A solid game, it takes an hour to learn and a lifetime or so to master.
This game is beautiful. Good tools allow you to easily manage your city. A well-crafted city data veiw allows you to effectively analyze your city's needs. Because I'm writing this review now, in 2006, and graphics have progressed a long way, I don't think I can accurately rate the graphics quality of the game, however, I'll do my best.
This game was made in the age of DirectX 8... or 7, I forget which. Either way, 3D accellerated graphics chips were mainstream, and there wasn't a lack of graphics power in the normal system. So why wasn't this game totally 3D? I have to mark it down for that. I know it's audience wasn't the high-end hard-core gamers, however, by using some more mainstream 3D renderers Maxis could have gotten more efficiency out of the graphics subsystem, which I thnk would allow them to increase the overall graphical quality of the end product.
Gameplay doesn't suffer in this game though. It's still amazingly fun to play. It is very mouse-centric though. I don't like their system to scroll around the map, either, however, despite these things, I still think this is an extremely good game. Well worth your money.
On the compatibility side... It works with Windows XP in compatibility mode, however, not that well. My disk is rather scratched, so that could be the problem, however, I have to note that sound did not work for me. Music did, but normal in-game noises were not present like they were for me under Windows 98. I think it's that the disk was scratched because I remember the game working under another install under Windows XP on my old Athlon 1400.
I hold to my statement though: the game lost none of its enjoyability when it lost sound. It's just that good. It's... genuinely fun. Again, some people may think differently, however, that's due to differences in our taste and preferences.