SimCity makes way for Carson City in video game

Gamers can re-create Carson City's past and reshape its future in a new video game being released next week.

Gamers can re-create Carson City's past and reshape its future in a new video game being released next week.

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As a state, we’ve gotten caught up in sesquicentennial fever.

As Nevada celebrates its 150th birthday, we’re taking a look at where we came from, our early statehood and how we see the future shaping the Silver State.

There’s a new video game coming out next week that will allow interested players to live again the discovery of the Comstock Lode and settling of Northern Nevada.

SomaSim, developer of the Gold Rush-themed video game 1849, is going to release 1849: Nevada Silver, set in Virginia City and the surrounding area.

According to a press release I received this week, “1849 is a simulation game in the style of the classic SimCity. Through 20 levels that take place in existing California towns, players grow the local economy and balance citizens’ needs against the backdrop of real Gold Rush scenarios and challenges.”

I’ll just have to take their word for it as I have never found a video game I could understand.

This new iteration will bring players right into our neighborhood.

“The new 1849: Nevada Silver expansion pack carries this simulation into Nevada, presenting players with new scenarios set in the Comstock Lode area,” the press release said. And gamers can make some pretty important decisions: “Should Dayton be a mining town, a farming community or a hub for trade? Will the pioneers flocking into Carson City become productive prospectors or devolve into unruly drunks at the local casino? That’s your call!”

I wonder if someone could use it to decide what to do with downtown Carson City.

It would be nice to give it a trial run ....

The game will be released Tuesday for PC, Mac, iPad and Android tablets.

•••

Former Nevada Appeal crime reporter F.T. Norton texted me this week. She has a habit of texting in sentence fragments.

So the message I got at 6 a.m. was, “May need your Spanish skills to help with murder…”

For those of you who know F.T., you can understand why I was a little uneasy when I got it.

The next message was, “Story.”

Maybe that was her plan all along — to make it seem like a relief to call complete strangers across the whole country first thing in the morning and ask them about their roommate getting stabbed.