The Late Movies: SimCity

A new version of SimCity is coming in March 2013. They're not calling it "SimCity 5" -- instead, EA/Maxis is rebooting the franchise, Star Trek-style, and just calling the new game "SimCity" again. This thing looks amazing to me; I've been playing since I was a kid, and this incarnation of the game feels really exciting and fresh (partly because you no longer need to build separate plumbing lines -- roads now handle everything). Here are some clips from the upcoming game, as well as a look back at previous versions.
SimCity Demo
In this nine-minute video, designer Stone Librande builds a casino town, and dumps his city's waste in a pile on the edge of town. Sounds about right.
The Economic Loop
Here's how commercial and industrial buildings interact with workers and the larger economy...which includes the environment. Note that these are definitely not the real graphics -- but it's pretty neat seeing the crazy debug mode developers use.
How Plumbing Works
This short video shows the basics of the water simulation within the new SimCity. The interesting parts to me: no more manual plumbing, limited resources (you deplete the water table), and groundwater contamination is quite easy. A nice balance of realism (water isn't just free forever) and convenience (let it travel down roads).
How Is SimCity Like A Real City?
Joey at Vsauce3 explains how SimCity's previous models of urban density are actually pretty realistic -- though some other elements (like building power plants) take shortcuts. Because, let's face it, going through a decade-long permit process to build a power plant is nobody's idea of fun.
Magnasanti (SimCity 3000)
6 million people in one SimCity, requiring terrifying efficiency. Built by Vincent Ocasla, this is an awe-inspiring city four human years in the making.
SNES SimCity
Here's ten minutes of gameplay on the SNES version of SimCity. The music may soothe you into a deep retro sleep. If you like this, check out this guy's SNES megalopolis with 916,000 citizens. Yes, he used an emulator and a money cheat to make it.
Let's Play SimCity 4
This extremely long play-through demo explains how to work through SimCity 4.