You read correctly: One of the most famous games is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch. SimCity‘s history goes way back to 1989 when it was originally published. Development started in 1986 for the Commodore 64. So it came a long way and is now available (link opens iTunes) for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.
After installing and starting the game you get to set a few options and start a new city. You are able to set the name of your city, the name of the mayor and various options that affect the difficulty. Entering the actual game took quite a while, staring at a white screen. The same is true for starting the game from the springboard.
I started to play the tutorial. Entering the options menu, the select a building menu and the budget menu cause to crash the game repeatedly. At this point it looks like a usual Electronic Arts game.
More info to come as I manage to survive the crashes.
Update 1: Played a little bit more. The game crashes everywhere, but the controls in between the crashes feel well adapted for the device. It looks like great fun, once EA gets out an update for stability.
Update 2: After another reboot I’m now able to play without a single crash yet. So, after installing the game make sure to turn off/on your device at least once (twice in my case).
I noticed an interesting easter egg while accidentally moving the device fast, aka shaking. You get a popup asking for a cheat code. Gotta try out some old SimCity codes there.
Overall SimCity on the iPhone/iPod touch is a great time waster. I played for 30 minutes now and didn’t even notice it. Be sure to watch the clock while playing this game. It’s addicting! Get your copy now for 7,99€ (or 9,99$) in the App Store.