SimCity 3000: Prima's Official Strategy Guide [Paperback]

Rusel Demaria (Author)

Book Description

Series: Prima's Official Strategy Guide | Publication Date: January 20, 1999

Tips for negotiating business deals with neighboring cities
Tactics for balancing your Residential, Commercial, and Industrial zones
Hints for managing city services
Strategies that allow you access to reward features
How to provide efficient and complete utility distribution
Insights into keeping the city finances in order
Suggestions for creating eye-pleasing custom landscapes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's been a long time coming, but SimCity 3000 is finally here. The latest installment of this classic series offers a ton of new features, much-improved graphics, and the trademark addictive gameplay that made SimCity famous. With Prima's guide to the game in hand, you'll have a thriving metropolis on your desktop in no time. Beginning with a rundown of the series and the new elements in SimCity 3000, this book offers a wealth of information and guidance for any prospective SimMayor. The book covers topics such as connecting to neighbor cities and negotiating business deals with your fellow mayors, as well as more mundane items like where to dispose of your garbage (or to be more specific, where not to dispose of your garbage). Of course, the book also offers helpful advice for balancing your city's finances and provides a thorough description of the game's ordinances and their effects on your population. This is simply the ultimate guide to the ultimate city-building sim. --Michael Ryan

Review

If you build it, they will come.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prima Games (January 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761511245
• ISBN-13: 978-0761511243
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,002,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money!, March 14, 2000

By 

Dave Porter - See all my reviews

This review is from: SimCity 3000: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

The eye-catching "Official Strategy Guide" and Maxis-style front cover promise much, but this book is a grave disappointment. While it may be of use to those who have never used SimCity before, anyone looking for the in-depth information which is alluded to will be left wanting.

The few titbits of useful information which are provided, such as the land value calculation on p68, are poorly explained and make one wonder how much the author actually understands his subject.

Chapter 3 is pure padding - it just lists Maxis' own table of differences between SC2000 and SC3000. A useful-sounding appendix giving a list of power consumption values (p94) and "specific consumption figures" (p132) is alas missing from the book entirely. The number of fundamental errors which should have been caught by even trivial proofreading is _awful_: 3x3=16 (p57); 5x4500=4500 (p58).

Put these things together and you have a complete waste of money...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info, but errors make it confusing, December 30, 1999

By 

Benjamin G. Turner (Yonkers, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SimCity 3000: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

This is better than the other SC3k guides out there, but it's hardly great. Some of the charts such as NIMBY and land value effects are great, but they can also be contradictory, probably due to stupid mistakes that should've been caught in editing. They really should fix all the problems with this guide and re-release it. A game this good deserves a better guide and a game this difficult warrants one.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best available...but that isn't saying much, October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: SimCity 3000: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

This is probably the best strategy guide available for SimCity 3000...but that isn't much of a compliment. Considering what an excellent game this is, I find this surprising. The guide did provide a lot of indepth and technical information about the game--I'm not sure how useful it is but it's there anyway. However, the book reiterates a lot of info over and over again which makes for tedious reading. I'd recomend this book only because there isn't really a better alternative...a better effort should have been made.