SimCopter

Development history

SimCopter was planned to be much deeper and more realistic. Unfortunately, due to one of those "release four games this year or we'll shut you down" predicaments, many features had to be cut.

Easter eggs

• An employee (Jacques Servin) made a statement about the portrayal of woman in games by doctoring a screen that was meant to show a brass band playing and instead a screen with kissing scantily-clad men popped up. The culprit was fired and a patch was released immediately. You can learn more about this incident from Maxis' Final Scene FAQ.
• If you complete all the missions, you'll get to see two aliens in an UFO discussing your... potential. If you wait and wait and wait... They'll say something even funnier!
• Using a cheat code, you can make the billboards and drive-ins in the city play custom Smacker movies.
• By inputting the correct cheatcode or finding the "military base" on the map, you can actually fly the AH-64 Apache! It's even armed with missiles and a chain gun! Find the chopper, land next to it, jump out, then jump into the Apache and take off!
• On some of the advanced level cities, UFOs may come by and cause havoc (just like SC2K and SC3K). If you are driving the Apache, you can actually try to shoot down the UFOs using the missiles! It'll take 10 missile hits to shoot down the UFO.
• If you are driving the Apache chopper and you are tasked to chase down a suspect, you can actually shoot the suspect with the chopper and get points for it.
• Got the Apache chopper? Is there a nuclear power plant in the city? Care to guess what happens if you fire missiles at the powerplant? Yep, you guessed it... you get a melt-down! And of course, in the explosion your chopper is destroyed.
• Get the water cannon, spray some at the cars. You may make some money for a "car wash"!
• This game contains quite a few date-related easter eggs. For instance, playing it on Friday the 13th will cause massive injuries, fires and accidents among the citizens of the city and will most likely keep you scrambling to try to save them all.

Patch

The first - and only - patch for the game added enhanced joystick support and preliminary Direct3D support. Unfortunately, you can only fly around in D3D - the mission text is not displayed.

Sound

The game borrows many sound effects from Klik & Play, a no-programming-required game development package that Maxis apparently contributed to.

Information also contributed by Kasey Chang, Matthew Bailey, WildKard, and Zack Green