Playing SimCity 3000, the first one where you could connect different regions together to make a megacity, I put all the coal power plants and dirty industrial jobs in a different region (to the south) so my residential area (the north) would have an environmentally pristine existence. As my middle and upper-class enclave of commercial business and good schools developed, I branched into residential expansion for the "industrial" district (the south). I zoned high-density residential around coal plants and factories, and tenements and slum housing sprung up. The income of my upper-class area rose and rose as consumers from the dirty district drove north on my new highways and rail system. Schools and police and fire stations developed alongside parks for the increasingly wealthy inhabitants of the north. Meanwhile, I zoned more and more high-density residential plots in the south that filled immediately with impoverished residents. Tenements rose as quickly as I could build them and low-class commercial gas stations and video stores struggled alongside them. As the screen filled to capacity I could no longer even see the region below the smog of pollution. Traffic was constantly snarled and the average life expectancy was somewhere in the 30s or 40s. Pollution was off the charts. And crime also: there was no tax base for a police department, so I hadn't built one. And I hadn't built schools, because that region couldn't afford them. Meanwhile, the north had nothing but luxury condominiums and mansions by this point. Parks surrounding my mayoral house, which was the worst looking residence in the area. Clean water, universities and schools everyone, ritzy malls and statues and high-tech jobs: population: 90,000 at capacity. All supplied by the barely breathing, uncared for residents of the south: Population 700,000+. I had built a horrible, horrible, dystopia of utter misery.
Feeling terrible, I bulldozed tenements and determined to begin with schools and police stations to make life better. I tore down; I built up. I demolished coal plants and built solar and fusion power. I took all of my saved-up, substantial tax reserves and decided to bring the advantages of the north to my entire society. Suffice to say, I went bankrupt within 10 years and everything collapsed.

That is a cool story! Thanks for sharing!

Caesar III is very famously know for it's sounds. Music mainly, but also how distinctive the sounds of a fire starting in your city, or collapsing buildings, or some new warning from the emperor can clue you in to some new event. Like most importantly, the trumpets that sound when someone attacked!
Playing on an old Compaq Presario back in the day, the game would occasionally freeze for a split second or sometimes glitch. Not something that I was unused to. Somewhere in one of the middle levels of the game right when some enemy was set to attack I heard the attack horns sound. And they sounded a second time, and a third, and a forth, and so on till it had sounded about ten times. The game had kinda glitched right as they sounded, so I didn't think anything of it. When I finally scrolled over to view just how many troops were attacking me, you can imagine my surprise when I realized that each trumpet sound had actually spawned a legion of troops! Not just the simple barbarians! Each legion was complete with an Elephant! Ten legions of troops! Ten Elephants!
Remember that at most you can only build 6 legions to protect yourself. Of which I did not even have a full complement!
Needless to say I was overrun!
I reset to a previous save and feveriously build all 6 legions, and tried to set myself up for when such a devastating force would attack again! I knew about what time they attacked and I was as ready as I could be although I had little hope of surviving! Then it came! The moment when I was to be attacked!
It happened! The Horn sounded! I waited with baited breath! Then..... Silence. No glitch, no repeating horns. Nothing.
I scrolled over to where they were attacking from. A single legion. One Elephant. I easily mopped them up and was needlessly overprotected for the rest of the level.
I never could get that glitch to happen again.

The only games I've played that have city/town building is Dark Cloud 1 and 2, and in Dark Cloud 2, the first town area you get to make, you're building it so that in the future (there's time-travel by the way) a large tree/community will be built, and the large tree itself is like, an actual character dude with eyes and he talks and such, and one of the things you have to make in the past for the town are his big tree eyes and a tree nose between them. Literally. Big trees with eyes that follow you when you walk around them. Seeing it for the first time was bonkers. Another requirement for the town is to convince specific people to move there.

So just.....

Imagine being one of those people and waking up one day, looking out your window and there's literally a giant goddamn tree-eye just staring at you. Imagine having to walk past those eyes every time you have to go to the bakery or where ever. And he doesn't speak yet. He just stares at you. Follows your movements. He never sleeps. Just stares at you. At everyone in the town. Looks through their windows while they sleep. Imagine going to the future when they tree can finally speak and he's all "Hey, when you go back to the past, can you tell everyone to close their blinds at night. I really don't need to see any of what goes on in there. I've had a front row view of their sins for the past 100 years. I could do without these horrifying memories, thanks. And tell Gordon to put on a robe when he steps out of the shower. Seriously. God."

