Your Sims will need to get around, so let's start by laying down some roads. As your city grows, you can also build highways, bridges, bus stops, trains and subways to reduce traffic. But that's not a problem -- yet!

The next step is building a power plant -- without power, your city will never develop. Adjacent zones will conduct power automatically, but you'll need power lines to connect distant zones and buildings.

Soon after Sims move in, you'll be facing one of your first challenges -- garbage. Without a garbage system, Sims will start tossing trash out their windows, so avoid baby diaper mountains on our lawns by zoning a landfill. Best to find a spot reachable by roads, but far from our sensitive noses.

Zoom in to see Sims going about their day. Zoom out for a bird's eye view of your domain. And with 3D sound created using Creative Labs' Environmental Audio, you'll feel like you're right there, among the chirping birds and laughing children. You can build all sorts of cities -- on islands, on rivers, on seacoasts; of dense downtowns or rustic suburbs. As you'll soon find out, in SimCity 3000, the city is yours.