SimCity 3000

SimCity 3000
Developer: Maxis Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: Windows, Mac OS Classic Released internationally: January 31, 1999 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds.

SimCity 3000, the third edition of the popular city-building series, was overlooked by most fans. It was probably one of the most out-of-place SimCity entries, with its jazzy soundtrack, goofy caricatures, bothersome petitioners, and memorable news ticker that gave useless information 95% of the time.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: -Mention which of the cursors have a 3D version. [Link] -There are some more cursors which I'm not sure if they are used.. (Specifically: diagonal 1, diagonal 2, four way 1, four way 2, help arrow, left right, reg pointer, up down) -Unused air port tiles/formations. Info -There are some more audio files which might be unused. Needs looking into (specifically: gunshot sounds, different "abandoned building" sounds,etc.) -The German version has different advisor portraits compared to the English release. [A WIP prototype article] has been started with lots of new media found!!!

Hidden Autorun Art

A more or less recurring trope in games developed by Maxis around Y2K is the presence of a hidden illustration depicting the company's founding father, Will Wright, somewhat in the respective context of the game the disc is of. SimCity 3000‍ '​s LAUNCHER.EXE is by no means an exception. Though overlooked by some, clicking the application's Maxis logo opens the dialog box ABOUTDLG, containing but 204.BMP: Wright drawn in the same fashion as the City Advisors in game.

Something similar is also true in The Sims and its MMO release.

Unused Mouse Cursors

There are some mouse cursor graphics that are never used. Some of them hint towards certain functionalities that had been planned but then scrapped during development.

Cursor	Notes
	Looks similar to the used dispatch police and dispatch firefighters cursors.
	Fountains use the small park cursor. It is unknown why this fountain cursor isn't used instead.
	Instead of placing tunnels, the game automatically creates tunnels depending on how you place roads across mountains. SimCity 2000 had a dedicated tunnel tool.
	A cursor for creating signs like in SimCity 2000.
	When placing the stadium, the rewards cursor is used instead.
	The final game uses a plant tree cursor which lets you plant one tree at a time. A tool like this was used in SimCity 2000's terrain editing mode.
	The final game uses separate lower terrain and raise terrain cursors. A combined tool like this depicts was available in SimCity 2000.
	A cursor for creating rivers. This is another tool that was available in SimCity 2000's terrain editing mode.
	This cursor is titled wand of destruction, which might have been an early cursor for demolishing things. The final game uses a bulldozer cursor.

Unused Text

Debug Menu Text

To do: Find out if this debug menu is still in the game's code

At 0xFCDF0 in SC3.exe, there is some text which was likely used for a debug menu during development, nicknamed "Gonzo" for some reason.

Gonzo Debug Window
Debug Window Shown.
Debug Window Hidden.

Unused Ticker Messages

Some very generic placeholder messages for the tickers.

End Generic Newsticker Messages here
Test UI Msg 1I Msg 1Just Tastes Better
TEXT TO REPLACEed Backwards Is SIX AM?
TEXT TO REPLACErolling Entertainment
EMPTY TEXT

Unused Music

SimCity 2000 Theme

A rendition of the SimCity 2000 credits music is found as SC2KBUG.XA. It can be enabled in-game by changing the four numbers at the end of the "SimCity 2000 Theme" line in the [Music] section of the game's AUDIO.INI file from 0,0,0,1 to 0,1,0,1.