One of my favourite games.

ok i don't know if this count or anyone remember but this is my greatest moment i will always remember well one of those greatest moment, so i wish to tell it tale , if anyone know what takeda (it a real-time strategy game developed by the magitech corporation) then they too may know what i mean by this

ok i was leading my troop to battle with all of my badass looking shogun and my awesome looking leader except for one person called baba, he was the most suspicious,creepy looking person and mostly to run from battle when defeat is imminent or even betray your back so i put him on reserve since i am very confident of my main forces will win the battle, well i didn't, my main forces was crush and my general run away from the battle but my enemy too took considerite causualty among them but still large enough to fight back, so i send out my reserve forces to try to win a losing battle with what my men, well you can guess it also failed really bad as hell and my reserve forces now retreating except for one unit and that was baba, i was honestly suprise to see the most suspicious looking person still standing his ground alongside his men even tho they fighting a losing battle literall, it brought me tear as i mistakely him for a coward man instead he prove himself to be the bravest man among my general and offcicer. thus i always remember that man bravery even tho it was a fictional character but it still surpise me as hell,

so when the xcom enemy unknow arrive to console and pc, i discover that we can have different soldier from different nation so when i got my first japanese soldier, i instantly change his name to baba and try to make his facial to be one of the most suspicious looking person know among the xcom base but he also the most bravest one among them as he was an assault so i always put him on the frontline killing alien and kicking human traitor ass, so imagine my suprise to find out baba is capable to use psionic ability, so i use him more offen in the mission then any other prionic users, so when i was nearing the end game of xcom, when the alien mothership appear on earth, i decide to turn baba into the volunteer so he can put a stop to this, leading my team of the greatest soldiers including baba into the mothership or temple whatever they called, after many trial to reach the end which thank fully manage keep all of my soldier alive even tho it was really hard have to do (like literally hard) that and the fact i activate iron man and put hard mode on make my work even more tiring, when i kill the leader of the alien forces ( i forgot his name or does he have a name?) i discover that the mothership is causing a black hole and mostly likely fuck up earth so baba urges my soldier to make a full retreat while he stand behind, there baba make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure earth is safe while paying it with his own life, it brought me tear to know that baba the most suspicious looking person, the most likely person to run away from battle or most likely person to betray your back but instead he become the most bravest of man, willing to save his fellow comrade and citizen from harm and take damage meant for other, now baba finally become the hero he fully deserve, that was one of my greatest moment i ever experince with fictional character who earn my respect

farewell baba and may you rest in peace in where you deserve (2001 - 2014)

P.S 2001 was the first takeda game was release and 2014 was when i play first xcom enemy unknown

P.S.S yes i know it not a city building game but it was my proudest moment i have so please don't reply hate for my message saying it not city building game or something else i know that but it was something i was proud off and i wish to tell it to the world

Mine? Probably the Playstation 1 version of SimCity 2000.

Built an entire city using almost nothing but solar and hydro to power it. I simply used the custom map option to build a massive waterfall area along the side of the map beforehand for the hydro power plants. Even got such a large city that I got several arcologies.

Well... my story is a bit... sad, from some perspective. While I was fairly a new to PC gaming <or rather - gaming at all>, my sister bring a new game for me. A very peculiar game, cause both at that time and today, I am very found of greek mythology.
The game was, of course, Zeus Master of Olypmus. I enjoyed it greatly, though I always had problems - my pepole were always complaining about not having enough food. This perplaxed me.
We had big wheat fields, fully manned and kept under watchful eyes, so they are in top condition. We had fishing boats all over the coast! Our hunters gather delicious boar meat, and we had also plenty of cheese, and yet... Our storage rooms were full of the 'missed' food... Damn it, we had sacred support from both Arthemis and Demeter, with their gifts of food! And it was still not... enough. And this continued for at least a year.
With brakes, I repeatedly went back to this game, to enjoy the atmosphere, the music... even today, I still like to play it on easiest, just to enjoy it. But the thing is... with time passing, I started to forget how to do things, so I went with tutorial agains. To realise...
We had big wheat fields, fully manned and kept under watchful eyes. We had fishing boats all over the coast. Our hunters gathered delicious meat and we had plenty of cheese. Our storage rooms were full, and he had sacred support.

We were lacking agora's stands.

To distribute the food.

I kept my subjects starving for years, keeping the food right in front of their eyes, never to be tasted.

That's how I become evil overlord... and was kick out of Hell, cause even they are not as bad as me.

The Pharaoh is the heart of Egypt. The land is its body. And the people are its blood…

Here I am, governing a proud city of Men-nefer. My ancestors did well in previous assignments but this time things get serious. I’m supposed to build a mastaba! I also have to start trading because I need bricks to finish a tomb of our beloved pharaoh when gods call him to join them. I’ll not disappoint neither him nor gods themselves!

