![]() ![]() Like all other digital editions, while the game’s patches are applied, the 4GB/Large Address Aware patch is not already applied, and one will still need to apply it to the game prior to attempting to run the full version of the NAM. ![]() Ulisse Wolf has done further testing in-game with the update to verify that it is operating up to spec with the other digital editions, and found that the Network Addon Mod (NAM), custom building nightlights, and critical DLL mods like SC4Fix.dll (which solves a number of major game issues) all work as intended. The size of the SimCity_1.dat file, one of the most critical files in the game, also matches that of the GOG version. I’ve been able to install the new version (the EA App also did not try to sidle onto my Steam or GOG copies, as it had done during my previous investigations in September 2022), and sure enough, the executable is indeed Version 1.1.641. My NAM Team colleague Ulisse Wolf and I both happen to own copies of the EA App version, and much to our pleasant surprise after so long, we were able to confirm the reports. ![]() The first report rolled in via /u/mate54 on the /r/simcity subreddit about 8 hours ago. Well, it appears that sometime earlier today, not long after the EA Publisher Sale ended (which saw the game’s price temporarily drop down to a mere US$1.99 on Steam and directly through EA), EA finally did the thing that myself and pretty much the entire SC4 community have wanted them to do: re-patch their version of the game to Version 1.1.641, the same version that GOG.com and Steam have offered from the beginning. Recently, my good friend and colleague memo (who invented the first FLEX Piece back in 2006) returned to the SC4 community, and he happened to notice something very curious on the newly-revamped version of EA’s page for SimCity 4, in the screenshot gallery: Screenshot of NAM Fractional Angle Roads in the screenshot gallery for EA’s official SimCity 4 page, taken August 21, 2022.Those of you who have followed SimTarkus over the years have gotten a front row seat to the saga over the EA App (formerly Origin) and EA Play (formerly Origin Access) retail edition of SimCity 4–how it was originally locked to the unpatched Version 1.1.610, then fixed after my exposé blew up on Reddit and got covered by PC Gamer in 2014, then quietly and mysteriously reverted back to Version 1.1.610 sometime after the furor died down. The image in question was actually made by memo himself, sometime in 2012-2013, showcasing the new Draggable Fractional Angle Roads feature he spearheaded during the development of Network Addon Mod (NAM) Version 31. In fact, six of the nine images included in EA’s promotional gallery clearly feature mods and custom content, and were almost certainly made by members of the online SimCity 4 community. Other prominent pieces of content shown in the gallery include one of cogeo‘s Semi-Transparent Train Stations, and KingOfSimCity‘s re-lot of SimGoober‘s Super Shopping Center #1. The NAM’s Diagonal Streets and Road Viaducts/Overpasses are featured in another featured image. The bitter irony of these screenshots being used here are the advertisements just to the right, for the EA Play and Origin Store/EA App versions of the game–which, as many readers of this blog know, are perma-locked to Version 1.1.610, thereby not meeting the NAM’s minimum requirement of Version 1.1.638, which has been in place since the very first release of the mod in April 2004. ![]() Between June 2013 and July 2020, this requirement was actually enforced by a version check routine in the installer, which was instituted after users with unpatched games kept pointing blame at the NAM Team for issues that were fixed by EA/Maxis with Version 1.1.638. This version check ended up not only blocking users running unpatched disc copies and cracked copies from installing the NAM, but also those using the Origin Store’s perma-unpatched edition–which, as it has a different checksum than the original disc-based edition of Version 1.1.610, also isn’t recognized as a valid executable by EA/Maxis’ own official Version 1.1.638 patch (known more formally as “EP1 Update 1”).Īs for the NAM Team’s perspective on this, we feel honored that EA would use screenshots with the NAM on their official promotional page for the game. Origin, the EA App, and EA Play are services of the very same company that made SimCity 4 and its subsequent patches.Origin support agents, likely working off scripted responses, have generally tried to deny that EA/Origin possesses a patched copy of the game, which is absurd, given that: On the other hand, however, we’re quite frustrated that EA/Origin is using it to promote sales and subscriptions for a version of the game that our mod doesn’t actually support, along with their silence in the face of community and customer complaints about its perma-unpatched state. ![]()
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