History VideoGame / SimTower

%% * AlohaHawaii: In ''Yoot Tower'', the "easy" tower.

* {{Arcology}}: The end goal of the game is to turn your tower into a completely self-sustaining vertical city, containing living areas, business offices, shopping malls, food production, hospitals, a chapel and everything else needed for its inhabitants to be able to lead their lives entirely within it without ever needing to leave.

* DifficultySpike:
** The game gets substantially harder at three stars, though to be fair the player's given the most facilities at this level. Going from four stars to five isn't so hard but can take forever and offers you very few new things to build to help pass the time.
** There are two types of elevators that most people can use: the express elevator, which stops every 15 floors, and the standard elevator, which only ''goes'' 30 floors. This means it's easiest to get to three stars while sticking to 30 above-ground floors. But while you can fill up another 15-30 floors easily with all the cool stuff you get at three stars, after that, building the rest of the tower can become very tedious.

* AfricanTerrorists[=/=]ScaryBlackMan: The terrorist in the image for the terrorist bomb threat event is a CoolShades-wearing black trenchcoated fellow who looks like he could've wandered in from Nigeria.
* AlohaHawaii: In ''Yoot Tower'', the "easy" tower.
* AnEntrepreneurIsYou
* BMovie[=/=]EpicMovie: The two types of film available for screening at the theatre seem to fit into these categories, judging by their parodic titles.
* DifficultySpike: The game gets substantially harder at three stars, though to be fair the player's given the most facilities at this level. Going from four stars to five isn't so hard but can take forever and offers you very few new things to build to help pass the time.

* SinisterSubway / SubwaysSuck: Averted; the Subway is a good facility well worth the enormous investment of $1,000,000, which can be a great boost to your commercial facilities.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Creator/{{NimbleBit}}'s ''VideoGame/TinyTower'' and Creator/{{Kairosoft}}'s ''VideoGame/MegaMallStory''.
** More recently [=SomaSim's=]'s VideoGame/ProjectHighrise attempts to most closely follow the formula, down to mimicking mush of the art style and actual mechanics.

Confusingly, ''Tower'' was re-released for [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] devices, but since Creator/ElectronicArts owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''. It was also ported to {{Android|Games}} with the name ''Droid Towers''. [=SimTower=] was not released for DOS and is only playable on Windows 3.1.

Confusingly, ''Tower'' was re-released for [[IOSGames iOS]] devices, but since Creator/ElectronicArts owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''. It was also ported to {{Android|Games}} with the name ''Droid Towers''. [=SimTower=] was not released for DOS and is only playable on Windows 3.1.

* TheresNoBInMovie: Both played straight and averted, depending on how you play the game. See above.

* SpiritualSuccessor: {{NimbleBit}}'s ''VideoGame/TinyTower'' and {{Kairosoft}}'s ''MegaMallStory''.

'''''[=SimTower=]: The Vertical Empire''''' is Maxis' 1994 {{simulation game}} American adaptation of ''Yoot's Tower'', whose gameplay is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The player is put in the role of an owner and chief executive of a massive urban development project in an unnamed city, going through five stages of gameplay, in order to achieve the coveted title of Tower. These stages are:

* '''One Star''': Allows access only to the basic facilities, namely lobbies, offices, condominiums, fast food joints, standard elevators, blank floors, and stairs.
* '''Two Stars''': Achieved with 300 people (be they permanent residents, tenants, hotel customers, or visitors), and grants access to single hotel rooms, housekeeping offices, service elevators and security offices.
* '''Three Stars''': Achieved with 1,000 people, and grants access to escalators, express elevators, restaurants, retail shops, movie theatres, party halls, parking ramps, parking spaces, medical centers, recycling centers, double hotel rooms and hotel suites.
* '''Four Stars''': Achieved with 5,000 people, a favorable VIP rating, 2 or more hotel suites and the satisfaction of recycling, parking and medical needs. Allows access to the Metro Station.
* '''Five Stars''': Achieved with 10,000 people and a Metro Station. Allows access to the Cathedral. In order to achieve '''Tower''' status, the Cathedral must be placed on the 100th Floor (the highest floor available) and a wedding held.

Confusingly, ''Tower'' was re-released for [[IOSGames iOS]] devices, but since Creator/ElectronicArts owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''. It was also ported to {{Android|Games}} with the name ''Droid Towers''. SimTower was not released for DOS and is only playable on Windows 3.1.

* FriendsRentControl: Averted, by the fact Condominiums are quite pricey in-game and cater to the middle class. Arguably played straight with apartments in the sequel.

