Railroad Tycoon - ADG Episode 252

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

A weird habit of mine is trying to predict when the ADG banner's gonna pop up at the start of the gameplay footage. It's weirdly unpredictable when it's gonna happen.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Smedis2 Here's my rough guide to deciding: Any voices at all, time it for right after a voice clip ends. No voices but lots of action, give it about 20 to 40 seconds. No voices and barely any action: 10 to 20 seconds. :B

[@rozlin88]

Didn't know that the train priority affected station stops. Very helpful, thanks!!

[@DFuxaPlays]

Probably one of the first games I ever played by Sid Meier's. It may be clunky, it may not have aged well, but it certainly showed the prospects that Sid Meier's games could have.

[@drg5352]

Spent many many hours trying (and failing) at the Deluxe version of RR Tycoon. It was one of the games my grandfather played incessantly, and I've kept up with it on many occasions. One thing I remember is that if you try to buy up your own stock, the game sabotages your operations until you sell it back off. No buying out your rail road and turning it private!

[@WhiteRhinoPSO]

I played this as a kid, and likely got it on one of those 2,000 Games CDs. Every so often, when I notice Railroad Tycoon II + III going on sale on Steam or Good Old Games, I'd get sad that I couldn't find the first one.. but I also wasn't even sure that this particular game WAS the first one, since I couldn't remember its name! I had no idea that the game was being offered for free. I'm definitely snatching that up before I forget again!

[@Christopher-N]

"Freaking hard as balls," sounds like a *LaserFrog* review of _Marble Madness._

[@milczyciel]

Man... I miss LaserFrog.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Christopher Noel +milczyciel He still does the occasional video on Kotaku though has mostly been streaming the past while: www.twitch.tv/laserfrog

[@Wolf_2293]

The Amiga version of this is potentially my favourite game of all times - they play very similarly, but having the half-decent sound as default is more than reason enough for me to prefer that version. Something I think was (sadly) missing in this review, was the mention of the (as always for Microprose games) epic game manual that explained everything you could want to know, plus quite a few things you didn't know you wanted to know; one being that a fiscal period is based around a single day, in order to simplify the arrival/departure times/dates - 0am-12pm being year one, 12pm-0am being year two - so if a train arrives at 3pm, it actually means March, fiscal year two. The money earned from deliveries is based on an average calculation between departure time and arrival time, in months, hence while having a Limited train bring passengers across a nation can take a while to reach, on arrival you'll rake in the cash - assuming the trip doesn't take too long as Mail/Passengers are the two most time/distance sensitive cargos. And, just a minor hint: Priority Shipments usually easily justify the cost of a new engine; when one pops, buy a train at a nearby engine shop, make it limited between the two destinations, carrying the appropriate cars for said shipment - make sure to set Priority destination if you're picking up something like Coal, as normally it would get lowest priority on the right-of-way management of trains - Coal, as a cargo, is reliant on how much you deliver, not how fast you deliver it - then once the Priority Shipment has been delivered, retire the train - you should still be making a sizeable profit from using this trick. And, lastly, I don't think the decision to force you to deliver Coal to a Powerplant that already has coal mines nearby, as one example, was a 'glaring oversight', but a gameplay driven one; complex economy is all about shipping the right stuff to the right place; Coal->Steel->Weapons Is one such delivery/production cycle and knowing that the cargo conversion is 1:1, as stated in the manual, if you deliver 40t of Coal, you'll have 40t of Steel to pick up and so on.Either you didn't have the manual available or you didn't bother reading it, but often with early Microprose games, while reading the manual was somewhat optional, doing so would give you a much stronger base to start from; Railroad Tycoon being no exception...Sorry for wall of text :)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Wolf#2293 So... I mentioned in the review that I had a copy designed to be bundled with new PCs. Well... the manual is not the same. It's actually significantly worse than you would typically get from a MicroProse game, thus I wasn't really able to show the manual because the manual I have sucks. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I was missing out on important features because of this. :|

[@Wolf_2293]

