This is driving me nuts, figured I'd ask here. I know there is what some call Sim City 2.0 but basically it's Sim City (Classic) for Windows 95. Not 3.11 nor DOS either, but a true 32bit installer/executable of the original Sim City for windows.

VOGONs had one thread on it, and they're making false claims. I bought on their posts the Maxis Collections 3 - Sim Classics which has Sim City on it. They claimed it has a true Win95 installer in a hidden directory (or not, not really clear about it.) I tried looking for any hidden files, not hidden files, all over that disc and it's not there so I've already wasted some money on this which annoys me.

Do any of you have any solid leads on this? Which specific disc has it? What year? Perhaps along the edge of the disc you know the code as EA/Maxis puts a copyright, date, all rights and after that a few digit code 7-9 long may have a letter but usually numbers. Perhaps a specific number will be the key to this.

I'd like to play this legit again, not much of a fan of using a java based micropolis. I know it will work because the installer/exe setup was copied from the true version of Sim City 2K for Win95 and that I have got to work in 64bit windows 7 through 10 so I know it's a thing and real and works.

This is probably what you're looking for - https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/simcity

edit: even though this should be the 95 version, it still wouldn't help, because true 95 installer does not mean automatically 32 bit, afaik it's 16 bit.

Are you talking about this version?
It was sold in Germany in kiosks in 1996 or 1997. Here's someone selling the exact edition I had on ebay. That release had a Windows 95 installer but it may have been custom made for that budget release, I'm not entirely sure. All I know for sure is that I could install and play it perfectly fine on Windows 95.

Anyway, have you tried installing the game by loading up Windows XP on a virtual machine? That's how I've gotten lots of games with 16 bit installers installed and after installing them on Windows XP I could usually just copy them over to Windows 7 or 10 and play them there just fine. That's how I've gotten games like Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (which still worked on Windows 3.11, from what I recall) to run on Windows 10.

Don't know about a German one, but basically the deal is that with Maxis Collection 3 and also some other version, in both cases within the Sim City directory (for tine Win/DOS release) if you select windows to show hidden files you'll find a hidden WIN95 directory. This version doesn't have any main menu or in game goofy FMV with it. It's almost like they lifted SC v2.0 for DOS and put it in a Win95 environment.

Within there while the installer is still 16bit trash it's 100% unnecessary as one more directory deeper is a fully setup to run as is 32bit copy of the original Sim City, even has the 2.0 features from DOS where you can have various time period/custom skins to the visuals all right there. All it needs is some basic patch to be applied easily googled that fixes a crash bug if you try and load/save a game. Once applied, game works 100% in Windows 7-10 64bit with no issue.

I've never had any luck getting a VM to work, oddly can't get myself wrapped around it but PCem has looked tempting to try again as I also dislike not using the first version of Civizliation for Windows as I have that still too.

I'm not aware of a 32-bit version of the original Sim City. However, there is a Java port of the game called Micropolis that you can try.

https://www.gog.com/forum/simcity_series/original_simcity_java_source_port

tanukisuit mentioned Micropolis in his original post and said that he's not a fan of it.

Can you post the path (within the cd?) of these?

Yeah actually I can. This is on the Maxis Collection 3 CD (Sim City, Sim Tower, Sim Isle) bundle.

Go into the SIMCITY directory, then using Windows 'view' menu option click for hidden items, and WIN95 appears.

SIMCITY/WIN95/CLASSIC -- that's it.

WIN95 has a bs installer that won't work outside 16bit. But, 100% useless as it's already pre-installed in the CLASSIC directory. It natively runs in 64bit windows, but it does have a small annoying bug -- no save, no load (same as Sim City 2000 has too.) If you go to the link just below, you can get the files needed to patch your classic (and terrain) executable and the game is 100% functional.

https://typeinfo.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/an-update-on-running-simcity-classic-and-simcity-2000-under-windows-7/