Sim City 2000 Scenario Maker

Sim Scenario Maker 1.0b is a third-party editor for Maxis's SimCity 2000 by Robin Emig (raemig@ucdavis.edu) that turns ordinary saved cities into custom scenarios. The shareware utility copies the resources SC2K needs for scenario play into a city file and exposes the scenario settings, including the scenario picture, for direct editing.

What it does

The program injects the resources required for scenario behavior into a SimCity 2000 city document and then lets the author edit the scenario parameters that ship with each official Maxis scenario. Drag a city file onto the application to edit it, or hold Option while dragging to reset the city's scenario settings to defaults. Multiple files can be processed in one batch, with a Cancel All button to halt the queue.

Custom scenario art

A Picture button lets the author replace the briefing image shown when the scenario is loaded. The replacement file must contain a PICT resource with ID 0 and must be exactly 65 by 65 pixels, matching the dimensions Maxis used for the built-in scenario thumbnails.

Workflow

Edited scenario files must be placed in the same folder as the SimCity 2000 application for the game to recognize them. Balloon Help is enabled throughout the interface for additional guidance, and the author notes candidly that the meaning of the SC2K "build item One" and "Two" fields was unknown at release.

Shareware terms

Sim Scenario Maker is $5 shareware. Registration removes the unregistered nag and grants the user free upgrades to future versions. The author asked that unregistered copies not be redistributed via BBS or FTP, while explicitly permitting CD-ROM and magnetic-media inclusion in exchange for a courtesy copy of the compilation.