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SimCity Source Code Is Now Open

Posted by kdawson on from the but-you-can't-call-it-that dept.

Tolkien writes "Source code for SimCity has been released under the GPLv3. For legal reasons the open source version was renamed Micropolis, which was apparently the original working title. The OLPC will also be getting a SimCity branded version that has been QA'ed by Electronic Arts. Some very cool changes have been made by Don Hopkins, who updated and ported what is now Micropolis. (Here is an earlier Slashdot discussion kicked off by a submission Don made.) Among other things, it has been revamped from the original C to using C++ with Python. Here is the page linking all the various source code versions. Happy hacking!"

4 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. Version? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't see anywhere stating the obvious, what version is it? Simcity classic, 2000? 3000? 4000?

    I'm assuming the classic, which is a shame as I felt 2000 was one of the few times a sequel actually made the game better. Unfortunately 3000 and 4000 continued to suggest otherwise however.

    Even if it's just classic however I'm sure I remember even that had some differences between platforms.

    Perhaps I'm just blind but it'd be interesting to know which version this is!

  2. Boo-hoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The plane crash disaster has been removed as a result of 9/11 This is ridiculous.
  3. Re:What the fuck are you talking about? by SimHacker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Agreed. But Java isn't exactly what I'd call a scripting language. What I expect from a scripting language is the easy ability to interact with it on a command line or interactive interpretive interface (like Smalltalk). (It doesn't actually have to be interpreted, just compiled fast enough that I don't notice, like many Lisps and OpenLaszlo implement their interactive command line.) Java's problem is not just that the compilers and tools aren't set up for interactive evaluation, but also that the syntax makes it extremely tedious and required typing a lot of boilerplate structural crap. Of course there are some good interactive interpreted languages like JavaScript (Rhino), Python (Jython) and Groovy implemented in Java.

    The great thing about integrating C++ modules like micropolis with Python is that you can play around with it from the keyboard, test and debug it easily, and get it to work quickly. Immediately after I compiled the micropolis module for the first time, I was able to import it, make a simulator, load a city, set the tax rate, and run the simulation loop, all from the keyboard! Then I copied that code I typed into a python file, and I had the first test framework.

    -Don

    --
    Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
  4. Re:No build on MacOS X by stargo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Success :-)
    My patch agains micropolis can be found at: http://rmdir.de/~michael/micropolis_mac-osx.patch
    This patch also seems to fix graphic problems on Linux with a 24 bit X server.