SimCity 2000 Beginners Guide: Build It Right

Old is Gold

It’s the year 2020 and you’re still playing one of the hottest games of the blooming PC gaming industry of the early 1990s: SimCity 2000. Whether you’ve played it when you were a kid and are getting back into it, or are finding SimCity 2000 on a retro game site, anyone can benefit from a SimCity 200 beginners guide that tells you everything from the best layout, to how to make money, and other tips and tricks! Who knows, you might learn something you never knew before!

How to Make Money

Making money in SimCity 2000 is all about managing your budget. Sure, you can cheat by typing in “cass” and getting a whole ton of cash at the cost of a potential firestorm, but where is the fun in that? For those who want to make money legitimately without using a cheat, you’ll have to play the long game with a little patience. You will have to only start with necessities like building a police station. Moving slowly through the game will ensure you’ll never go into the red and you’ll have a steady flow of funds.

Another option you could do instead of cheating, is by spending money until you are able to take out a bond with a decent interest rate. You’re basically banking on growing fast enough to the point where your income is making more than your loan’s interest. You’ll basically have to keep yourself swimming in bonds until your interest gets so small to the point where you can just pay it all off before your bigger bonds are due. By that point, you’ll have a city that brings in decent income while owing absolutely no debt! Thankfully, this isn’t an MMO or a mobile game, so it never hurts to experiment and reload from a save point!

What’s the Best Layout?

If you’re familiar with any SimCity game, then you’ll know that any time you try to build too far from a road, you’ll end up with abandoned buildings. Any layout that you make when it comes to zoning will have to be at least three squares away from a road. There really is no “perfect layout” for the game, but if you have a little bit of OCD, then you’ll want to go with a grid-style for your layout. That means you will have a grid of zones with your chosen area at least three squares from any road at any given time.

Unfortunately, going with this layout doesn’t give you a lot of space for necessities like police stations or hospitals. However, if you put down a police station, park, or hospital, then use three blocks worth of whatever you’re trying to grow before surrounding it with roads, you’ll optimize that space for the best layout.

The Water Pump Trick

This is not necessarily a “cheat,” but you can make your city believe that it has more water than it needs using just one water pump. As long as you have a single water pump that is powered in your city and is not connected to anything else, the game’s system will just assume there is no shortage. It’s a nice little trick, but you’re not going to get much land value from tiles that aren’t watered.

The Military Base Won’t Grow?

You can’t just slap down tiles for a military base and expect it to grow! You need to make sure you have roads that go to the base, first of all. You also need to know that water or power running through the tiles will discourage growth as it is technically government land. Don’t build any residential tiles near the base, but do keep commerce nearby to encourage growth. Also, if your city is too small, forget about it, as the military won’t even show up until you hit 60,000. You might not even want the military base in the first place as it increases traffic, pollution, and even crime.

Is this the Best City in the World?

We hope these tips and tricks we shared will help you in your guide to building the best city in the (gaming) world! Share with us what you’ve build, and maybe even some of the most hilarious things you’ve done! Or if you’re done with SimCity 2000, why not migrate over to the next one? SimCity 3000!