I would usually start a software review with the system requirements but from my experience with this game it won’t work no matter what system you have!
I have tried this game on many different systems and distributions on those systems and had different (but not acceptable) results each time.
The system requirements on the game box are:
Minimum:
Linux OS using kernel 2.2.x and glibc 2.1
Pentium 166 MHz or higher
230 MB of free hard disk space
32 MB RAM
4x CD-ROM drive or faster
Mouse, Keyboard
XFree 86 3.x with supported 2MB Video Card
OSS Compatible Sound Card
Recommended:
Linux OS using kernel 2.2.x and glibc 2.1
Pentium 233 MHz or higher
230 MB of free hard disk space
32 MB RAM
8x CD-ROM drive or faster
Mouse and Keyboard
XFree 86 3.x with supported 4MB Video Card
OSS Compatible Sound Card
The Test Machine:
SuSE 7.0 using kernel 2.2.16 and glibc 2.1
Pentium 433 MHz
Lots of free hard disk space
128 MB RAM
20x CD-ROM drive
Mouse and Keyboard
XFree 86 4 with supported 32MB Video Card
OSS Compatible Sound Card
Installation:
Simcity installed without any problems.
Running the game:
The game started OK and began to play the intro movie. ‘Let the mayhem begin’ . The graphics were slow and jerky (in both the intro movie and the game itself) and the audio quality was terrible. The sound sounded ‘jerky’ and terrible quality. The game was unplayable. This happened no matter which level of installation I chose. Thankfully, the game has an uninstaller.
The Same Machine with:
EasyLinux 2.000 using kernel 2.2.14 and glibc 2.1
XFree 86 3.x with supported 32MB Video Card
Installation:
Simcity installed without any problems.
Running the game:
The game started refused to start in X so I had to run it in the shell. Finally the game ran and began to play the intro movie. The graphics were slow and jerky and in 640x480 (in both the intro movie and the game itself). The audio quality was terrible. The sound sounded ‘jerky’ and was terrible quality. The game was unplayable. This happened no matter which level of installation I chose.
Conclusion:
I recommend that you do not buy this game unless you have a guarantee that you will be able to return it if it doesn’t work.
I later managed to make the game playable on a machine with less than the minimum amount of video RAM! If you buy this game it is a complete gamble as to whether it will work.