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Sim City 3000 By Pam Gleichman Tribune Media Services Sim City 3000, the much anticipated and newest version in the Sim series of simulated games, has arrived. As in Sim City and Sim City 2000, players create and control a city. You are the mayor, the city council, the planning and zoning department and everything else. To create your city, you must set up commercial, industrial and residential zones. You must also supply power, mass transportation (buses, railroads, subways) and water, while dealing with taxes, tourism, crime, disasters, pollution and more. Your goal is to make your city a good place to live in and visit. SIMS -- the virtual people in the game -- will move to your city and build houses, businesses, factories, airports and everything else a city needs. They will not, however, want to build houses in residential neighborhoods that are next to industrial zones. Thus, you must plan your zones carefully. As your city grows, you will need to provide your SIMS with schools and colleges, police and fire protection, as well as museums, libraries, zoos and other recreational sites. You will also need to worry about your cities garbage; where do you put it when every SIM is a NIMBY (Not In MY Backyard). Sim City 3000 has over 400 different buildings all with 3-D graphics. There are also many famous landmarks, such as the World Trade Tower, Sydney Opera House and Empire State Building, which you can put into your city to attract tourists. Our testers, ages 14 and up, loved this game, especially those familiar with Sim City 2000. The game is very challenging. Boredom will not be an issue. First time Sim players needed a lot of help and guidance. The highly-detailed graphics and the ability to zoom in close really makes your city seem realistic. The soft jazz soundtrack is also very pleasant. In short, everything is up to Sim standards. Publisher : Maxis, 2121 N. California Blvd., Walnut Creek, Calif. 94596-3572, (925) 933-5630, http://www.simcity.com . Category : Simulation. Age : 12 to adult. Installation : Easy. You will, however, need over 200 megabytes of free hard disk space. Use : Very complex. If you've played Sim City 2000, you won't have any trouble. Players who've never played, will want to use the manual. Graphics : Awesome! Written Materials : Sim City 3000 manual. System Requirements : Windows 95 or Windows 98, Pentium 166 MHz or higher, 230MB of free hard disk space, 32MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive or faster, Mouse, keyboard, 2MB DirectDraw compatible Video Card, DirectX 6.0 compatible sound card. (NOTE: These are minimum requirements. The program will run smoother with a faster processor, CD-ROM drive and increased RAM. Cost : $49.95. Rating : Four stars. DEAR PAM : Do you know of any Web sites that would give me some ideas on planning a home birthday party for my 8 year old? DEAR READER : There are several good sites that offer a lot of great ideas on themes, food and party favors. Try http://www.partymakers.com/ , http://www.geocities.com/~geiman/ , http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5631/index.html , http://www.randomc.com/~wizofodd/PartyIdeas.html . WEB SITE OF THE WEEK TOP SECRET RECIPES http://www.topsecretrecipes.com This is the place to get recipe clones of your favorite brand-name foods. You will find recipes for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chili’s Chicken Enchilada Soup, Kraft Shake & Bake, Outback Steak House's Caesar Salad Dressing, Snapple's Ice Tea and more. The site posts a new top secret recipe each week with recipe archives dating back to 1996. RATING KEY : ***** — Outstanding; **** — Very Good; *** — Good; ** — Fair; * — Not Worth Purchasing. Pam Gleichman welcomes questions/comments from readers. Write to Pam at Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Send e-mail to pamgl(at)msn.com. � 1999 Tribune Media Services, Inc. Techno file index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA