SimTower: The Vertical Empire

SimTower: The Vertical Empire is a 1994/1995/1996 simulation game by Maxis Software and OPeNBooK Co. The first game in Yoot Saito's The Tower series, SimTower asks players to develop an ever-expanding building from its lowly beginnings as an office complex into a towering skyscraper, capping the hundreth floor with a cathedral. The game plays very similarly to other games in Maxis's Sim series: using a few basic unit types, players have to balance their tower's budget while developing it equally in every facet so that development doesn't stagnate. SimTower is unique in how it conceptualizes the sim formula at a low level. Instead of dealing with disasters, for instance, you have to dispatch individual security guards. Each individual person who uses or lives in the building can be traced and followed, adding an extra personal touch to an already personalized genre. This video shows about 11 minutes of gameplay, from the beginning of the game to a two-star tower. I couldn't possibly accurately capture the SimTower experience in just a few minutes, especially not all the nuances, so this is just a demonstration to show what gameplay is like. You can notice a couple high-levle strategic mistakes I make: for instance, when I hit two stars, I spend too much money initially on hotel rooms and can't add service elevators for the maids. This was mostly just to show what the hotel rooms are were like rather than any attempt to demonstrate good planning.