TITLE
Flying High with SimCopter 64, Maxis’ Lost N64 Game
AUTHOR
Phil Salvador
PUBLICATION
Video Game History Foundation
YEAR
2022
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
In the wake of the success of SimCity 2000, Maxis, the creators of SimCity, tried to capitalize on the game’s popularity with SimCopter — a helicopter simulation that put players in the role of an emergency worker who flies around the city breaking up traffic jams, putting out fires, and other tasks to keep the city running. But the game’s most notable feature wasn’t what you did. It was where you did it! SimCopter could import save files from SimCity 2000, letting players explore their cities from a whole new perspective.SimCopter wasn’t a big hit for Maxis, but its add-on functionality with SimCity 2000 made it one of the most unique titles in Maxis’ catalog. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that Maxis tried to bring it to another platform.
At E3 1997, Maxis quietly unveiled SimCopter 64, a re-imagining of SimCopter for the recently launched Nintendo 64 console. Much like the PC version of SimCopter, the game would have imported save files from SimCity, in this case the upcoming SimCity 64 by HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo 64DD. But just as quietly as it was announced, the game was silently canceled a few years later. Apart from a few press blurbs and blurry magazine scans, little was known about the Nintendo 64 version of SimCopter, until now!
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Maxis
GAMES MENTIONED
SimCopter
TOPICS MENTIONED
Canceled Games