Section 2.1: What You'll See

New to SimCity 2000? Get acquainted with the main screen and its essential options like starting a new city, loading a saved game, or editing maps. Your city-building journey starts here!

Alright, so you've just booted up SimCity 2000, and after a quick intro animation (assuming you've got the disc in!), you're gonna see the main screen. Think of this as your command center before you even lay down a single road.

At the top, you'll see a window with your main options. Here's the rundown:

• Load Saved City: Exactly what it sounds like – pick up where you left off.
• Start New City: Ready to build from scratch? This is your ticket.
• Edit New Map: Want to sculpt the land before you even think about zoning? This is where you do it.
• Load Scenario: Jump into pre-made challenges with specific goals.
• Quit: When it's time to hang up your mayor's hat for the day.

A couple of these options, like loading a city or starting a new one, will whisk you straight into the simulator. The others, like editing a map or loading a scenario, will give you a few more prompts first. And hey, if you've got other SimCity 2000 add-ons installed, you might see even more options pop up!

Just a heads-up, all these functions are also available in the File Menu, which we'll get into later.

Now, when you're actually in the city simulator window, things get a bit more interesting. Here's a peek at what you'll be looking at:

(Imagine a rough ASCII map here showing the different parts of the simulator screen.)

You've got your main game window where your city will sprawl out. Up top, there's a bar with menus like File, Speed, Options, and so on. Down at the bottom, you'll see some status indicators and buttons for things like 'Goto' – super handy for hopping around your map.

Don't worry too much about memorizing every pixel right now. The important thing is to know that this is your main view for building and managing your metropolis. We'll dive into what all those menus and buttons do in the next section!