Classic and Modern
Every tower runs one of two sets of rules. You choose when you found the tower, and it keeps them for life. Want to try the other? Start a new tower; your old one stays in its save.
Classic is SimTower as it was in 1994: the same rooms, the same prices, the same quirks, and the famously quick office money. Pick it if you know the original and want it back.
Modern keeps everything Classic does and builds on it: new rooms, homes you rent, a gentler calendar, smarter elevator tools, and tenants whose moods have more shades. Pick it if you’re new, or if you’d like something fresh from an old favorite.
| Classic | Modern | |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms | The 1994 list | Adds the Food Hall, Boutique Bay, Clinic, new venues and rental homes |
| Calendar | 3-day weeks, 3-day quarters, 12-day years | The real-world calendar or the 1994 one, your choice (Calendar and clock) |
| Office rent | The whole quarter’s rent every three days | Smoothed, so a tower earns the same each day on either calendar (Money) |
| Setting rents | A four-step ladder, plus No Rate | A slider |
| Condos | A family of three, sold for good | Households of two to five, where a bigger household pays more, and families sometimes move away (Homes) |
| Monthly costs | The 1994 bills | Adds overhead on each room and a tax on unsold condos |
| Tenant moods | Noise or too few shops hold a rating down but never empty a room | Problems bite in proportion: a noisy neighbor can wear a tenant down to notice, and so can too few shops nearby. Nearby venues can lift a home. (Tenant ratings) |
| Parking | Any spare space serves every office | Counted per office and per home, halved by a Metro (Services) |
| Metro stations | One per tower | Up to three on one line (Services) |
| Climbing | Nobody walks more than 4 flights of stairs or 7 of escalator | People climb as far as they must (Stairs and escalators) |
| Escalators | Never to an office floor | Anywhere |
| Elevator schedules | The hour-by-hour grid | Adds presets, auto-tune and advice (Elevators) |
| Building while paused | Not allowed | Allowed |
| Tall lobbies | Only the ground lobby can rise 2 or 3 stories | Sky lobbies can rise too (Floors and lobbies) |
| Build hints | A refused spot says why when you click | Hovering a refused spot says why first |
| Bulldozing | Some rooms are for keeps, and floors come out from the ends | Everything can be sold, from anywhere (Bulldoze and undo) |
| The top floor | Reserved for the Wedding Hall | Yours to use (Wedding Hall) |
| Films | Pay for a New or a Classic film whenever you like | Two screens, three kinds of film, ticket prices (Venues) |
| Cockroaches | Bulldoze and rebuild | Or call an exterminator (Hotels) |
| Bomb threats | Only once you have Security | With or without; new Security joins the search (Events) |
| The day | The 1994 routine | Livelier: school runs, errands and late checkouts, each kind of shop with its own weekend, and rain thins the crowd less (People and traffic) |
| The look | Flat people and rooms, as in 1994 | People lit from the upper left, in shaded rooms (People and traffic) |
| Stairs by a venue | Straight flights, as in 1994 | Spiral stairs and switchback escalators beside venues (Stairs and escalators) |
| Passers-by | None, as in 1994 | Decorative passers-by stroll busy corridors, if you turn them on in Settings (People and traffic) |
| Saving for 1994 | Export a .TDT for the original game |
Not possible (Saving and loading) |
Throughout this manual, a Classic or Modern tag marks a rule that belongs to one of them. Everything untagged is the same in both.
Founding a tower
Section titled “Founding a tower”You pick the rules once, in the New Tower window. A Modern tower also picks its calendar here.
| Modern | Classic |
|---|---|
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Setting a rent
Section titled “Setting a rent”Modern prices on a slider. Classic keeps the four-step ladder and the No Rate option that takes a room off the market.
| Modern | Classic |
|---|---|
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Elevator schedules
Section titled “Elevator schedules”Modern adds presets, a one-tap auto-tune from measured waits, and advice on top of the hour-by-hour grid Classic gives you.
| Modern | Classic |
|---|---|
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The tower’s numbers
Section titled “The tower’s numbers”Modern’s statistics follow its households and the costs Classic doesn’t have.
| Modern | Classic |
|---|---|
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Escalators and offices
Section titled “Escalators and offices”The same tower under each set of rules. Modern’s escalators climb through the office floors; Classic keeps only the flight to the shops.
| Modern | Classic |
|---|---|
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Keeping Classic honest
Section titled “Keeping Classic honest”Classic aims to match the 1994 game exactly. The few places it doesn’t, on purpose or not yet, are on Differences from the 1994 game. If something else in a Classic tower behaves differently from the original, please tell us so we can fix it. Ideas for Modern are welcome there too.