> The original SimCity for example lists Intel’s 386SX as the CPU in it’s system requirements.
Not sure where that comes from. The original release box art [1] says it will work on any PC with 512KB of ram. So that's an 8088 running at just 4.77 MHz.
But that's far from the lowest spec port of the game. The Commodore 64 version might have been missing quite a few features (like stadiums, police/fire stations and railways), but the main city simulation loop was there in just 64KB of ram and a 1MHz 6502.
And the BBC Micro/Acorn Election port was even more impressive. Had basically all the features of the full Amiga/PC/Mac version, only missing Music/Sound/Animation. With a 2Mhz 6502 (or 1Mhz on the Election) and just 32KB of ram.
I was running Sim City 2000 inside Win 3.1 on an 386 with 33MHz (I had 16MB of ram though). But it was virtually unplayable.
retrac•5m ago
This reminds me of microcity which is a Simcity Clone for the Game Boy Colour.
The author has some great in-depth docs about the design, and how they managed to make a fairly lively-seeming simulation fit into a machine with an 8 MHz 8-bit processor.
phire•29m ago
Not sure where that comes from. The original release box art [1] says it will work on any PC with 512KB of ram. So that's an 8088 running at just 4.77 MHz.
But that's far from the lowest spec port of the game. The Commodore 64 version might have been missing quite a few features (like stadiums, police/fire stations and railways), but the main city simulation loop was there in just 64KB of ram and a 1MHz 6502.
And the BBC Micro/Acorn Election port was even more impressive. Had basically all the features of the full Amiga/PC/Mac version, only missing Music/Sound/Animation. With a 2Mhz 6502 (or 1Mhz on the Election) and just 32KB of ram.
[1] https://images.launchbox-app.com/79861ce4-75ea-46dd-b46e-521...
ant6n•21m ago