contacted an elevator company to learn about elevator scheduling and management. However, the company declined to provide the information. Saito handled the graphic design, starting with a monochromatic scaled tower created in HyperCard. The designer added color to differentiate between office- and hotel-type buildings. As development neared completion, Saito noticed that the Mac's performance had improved and decided to increase the color palette size from 16 to 256 colors. Saito enlisted a second designer to produce animation for the graphics and improve the details for the color increase. Release and reception SimTower was successful in Japan, earning the developers a profit. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun awarded Saito the "Best Young Manager/Venture of the Year" for his work on the game. After the initial Japanese release, Maxis president Jeff Braun contacted Saito regarding a worldwide release; SimCity creator Will Wright had informed Braun of the game. The company localized the game for sale in the United States, and changed the name to capitalize on the popularity of the Sim franchise and increase sales figures. Maxis published SimTower for the Windows and Macintosh System 7 operating systems in November 1994 in the United States. In 1996, it was ported to the Sega Saturn and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in Japan. The South China Morning Post praised the game's formula, noting that it followed in the footsteps of previous open-ended Maxis games. Comparing SimTower to SimCity 2000, the review remarked that it was more interesting to watch people live out their lives in a tower rather than to observe cars moving around. They also appreciated the "homely" feeling of SimTower, in contrast with other Sim games such as SimEarth and SimLife, which they felt were too universal to take on a personal identity. Benjamin Svetkey of Entertainment Weekly praised the game and commented that it is "more fun than [the concept] sounds". However, he stated that the gameplay may be too much for fans of the series. A reviewer for Next Generation panned the game, saying it lacks the bustling interactivity of previous games in the Sim franchise: "There are bug infestations and the occasional fire with which to deal, but most of the time, SimTower sees you standing around waiting for cash reserves to grow in order to add more floors. Not much fun at all." Australia's The Age found SimTower a pleasing return to form for Maxis, after the release of the