Streets of SimCity 27 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective 

In the Streets of SimCity manual, there's *one* quip I had quoted under your previous video for the game. *"Pedestrians:* It is not possible to harm Sims in any way. Ignore them and go on about finishing the episode. In any event, they will ignore you. *Unlike those who play computer games, Sims have fulfilling lives."* - Page 23, Paragraph 1.

"More time has past between now and that review in 2010 than between that review and the game's release." Thank you for making me feel like an old geezer. Time flies in the tech world.

It's a buggy, half-baked game, but it's my buggy, half-baked game. Lost hours playing the single episode campaigns as a kid. For the longest time I really wished I could play it again on modern OS's, and now I can. Bless the modders who make this possible.

Man feels great to hear "Practice Mode" again. Legend.

Has it really been that long that it's time for an updated review... Damn we're old..

I never realised Streets feels so much like SimCopter on drugs. The smoke/fire particle effects, the janky angled hills, even the damage effect sound are the same. It almost looks like it runs on an alpha version of SimCopter's engine rather than an enhanced version...

Still love the idea of loading someplace I've built into another game. Also the fact that the game pops a windows dialog box to open the city is *chefs kiss*.

Jeez, that gameplay, those graphics... And less than 2 years later Midtown Madness landed and showed ya how racing through a virtual city should be done

Wish modern city builders would let you do this.

What a dream come true it would be to combine a fully-featured city sim and a fully-featured GTA-style driving and shooting game. A city that you build and then inhabit, and you can explore to your heart’s content as you build more city. The tech is there now, but it would essentially require the development of two complete games in one. Basically I just want this game, except good.

“Without rhyme or reason to the timing of its appearance, Casper the Unfriendly Police Car occasionally appears out of thin air to nab you” is a sentence I’ve never read before.

"Four flat tires short of greatness." Mad props to whatever reviewer was so angry with Test Drive 4 that they managed to come up with that perfect summation 😂

As a thirdworlder without internet access I simply didn't know this existed. I used to dream of something like this while I played SC2k.

Scholastic was how I discovered it. I asked my Mom to order it and she did, likely assuming it was some educational game. Even as a kid I thought this was strange, and maybe even an accidental listing. Looking at it now, maybe they were just that desperate to sell game lol. Either way I enjoyed it a lot and listen to the soundtrack all the time. Anytime I play a GTA style game with a radio, I always find a way to add the music from this game and SimCopter.

I have no idea what the ESRB was smoking when it gave the game with machinegun-equpped street racing machines blowing up cop cars and entire buildings to the tune of "my kick-ass car" and "splatter splatter" E for Everyone, but I'm sure the kids thanked them.

"Streets has never completely left my brain" Couldn't have put it better myself. My experience with Streets was largely the same, and it was a glorious fun time! I have fond memories of creating underground battle arenas by making a huge hill with a ton of adjacent tunnels going through it, or flying up in the air by ramping up a hill (or water tile's "waves") and hitting the airfoil just at the right time to glitch out the physics. As a kid, I liked the music and commercials so much that I mashed my mini boombox tape player against my computer speaker to record the ads so I could listen to them later on cassette tape... It was only later I discovered all the easier and higher fidelity way to listen to ALL the game's audio. To this day, I still regularly listen to this game's soundtrack, ads and all, as nothing else quite hits the combination nostalgia and adult appreciation sweet spot.

One of my favourite childhood games! I played lots of SimCity 2000 (explains why I eventually became an urban planner), and once I found out I could drive around my cities I was hooked! Thanks for the happy memories :)

I know these are probably the hardest types of videos to make but your reviews of old computer games are my favorite format

Looks fun. Wish modern games like City Skyline and Anno give you this feature where you cruise around the city of your own creation.

The fart truck at the end with the revs of farts had me incapacitated from laughter. Thank you!

Thus was literally my favorite game growing up, oh my god thank you for making this 💞

You bringing up TD4 review scores brought me back. That game was SO WONKY but I played so so SO MUCH of it. I mean the textures on almost every car weren't even aligned properly but it had so much charm!

Oh man! 'Splatter on the Windshield of Life' I have such a strong memory of that song for some reason! I also remember that it was the radio in the first Sims game too, but with all the lyrics changed into Simlish of course!

I can't believe this came out the same year as Quake 2. It looks like it was released like a month before Quake 1.

This was the game that got me beyond PC gaming and into learning how to USE the computer. Once I discovered opening Sim2K maps in Streets, creating my own "race" tracks in the Sim2K editor, it was the perfect rabbit hole for a pre-teen to discover back in the late 90's. Thanks for the nostalgia!

13:58 it's Neil, moonwalking to The Cave with a new exhibit he just collected from the post office.

