the game to run in 256 color mode.

I have the Windows 95 version of SimCity 2000 working on my Windows 10 computer. There was two problems with getting SimCity 2000 to work, one is that the installer doesn't work and the second is that saving and loading crashed the game. Both of those problems are fixed with a custom installer.

https://www.weasyl.com/%7Eoneandonly/submissions/41208/simcity-2000-installer

Is the Windows 95 version the one that came with different tile sets?

If so, I too am disappointed and thought about digging out my old discs to play that version instead.

Chiming in here, because I'd be interested in that version of Sim City 2000, too. Are you certain that you had the game running under Windows 3.1? It seems to me like the Sim City 2000 Network edition is designed for Windows 95 and up. That would make it a 32-bit application. Yes, Windows 3.1 had Win32s capabilities, but they were limited.

I'd like to know ... thank you

Yes it was Windows 3.11. The version of SC2000 Special Edition for Windows that I had installed and if you look up SC 2000 for Windows you will see Windows 3.11 as a compatible version of Windows. This wasn't the Network edition but the version for Windows that came before the Network edition. Yes the Network edition was a 95/98 game.

It worked at one time but for what ever reason it stopped working. No big deal I have it installed under a Windows Xp Virtual machine.