Menu
SimCity
Debug menu:
When you begin the game, immediately start a new city. When in-game, go to the "Save/Load" menu and select "End". When you see the sleeping moon and the "See you soon, Goodbye!" message, Press Left, A, Right, Y, Up, B, Down, X, Select, Start, Start, Select, R(2), L(2) on controller two. The Debug menu will appear to confirm correct code entry. The following options will now become available.
Sound Test: As its name implies, it allows you to play both background music and game sounds.
No Disasters: Disables your ability to cause disasters and almost completely disables disasters during scenarios. It does not always work. You can still get plane crashes and sometimes nuclear disasters during a new city under Hard mode.
Needless Money: This allows you to build anything you can currently build for free, regardless of how much money you currently have.
Valve Max: This forces your [R C I] graph at the upper right-hand corner of the game to stay max positive no matter what.
Water Reclaim: This gives your "Bull Doze Area" the ability to replace water with land. Select "Bull Doze Area" and you can bulldoze water just like bulldozing trees and/or shorelines.
Memory: This option is important. If you enable any cheats on the Debug menu, make sure to put "Memory" on "Set", then reset the game to activate any cheats from the Debug menu. If memory is on "Set", you can return to the Debug menu at anytime by going to the "Save/Load" menu and selecting "End" at anytime without inputting the code again. Putting the "Memory" option on "CLS" will get rid of the debug menu and return the game to normal. Note: This will also disable any activated cheats and you will have to re-input the code
Erase all saved games:
Press L + R + Select.
More maps:
Start with a new city, select any landscape, and wait at least ten seconds. Enter the total screen. Exit the total screen, enter the save/load menu, then select the "No" option. Return to the main menu, select the "Start New City" option, and the landscape will change. This effectively doubles the amount of maps.
Maximum money:
Turn off your auto budget and spend all of your money. Set all of your tax and funding levels to 0%. When the annual tax screen appears hold L, select "Go with figures", and the regular screen will return. While continuing to hold L, press X(2) to skip to January. Choose the tax option from the menu and raise all of your funding levels back to 100%. Leave the tax level at 0%. Select "Go with figures" and proceed to the main screen. Release L and your funds should now show all 9s.
Easy money:
Start a new city. Build a power plant, 8 residential zones, 4 commercial zones, 4 industrial zones, and (preferably) a police department. You can build more than that if desired, but keep your city small so the game will not slow down as a result of having a large number of buildings). Leave the game running overnight, then check the game. You should have a lot of money and many years should have passed. You will also have the fountain, which raises land values.
When you first start a new game, waste all your money by building all houses, airports, etc. (until you have $00.00 remaining) or until you cannot build anything else (even by destroying buildings). Then in December when the first tax chart appears, hold L + R while setting all the police, fire departments, etc. to as high as possible. Then, finish and release L + R. You should have an extremely large amount of money.
Use the following trick to get more money without warning notices. You can earn more money at the end of each year, without the warning notices appearing on screen. To do this, wait until the end of the fiscal year in your city when the taxes come in. When the tax screen appears, take all the tax funding down to their minimums, and select "Go with figures". When you return to your city, immediately press Start and go to the load/save screen, From there select "Go to menu", and save your game. When you return to the main menu, load your city again. You will still have the money you took from the last year's tax payments, without the notices for lack of funding flashing.
Stop time:
Hold R to pause game play. While R is held, no time will pass but you can still build whatever desired.
Hint: Bonus casinos and amusement parks:
Choose a landscape that is not an island, but has a large amount of water. There should be a body of water towards the middle of the landscape. Create roads in a way to form a cross near the middle of the landscape, near the water. The roads must continue until reaching the edge of the map. Two to five casinos or amusement parks may now be built.
Hint: Getting different gifts:
The Zoo appears after one to three Stadiums are built. Build the Zoos near Residential or Commercial Zones for the greatest effect or population increase.
The Bank appears after less than $2,000 is available.
The Fire HQ appears when six, twelve, or eighteen Fire Stations are built.
The Police HQ appears when six, twelve, or eighteen Police Stations are built.
The Train Station is available after building 50 and 200 kilometers of track. Build these near Commercial Zones.
The Fountain appears after the city is 50 years old. Build it near Commercial Zones.
Landfills appear when your open land is only 150,100, 50, and 30 acres.
A Library appears when 3, 6, and 9 Schools are present.
A Windmill appears when you have 150 Developed Zones.
A Mario Statue appears when the population reaches 500,000.
Your home appears after the population reaches 2,000. Build near Residential Zones.
City Parks are available after 300, 600, and 900 acres of Parks are built. Place near Commercial Zones.
An Expo is available after the population reaches 50,000 people and an Airport is present. Put near the Industrial Zones.
The View Model is available after the population reaches 50,000 people.
The Amusement Park and Casino are available after 300, 400, and 500 Kilometers of roads are built. Place near Residential Zones.