Yeah, I know - kinda my bad, sorry. Personally, I've never felt bad about the price tag on Microprose games, as the manuals you got with the games were usually worth the asking price alone; after reading the full Pirates! manual, you just want to grab a cutlass and yell 'Shiver me timbers!!' :P As a side note, personally, I didn't really like the later versions of Railroad Tycoon, mainly due to the over simplification of the stock market gameplay - was something decidedly tasty about messing with a competitors stocks, just to see them furiously buy more to prevent you from taking control, then sell out the shares before the end of the fiscal period. Result: Competitor sits with a huge amount of over-inflated stocks, which of course gets adjusted down to their 'actual' value - meaning the competitor will start the next fiscal period with a massive deficit, due to the losses on his stocks - sure, it'll cost you some cash to do, but seeing another company fold that way can be rather satisfying, despite being very tasteless :P

[@NeilRoy]

Yes, I played this on the Amiga and it was a lot of fun.

[@PeaceArt1]

Love these reviews. Just saw your subscriber count. You definitely should have more. Great videos!

[@legionofdoom2009]

I feel that you might have better luck with Transport Tycoon. Now that game is much more straightforward and is pretty much all about building your infrastructure. Plus you can build buses, trucks, aircraft, and ships to go along with your railroad network. :3

[@Wolf_2293]

And sadly, only trains were really worth the cost in the long run - either the other options were too expensive to maintain, or too easy to mess with - roadworks, anyone? - That being said, Transport Tycoon Deluxe is the only 'real' successor to Railroad Tycoon if you ask me - and it had some sweet, sweet jazz music :)

[@KzintiCV]

Never played Railroad Tycoon 1, but 2 and 3 are still my jam all these years later.

[@merkonomi]

Didn't know this was freeware, sweet! Thanks for the tip.

[@Darkstar2342]

Wow, I remember that one very well. A friend of mine had it on the Amiga, we played the hell out of it. A few months later I got the PC version and, again, played it day after day. Since I already knew what to watch out for from playing with that friend, the initial learning curve was not *that* steep. I usually played in the easier modes, but I found it rather easy to not get a Game Over...

[@EgonOlsen71]

Finally somebody addresses this stupid time issue. It totally broke the game for back then when I had to watch a train with passengers travelling for months betweens some cities which were maybe 200km away from each other.

[@MontieMongoose]

I see that Micropose used some of the same music in Colonization.

[@NeilRoy]

If you like t his sort of game, check out Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Totally free, modern and you can use any of the various transport, trains, planes, trucks, shipping... and there are lots of tutorials on using trains and how signalling works which is honestly a lot of fun.

[@pelimies1818]

This game was one of the first GAMEs, where I seriously left my GF collecting dust. A lot of dust.

[@JonnyD79]

While I thoroughly enjoy how informative you are with old DOS games, sometimes you review a game I'd probably not play. This sounds like one as it sounds like it'd be a bit to hard for me :P Though to be fair I do like the Tycoon series as a concept. My current go-to Tycoon game is Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jonny D Oh don't get me wrong, I've covered a bunch of games I have zero interest in returning to, but people want to see them and I need to give them a fair assessment all the same so that my channel is not just stuff I would play. :B

[@nodakamakadon]

Such a good looking game.

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

Transport tycoon was amazeing back in the day. I only played the 3d railroad tycoons ... they were ... alright. Transport was always way better imo

[@LynxSnowCat]

How did you find www.openttd.org/ ?

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

@Lassi Kinnunen aie! It was pruudy much every tycoon rolled up into one. Though rollercoaster tycoon was good as well.

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

@@LynxSnowCat it was fun but ill be honnest ... i feel like the game has not aged very well. Wpuld be nice to see a more modern version of ttd

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

@@GreatLordEli graphics aged well true, but i felt like the hud and certain features with the train mechanics did not age well, when i need to watch a guide on signal placements for a game i feel a mechanic is a bit naff. in my opinion of course. but i played TTD game for HOURS and HOURS on end back in the day, ive just found it harder to pick up now.

