How to run a city builder on 16 MHz

The original SimCity ran on a 16 MHz Intel 386SX processor by using clever optimization techniques, most notably skipping most simulation updates each frame rather than running all calculations constantly. By analyzing the game's open-source code (released as Micropolis in 2008), developers discovered that the core Simulate() function strategically avoids calling all update functions every frame, allowing complex city simulations to run on hardware thousands of times less powerful than modern systems.