SimCity 2000 Network Edition Legacy
What is SimCity 2000 Network Edition?
SimCity 2000 Network Edition is a multiplayer version of SimCity 2000 could be played over LAN or the Internet. It has a different interface (more optimized for Windows 95 than earlier versions of SC2K) and overall is slightly different in playstyle than the others. All players (up to 4 playing at once) share a single city, and have to purchase land before building.
How do I play it?
Copies of SC2KNE are hard to find in the present time. Fortunately, much of the experience can be had on even modern Windows systems from the free demo and some patching.
Prepatched
I've zipped up a prepatched copy for your convenience. It consists of:
- Download the prepatched copy and extract it.
- Run play.cmd to join a game, or host.cmd to host a game!
Note: Logging into an external server might take a minute or two.
PCGamingWiki and launcher
The PCGamingWiki has an article on SC2KNE, detailing some of the patching. There's also a launcher with a server list which doesn't seem to work as of writing, but does come with an updated server executable that lowers the lag from ingame actions. I have included this in the prepatched demo.
Notable Features
- Chat: When playing on a multiplayer server, you have a chat window. If more than two people are online, you can choose to send a message to Everybody or select a certain person to send it to. Links are not clickable.
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- Contracts: Players can arrange for monthly contracts and also pay each other directly with checks.
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- Voting: All the players in the server can nominate and then vote for certain ordinances. Some increase income, such as parking fees. Others don't affect cash, and some increase expenses.
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- Buying and Selling Land: Before you can even start building roads, you need to purchase the land first. This is done in the last menu of the left toolbar. If you end up purchasing some land you don't use (like 2 billion acres of water) you can sell it. You can build water pipes wherever you want, regardless if you own the land or not.
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- Signs: You can place signs anywhere on the map. This option is under the same menu as buying and selling land. Note that as far as I know, you can not demolish a sign on land that you do not own.
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