Confusingly, ''Tower'' was re-released for [[IOSGames iOS]] devices, but since Creator/ElectronicArts owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''. It was also ported to {{Android|Games}} with the name ''Droid Towers''.

** There are two types of elevators that most people can use: the express elevator, which stops every 15 floors, and the standard elevator, which only ''goes'' 15 floors. This means it's easiest to get to three stars while sticking to 30 above-ground floors. But while you can fill up another 15-30 floors easily with all the cool stuff you get at three stars, after that building the rest of the tower can become very tedious.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simtower_cover_2782.jpg
%%[[caption-width:350:some caption text]]

1994 Maxis {{simulation game}} American adaptation of ''Yoot's Tower'', whose gameplay is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The player is put in the role of an owner and chief executive of a massive urban development project in an unnamed city, going through five stages of gameplay, in order to achieve the coveted title of Tower. These stages are:

'''One Star''': Allows access only to the basic facilities, namely lobbies, offices, condominiums, fast food joints, standard elevators, blank floors, and stairs.

'''Two Stars''': Achieved with 300 people (be they permanent residents, tenants, hotel customers, or visitors), and grants access to single hotel rooms, housekeeping offices, service elevators and security offices.

'''Three Stars''': Achieved with 1,000 people, and grants access to escalators, express elevators, restaurants, retail shops, movie theatres, party halls, parking ramps, parking spaces, medical centers, recycling centers, double hotel rooms and hotel suites.

'''Four Stars''': Achieved with 5,000 people, a favorable VIP rating, 2 or more hotel suites and the satisfaction of recycling, parking and medical needs. Allows access to the Metro Station.

'''Five Stars''': Achieved with 10,000 people and a Metro Station. Allows access to the Cathedral. In order to achieve Tower status, the Cathedral must be placed on the 100th Floor (the highest floor available) and a wedding held.

''Sim Tower'' was originally developed by Japanese programmer Yoot Saito as simply ''Tower'', independent of Maxis. Saito eventually developed a sequel, ''Yoot Tower'', which was released stateside by Creator/{{Sega}}.

Confusingly, '''Tower''' was re-released for [[IOSGames iOS]] devices, but since Creator/ElectronicArts owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''. It was also ported to {{Android|Games}} with the name ''Droid Towers''.

!!This videogame provides examples of:

* AfricanTerrorists / ScaryBlackMan: The terrorist in the image for the terrorist bomb threat event is a CoolShades-wearing black trenchcoated fellow who looks like he could've wandered in from Nigeria.

* BMovie / EpicMovie: The two types of film available for screening at the theatre seem to fit into these categories, judging by their parodic titles.

1994 Maxis {{simulation game}} whose gameplay is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The player is put in the role of an owner and chief executive of a massive urban development project in an unnamed city, going through five stages of gameplay, in order to achieve the coveted title of Tower. These stages are:

* NoExportForYou: While ''The Tower'' and ''The Tower II'' got brought over as ''VideoGame/SimTower'' and ''Yoot Tower'' respectively, ''The Tower: Bonus Edition'' (an enhanced ''Sim Tower'' for PlayStation) and half a dozen [[ExpansionPack expansion packs]] from ''The Tower II / Yoot Tower'' were never translated.

'''One Star''': Allows access only to the basic facilities, namely lobbies, offices, condominiums, standard elevators, blank floors and stairs.

1994 [[VideoGame/SimCity Max]][[TheSims is]] SimulationGame whose gameplay is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The player is put in the role of an owner and chief executive of a massive urban development project in an unnamed city, going through five stages of gameplay, in order to achieve the coveted title of Tower. These stages are:

''Sim Tower'' was originally developed by Japanese programmer Yoot Saito as simply ''Tower'', independent of Maxis. Saito eventually developed a sequel, ''Yoot Tower'', which was released stateside by {{Sega}}.

Confusingly, '''Tower''' was re-released for iOS devices, but since EA owns the "Sim" name, it was named ''Yoot Tower'', which was the name of ''The Tower II''.

!!This game provides examples of:

1994 [[VideoGame/SimCity Max]][[TheSims is]] SimulationGame whose gameplay is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The player is put in the role of an owner and chief executive of a massive urban development project in an unnamed city, going through five stages of gameplay, in order to achieve the coveted title of Tower. These stages are:

* FriendsRentControl: Averted, by the fact Condominiums are quite pricey in-game and cater to the middle class.

* NoExportForYou: While ''The Tower'' and ''The Tower II'' got brought over as ''SimTower'' and ''Yoot Tower'' respectively, ''The Tower: Bonus Edition'' (an enhanced ''Sim Tower'' for PlayStation) and half a dozen [[ExpansionPack expansion packs]] from ''The Tower II / Yoot Tower'' were never translated.