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Railroad Tycoon (IBM-PC)

designed by Sid Meier with Bruce Shelley (credits)

released 1990

genre strategy
game size 908 kb
archive size 644 kb

related game Railroad Tycoon Deluxe

supports

VGA, MCGA, EGA, Tandy 1000, CGA, PC Speaker, Tandy Sounds, Adlib, Roland MT-32, Mouse.

Before real-time strategy became synonymous with fast-action-building Clone & Conquer games, it offered a deeper, more cerebral type of fun (still evident to a lesser degree in, say, Warcraft II). Sid Meier was taking a holiday in Europe, after finishing Gunship, to recharge his creative batteries, and he was musing over how much he had enjoyed Will Wright's SimCity. Sid, however, thought that for him to feel comfortable doing something similar, the end product would have to be more of a game and less of a "software toy" that had no real ending. Sid's life-long love of trains inspired him to come up with a real-time strategy game where would-be railroad tycoons could test their skills on multiple levels. Like Harpoon, you can speed up and slow down the pace of play in Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon to keep things hopping or to spend a little time micromanaging when necessary. Since you can pause the game at virtually any time, even hard-core turn-based gamers need feel no fear. Basically, you start out with tiled topographical and natural resource maps of North America or Europe, not all that different from Civilization. After examining the possible routes and cargoes, you can build an infrastructure of rail lines, rolling stock, support services, and ancillary businesses to exploit the terrain where you are building your system. You don't have to worry about antitrust laws - this is, after all, the Age of Robber Barons - and the only catch is that your network of interdependent businesses must be profitable, or the computer-played stockholders will lose interest. The balance of building, investment, and railroad operations makes for an exciting game - hardly surprising, since codesigner Bruce Shelley was the genius behind Avalon Hill's 1830 board game (later made into an interesting PC game in its own right). But what lures us back again and again to Railroad Tycoon are the AI opponents, representing such historical figures as Cornelius Vanderbilt; crafty and ruthless, they are still some of the toughest computer competition ever designed and almost enough to make up for the lack of multiplayer options. -- © 1999 GameSpot

download (644 kb -- rename rail-rar.pdf to rail.rar)

Screenshots

. additional files

Patch to Version 455.03 (95.3 kb -- you'll need to recrack the game)
Railroad Tycoon Cheat Codes
Railroad Tycoon Manual
Railroad Tycoon Strategy Guide

. related links

MobyGames Railroad Tycoon Page
Sid Meier's thoughts on his game

. other versions

Commodore Amiga

. other games designed by Sid Meier

Civilization
Covert Action
F-15 Strike Eagle
F-15 Strike Eagle II
F-19 Stealth Fighter
Gunship
Pirates!
Red Storm Rising
Silent Service