SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited

Nice to see this working with Windows 10 Resolution fix You can get your up-to-date LCD resolutions with a Hex Editor Download game Download and install free HxD hex editor or use the one you want. https://mh-nexus.de/en/downloads.php?product=HxD Open HxD then go to File – Open – browse for SC3U.exe found in the App folder in the SIMCITY 3000 ( in my case it was C:GOG GamesSimCity 3000 UnlimitedApps) - select OPEN Select SEARCH – FIND – and change Datatype from Text-string to Hex-values Copy 8B 4C 24 04 8B 44 24 08 53 Paste it to the Search – Find box – select OK Highlight first four bytes 8B 4C 24 04 by dragging over the numbers with your mouse Right Click over the highlighted 8B 4C 24 04 and select “Fill selection” Copy c2 08 00 90 Paste it into the “Hex values” line and select OK One more to go . . . Copy 8B 4C 24 04 8b 54 24 08 81 F9 Paste it to the Search – Find box – select OK Highlight first four bytes 8B 4C 24 04 by dragging over the numbers with your mouse Right Click over the highlighted 8B 4C 24 04 and select “Fill selection” Copy c2 08 00 90 Paste it into the “Hex values” line and select OK Select FILE – SAVE and close HxD You’re done, now open the game and change the resolution under preferences. You will now see resolutions supported by your LCD. I’ve tested 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 without issue. I’ve tested some other resolution and got a black screen. This black screen issue will vary per LCD but it should work on the highest resolution you can get. I had to uninstall the game and re-install, then use HxD again to fix various resolutions I was testing. You can also just C&P the SC3U.exe file to another folder as a backup while testing resolutions. Source of the Hex Values found http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=28001

The game is great, one of the best in the series, totally worth the price (in sale). Just a reminder, if you had any trouble running SC3K on Windows 10 or 8, specially with the sudden laggy menus, i think i figured it out... just don't allow the game to restart the game after changin resolution. If you wanna change it, do it, but then close de windows asking you if you want to restart because the game need so to make the change, if you do that (according to my 4 days terrible experience, searching solution like Windows Compatibility Toolkin ATM, uninstalling the game via Revo Uninstaller, adding parameters to the shortcut) the game will bug and will stutter on the menus where you create your land.. then no matter if you restart it, it will do it again. If you already have the game and entered this vicious cycle, don't worry. There is a solution.. force the game to run in window mode adding a parameter "-w -r:1280x1024" to a shortcut to it. You will see the game wont lag in window mode.. change the resolution again, create a town, save it. If you can Now close the game and, if you can, restart your PC. Open it again without the shortcut and it will run just fine. You may wanna change the resolution again, but just don't accept the game query to restart it for you. Just close that window and restart it yourself. Apart from that, the game is just excellent, way a milestone in the franchise. The best music in the series and the best atmosphere in my opinion.

SC3000 is a defining piece of software, part of a landmark franchise and the crown jewel of the late Maxis' legacy. Let me just address why I'd take SC3000 over the other games before moving on... == SimCity is beloved by many, SC2000 even more so... but I tend to disagree. I find the interface of 2000 to be a bit too close to a Macintosh and unintuitive, and the original a bit uninteresting without the amazing isometric visuals (though I've never played the actual, only its open-source remake "Micropolis"). They haven't aged quite well. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the 3D SimCities, which... aren't so beloved. SC4 and its expansion, Rush Hour, had performance problems, lost the isometric visuals in favor of full 3D, and got a bit too complex for its own good. It was still a pretty great game, though, most will agree, and I have my box copy to this day. Then, we have the elephant in the room-- SimCity 5. SimCity (2013), DRM aside, was a flawed game. They brought back the failed concepts of SimCity 2000 Network Edition as an answer to the rising trend of online games, and... well, it failed all over again. They essentially took SimCity 4, put RCT-style agents of each citizen as a real person, and had multiple players doing each square of the SC4 map. Maps were small as a result, it was always-online for a while... look, you know what I'm going to say. It was flawed, it was gimmicky, it just didn't work in the end. == That's why I always turn to SimCity 3000 as the best in the series. It was still isometric, similar yet different. As the first EA-published SimCity game, it was a huge success with timeless isometric visuals, large map sizes, expanded gameplay, and much more intuitive and streamlined interface. This game is still the masterpiece it was 17 years ago, and I can't recommend it enough. It's perhaps the greatest city-builder of all time, a complete peak in Sims franchise as a whole and the last of the true SimCity games.

Great update and working well on Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 22H2 on AMD Ryzen 3600 for me without using ANY Microsoft Compatibility Settings/Presets (including the intro video). I'm also using the resolution fix (via modifying SC3U.exe hex values) to play in 4K on my GTX 1080 Ti (obviously overkill for this game), and I am insanely impressed at how clear everything still looks/renders at such a higher resolution than it was likely developed for. GOG has made this nostalgic game experience nearly as easy as can be. I am currently pursuing a fun goal of playing every SimCity release consectutively, and at a minimum filling an entire map at least once before moving onto the next version. If they were to update the hex values in a recent update so that new users don't have to, that would be A+! Another luxury item would be for them to update the Ui within a loaded city to support or use a higher DPI when using higher resolutions. I know this game wasn't made for the higher resolutions and they are technically already perfect, but it would be a much more enjoyable experience if we could run the game at our native resolution, as well as still be able to see/read the interface easily (since it becomes so tiny, especially when running at 4K). It is still useable the way it is, so i'm not expecting this to ever be done either. A super luxury bonus item would be the capability to unlock the play speed to run at whatever the local CPU can handle. This was very fun/useful when using an MS-DOS emulator to play SC2000 (the option within the emulator is a CPU option named, "Turbo") because it allows you to enjoy the nostalgia of the game, while also reaching a satisfactory city build amount without having to dedicate/consume as much time (it's also really fun to watch a full-map of city absolutely burst to life all at once using the turbo speed). Maybe I can find another emulator for XP ;) Thank you GOG team; your efforts are appreciated by my entire family!

I tried SimCity 4, and didn't really like it. That one feels needlessly complicated and offers no substantial benefits to prefer it over this one, which is simpler, has a more distinct personality and does not have any graphical "bells and whistles" that so much distract from the essence of the game. But this is just my opinion. Overall, I think games like these only work well in 2D, and this is the best chapter in the series before 3D games started coming out.