Luckily good old games that used the 3DFX accelerator cards (The OG video cards) in the past can still be run today thanks to the sterling efforts of the guys who created nGlide[www.zeus-software.com].
This software is inserted into the files of a game and injects itself at runtime so that the 3DFX extensions that would fail because nobody made a 3DFX card and drivers that run today are captured by the software.

Nothing! The Steam version has nGlide and the required files already in the game. If you want to confirm the settings, right click Crime Cities in your Steam library and select "Manage" - "Local Files". Look for "nglide_config.exe" in your "...Steam\SteamApps\Common\CrimeCities\" folder.

Crime Cities was built for 4:3 and 3:2 ratio resolutions, 16:9 and 16:10 wouldn't arrive for years. Select the 3DFX renderer and increment in low square-ish resolutions until you find one that works for you.

1. First try the lowest resolution by selecting it then selecting test. You should at the very least be presented with square noise.
   
   
   
2. Then increase the resolution in sizes that are fairly square until you get test failed, then go back one until it suceeds again.
   
   
   
3. At the very least you should now have the game working, and in 4:3 resolutions the game HUD and elements won't be cut off.

At some point I'll dig into the nglide_config.exe settings to see if we can get a higher resolution;

I've since set my nGlide screen ratio to Preserve Original rather than Fit Screen so that I get the black bars at the side but don't get the distortion.
A widescreen kludge[www.pcgamingwiki.com] is available from the amazing people at PCGamingWiki

Giving programs administrative rights is always risky. Many old games require them in some way. So far it appears that if you set up Crime Cities' graphics settings correctly, you don't need administrator rights turned on.

It appears that not using Admin mode in the game means it doesn't trigger UAC notifications which means that it's possible to progress through the game.

If you want full audio processing (3D positioning, reverberation) from older games you'll either require Creative ALchemy if you have a Creative Labs soundcard or if you don't you can use DSOAL.
Just like the 3DFX injector, these injectors redirect sound libraries from hardware-based to software-based by dropping files in.

For Creative ALchemy the knowledgebase is here[support.creative.com] and there's a useful thread at PCGamingWiki here[community.pcgamingwiki.com]. Extract/Install ALchemy somewhere then point it at the Crime Cities installation in your Steam directory, it'll automatically drop some .dll's into the game directory and enable EAX with your Creative hardware.

For DSOAL the GitHub is here[github.com] and a useful PCGamingWiki page is here[community.pcgamingwiki.com]. Save the DSOAL .zip somewhere and drop the two .dll files into your Crime Cities Steam installation to enable the effects.

Many people have reported an issue where the game is unplayable at first. According to this discussion thread the solution is to restart your PC.
More information is required for a definitive fix.

• Massive thanks to Zeus of Zeus Software[www.zeus-software.com] for apparently continuing the work of maintaining and developing the Glide wrapper.
  
• Massive thanks to kcat[github.com] for your work in maintaining and developing interfaces for old DirectX and audio extensions so we can enjoy old games in their full glory today.
  
• Massive thanks to the guys at Creative Labs for your work in creating and maintaining ALchemy, that's great for your consumers. Could you release a full non-proprietary version so we can all enjoy the fruits of Creative Labs' historic labours?
  
• Massive thanks to the legends at the Internet Archive [archive.org]who preserve old media such as Crime Cities[archive.org] so that gamers today who buy the game in digital distribution can still get hold of the original manuals and music.