Your game is almost seventeen years old. Only Window98 and Windows2000 were around back then, and Maxis is out of business now. It will never be patched again, and Windows 10 cannot emulate an OS any older than Vista with any useful accuracy.
You might look into getting "Virtual PC" from Microsoft, and then find a copy of Windows2000 to run within that virtual space (finding an unused copy of Windows98 would be rather difficult now).
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3702
First of all, I know this thread is old.. But I love this game, payed for it, and refused to let it just stand there on my desk all dusty. The only way I got the cd version of this game working flawlessly on windows 10 was by applying a no-cd exe, therefore removing the DRM, since all the trouble in starting up the game is due to that.
I hope all people who bought this game like I did, can enjoy it after all these years!
Cheers
If you have the retail version (and not the one from GOG), the compatibility fixes found on PCGamingWiki should help: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/699-simcity-3000-compatibility-fixes/
How did you apply a non-cd exe?