19:47 Maybe it's just because I'm so used to Professional Clint™ keeping his dialogue neatly controlled for maximum viewer reach, but for whatever reason, the "500 kilos of SMACK, no beatin' around the bush!" line took me *all* the way out. You keep being you, LGR!

Christ have I really been watching LGR for fifteen years....

"Im just a splatter splatter splatter on the windshield of life..." Man, that song has been living rent free in my head since this game first came out.

My father was a giant Maxis fan and my first gaming experiences were mostly Maxis games I found this CD in his shelf and he said to me "I bought this game and it just never worked" I was like "challenge accepted" After an afternoon I got it running I didn't know what 'jank' was back then, I just knew this game had cool cars and I could blow shit up. Ah, to be a child.

Nothing better than an LGR video after a hard work week.☕️☺️👍💯

I always got a good laugh when hearing "but I'm walking sideways" when driving by a package courier that literally walks sideways.

Damn. I remember when your original Streets of SimCity review came out. I've been a fan of yours for AGES.

Test Drive 4 getting a lower score cracked me up

7:12 Oh I love when that shows up.

All of a sudden I feel old. Great review!

I'll always have a soft spot for Maxis' charmingly crude attempt at a particle system. Flickering dithered squares is all you need!

My god, 10 year old me had a demo of this game and I played it endlessly. Driving through an empty city, shooting missiles at nothing and listening to a sick soundtrack.

I love(d) this game so much. As a kid it was mind blowing that I could create a city, basically play a knock off Twisted Metal within it, and destroy all the buildings. All while listening to a radio that felt "real".

Watching this 20000 times to get the algorithm to tell Clint we want more game reviews and retrospectives

Clint, I’ve been watching since your first review of the c64, and you’ve always made great stuff. Thank you.

That article at 1:28. "You need some serious horsepower to run this game-32 MB of RAM and a video card with ONE MEGABYTE." Those were the days.

I've been waiting for LGR to revisit this game for years! As soon as I saw this video appear in my feed I knew I had to watch it. Good as always, Clint!

One second in, and all I can scream is: THANK YOU! One of my favorite games ever, and one I really need to revisit…

NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD YES YEEEES Nice one Clint!!

Man this takes me back. Got the triple bundle of SC2K, SimCopter & Streets back in the day and vividly remember then fun. Getting to drive around in the maps I had created in SC2K blew my 12 year old mind.

These games were a huge part of my childhood. I loved playing SimCity and then driving and flying around my cities. So janky in retrospect, but I couldn't get enough back then.

10:53is such a clusterfuck and i love how perfectly timed the jump that sent your car upwards was holy crap those movement controls are equal parts genius and insane😭 I too loved messing around with game files in other games and seeing what skins i could make

My favorite thing about this game was the Soundtrack especially the jazz/funk tracks. I really wish they would release the Sim Copter soundtrack in a high quality format some day as it has some of my favorite Jerry Martin / Marc Russo Jazz tracks.

The music was so awesome that some songs were reused in The Sims' radio stations.

Man, I LOVED this game when I was a kid. I made dozens of maps and skins for my own game and levels with their whole own lore than only existed in my head. I even made a (bad) reproduction of my hometown to drive around and cause havoc in. Thanks for the core memory unlock, LGR

Man, I had too much fun with this back in the '90s! My brother also had Interstate '76 and '84, so he _very_ much saw Streets as a poor-man's I'76. Though he did have fun with the granny missions storyline a number of times. And he borrowed a bunch of the sound effects for his own Win98 theme: -- click on the Start menu, mouse into submenus -- **crashMOO!** ... **crashMOO!** ... **crashMOO!** -- click on a menu option -- **crunch!** -- get a message box dialog somewhere -- "Heeere's a little SOMEthing-SOMEthing, snookums!" "HowooOOO?" (he edited a copy of that Granny sound file) But I mostly just drove around my SimCity 2000 cities (having had SC2K for DOS since '94), and created new cities to drive around in (and occasionally blow something up). At an age when I was still _not_ quite driving IRL yet, just quietly driving around in this game was incredibly satisfying! Even the janky physics was still fun to laugh at. I even had fun building courses in the racecourse editor, though like you I found the races themselves rather less engaging. Though for just driving around, I found purpose-built cities worked better; I could space the buildings a bit farther apart, and it'd look both more realistic _and_ perform better on our AMD K6. And yes, the music! 🥰 Far better than it had _any_ right to be! And I was pleasantly surprised by how darn much of it got re-used in The Sims 1; I even copied over a few tracks that Maxis _hadn't,_ especially on the rock station. To this day part of me still wants to take a night drive around one of my old cities again and just enjoy it. And to this day, I still use Streets's version of SCURK for Windows to edit SC2K cities; it runs almost as well in Wine (on my current Linux PC) as it did in Win98. And SC2K for DOS reads my WinSCURK-edited cities just fine, with seemingly zero issues. Though of course I have no way to load my edited tilesets into SC2K itself, since I never did get SCURK for DOS or SC2K for Windows. Anyway, I can see why the reviews weren't kind to this game back in the day. But still, I didn't care. We had the game, and I'd found ways to have fun with it, at a time when my computer gaming options were a _lot_ more limited than today. Good times! Now if I could find where our old PC joystick ended up ... and maybe get a gameport-to-USB adapter for it somewhere ... and see if it works on my current Linux PC ... Heck, even with keyboard, I bet the game'll run better on Wine than it would've on WinXP or 7! *_*looks at the CD-ROM jewel case spine on the shelf, then tabs out to find those game-engine fixes you mentioned...*_* _EDIT: minor proofreading and formatting_