[@elimalinsky7069]

This is one of the very first computer games I've ever player, or more precisely watched someone else play, as I was too young to grasp the concepts of the game (I was about 6 years old at the time). It circulated a lot in pirated form where I'm from. In retrospect Sid Meier's other 1990 game, Covert Action, was a better game overall. Railroad Tycoon was actually very popular and wasn't seen as overly complex, difficult or confusing at the time, as most games were like this that long time ago. It was expected that a strategy/simulation computer game would be quite hardcore, and there was yet a concept of a UI too convoluted and no true reason or incentive to streamline the UI. Railroad Tycoon is also famous for creating the basis for Sid Meier's Civilization, as the latter uses the same engine and reuses parts of the code from the former.

[@Wolf_2293]

Far more important, I think, in regards to the UI is the fact that only limited resources were available at the time and if the choice between funky UI or better gameplay had to be made, I personally would pick gameplay every time. Also worth noting is that the inspiration for this game was a board game (called Railroads!, which sadly I've never heard about)Even more annoying is that virtually every Amiga game made, prior to the release of AGA, was built to fit into and run on a 1mb A500; most of the time I've had Amiga, they've been running 4/8mb 68030/40mhz or better - preciously few times did I get to enjoy the benefits of a more powerful system. In relation to Covert Action - a game that I really like - fundamentally, it comes down to what you like as a gamer. From a technical point of view, Railroad Tycoon was a far more stable and cohesive product; Covert Action quickly started to repeat itself to an unbearable level and half the mini games, which were the foundation of the product, were boring beyond belief at lower levels and so hard it wasn't funny at higher levels. - And finally, I've owned just about every game Microprose has ever made, from Solo Flight to the rubbishly converted Colonization, so my experiences with their games has never been down to dodgy software

[@elimalinsky7069]

@@Wolf_2293 I agree with most of what you said. I've also played a lot of Microprose games, it was one of my favorite developers/publishers in the 1990s. Most of their games were flight sims, naval warfare sims and tactical battle sims, especially in the early days, which weren't exactly my cup of tea but I did enjoy some of their later flight sims that had somewhat bearable framerates. In terms of time spent, I must have spent 300+ hours on the first Civilization, 300+ hours on Civilization II, 200+ hours on X-Com: UFO Defense, 200+ hours on Transport Tycoon Deluxe and 300+ hours on Master of Orion II. Good times!

[@Wolf_2293]

Up until soundcards became widely available - and affordable, ofc, I avoided the PC as much as I could. The Amiga was and is my favourite computer of all times and I only turned to PC when I didn't have any other option. Hence most of my experience with Microprose games were on the C-64 and Amiga. And when I turned to the PC, Microprose was more or less dissolved/dead already. When I bought Civilization for my Amiga, I had a 16 hour session straight up :P - A very good game to be sure, despite its questionable gameplay at times. UFO on Amiga... Refuse to comment... All that being said, I don't sit with an old-man-nostalgia hat on when I claim that games were far better back then. Sure, the graphics were mediocre in many cases and the sound questionable at times - but most of the (great) games had bucket loads of gameplay and, in my opinion, gameplay will always be king. For some reason, I've always preferred the original games - I liked Master of Orion a lot more than the sequels - while later versions of Civ improved on certain aspects, they also lost the charm of the first game, in my opinion - the modern versions of Civ, I just can't take seriously; my 7.14Mhz A500 struggling with turn times towards the end of a game was understandable - my i5 7600 4.2Ghz/1060GTX based system doing the same is a disgrace.. I tend to type a lot, sorry :) If I was to add total time spent on Microprose games, phew - wouldn't know where to start :P

[@elimalinsky7069]

