SimCopter

SimCity
Subseries of Sim
SimCity (1989)	1989
SimCity 2000	1994
SimCity 2000 Network Edition	1996
SimCopter	1996
Streets of SimCity	1997
SimCity 3000	1999
SimCity 4	2003
SimCity Societies	2007
SimCity (2013)	2013

Key points

Game works on modern systems (see Installing on 64-bit versions of Windows).

Game lacks an FPS limiter or vsync and causes a lot of bugs and physical glitches with frame rates above 60 FPS.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

Demo

Essential improvements

Official Patches

Patch 1.02 adds a better flight model and experimental 3Dfx acceleration.

The patch comes in a 16-bit installer executable and so cannot be installed natively on 64-bit Windows. Additionally it removes the "easter egg event".

Unofficial Patches

SimCopterX patches the game to prevent crashing on modern CPUs, along with bypassing the CD DRM checks. It also provides optional settings such as higher-resolutions modes.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\^{[Note 1]}

Config files require a hex editor to read and are not easy to interpret.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\My Saved Cities\*.sc2^{[Note 1]}

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Japanese				Japan only.

Issues fixed

Installing on 64-bit versions of Windows

The original disc release uses a 16-bit installer.

Install with a modified 32-bit installer^{[citation needed]}
Insert the CD. Copy the contents of disc somewhere temporarily. Download the InstallShield 3 32-bit Generic Installer. Extract the new installer into the `setup` folder. Run `setup32.exe` and follow the steps.

Game crashes

The game often runs too fast on modern CPUs and must be slowed down.

Slow down the game internally^[1]
Use SimCopterX which slows the game down internally through a patch. The patcher also comes with optional settings such as higher-resolution modes.

Slow down the game externally^[2]
Slow down your entire computer using a CPU-Killer. Your CPU usage will spike to 99%-100% - this type of fix is not recommended. Use an external framerate limiter such as NVidia Driver, FRAPS, or RivaTuner. Note that SimCopter still may not be compatible with these programs.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Glide	2.1.1	Only available after installing the 1.02 patch and activated via the command line option `-v`. This mode is experimental and so the HUD and some other features are missing, with a number of graphical glitches also present. Supported by nGlide.
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium/75 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA video card 512 KB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Reference
↑ Reference

[gamedir-1] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[2] Reference

[3] Reference

[Note 1]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	Maxis
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows	October 31, 1996