Groovy, but not as groovy as Interstate '76. Now THAT was groovy.

We didn't have a lot of PC games when I was a kid, and most of them were usually bought as packages (Blizzard battlechests, Lucasarts volumes, etc.) and that was how I got to experience the glorious trifecta of SimCity 2000 SE, SimCopter, and Streets of SimCity, because in the late 90s my parents bought all three as a package. They still came with all the manuals and big boxes and everything, understandable for SimCity since even the Special Edition would've been pretty old by that point. Anyway, SimCity 2000 ran flawlessly, SimCopter...ran but we always seemed to have save file issues so we could never really advance a career past the third or fourth city, while Streets was in a category of its own. When it ran, it ran flawlessly, but if you went over an edge on an incline and caused your car to tumble like seen in the video, there was a good chance the game would crash if you weren't fast enough to exit back to the main menu. Some of the levels couldn't complete (this still happens NOW even with the Krimsky patches) and I have a feeling it's because the engine was held together with prayers to the powers of light AND darkness, so if you weren't expedient in wiping out enemy cars, the game would crash from loading too many cars. We played it on a Pentium II, that was probably mid-level 300mHz or something, no GPU and stock RAM. We also didn't really know anything about tech stuff for messing with graphics modes outside of what the in-game menus offered, so we just had to hope that this time, THIS TIME, the game wouldn't crash in the middle of a level. All that to say that, yes, I have nostalgia for this game because it was all we had, and we played it, we suffered with it, and we still found enjoyment from it. For me, the appeal of SimCopter and Streets was not the actual gameplay, it was the music and the radios. The hanger music from SimCopter and the garage music from Streets are etched forever into my memory because the Maxis music people always put in good work. Hell, the soundtrack from Streets was popular enough that EA actually released a game OST way back in the day (I believe that's the album you can listen to on Spotify). Were there better games to play instead of Streets? Abso-fucking-lutely, but did 8 year old me know about them? Not really, but the music was enough that I could overlook a lot of the terribleness of the game. That and I was REALLY bad at games as a kid, so a lot of the time I would just pause and listen to the music instead.

I never played this but almost immediately recognized the music because of my obsession with The Sims 1 back in the day. After installing the Complete Collection about a decade ago, I found the folders that contained the music (and TV station sound bites), and I still listen to them to this day ("Splatter" is one of my favorites too, even if it is in Simlish in this version).

The original Streets of Sim City review was one of the first videos of yours I ever watched, seeing a new take on it is awesome.

We need the Streets of Cities: Skylines now. With Glide API renderer.

The car customization music + art style unlocked some memories 16:51

Been very pleased to see these game retrospectives as of late! I've been subbed to your channel for over a decade and I enjoy revisiting your back catalog from time to time.

I noticed even back then that the Splatter song was also in The Sims on the radio. Such a timeless classic. I need an LP of it on vinyl.

The instant the Splatter on the Windshield of Life line started I immediately and uncontrollably began singing and remembering the lyrics. Despite the fact that it's been twenty to twenty-five years since I last played it or heard that song. Memories Clint, good memories. Thank you so much.

I started watching and subscribe to this channel in 2012. I remember this was one of the first videos I watched among others.

Idk what it is about your voice but it is so soothing/relaxing. At this point I don't even care what the video is about I just like hearing you speak :D But man watching vids about these old games really makes me miss being a kid.

3:42 the german "na ja" 😂 it equals to "well ... if you have to, you can buy it, but we wouldn't" or "well, there is something on the screen, but it's not really worth the time or money" :)

Maxis: Now you can drive around the cities that you build! Us: Gonna create a city that cannot possibly exist with 20-lane hiways and buildings in the middle of the road!

Streets really is one of those games. Still have my copy from when I was little. Spent hours making car skins. And “flying” around the city.