@@Wolf_2293 The Amiga was indeed superior in both graphics and sound to IBM compatibles, but the latter had an edge in CPU clock speeds and performance once 386 processors entered the market, which had an advantage in mostly non-game software, but also in simulation games which relied heavily on the CPU. Interestingly enough, Amiga could do beautiful 2D graphics with high FPS and smooth scrolling, but did very poorly in those early flat-shaded 3D polygonal graphics that were used extensively in flight sims or in games like Hunter, due to the slower CPU. If Hunter was released for DOS it would have had higher FPS with 386 CPUs or higher. Commodore always targeted the home market, so graphics and sound were high priority. IBM and Microsoft targeted the business market from the get go, so CPU performance and large amounts of RAM were high priority, while graphics and sound were not that important, that is, until around 1989/1990 when IBM PC compatibles started to dominate the home market as well. VGA cards and Sound Blaster cards arrived on the market just in time to close the gap with computers such as the Amiga and Atari ST in the graphics and sound department. Nevertheless, IBM PC compatibles matched the Amiga in graphics and sound by late 1992 and outperformed the Amiga in those categories by late 1994, at which point Amiga computers faded into obscurity and IBM PC compatibles completely dominated from that day onward.

[@Wolf_2293]

First and foremost, from a pure MHz perspective, the MC68000+ series was far superior to any '286, '386' or '486 - secondly, Amiga never faded into obscurity; retro gaming should be all the proof you need of that. Thirdly, the Amiga was never able to evolve due to CBM's stupidity - had they been more open towards letting 3rd party hardware developers do their own thing instead of abiding by an obnoxious ruleset that limited them more than helped them, things could have looked different. But, in truth, I'm quite happy having the Amiga be what it was and leaving it at that. And, btw, fourthly, CBM buckled because of some ultra poor management decisions and a refusal to think forward. If you wanted to play the latest game, you upgraded your PC; as stated elsewhere, I rarely had anything slower than 68030/40Mhz, but everything was made to be backwards compatible with a 1mb 7.14Mhz A500. Sure, it allowed for a larger customer base, but ultimately was a stake in the Amiga's heart. Could have been, should have been, would have been; useless argument, and as previously said, I'm quite happy leaving it at that :)

[@Spacemutiny]

You should try parts 2 and 3. Really great games. The newer “Railroads” is also really fun but a little more casual. The first one has been rendered obsolete by these superior games.

[@Geferulf_TAS]

I've never even seen the original RRT. I wondered why it wasn't on Steam and GOG.

[@Vlad-1986]

It has been many months since last time GOG released a classic game. Probably back then they didn't because it wasn't priority as it is freeware, and now that the website won't work properly they just don't give a damn about a God Old Game

[@binarypench]

ADG is not dead!

[@Pixelmusement]

+Charles H. Given the food poisoning I have right now I sure FEEL it. :P

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Yay a new ADG episode!!!

[@laurens4359]

Thank you for that one - brought back a lot of memories Wanted to mention that although the startup selection screen shows MCGA and VGA as 256-colour, I believe that is just to help the user select the appropriate graphics adapter that they have, as the number of colours would probably be the most memorable differentiator in that alphabet soup of acronyms. AFAIK the game is 320x200x16-colour only regardless of which graphics mode is selected. I assume that they did not want to redo the artwork for 256 colours, or maybe didn't want to exceed available space on the 1x3.5" floppy (IIRC) I'm sure you know this - but just in case other viewers are wondering why the graphics are slightly garish compared to later 90s DOS games that also have MCGA / VGA 320x200 (real 256 colour) mode. PS This comment goes out in memory of John Shirley, my old flatmate from Uni. He only had one or two games and he spent hours playing this on his old 80286 during 1st year (~1995). RIP John.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

LGR does a "history of Sim City", ADG follows up with a review of the original Railroad Tycoon! What's next, Cannot Be Tamed doing a review of Two Point Hospital? Oh, wait...

[@Dicker296]

Aaaaaaand the download lonk died!

[@Pixelmusement]

+John Kimonster Darnit. They recently revamped their website and changed their primary domain name to just 2k instead of 2kgames, and yeah, kinda expected this would happen sooner or later. I checked it out and the legacy pages don't exist anymore on the new site. Hopefully the download links come back at some point. :|

[@Kawa-oneechan]

Followed the directions, got the Deluxe version instead.

