Sim City 2000 (Maxis, 1993) still stands as the best "build a city" game I have ever played. It looks wonderful, it plays beautifully, it's neither too hard nor too easy, it is quite complex (considering its age) and it has basically an endless replay value. It was hard to stop playing, because you could always build just one more industrial complex, just one more power plant, just one more police station to fight crime... oh and look, now you have some extra funds to build a park! Pretty.
Some games are truly timeless, and I feel Sim City 2000 embodies such a game. The designer was Will Wright, who went on to also make "The Sims" and the lesser known "Spore", another 2 games that were quite unique. Among the best selling games between 1993 and 1999, Sim City 2000 ranks at #9, which is remarkable because the 90s featured incredible games!
I know that it didn't have the same "wow" factor that the original Sim City had, but in terms of a sequel this was such a massive step forward on so many levels. If Sim City was the seedling, then Sim City 2000 was a fully grown tree!
A behind the scenes look at the making of the 1989 video game "Prince of Persia". Designer Jordan Mechner used rotoscoping to animate the movements of the game's characters, tracing video footage of his younger brother running and jumping (as well as video from old Errol Flynn films).