Simtropolis 6.0 That Was

Pseudo3D's SimCity 4

Hello and welcome to Pseudo3D's SimCity 4!

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Pseudo3D's Building Gallery
Pseudo3D's Building Gallery is filled with building images that Pseudo3D is BATting, would like to BAT, or just thinks is kind of neat
bigg's Hypermarket
Auchan - Gulfgate
Wal-Mart - Small Town Variant


Pseudo3D's BAT Gallery
Nothing here yet.

The Archives
The Archives is a collection of SimCity-related things you may find handy.
Vintage Reviews: SimCity 4 (GameGirl)
CGW May 2002
SimCity Societies Sucks

Other Stuff
These things don't fit in any other category.
Current/Proposed Projects
Why It's Impossible to Recreate Cities in SimCity 4
In Search of Bobbo662's BATs
SimCity 4: Wild World Expansion Pack


Other posts are around, but they are outdated.

Wal-Mart - Small Town Variant

Description: A small-town Wal-Mart.
Potential in SimCity 4: Every small town in the South needs a small Wal-Mart.
More Info on the Subject: Not much to say, really. These were the "original" Wal-Marts, the ones Sam Walton built his empire on. Regrettably, many have fallen by the wayside. They are getting updated outside (like the picture below shows) or in, if not getting abandoned outright for larger Supercenter buildings.
Location in RL: Caldwell, Texas. Similar examples include Navasota, as well countless other smaller locations like in this country.
Building Exists?: There are plenty examples like this, but many have "tan-ized".
BAT Progress?: Collected measurements, drew a few shapes, abandoned shortly thereafter. Still on the "to-do" list.
Wikipedia: Walmart
Official Website: Walmartstores.com
Current Equivalent: Someone tried to make something similar to this a few years back. It looks ugly.
Photo Credit: BurlesonTexas.com.
Variation: Can come in tan (recently repainted to be so) and dark brown. May or may not add the logo (added even later)
Bing View: None. But I did take a picture last January.

bigg's Hypermarket

Description: The last of the "80s hypermarkets", bigg's was basically a prototype of the discount store/grocery hybrid before such a thing existed. However, they were much larger than Wal-Mart Supercenters of later days and had a much larger grocery department.
Potential in SimCity 4: I've been fascinated with bigg's for a few years (before it announced that it would go dead). I mean, where else can you find a hypermarket willingly attaching to large shopping malls? Plus, it's a hypermarket that's NOT Wal-Mart Supercenter!
More Info on The Subject: bigg's (the "b" is lowercase) opened in 1984 as America's first true "hypermarket", offering both food and general merchandise (discounting the fact that just a few states north, Meijer had been doing that for years). It was a coalition between SuperValu (owning 10%) and French companies (90%). Unfortunately, bigg's made a few mistakes in its times of operation. In 1989, a third bigg's hypermarket opened in the Denver market and the first outside of Cincinnati. The store was doomed: Wal-Mart had just set foot in the market and boasted that it was all-American unlike the partially French-owned bigg's (which WAS the truth at the time, most of Wal-Mart's products were American-made). King Soopers, owned by Kroger, ran vicious pro-union attack ads on bigg's (and Kroger was also headquartered in Cincinnati...do the math). All during that time, Hyper Shoppes insisted on building new stores not as stand-alone stores but parts of small malls that were supposed to presumably expand. The only stores that were stand-alone were just supermarkets (diluting the hypermarket brand). By the time SuperValu bought the chain in 1994, they did build stand-alone full-line stores, but scaled back square footage and never went out of the Cincinnati area. By the year 2000, bigg's was no longer building any new "hypermarket" stores and by the year 2010, SuperValu pulled the plug and sold the remnants to another grocery store (Remke Markets). This satire piece, written in 1986, has some neat photos, and shows how "bigg" some people thought it was
Location in RL: Mason, Ohio (this photo) and Florence, Kentucky (main model)
Building Exists?: Both exist. The Mason location is now a Remke Markets bigg's, the Florence location is now closed.
BAT Progress?: Realistically, no. Just a box in SketchUp. However, it is very close up on the list (after Auchan and Wal-Mart). I plan to have the bigg's logo superimposed when queried, but with the stock "cashier" sound.
Wikipedia: Remke Markets bigg's
Official Website: Remke Markets
Current Equivalent: None! That makes it all the more unique!
Photo Credit: Wikipedia article of the same name, taken by user "Joekid".
Bing View: Florence, Kentucky location.

Auchan - Gulfgate

Description: Auchan, the popular French hypermarket, opened a second location in Houston in 2000. Although Auchan had a previous 1988 location in Houston that was larger (230k square feet compared to this one's ~180k) and a short-lived Chicago location. The location is a former Target which closed in the 1990s due to the depressed part of town (Gulfgate). Regrettably, both locations of Auchan in Houston (and America) closed in 2003. This was because of poor sales and competition (particularly from Wal-Mart Supercenter and H-E-B).
More Info on The Subject: Auchan in Houston.
Potential in SimCity 4: I think cities in SimCity should look realistic and also fairly-comfortable places to live (unless, of course, you try to avoid that) so Auchan would be a good fit. After all, Sims need hypermarkets besides Wal-Mart Supercenter to thrive. It would do great in a Houston CJ or possibly a European CJ (it could do double-duty as a European location...but I could make a Euro version if necessary).
Location in RL: Houston, Texas
Building Exists?: Yes, but it's been a vacant shell since 2003.
Intention on Modeling: Started in SketchUp, undergoing conversion to gmax.
Current Equivalent: A STEX model was released in 2004. I left a comment that sums it up: "While this must have been innovative and amazing in 2004, sadly, it has not surpassed the test of time. Proportionally, it is sized to be the end-all of hypermarkets, but in Real Life, that's just not the case. Furthermore, there are textures are missing. Bummer, because I was looking forward to this one."
Wikipedia: Auchan
Official Website: Groupe-Auchan
Photo Credit: sam59 from forum-auto.com
What is This Stuff, Anyway?: This is a new feature, derived from the old Planning Board, where I write up about interesting buildings in hopes of someday making one. However, there is no actual guarantee is that I will actually make one. Many of these are for infotainment purposes only.
Bing View:

Current/Proposed Projects - updated

In addition to the Auchan (in SketchUp) and Wal-Mart (in BAT), here are some other ideas I had.

Additional Wal-Mart variants (including various eras, Supercenter stores). This includes a specific store in Caldwell, plus my own local store. Difficult because I want to best Heblem's, and I can readily identify a few problems outright)
Additional Auchan variants (the Beltway 8 Houston location and an "International" edition)
Kmart and variants (Big Kmart, Super Kmart Center, etc...maybe)
Better versions of some BATs currently up (McDonald's, 1980s Toys R Us, Black Cat Fireworks Warehouse)
Better versions of supermarkets (Winn-Dixie, Albertsons, Kroger, H-E-B, Publix, may be historic/dated versions of said stores)
Meijer (newer stores)
bigg's (early 1990s/late 1980s, another long on the planning board)
Local buildings (a high school, specifically, maybe a mall)
Target and variants (possibly)
Various homes (a few I have in mind)
Stars Over Wellborn ("Stars Over SimCity")
Payless ShoeSource (been on my mind a long time!)
Mall 205 (seems simple enough, also on the planning board since at least 2008)


See progress on Auchan here