Recently read the book Building SimCity. Looking for something similar that runs on modern hardware: where you can build open-ended things with a focus on both the physical and the social, that I can enjoy as an adult but also get my kid into.<p>Haven't been able to successfully run SimCity on modern hardware, so was wondering if anyone had alternatives?
RimWorld, I say! <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/" rel="nofollow">https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/</a><p>The lead developer has a lot of great behind-the-scenes stuff too: <a href="https://youtu.be/VdqhHKjepiE" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/VdqhHKjepiE</a>
Cities: Skylines is the obvious answer; I believe the 2nd game is not as good so you might wanna go for the original.<p>I've been playing a lot of Transport Fever 2; it's more akin to Railroad/Transport Tycoon (or OpenTTD), focused on connecting industries and cities with trucks, trains, ships, trains, etc. It's quite easy to get started with and addictive though you do not build cities.<p>If you want something more hardcore and with tons of micromanagement I've heard good things of "Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic" it does look much more serious and hard to learn though, been meaning to try it but haven't had the time.
Cities Skylines, the Anno series, Timberborn, Frostpunk, etc. Broadly, they're called city builders. Many are available on Microsoft PC Game Pass, which can be combined with GeForce Now to allow you to play AAA games in a browser, streamed from Nvidia.<p>I maintain a community list of building and other engineering / building games, if it helps: <a href="https://github.com/arcataroger/awesome-engineering-games/blob/main/README.md#awesome-engineering-games">https://github.com/arcataroger/awesome-engineering-games/blo...</a>
How old is the kid? My 7 year old just got into "Kingdoms and Castles" -- nothing special but it was simple enough for him to get started (with plenty of new dynamics to consider as he figured things out).<p>I recently finished Sid Meier's book and I really do think 90s-2000s were the peak for strategy PC gaming. I'd love to just give my son an airgapped Windows XP desktop with a bunch of games installed from that era.
Micropolis should work on modern systems<p><a href="https://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/" rel="nofollow">https://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/</a><p>Check for a package for your OS if you don't want to build from source.
> Haven't been able to successfully run SimCity on modern hardware<p>I’m a bit surprised by this. Have you tried running the DOS version with DOSBox, or the SNES version with an SNES emulator?