# Micropolis

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Micropolis and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open source engine from the original SimCity lineage, recommended for nostalgic fun and as a starting point for new software.

## Why people recommend it

- Open source original SimCity engine (3 comments): "Why I find this stack interesting: original SimCity engine lineage, narrow Embind surface on purpose" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542767)) "Micropolis is the open sourced version of the original engine built by Will Wright" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46979624)) "I developed the open source version of this game, called Micropolis." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981012))
- Fun nostalgic SimCity-style play (3 comments): "It's more fun than psychoanalyzing yourself with Doctor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995238)) "That's the one i played back in the day!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46991628)) "It was a fun nostalgia trip." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089934))
- Repo usable as a starting point (2 comments): "just have your coding your agent of choice pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46979022)) "Micropolis and other open source code, documentation, and designs for new educational software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670486))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [SimCity 3000](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simcity-3000.md): 23 recommend
- [SimCity 2000](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simcity-2000.md): 20 recommend
- [SimCity](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simcity.md): 20 recommend
- [Cities: Skylines](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cities-skylines.md): 20 recommend
- [Microlandia](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microlandia.md): 20 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Micropolis", https://hackerapproved.com/p/micropolis/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).