Merry Christmas everyone, let's talk about SimCity on the NES. Today we published the results of about a year of research on this unreleased Nintendo work, and uploaded relevant files - including the game - to the Internet Archive. You should take a look! gamehistory.org/simcity/ 
I don't want to air out all of the particulars, but y'all should know: we came very, very close to losing this game. Forever. A private collector was ready to throw down an obscene amount of money to take all copies of the game home and lock them up.
I don't say this so that we all go "grr collectors!" because that's not useful, I'm just saying that preserving work like this takes a lot of time, patience, and sometimes, money.
I genuinely don't know if we would have been able to rescue this game and archive it if we didn't found a nonprofit @GameHistoryOrg. It was really a combination of financial backing from @stevenplin and a lot of sweat and organization from me and volunteers to make this happen.
If you appreciate the work and you're feeling generous, consider donating! Literally all of the money the organization receives goes toward efforts like this, we're 100% volunteer so far. Even I don't get paid yet. gamehistory.org/donate
The more I examined the Nintendo version of SimCity, the more interesting it got. Did you know that Will Wright flew to Kyoto and spent a week with Shigeru Miyamoto to "Nintendo-ize" the game?
Has there been another high profile game design collaboration like that since? Wright just shipped the most popular computer game in the world (SimCity) and Miyamoto just shipped Super Mario 3, they're at the top of their game, and they're working together briefly.
Here's what the NES version of SimCity looked and sounded like. The design mostly follows what eventually shipped on the SNES, but a lot of it is just a little bit different (or broken) - this is basically a rough draft of the game that got released.
My favorite unique aspect of the NES prototype is this weird bank manager. In fact, all of the art is great, it has a lot more personality than the SNES version. I wish I knew who this artist was.
Here's a comparison of some of the iconography, the NES version is the one with gray backgrounds. It feels to me like the NES version of the art was the original, and that the SNES art was interpreted by someone else, so a lot of its charm was lost in translation.
Look at these very good SquishyBoys! I love this art!
Look at this wild quit icon! What the heck is that?? I really want to know who this artist was.
And check this out: a screenshot from an earlier build of the game shows that the art used to be even wilder. Note Wright's hair, pupils and hands, plus those adorable cars. The art was obviously toned down, but I'm in love with the original.
Here's a compilation of all of the Dr. Wright animations accessible in the SimCity NES prototype
Oh, and here's a great analysis of the unique NES soundtrack. This is one of the most exciting parts of this find: an unheard score by Soyo Oka, the composer of Super Mario Kart and Pilotwings, among others (also SimCity SNES)!
There's only one track in common between the NES and SNES soundtracks: the Metropolis theme. Check this out: in an interview, Oka once said that this was one of her favorite compositions. She liked it so much she held onto it when they moved systems!
Well that was a fun day! Thanks again to all of the other @GameHistoryOrg volunteers who helped bring all this together. I'll keep updating this thread with the occasional factoid.
Something amazing with SimCity NES that I think a lot of people overlooked: @true_Cah4e3 did a really exhaustive disassembly of the game, and started fixing bugs and implementing unused features. The whole project is on GitHub, so YOU can contribute too github.com/g0me3/bfs_nes_…
The most visible thing is a partial restoration of boats. In the prototype, most of the boat sprites are present, and partial functionality is in the code (just for the Detroit map), but it's never used. If you compile this source, youc an see it now!
Something kind of fascinating: as @true_Cah4e3 notes in the readme, this game uses something akin to multi-threading on the NES.
A fun perk of the disassembly is that it inspires the imagination. There's no code in the game for the UFO, but was this distorted music meant to play when it appeared? And was the Hamburg bombing scenario from the original game functional at one point, then cut?
Access to video game source code for educational use is extremely rare. Luckily for SimCity specifically, the source for the original Maxis engine is available (with EA's blessing!) which gave us a much better understanding of how the NES version works. donhopkins.com/home/micropoli…
Looking at both, it's obvious that Nintendo was porting the game from this exact source (or at least something close to it). Because we have access to the original, @true_Cah4e3 was even able to find some typos to correct some math errors and make the game run better!
Here's a great example: he was able to determine that the reason the game loses track of the sight of plane crashes was because of a copy-paste error by the engineers at Nintendo, so it was a simple fix.
Even if you're like me and you're not an engineer, the readme (docs/notes.txt) is still a fascinating read. You don't see code analysis for older games like this very often. Someone could easily port this info to a @CuttingRoomWiki article.
I dream of a future where video game source code is seen as a cultural artifact that can be studied. I want source code in libraries, physical and digital, so that we can gain new insight into the games that shaped us. It's a big goal of ours at @GameHistoryOrg, but it's tough!
I think it's obvious that the interest for development insight is there. Look at all the data mining on @CuttingRoomWiki. Look at all the interest in collecting circles in obtaining unfinished versions of games.
Despite the obvious demand the video game industry is so terrible at exposing any real development insight that the fans have had to do it for them, but our tools are so limited that it's akin to an archaeological dig for an ancient civilization.
[literally everyone who made Super Mario Bros. is still alive]
"What purpose could this graphic have held for this ancient race of people? Did aliens put this here? We may never know."
"What purpose could this graphic have held for this ancient race of people? Did aliens put this here? We may never know."
