
Recovering Nintendo’s Lost SimCity for the NES - em3rgent0rdr
https://gamehistory.org/simcity/
======
bjelkeman-again
It is sad not having the original SimCity on something like the iPad. The
version they offer is some abomination trying to be FarmVille begging for cash
at every turn.

~~~
DonHopkins
It would be theoretically and easily possible, but legally impossible to port
the original C version of SimCity released under GPLv3 (called "Micropolis")
to the iPad, because of the anti-Tivoization clause, it's a violation of the
GPLv3 to put it on the Apple app store.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization)

[https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6109/is-it-
possibl...](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6109/is-it-possible-to-
have-gpl-software-in-the-mac-app-store)

[https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis](https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis)

However there's nothing stopping you from running one of the versions of
Micropolis that's been rewritten in JavaScript to run in the web browser
(because it's distributed via the web instead of on the App store), or
contributing to those projects to make it run well on the iPad.

[http://micropolis.mostka.com/](http://micropolis.mostka.com/)

[https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/](https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/)

~~~
giancarlostoro
> because of the anti-Tivoization clause, it's a violation of the GPLv3 to put
> it on the Apple app store

Ah, I always knew there was some anti-Tivoization in there, but didn't really
dig into what it truly covered. So in other words, you could have a highly
successful iOS app you sell, that you release under the GPLv3, and nobody
should be legally allowed to publish it under the official App Store. They
could only potentially contribute bug fixes, and licensing their commits back
to you sounds a bit like it would need another license from their code.

That kind of sucks that the App Store is not technically compatible, I would
of thought due to JailBreaking it would of been technically allowed.

~~~
Someone
_”They could only potentially contribute bug fixes, and licensing their
commits back to you sounds a bit like it would need another license from their
code.”_

They could also port it to Android and release it there for free, or even sell
it there (while offering all buyers the source code, to comply with the GPL)

~~~
giancarlostoro
This is true although might be somewhat tedious. I forget that translating
code is also covered by the license.

------
voltagex_
Oh, thank FSM. The private collector allowed them to dump a ROM.

[https://archive.org/details/simcity-nes](https://archive.org/details/simcity-
nes)

------
INTPenis
I had inherited my big brothers C64, along with a couple of paper notes on how
to start games. I was very young, around 6 years old.

This article finally revealed to me that weird helicopter game I had played on
the C64. The memory of flying over an ocean with a helicopter had stuck with
me but not the title. I can't believe I played that title, and it was the
inspiration to Sim City! Which I later in life played a lot of.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I _think_ I remember playing that in Russia, too - we had friends who had
imported video game consoles, and that helicopter game looks very familiar.

