A SimCity-inspired city building game for 386 DOS machines with EGA graphics (16 colours, 640x350 resolution). There is also an SDL based tile editor to amend the graphics tiles, or create your own!
This game is still in very early development stages, the basic logic is working now, but tiles haven't all been drawn and many features don't work yet
- 386 processor or better
- Ideally 4MB RAM (may work on less, haven't tested)
- EGA graphics card (16 colours, 640x350)
- DOS 5.0 or later (or DOSBox)
- Open Watcom C/C++ compiler
- DOS4GW extender (included with Open Watcom, or run
get_dos4gw.sh)
wmakeOr use the build script:
./build.shnote you need dos4gw or equivalents (run get_dos4gw.sh if you want help)
dosbox dos4gw citysim.exe| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrows | Move cursor (auto-scrolls) |
| Space | Place selected tile |
| R | Select Residential ($100) |
| C | Select Commercial ($150) |
| I | Select Industrial ($200) |
| D | Select Road ($10) |
| P | Select Park ($50) |
| H | View nearest citizen |
| Z | View random citizen |
| F1 | Help screen |
| ESC | Quit game |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ESC | Return to city view |
| Z | Return to city view |
The bottom of the screen shows:
- $ (yellow) - Current funds
- POP: (white) - Population count
- DAY: (cyan) - Current day number
- Time (cyan) - Current hour (HH:00)
- TOOL: (green) - Currently selected building type
- Coordinates (grey) - Cursor position on the map
You begin with $50,000, a power plant, a water pump, some roads, and a few starter zones. Power plants and water pumps provide services within a 5-tile radius. Residential zones with both power and water will attract citizens.
| Type | Cost | Colour |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | $100 | Yellow |
| Commercial | $150 | Light Blue |
| Industrial | $200 | Brown |
| Road | $10 | Dark Grey |
| Park | $50 | Light Green |
| Police | $500 | Cyan |
| Fire Station | $500 | Red |
| Hospital | $1,000 | White |
| School | $800 | Magenta |
| Power Plant | $5,000 | Light Red |
| Water Pump | $2,000 | Light Cyan |
- Tax collection: $5 per citizen per day (collected at midnight)
- Build wisely to maintain positive cash flow
Citizens follow daily routines (sleeping, eating, commuting, working, leisure) and have stats (happiness, health, wealth, education) affected by city services and conditions.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| citysim.h | Structures, constants, prototypes |
| main.c | Game loop, render orchestration |
| graphics.c | EGA graphics, 5x7 bitmap font, UI |
| game.c | Simulation, input, economy |
- EGA mode 0x10: 640x350, 16 colours, 4 bit planes
- 16x16 pixel tiles, 40x21 visible tile viewport
- 64x64 tile map, up to 256 citizens, 512 buildings
- 20 FPS target (50ms frame delay)
- Direct video memory writes at 0xA0000
- Built with Open Watcom for DOS4GW protected mode
- No sound
- Simple direct-line pathfinding (no A*)
- Service buildings (police, fire, hospital, school) are placeable but have no gameplay mechanics yet
GNU GPL v2
This is entirely a hobby for Educational / demonstration software purposes only.