SimCity, also known as Classic or Micropolis SimCity[23], is a computer game that marked the beginning of city-building game as a full-fledged genre in the gaming industry. The game was developed by will Wright and released for several platforms, primarily in 1989-1991. SimCity is made in a two dimensional graph, an overview of the city comes from "above". The essence of the gameplay boils down to the creation of the city, development of residential and industrial zones, construction of infrastructure and tax collection for further development of the city. In the game, as in the real world, it is important to raise the standard of living of the population and to maintain a balance between different sectors, otherwise the settlement may fail and even go bankrupt.
Despite the fact that the release of the game took place in 1989, the simulator was independently developed by will Wright in 1985, when he was just starting his career as an indie developer, that is, before the formation of the Studio Maxis. However, within four years of gaming publishers refused to release the project for fear of failure of the sales, as the game lacked any elements of arcade or action that prevailed in the market of computer games in the 1980-ies. In the end, the game spread agreed by the company Brøderbund. While SimCity has sold poorly, but after positive reviews from the gaming press sales simulator has grown. Having the status of a "bestseller", the simulator has been released on many other platforms, the most popular of which was a version for game consoles SNES, released in 1991, which, with the complicity of Nintendo has been greatly improved gameplay.
Town-planning simulator was recognized as a new phenomenon in the gaming industry, and according to the press broke among many PC users is the belief that computer games designed primarily for children. SimCity has received 24 awards from various news publishers and associations. Critics mostly praised the Film calling it the gameplay is innovative for the 1980s years, but the game itself is very addictive, even despite the fact that it lacks the elements of shooter and platformer. Also, according to reviewers, the game is very instructive and will help the player to understand the basics of urbanism, politics and Economics.
After the release has sold 300,000 copies of SimCity for computers and nearly 2 million copies of the game for the console SNES. The success of the game was the beginning of the series of games — urban simulation and the tradition of the Studio Maxis to produce the nonlinear simulation games, one of which, The Sims has surpassed all its predecessors in popularity, becoming the best-selling franchise in the history of computer games.