------
asveikau
In 1990 I was a kid, and there was a Japanese kid across the street with a
Super Famicom. In addition to being floored by Super Mario World shortly
before it came to the US I had a strong impression of SimCity and Dr. Wright
with Japanese speech bubbles I could not understand.

~~~
agumonkey
Interesting, never thought to dig for non english versions of the game

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=simcity+superfamicom&t=ffab&atb=v1...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=simcity+superfamicom&t=ffab&atb=v124-5a_&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Forig00.deviantart.net%2Fdcb4%2Ff%2F2015%2F113%2Fb%2F5%2Fsimcity_super_famicom_japanese_import_by_dragontamer272-d8qrdvh.jpg)

[https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Farcticsunbur...](https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Farcticsunburn.com%2Fwp-
content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F09%2FSimCity-Super-Famicom-257x300.jpg&f=1)

ps: crazy, while looking at these, my nose started remembering smells of that
era..

------
DonHopkins
As much as I love this article and the work CaH4e3 has done disassembling,
documenting and improving SimCity, and the work and mission of the Video Game
History Foundation and the Internet Archive, I have to question what the
article means by the section header "The SimCity Open Source Project".

Is there an actual project calling itself that, or is that just a figure of
speech that the writer of the article used (inaccurately)? Because
abandonware, unpublished or reverse engineered software is not automatically
open source, which has a very specific legal definition.

And SimCity is a trademark that is very much still in use and aggressively
protected.

[https://www.konitono.com/ea-kills-open-source-version-of-
sim...](https://www.konitono.com/ea-kills-open-source-version-of-
simcity-2000/)

The original SimCity source code, based on the Mac version that I ported to
Unix using TCL/Tk, was relicensed by Electronic Arts under GPLv3 for the OLPC
project, and EA had some very specific conditions for using their trademark
"SimCity" (for example, it had to be reviewed and approved by EA's QA
department to protect their brand name "SimCity", or else released under
another name like "Micropolis").

[https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-
simcity-58470a2...](https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-
simcity-58470a275446)

[https://medium.com/@donhopkins/har-2009-lightning-talk-
trans...](https://medium.com/@donhopkins/har-2009-lightning-talk-transcript-
constructionist-educational-open-source-simcity-by-don-3a9e010bf305)

Also the GPLv3 license itself has some very specific conditions about the use
of the code. (For example, the Anti-Tivoization clause forbids publishing an
app based on the code on the Apple app store.)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization)

The full license and a simpler explanation is shown here:

[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/SimCity](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/SimCity)

>In case this confuses you, here is a simpler explanation. The code is free
software. But the code as released by EA uses EA trademarks. You cannot modify
the code and distribute it unless you (1) make it clear to the player that you
have modified it, and (2) remove all the EA trademarks from the game. (You
also have to follow all the other rules in the GPLv3, the EA additional terms,
and the copyrights of other contributors. This was just a very brief summary.)

The "Micropolis" project is based on that original code, which has been
cleaned up, documented, and translated to other languages, but it uses the
name "Micropolis" (SimCity's original working title) instead of "SimCity"
because of that trademark restriction.

There was one official version of GPLv3 "SimCity" released for the OLPC, based
on the TCL/Tk version I developed for DUX Software, which went through EA's QA
process and was approved for release by EA to be shipped with the OLPC. But
all subsequent versions and derivatives were called "Micropolis", to avoid the
need to go through that complicated approval process again.

[https://donhopkins.com/home/olpc-ea-
contract.pdf](https://donhopkins.com/home/olpc-ea-contract.pdf)

EXHIBIT B

EA TRADEMARK AND LEGAL NOTICE:

“SIMCITY TM & (c) 1989 - 2007 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. EA
does not support this software. For technical support visit:
[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/SimCity](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/SimCity) or
email simcity@laptop.org.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE:

OLPC shall not reproduce or use (or authorize the reproduction or use of) the
EA Trademark, or any other trademark, service mark, service name, trade name,
designation or logo of EA, in any manner whatsoever other than as expressly
authorized by this Agreement. Furthermore, except as authorized hereunder,
OLPC shall not reproduce or use any service mark, service name, trade name,
trademark, designation or logo confusingly similar to the EA Trademark or any
other trademark, service mark, service name, trade name, designation or logo
of EA.

OLPC shall mark each use of the EA Trademark with either the superscript ®
symbol or the superscript ™ symbol as set forth above adjacent to such EA
Trademark. EA may at any time, and from time to time, amend this Exhibit B.

OLPC shall also take such other steps as may reasonably be requested by EA to
evidence EA’s ownership and license to OLPC of any of the EA Trademark,
including, without limitation, execution of registered user agreements if
required by applicable law.

~~~
CydeWeys
> Is there an actual project calling itself that, or is that just a figure of
> speech that the writer of the article used (inaccurately)? Because
> abandonware, unpublished or reverse engineered software is not automatically
> open source, which has a very specific legal definition.

Open source does not have a "very specific legal definition". Many different
people use that term to mean many different things, the chief commonality
tending to be "can you read the source code". Yes, OSI has a specific
definition that goes beyond that, but OSI is not a legislative or judicial
body, nor do they have authority from any such body to be involved in
regulatory activities (contrasted with, say, the Amateur Relay Radio League,
or Civilian Marksmanship Program). And personally I hew more towards the FSF's
views on the matter than OSI's.

Anyway, it's pretty common in the open source world for a specific name to be
trademarked, or assets to be copyrighted, while still making the source itself
open. Some examples include SimCity vs Micropolis, Chrome vs Chromium, and
Firefox vs IceCat. I'd argue that such projects still count as open source,
because the source itself is open, even if you can't use the name or non-code
assets. Non-code assets like names, graphics, audio, and documentation are
commonly available under different terms or licenses anyway, e.g.:
[https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Wesnoth:Copyrights](https://wiki.wesnoth.org/Wesnoth:Copyrights)
Pretty much everyone (OSI, FSF, etc.) agree that code-specific licenses like
GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache don't make so much sense when talking about things
that aren't software, hence the existence of things like GFDL, CC, etc.

~~~
DonHopkins
>I'd argue that such projects still count as open source, because the source
itself is open, even if you can't use the name or non-code assets.

They're open source because of the specific licenses they use, not because
"you can read the source code". And the NES SimCity code definitely isn't
licensed under anything resembling an "open source" license, even in the most
vague least technical sense of the term, "you can read it". It was never sold
as a product or meant to be distributed.

My question was whether "The SimCity Open Source Project" is an actual "thing"
with a specific open source compatible license, or if it was just vague hand
waving like "the source is open because somebody disassembled and commented
it" that the article author meant as a metaphor.

