Super NES SimCity Wallpaper for Your Desktop

So, funny story: for the longest time now, I’ve wanted to have a desktop wallpaper of the title screen from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System launch title SimCity. However, I’ve not been able to find one that suited my needs/desires — that is, matching my screen’s resolution and omitting the pesky logos and text. Just a nice, clean, beautiful 16-bit cityscape at night (because, you know, I enjoy the night).

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. I wasn’t finding usable assets, nor was using anything from a YouTube clip viable. At least, not without a ton of work to put into it.

Spurred on by a similar desire from none other than Lucas “Zero” Gilbertson to see the project come to fruition, I doubled down and asked around for any help I could get in finding the assets. Lucky for me, Kishi on the Talking Time forums was able to come through for me, and after some trial and error (it kept coming up with ugly outlines initially), I managed to put together a desktop background I was happy with.

Behold!

You’ll want to click to open that. It won’t appear at full-size, but it will save at its full 1920×1080 glory. Feel free to share it around, but since I was kind enough not to mar it with a great big “PMO” watermark or something, all I ask is that you give me credit for it, maybe link back here. Oh, and for the love of all, please don’t hotlink the file directly — save and upload it wherever so you don’t suck down all my bandwidth and I’m forced to take… unfortunate measures (I’ve done so in the past).

Unfortunately, short of going on YouTube or owning a copy of the game, this is the only way you can really see this title screen right now. Nintendo of America pulled one of their “oh, you didn’t download it? Too bad, it’s gone now” take-downs of the game on the Wii Virtual Console a few years back, and it’s yet to be restored on Wii U as the Donkey Kong Country trilogy was. Unfortunately, we were tight on cash at the time and missed out on getting it before it was too late (I really need to snag an actual copy from eBay or something).

As an added bonus, you might remember I did something similar with the game select screen from the included Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt game pak from the Nintendo Entertainment System “Action Set” some years back. Screen resolutions change, and I figured that while I was at it, I might as well update those, too:

Both are in 1920×1080 resolution, and there are two types: once centered, and one aligned to the right, for those of you who (like me) prefer to keep your icons over on the left side of the screen. And while both games are on the Wii U Virtual Console (with Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo 3DS as well), you won’t find this select screen there.

Finally, just to (hopefully) cover myself: these are not for profit, fan-made desktop wallpapers. Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt are the property of Nintendo, while SimCity is the property of Maxis, Electronic Arts, and in the case of this particular version, maybe Nintendo as well.

Enjoy!

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.