As we move further away from the year 2000, this disconnect is happening at an increased rate across various strands of science fiction media (I’m looking at you, Metal Gear). Returning to the game now, I can’t help but notice the departure between the game’s timeline and the real world’s recent past that never was. If only we could live in SimCity 2000’s future. The Plymouth Arco debuts around the year 2000 making it the first “invention of the future” in the game.
All of the inventions up through what was then present day, mimicked the chronology of real world events, setting a precedent for plausibility in the years to follow. I originally played SimCity 2000 around the time of its release in the early ‘90s. The Plymouth Arco is one badass structure, and within SimCity 2000’s balancing act of gameplay systems, it’s also a very powerful asset. It can also hold 55,000 people and resist earthquakes, making it the safest high-density building available at the turn of the millennium.
#ARCOLOGY SIMCITY 2000 TV#
The Plymouth Arco (as it’s often referred) is a monolithic black obelisk with red trim and a huge TV monitor at its base, giving the building a cool cyberpunk/ Blade Runner vibe. The earliest of the four models is the Plymouth Arcology. Starting around the year 2000, assuming you’ve met the necessary population requirements, you gain access to arcologies: architectural and ecological superstructures that act as their own all-in-one vertical cities. You also receive rewards for achieving certain population levels, such as a mayoral residence and a city hall. For example, subways are invented in 1910, nuclear power in 1955, and solar power in 1990. As the years go by, newspaper headlines announce new inventions that come about relatively in time with their real world creation. You can begin the game as far back as 1900, and the technology available to you remains era-appropriate. As the name of the game implies, it’s a simulation, so you’ll need to balance the three types of zones as your city expands, while meeting other specific needs of your populace. The game let’s you build a city from scratch, beginning with a power plant, followed by industrial, residential, and commercial zones. SimCity 2000, a city construction and management computer game released in 1993, played into this utopian vision of the future, as well. The future is coming, and it’s incredible. Structures like Spaceship Earth at Disney’s Epcot theme park got us excited for the realization of this technological potential. These are the kinds of inventions foretold by The Jetsons, Back to the Future, and other iconic science fiction. Oh what wonders the future beholds! Flying cars, jetpacks, teleporters, ray guns.
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