Hairball: When I saw Sim City 2000 on GoG I instantly brought a copy, loved this game when I was younger. When I went to actually play it though I was disappoited to find that is was the DOS version and not the version I had on windows 95 which gave a nice window and could be played at the monitor's native resolution. Is there any way to get the windows 95 version working on modern computers? The DOS version is far too clunky and I just cant get into it.
It is possible, but it isn't easy. The problem with it is on Win7 x64 (and presumably this affects Win8 and possibly Vista). When you use the menu to get to a dialog window to load or save then it crashes.
So, firstly you need to obtain a copy of the game (retail disc or alternative).
Now, it has a 16-bit installer which won't therefore run on 64 bit OSes, so you'll either have to install it on a 32-bit OS or obtain the installed game folder via another method.
Once you have the installed game folder, copy it to the machine you want to run it on (this can be a 64-bit OS machine that you put it on as the game itself is 32-bit). It is just the SC2K folder and all of its contents and subfolders that you want.
Next you need to create the game registry entries. The below (content of the .reg file) assumes you've put the game folder to C:\Games\SC2K\
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Localize]
"Language"="USA"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Options]
"Speed"=dword:00000001
"Sound"=dword:00000001
"Music"=dword:00000001
"AutoGoto"=dword:00000001
"AutoBudget"=dword:00000000
"Disasters"=dword:00000001
"AutoSave"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Paths]
"Home"="C:\\Games\\SC2K"
"Graphics"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Bitmaps"
"Music"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Sounds"
"Data"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Data"
"Goodies"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Goodies"
"Cities"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Cities"
"SaveGame"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Cities"
"TileSets"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\ScurkArt"
"Scenarios"="C:\\Games\\SC2K\\Scenario"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Registration]
"Mayor Name"="SimMayor"
"Company Name"="Maxis"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\SCURK]
"CycleColors"=dword:00000001
"GridHeight"=dword:00000002
"GridWidth"=dword:00000002
"ShowClipRegion"=dword:00000000
"ShowDrawGrid"=dword:00000000
"SnapToGrid"=dword:00000000
"Sound"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Version]
"SimCity 2000"=dword:00000100
"SCURK"=dword:00000100
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Maxis\SimCity 2000\Windows]
"Display"="8 1"
"Color Check"=dword:00000000
So put the above (editing it for your chosen install location) in a .reg file and run it to merge it into your registry.
Lastly, you need to fix the game executable to fix the dialog window crashing. This is done with sc2k_w7_patch.exe which you can search for on Google. Once you run that patch to fix the game executable then it should be up and running on Win7 x64.
Oh, and as a secondary note, if you play it in a screen mode with more than 256 colours then some of the animations don't show up (or show up incorrectly) but it is stil playable.
So, you can see why GOG released the DOS version.