[@Pixelmusement]

+ﾠKawa Oooh, that's good to know! :o

[@Kawa-oneechan]

Yeah well. I saw this video, heard the title song and I thought "gee I kinda want to have DOSBox record that to a .MID file." Good thing for me the Deluxe version has the same song.

[@LinksPB]

Despite me loving RRTD when it came out (yeah, Deluxe, never actually played the original), I cannot play it anymore. As you say, it is waaay too rough around the edges. RRT2 on the other hand, I still love to play, despite its flaws

[@DFuxaPlays]

Hear, Hear!

[@EdmondDantes224]

So... question: How is this version of Railroad Tycoon different from the "Deluxe Edition?" That's the one I have but I never played it. Part of me which you had reviewed that edition instead since it might've fixed some of your issues, but maybe not.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jispy Moe Dantes AFAIK, the only major differences are that the Deluxe Edition has high-res graphics and more maps to play. :B

[@TheGerkuman]

have you covered Transport Tycoon or Transport Tycoon Deluxe? :) It's MUCH more fun.

[@Pixelmusement]

Nope! If you're ever wondering what I have or haven't covered though, I keep an alphabetical index on my website! www.pixelships.com/adg/index2.html

[@TheGerkuman]

@@Pixelmusement Thank you! Follow-up question: if I wanted to gift you a DOS game (with no strings attached as to whether you cover it), how would I do so?

[@Pixelmusement]

@@TheGerkuman Just eMail me ahead of time to make sure I don't already own the game. I can send you my gifting policies and if you're OK with them you can either make the digital purchase or I can provide an address to ship things to! You can find my eMail address at the end of all of my videos!

[@TheGerkuman]

@@Pixelmusement would an email or a patreon message be better?

[@Pixelmusement]

@@TheGerkuman I see you already went with Patreon message, but for anyone else reading this either works, it just has to be a private message of some sort. :B

[@fwingebritson]

at the time, it was a break from the brain drain of platform games. yes. there were other train simulators at the time (like a-train) but most lacked a graphical interface leaving the action solely to the imagination. the copy protection was the least annoying of all copy protections if you were the least of a rail fan in that you learned to spot a train at a glance and soon realized it was more of a fun challenge to know the trains without looking at the manual. like a baseball sim would if a player had to pass based on naming a trading card. one serious bug that wasn't mentioned is that if a player was good enough to exceed 30 million (a dos limitation that exist in a lot of games) the game would go buggy. the trick was to either ignore it am continue playing the game anyways, restart a new game, or spend like crazy to keep it under the limit. it is still a fun game.

[@charlesswenson259]

Great video Kris... I've talked to you before.. And you explained why you haven't yet... But I'm still gonna ask...... Please do a video on quarantine.... That game was tubular, gnarly, and righteous. Totally neglected and forgotten these days. Keep it real, homeskillet!

[@Pixelmusement]

+Charles Swenson Someday... freaking expensive that game though...

[@XanthinZarda]

Charles, if I may suggest another good youtuber who has done a fine review, Ross Scott of Freeman's Mind and later Game Dungeon did a review of that zany game. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5PVfKt3fa9qp7c

[@vittekantilles4178]

Pizza Tycoon is best Tycoon.

[@weirdproq]

I'm so glad I played the 2nd game in the series as a kid rather than this game. I love the 2nd game, but this game seemed pretty clunky. Thanks for reviewing it for me.

[@MarkLangdahl]

You are sadly wrong when it comes to which version is freeware. Railroad Tycoon hasn't been released for free. Railroad Tycoon Deluxe has. It is BTW a superior game in almost every way. But for purists there is something to be said for the original. Also Sid Meier's Railroads isn't a Railroad Tycoon game due to the rights for that game being picked up by PopTop and to be honest RRT 2 and 3 are superior to Railroads which is a tad too casual.