Micropolis

If you’re unfamiliar with the original SimCity, don’t panic – it’s not that complicated. You need to build roads, power infrastructure and zone lots. Do well and people will move into your city, do poorly and they’ll abandon it, leaving you with no revenue and a lot of useless roads to maintain (similar to some actual cities, actually). It’s a game about balance above all else. The fun of the game comes from keeping everything running – revenue, crime, transportation, entertainment. Help prod the city to growth, and remember, you need more police stations than you think. You can also help growth by adjusting the budget. There’s not a lot of control – at least, not compared to modern incarnations – but it’s interesting to see what effect tweaking things can have. Raise taxes and people will leave, lower taxes and you won’t be able to fund anything. As mentioned earlier, you can also play various scenarios. I enjoyed the layout of Hamburg – it roughly corresponds to the real city – until it was bombed to oblivion.