My nostalgia for this one can only be described as unreasonable.

i loved this game, it was so weird, really neat that it sim copter and simcity all used the same "maps"

My sister was the Sims player in the family, but I could turn my brain off and enjoy this one. Especially after learning that the van with 8 machine guns was about invincible.

I'm a child, but I figuratively died at the fart motor.

When you make these videos, it always becomes apparent to me how much fun developers had back then. Remember playing Dungeon Keeper and Abe's Oddysey and having so much fun with the humor and characters. These days the investors get to decide and only care about money. They cared about money as well back then, but there was so much more freedom in the development. The only unique games I see these days are from indie developers, and even they are becoming worse every year. Yeah, I'm old...

I stumbled upon two copies - one sealed, one opened - at Goodwill just the other day! I was hella hyped!

I'm gonna tell my grandkids that this was gta 6.

Wooo new LGR

I just love how the music was reused for radio stations in original The Sims, including "Action" TV Channel playing audio from Streets intro

Ah yes, Streets of SimCity. I got the Budget rerelease back in the day, still have the disk. It reminds me now of Car Wars, which I would not be surprised if it was an influence. For those of you that don't know, Car Wars is a tabletop vehicular combat game, whose current version uses Hot Wheels sized minis, from 1981. It did get adapted to PC in the 80s under the name Autoduel by fellow EA bought studio Origin Software.

tgif everyone - hope you have a great weekend

It's a shame this game came out poorly. It sounds like a really neat concept. Even just driving around your city without the combat mechanics sounds neat.

"now maybe i'll be able to get some fishing in..." (this game truly had one of the best soundtracks in a maxis game next to the sims 1) 13:53 Cow goes Moo & Explodes

That original review is what dragged me into this channel to begin with. Hope you do more review retrospectives on your older stuff!

I know it's a shitty game, but i Loved it so much

Heck yes

Clint you're the GOAT. I've been a fan of yours for years. Keep killing it. Just wanted to take a moment to share some appreciation.

Starting @7:32 i was in literal tears cackling all the way through the side by side comparison with the moonwalking pedestrian on the 3Dfx Glide view 🤣 Well done, sir!

For real this holds a place in my heart yadda yadda yadda parents just got divorced I buried myself in streets of sim and Napster....I would play the create your own all the time only played missions once must have 1000 hours on it....just edited this more freal easily over 1000 hours in this game never knew you could load up your sim city file and drive arounds

My grandparents loved this game when they were kids

This was one of those games I really wanted to play, but my old SC2K saves had been deleted, I didn't have copies on floppies, and so what I wanted to do most wasn't possible. Then I moved from my mom's house and didn't have a functioning computer! At least I can enjoy it watching this! Thanks for the memories Clint!

I always remember the ads for businesses and their addresses being in the Cayman Islands. I would spend hours just driving around with my Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel. Between this and monster truck madness.

Man, it's weird to say, but i kinda literally grew up with your channel, still remember first discovering your channel and binging all your reviews. Funny enough, it must have been around the time of your Maxis retrospective.

Dude, amazing! Please redo all retrospectives as much as you want, this is great to get to re-visit fresh. Going to also watch the other one after too.

Great timing, for me, I just watched your Streets of Sim City review from 2010 (I'm working my way through your back catalogue of videos). Great stuff, and really appreciated! I love how you still use the menu options from Extreme Rock Climbing (Practise Mode!) in your videos, it's hilarious.

I just realized the music for the Sims 1 TV stations was actually just the soundtrack from Streets of Sim City.

Ooh excited to watch this soon. An iconic game for me. The jazz radio still cones up on my playlists

I like what you are doing with this "remastered" version of your old game review. Go on pleaseeeee!

I watched your original review not so long ago going through the official lgr playlist. Awesome!

Clint I've been subscribed to your channel since 2015. I made a new account since I first subscribed but I've still been watching 9 years. My favorite video you made is the red baron pizza coupon video. It is just such a unique and original thing to do. Your game reviews are my favorite and adding the whole trip to food lion and using the old coupon just made the review even better. I hope one day you'll get back to doing more reviews and maybe something similar to that red baron video. Thanks man for years of entertainment. Also last thing, your Christmas videos are becoming less and less every year. It just seems like you're toning it down until it disappears completely.Please keep doing the LGR Christmas.

And now a new review of Interstate 76. (thanks fo sharing all your good Videos)

Had never heard of this, legit looks so fun lol. Jankiness and all.

I just heard your voice in a Tetris documentary. Now this, what a morning!

This was my favorite game of my childhood. I remember the game crashing every 30 mins on our family computer from all the bugs it has and I didn't care because it was so fun.