Planning Board: bigg's

bigg's

Description: One of the first of what I call the "80s hypermarkets". bigg's was headquartered in the Cincinnati area and sold groceries, general merchandise, and much more. The stores were at least 200,000 square feet. Unfortunately, expansion plans for the western USA were axed, and for the rest of bigg's life, it was only in Cincinnati. Even after remodeling stores to more of an upscale supermarket/general merchandise hybrid, bigg's was not able to stay as-is. bigg's will close soon. More info here.
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!
Location in RL: Mason, Ohio, though there are others in Cincinnati
Building Exists?: For now, yes. It may be one of the ones sold to Remke Markets.
Hazards in Modeling: Well, I want to model it to its original form, not the current "Premium, Fresh & Healthy" form. I'm pretty sure the Bing Maps form has been updated since its original pictures...maybe it exists in its original form!
Wikipedia: bigg's
Official Website: Discover Something bigg's
Current Equivalent: None! That makes it all the more unique!
Photo Credit: Wikipedia article of the same name, taken by user "Joekid"
Variation: Could be it in its current Premium, Fresh, and Healthy form.
Embellishments: The sound effect will be the stock "cashier" sound. The bigg's logo will be superimposed when queried.

Planning Board: Stars Over Wellborn

Stars Over Wellborn


Description: A seasonal fireworks stand located in Wellborn, Texas. This is where we got things like everything from sparklers to new novelties that made many a boom and flash. It was only open for July 4th and New Year's. The rest of the year it was shut up like this.
Potential in SimCity 4: I'd always wanted SC4 to resemble the area where I lived. And what more Texan is a fireworks stand? This is a local example, but I've seen "Mr. W" fireworks stands everywhere else. For the complete experience, put this in a kind of rural area but close to a major road.
Location in RL: Wellborn, Texas
Building Exists?: Sadly, as of December 2009, it was not there. It will be missed.
Hazards in Modeling: Unusual shape.
Wikipedia: None
Official Website: None
Current Equivalent: Boomland Fireworks. Unfortunately, it's a little off-scale (as it was released, again, long ago). Furthermore, Boomland isn't JUST a fireworks stand. It's a Missouri-only (and three locations in MO, at that) that sells not only fireworks, but home decor, gasolines, ice cream, cigarettes, collectibles, etc.. It's an eclectic one-of-a-kind convenience store. Sort of like Buc-ee's in the Houston area.
Photo Credit: Chrisadams3997 of SC4D
Variation: Could be renamed "Stars Over SimCity" for generic use
Embellishments: The sound effect will be the stock fireworks sound. And the flammability will be artificially jacked up...

Planning Board: Auchan #2

Auchan #2

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. More information on my blog here.
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.
Hazards in Modeling: I heard it had a dollar store in part of the building at least part of its life.
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 where I outline my plans for "Batting Through SketchUp". It serves as a catalog for my plans (work would begin this summer, I think) that allows for comments (feel free to leave one!)

Status update

Hi. Updates have been slow lately, but I want to say that I can't really update this site until I get a computer that can run SketchUp and play SimCity 4 without horrible, horrible graphical glitches.

The truth is, SimCity 4 is not getting any younger, despite the constant pour of new stuff into it. I listen to SimCity 4 music sometimes (such as right now), I get nostalgic...but then I remember my fondest memories happened nearly five years ago. I wanted to make this a resource for both SimCity and my own buildings, but the fact is Simtropolis and the few other sites have claimed an oligopoly on SimCity 4. So I really don't know what to do right now. I want to start PS3DSC4 back up in summer, coupled with a new "wrapper" website...I also want to update the links, but I doubt that I will ever complete it fully. Anyway, don't consider this the final The End, but it's certainly a dead end as of now, at least until around May.

Thanks,

Pseudo3D

P.S.: Please visit Two Way Roads, my main blog, updated daily!

The Link Directory, Revisited

I found on Simtropolis a "Sim-link directory" and got permission from the creator to revise it. Luckily, I've managed to dump it all on one HTML (Simtropolis has a nasty habit of deleting older posts).

SimWebsites link.

PS3D's SC4 is also still at an identity confusion and has not released any BATs. Plans are being made, however. The problem is the computer I'm using (Internet and user configuration) has major graphical problems (caused by the motherboard) and does not let me render SketchUp stuff. So I'll try to use SU on other computers. Then I'll use the SketchUp Pro demo to export it to gmax.

Link Directory

Simtropolis
Description: The ultimate SimCity fansite!
Language: English
Type: General
Downloads: Yes
Quality: Varies
Register for Downloads: Yes
Forums: Yes
Forum Updates: Daily
Features: Forum, file exchange, "Omnibus" tutorials
Site Updated: Yes
PS3D's Recommendation: It's good fun to be on Simtropolis, but stay away from the General Off-Topic and Current Events forum sections. There is no distinction for the "way off topic" type discussions!!!

SC4 Devotion
Description: A major SimCity site, second to Simtropolis.
Language: English but support for other languages
Type: General
Downloads: Yes
Quality: High (Private)
Register for Downloads: Yes
Forums: Yes
Forum Updates: Daily
Features: File exchange, forum, Wiki, tutorials
Site Updated: Yes
PS3D's Recommendation: Mostly for the "pro users" (BATting, modding, and city building). There are awesome buildings, however...

SimCity 4 at SimCity.com
Description: The official SimCity 4 website
Language: English and many more languages
Type: General
Downloads: Yes
Quality: High
Register for Downloads: Yes
Forums: NO
Features: Downloads, tips & tricks, patches
Site Updated: No
PS3D's Recommendation: Visit it once, download necessary things, and never again. Mac users don't even have to visit it.

SimPeg
Description: The official website of SimCity independent "Pegasus"
Language: English
Type: BAT downloads
Downloads: Yes
Quality: High (Private)
Register for Downloads: Yes
Forums: NO
Forum Updates: Daily
Features: Forums, BAT buildings
Site Updated: Yes
PS3D's Recommendation: BSC BATs and PEG BATs reportedly do not "play well". This is unconfirmed by me. One thing I definitely don't like is the fact that things cycle out on SimPeg.

more coming soon

SimCity Community Magazine published

Recently, the SimCity Community Magazine, a Flash-based zine has published its first issue. While it is good and has information on both ST and SC4D, it's a good measure of what I want this blog to be someday. One notable absence I noticed is a complete disregard for Pegasus Productions, possibly because of the "rogue textures" issue that distanced him from the other two bigger sites.

Nevertheless, I recommended printing the magazine out for your own copy.