~~~
CydeWeys
Yeah, I was talking about the open sourced SimCity for PCs, definitely not the
NES one.

------
coryfklein
I loved the analysis of the soundtrack embedded as a YouTube video [1] about
halfway through the article. The composer, Soyo Oka, only brought one song
from the NES version into the SNES version. The author of the video walks you
through each track and explains what channels were used, what can be learned
about the waveforms, how it compares to other NES music of the period, etc.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=791&v=HmJP5EFUEp...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=791&v=HmJP5EFUEpw)

------
DonHopkins
Here's some more information on the design of SimCity:

Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996)

A summary of Will Wright’s talk to Terry Winnograd’s User Interface Class at
Stanford, written in 1996 by Don Hopkins, before they worked together on The
Sims at Maxis.

[https://medium.com/@donhopkins/designing-user-interfaces-
to-...](https://medium.com/@donhopkins/designing-user-interfaces-to-
simulation-games-bd7a9d81e62d)

>SimCity Classic:

>Unfortunately I didn’t type the notes from this part of the talk in, but it’s
been well covered elsewhere. Chaim Gingold’s PdD dissertation on “Play Design”
has some excellent in-depth analysis of SimCity as a cultural artifact, its
code, algorithms and design, the story of open sourcing SimCity, his SimCity
Reverse Diagrams, and many interesting quotes from interviews with Will Wright
and other game designers. It includes a fascinating chapter about Doreen
Nelson (who wrote the original SimCity Teacher’s Guide) and her lifelong work
on Design Based Learning (formerly City Building Education):

Gingold, Chaim. “Play Design.” Ph.D. thesis, University of California Santa
Cruz, 2016.

[https://search.proquest.com/docview/1806122688](https://search.proquest.com/docview/1806122688)

>I did my Ph.D. research on play and the history of computing. My thesis
argues that it is productive to consider playthings, playmates, playgrounds,
and play practices as constituting a set with shared design characteristics.
SimCity, a software plaything that confounds game-centric approaches (e.g.
game studies and game design), is the keystone in an arch of case studies that
takes us from some of the earliest examples of computer simulation all the way
to model cities enacted with children, cardboard, and costumes, and unusual
playgrounds made of junk.

Chaim Gingold: [http://chaim.io/](http://chaim.io/)

Open Sourcing SimCity, by Chaim Gingold

Excerpt from page 289–293 of “Play Design”, a dissertation submitted in
partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in
Philosophy in Computer Science by Chaim Gingold.

[https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-
simcity-58470a2...](https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-
simcity-58470a275446)

SimCity reverse diagrams. Chaim Gingold (2016):

[https://lively-
web.org/users/Dan/uploads/SimCityReverseDiagr...](https://lively-
web.org/users/Dan/uploads/SimCityReverseDiagrams.pdf)

Doreen Nelson:
[https://www.cpp.edu/~dnelson/aboutdoreen.html](https://www.cpp.edu/~dnelson/aboutdoreen.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design-
based_learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design-based_learning)

[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8p55t3m/entire_...](http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8p55t3m/entire_text/)

------
kokey
I thought I remember seeing this at the Game On exhibition
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_(exhibition)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_On_\(exhibition\))
but it must have been the SNES version.

------
Something1234
What's with their mobile layout? The URL bar doesn't disappear as I scroll.
They must be doing something anonying.

Other than that, cool project. Just wish I could read more than 10 lines
without scrolling and a quarter of my screen wasn't being wasted.

~~~
tyingq
Same on desktop, appears to be a deliberate design choice to make the bottom,
non-header, part as an overflow:auto div so it gets it's own scrollbar.

------
paulie_a
I remember having that. I loved SimCity on the desktop but honestly the NES
version was a complete piece of shit. I don't comprehend why any would want to
save it. It had an incredibly poor interface, terrible controls for that sort
of game. It was just plain bad. I question the author claiming it was
unreleased. Or I somehow managed to score a copy as a kid.

~~~
ryantriangles
Is it possible you're thinking of the SNES, rather than the NES?