The city is beautiful! My palace is located in the best district, with rich houses all around. I have just opened a few schools for children of the wealthiest citizens. I satisfy their every need: food, beer, entertainment, religion… everything is just perfect!

A little bit farther there is a district of laborers. Of course it is not as magnificent as a place where I live but nobody may call it slums! There are a lot of gardens and statues to compensate inconveniences like work camps, breweries, storehouses and recently opened papyrus makers. Yes, papyrus is very important in our city, not only because large quantities are needed in schools but it is also my main source of income as the city of Nekhen want to purchase it.

Everybody knows what is his duty and the city is flourishing! Everything is perfect! Well, almost everything. There is one issue that worries me. The city… stinks. Yes, that’s right! There is a very unpleasant odor everywhere. Nobody seems to notice it but I can barely stand it. At the beginning I thought there might be some problems in the district of laborers but no - every part of the city stank equally. What is going on?!

With each day the smell is getting worse and worse. What’s happening?! I have spent several days trying to find a source of it but no success. Maybe I should eat something and drink a beer? Ugh, chickpeas for dinner again. I had the same dinner yesterday and the day before yesterday and… wait! Wait, wait, wait! Bast may you save us! I’ve just realized that the only food we are producing is chickpeas! The whole city eats nothing but chickpeas. Absolutely nothing else. Chickpeas for breakfast, chickpeas for lunch and chickpeas for dinner. Every. Single. Day. For more than a year now. No wonder that the whole city stinks!!!

The Pharaoh is the heart of Egypt. The land is its body. But why, Seth damnit, do I have to rule a part which is apparently its ass?!

My girlfriend is chilean, so the first time she saw me playing Tropico 3 as Pinochet she was O.O for several minutes while I explained to her what was the game about. Her face was funnier than the game.

The first serious game of Banished that I played did not go as well as I had hoped. I had plenty of food, education, happy villagers and so forth, but as it turns out, I forgot to build more houses for people to move into.

Happiest, most well fed village of nothing but old people that ever there was.

I stopped playing that particular save because I didn't want to sit there and watch everyone die.

I wonder if tropico one counts just wanted to mentinon that once i was presidente for 160 years on a random island, i was so good at building and managing my economy, pays and sucking up to everyone,my whole island was probably full at the time.There was no way i could have longer keep at my rule since i lost at the elections.

Not sure if this fits the contest format, but I wanted to share my story about this games.

I live in México and this was around 1998-99 i belive.

The Videogame culture in this country (as in most parts of the world at that time) was really underground, there where very few retailers who sold anything other than nintendo, and most of the PC games you either had to order "from a guy" or get it pirated, the latter option being the most common.

I was on a trip to the local flee's market, and had some money with me to buy some GB games, on the way there tho I saw this colorful booth with Vivid posters just like a movie theater marquee.

I was a kid and this stuff was not the Nintendo games i was meant to buy that afterrnoon.
I got back home with 5 blank discs with Black Sharpie on them:
* Diablo
* Thief
* Tomb Rider
* Rainbow Six
and
* Caesar III

This was a gamble mind you, I had no idea what I was buying or even how to run this discs.
But, except for Tomb Raider, all the games ran and words can't describe the amounts of fun I had that summer.

Eventually the discs failed and I had to order from the USA, with an extra copy of Morrowind none the less.
And here I am 16 years later buying the classics once again, driven by nostalgia yes, but also recognicing that this games where master pieces, works of art that surpass most of their modern counterparts.

Anyway, cheers GOG, let's keep this ship on course :)

Built a magnificent city in Anno 1404 Venice (many hours) only to watch it destroyed by a tornado that ripped right thru the middle of it.Had no fire stations and the place burnt to the ground as funds were stretched to the limit.

I am so happy Emperor is here. It is one of the best city builders ever and one of my favorite memories.

The year the game came out, 2002? I was in Barbados at my cousin's house for vacation. At the time they lived by the sea on the South coast. One quiet, sunny, tropical day, I sat on their porch, drank rum, and played Emperor on my laptop all day. The tropical breeze off the ocean is perfect. The sea extended to the horizon. The sounds of the surf pounding the beach... and my 7 lb Toshiba laptop with Emperor.

I've been wanting to play it ever since I got rid of my games CDs. The animations are great and it's a fun game to play. My favorite is still the little hemp farmer...

I hope this will help you visualize my awesome day.

nbonini

My most nostalgic moment would be completing Mastaba for the first time. It was small mastaba and while bigger one and pyramids quickly followed it was my first monument I've created in city building game.