SimCity 3000

What works

SimCity 3000 Unlimited

Building Architect Plus

What does not

Intro video does not work, no in-game music. Game will also not launch if installed from the CD (or ran directly from the CD) due to the DRM not being compatible. However, this DRM problem is also an issue in native Windows Vista and later.

Workarounds

Using a no-cd crack that replaces the installed apps (sc3u.exe, baapp.exe) with cracked ones allows the game to launch. Using the no-cd crack is legal only if you own a original copy of SimCity 3000 Unlimited. 

Crack: http://www.gameburnworld.com/dl/dl2/m.php?p=SimCity3000Unlimitedv1.0NoCDFixedexeUSCan.zip

The sound issue can be fixed by manually copying the music folder from the CD and inserting a new line after line 48 in the AUDIO.INI file.

File Locations: (delete (x86) from all paths if using a 32-bit wineprefix)

GAME           C:\program files (x86)\Maxis\Simcity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\SC3U.EXE

BA+               C:\program files (x86)\Maxis\Simcity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\BAApp.EXE

AUDIO.INI     C:\program files (x86)\Maxis\Simcity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\RES\Sound\AUDIO.INI

CD MUSIC     D:\APPS\RES\SOUND\MUSIC (copy this to the same directory AUDIO.INI is in)

-----AUDIO.INI Patch-----

                      47   MusicDataDir=e:\sc3000data\cdimage\res\sound\

                      48   ; MusicDataDir=d:\sc3000data\cdimage\sc3\res\sound\

add this one -->   ; MusicDataDir="c:\program files (x86)\maxis\simcity 3000 unlimited\apps\res\sound\"

                      49  CachePath=c:\temp\

What was not tested

Scenario Creator, and anything else outside of the main game and Building Architect Plus.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Intel
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

Installed from cd normally with product key, game only runs with no-cd crack. No other modifications are needed to play the game smoothly. (unless you want music)

The in-game music patch may not be needed if you keep the cd in the drive, but the no-cd patch is required regardless of the CD's presence.

The HD resolution patch is compatible with the no-cd patch, but you have to edit a certain line in a hex editor (i.e manually patching the game). Also, using any resolution where either the height or width (or both) is not divisible by 8 will cause the game to crash. Here's a link to the GOG version patch instructions, which I have confirmed also work with the CD version. You will need a hex editor for this, since all the scripts are for windows. https://www.gog.com/forum/simcity_series/simcity_3000_widescreen_patch_instructions/page1

NoCD

Wine does not currently work well with copy protection, so this game does not currently run.

Make sure that your game is running on the correct resolution, otherwise problems may occur.

You can change the resolution pass some parameters to the shortcut of the game.If you have not made​​ a shortcut to the game,create it with any text editor by following the rules bellow.

 Supported parameters

-w Starts the game in windowed mode
-r Change the game resolution

 How to use? 

Open the shortcut file and insert the following:

#/ bin /bash
cd "path to the folder of your game"
(wine SC3.EXE -r1024x768)

The example above starts the game in fullscreen and with resolution 1024x768

Another example:

#/ bin /bash
cd "path to the folder of your game"
(wine SC3.EXE -w -r800x600)

The example above starts the game in window with resolution 800x600.

 Supported Resolutions

640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024

 Note: if you uses multicore cpu, read tutorial Fix Multicore Freezing / crashing (below)

 Install with: # apt-get install schedtool

Or:

$ wget http://freequaos.host.sk/schedtool/schedtool-1.1.2.tar.bz2
$ tar xf schedtool-1.1.2.tar.bz2
$ cd schedt*
$ sudo make install

run sc3k by:
$ schedtool -a 0x1 -e wine SC3.EXE

 NOTE: If you use different resolution and multicore, use this model of shortcut:
#/ bin /bash
cd "path to the folder of your game"
(schedtool -a 0x1 -e wine SC3.EXE -r1024x768)
for more information read the tutorial Resolution (above)