SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited for modern Linux

This is a hack that allows you to run the old native Linux version of SC3U, released by Loki Software in 2000, on your current Linux distribution.

Requirements

Make sure you have a 32-bit capable C compiler.

You are most likely running a Linux distribution on a shiny 64 bits CPU, but the binaries you are trying to run are build for the classic 32 bits PC architecture. In the Debian/Ubuntu world, you will need to install the gcc-multilib package.

You will also need to:

• install the OSS Proxy Daemon
• install patchelf
• download and install a really old version of libstdc++
• download a very old libopenal-0.0.so with a specific ABI, released in 2000. I can't even find source code for a such ancien version. All I could find is a binary version bundled at https://www.improbability.net/loki/. This version cames from the original UT99 release. Place it along side the game files.

Usage

Build the code:

$ make

Go to the game directory and make use of patchelf's blackmagic:

$ patchelf --replace-needed libSDL-1.1.so.0 libSDL-1.2.so.0 sc3u.dynamic
$ patchelf --replace-needed libSDL-1.1.so.0 libSDL-1.2.so.0 sc3bat.dynamic
$ patchelf --add-needed libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 ./sc3u.dynamic
$ patchelf --add-needed libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 ./sc3bat.dynamic

You can now run the game:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd) LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/sc3u-nptl.so ./sc3u.dynamic

You can also run the Building Architect Plus tool:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd) LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/sc3u-nptl.so ./sc3bat.dynamic

Disclaimer

This isn't heavily tested. But it worked for a few minutes on my computer and I was able to complete the "Tutorial on Getting Started" scenario.