Hint: Home evolution:
When you receive a house as a gift, place it near the Residential Zones or any other desired location. After the town grows into a city, then to a capital, metropolis, and megalopolis, your house will also grow with home extensions. The town stage house is a small house, which resembles an upside down "L". It also has a few bushes and trees in the front yard. The city stage house is a two level red house. It also has trees and bushes. The capital stage house is completely different. It turns gray and has two levels. It is also larger, has a patio table, a pool in the front yard, and a satellite dish. The metropolis stage house is also gray and seems to have something resembling another pool on the roof. It also still has trees and landscaping and is bordered by a fence.
Hint: Topping Residential and Commercial Zone buildings:
To get buildings to top off you need to have the zones touch. Place parks and gifts near them to get to this point faster. Once the two squares reach the highest level of growth, they form to make a top. Industrial zones cannot top off.
Hint: Stop the meltdown in Boston 2010 scenario:
Before starting the Boston 2010 scenario, hold L at the telefax screen. Keep the button held and bulldoze all three nuclear power plants. Then, release L and rebuild the three plants. You can play the scenario without the meltdown occurring.
Hint: Recommended zoning:
When you start a new game you should always build your residential zones together in a square. You should make the square three houses long and wide, leaving a space in the center. This space can be used for gifts which will make everything around it grow a lot. When you get your house, build it in a residential square because it helps those grow to R Tops. The same should be done with commercial zones but not industrial. You should build a residential square, then a space, then a commercial square, then a space, then a residential square, etc. This space is left for railroads (no roads). You should be able to build railroad tracks around each square. Your industrials should be spread out evenly. For example, Residential = R, Commercial = C, Gift = G, - = Railroad:
----------------- -RRR-CCC- -RGR-CGC- -RRR-CCC- ------------------
Hint: Depression:
When commercial zones start to go undeveloped, your city is in a depression. To fix this problem, just build more industrial and residential zones. The population will increase, forcing the commercial zones to redevelop.
Hint: Less airport pollution:
Airports cause a lot of pollution because they are big. If you crash a plane just as it takes off (so that it lands on the airport it took off from), it will destroy most of the airport. However, as long as there is at least one square of airport remaining it will still function, but will cause a lot less pollution. As yet another benefit, you will get more space to build other things. It is highly recommended that you have a fire department nearby so you can get the fire extinguished before it destroys the entire airport. And as soon as the fire is out, put something else in the airport's area (such as park or road) so that the airport will not rebuild itself.
Hint: Benefits of an Airport/Seaport without the plane/ship crashes:
Use the following trick to have an airport or seaport that benefits your commercial and industrial zones but does not have plane or ship crashes that seem to occur at the worse locations. Build the airport/seaport and do not supply any roads/rails/power to the zone. Normally, a zone will not develop without power. But since airports/seaports do not need to develop, they do not need the power. This stops them from being "turned on" and therefore, do not produce ships/airplanes but will still acts if the were.
Glitch: Unlimited gifts:
In preparation for the trick you will need the following: two saved cities (one brand-new untouched city and the city you want the gifts for) and at least one free space in your Gift Reserve Icon (the icon that is the question mark). A city can only hold four gifts at one time. This trick will not work if your Gift Reserve is full. This trick actually allows you to steal gifts from one city and put them in the other. It will work for any Landmass including the Scenarios if the Scenario Landmass is the city you want to put the gift in. The following example allows unlimited Police Headquarters. This one is the easiest to do.
1. Load your brand new untouched city. Remember, you should have already started and saved a new city with nothing it.
2. Build a line of six Police Stations. This is the required number to get the "Gift Police Headquarters".
3. Save the game immediately. Do not wait until you get the "Gift Police Station" because it will cause the trick to fail.
4. Load the brand new untouched city with the six Police Stations that you just saved.
5. Once you have loaded the city the Police Stations will be sitting there flashing the "No-Power" message. As soon as they start flashing, count five consecutive No-Power flashes. This is required to get the correct timing for the trick to work.
6. Once the fifth No-Power flash is counted, select the Information Icon at the top of the screen. This is the icon in between the Disasters and the Save/Load Icons.
7. Once the Information Icon opens up, select the Map Icon.
8. Now that you are in the Map Screen, you will still be able to see some of the Police Stations. The others will naturally be behind the map. You will need to be able to see at least one Police Station for this step. Just as in step 5, count five No-Power Flashes for timing.
9. Once you have counted five flashes, exit the Map Option screen, but do not exit the Information Option screen.
10. Click on the Save/Load Icon.
11. Load your other city (that you want the gift for).
12. Exit the Save/Load Screen and you should instantly receive the Gift of Police Headquarters.
To get another Police Headquarters just repeat steps 4 to 12. You can do this an unlimited number of times.
Glitch: Loans with no bank:
Get the bank and place it anywhere. Wait a year, then destroy it. After you destroy it, you will still be able to take out loans from the bank option in the menu.
Information in this section was contributed by Tom C.
Build an airport. Just when a plane is taking off, have the plane crash into the airport, but not completely destroy it. Leave at least one space of the airport remaining. Bulldozer all of the rubble and leave the pieces of airport that have not been destroyed. You can now build on the spaces where the airport was destroyed and the airport will still function normally.