Publishers Broderbund rejected Wright’s pitch – unconvinced by the notion of a game with no fixed end ‘goal’ – and so the initial C64 version languished unreleased. Like so many revolutionary ideas are, however, SimCity was initially unappreciated. Reasoning that others might also enjoy building towns and terrain in this way, he decided to turn that experience into a game of its own – immersing himself in urban planning culture and eventually completing, in 1985, something that started out under the name Micropolis but would ultimately be known as SimCity. Having created a bespoke editor to assist in the creation of maps for the game, however, Wright found that he was taking far more enjoyment out of building these maps than developing, or playing, the game itself.

In the early 1980s, developer Will Wright was working on an otherwise inconsequential shoot-em-up game called Raid On Bungeling Bay for the Commodore 64.

For something that would eventually launch one of the biggest franchises in the history of gaming, it’s interesting to note that SimCity’s creation was essentially the result of a happy accident.

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