Key Features of the Original Sim City

As an exercise in design, I once sat down and tried to list what I thought were the key features of Sim City.

It's sort of amazing how few key features there really are!

• FEATURES
• Terrain
• Dirt
• Forest
• Zoning
• Residential
• Commercial
• Industrial
• Services
• Transportation
• Road
• Rail
• Power line
• Facilities
• Active
• Power Plant
• Coal Power
• Nuclear Power
• Airport
• Seaport
• Fire
• Police
• Passive
• Park
• Stadium
• Block query
• Land/zone/service/facility type
• Density
• Value
• Crime
• Pollution
• Growth
• City evaluation
• Ratings
• Statistics
• Problems
• Taxation
• ACTIONS
• Place Block (on dirt terrain)
• Zoning (large block)
• Services (small block)
• Facilities (several sizes)
• Bulldoze existing block to dirt
• Set tax rate
• VARIABLES
• Player-set
• Tax Rate
• Internal
• General
• Population
• Funds
• City value
• City score
• Mayoral approval rating
• Per Block
• Population Density
• Pollution Level
• Crime Rate
• Land Value
• Housing Cost
• Traffic
• Police Influence
• Fire Protection
• Satisfaction (aggregate)
• BEHIND-THE-SCENES
• Each tick of the clock is one month.
• Zones must be connected to power to attract sims; connections are checked each month.
• Taxes are assessed on all sims at the end of each year to generate funds.
• Placing a block costs an amount of money that depends on the type of block.
• Sims enter and leave the city each year based on satisfaction with city-wide and local variables.
• Connection to services and proximity to facilities will increase or decrease sim satisfaction.
• Increasing the number of sims in each zone type affects the desirability of other zone types.