In 1997, Phil Stein Meyer, creator of games such as Heroes of Might and Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic II, and Iron Cross, founded a small company called Pop-top Software in St. Louis. Pop-top has started three projects. The first project was the creation of Heroes of Might and Magic III for the New World company.
but the latter began to review the financial policy and eventually stopped all development transferred to other companies. The second project seemed to Phil not the best start for Pop-top Software. The third project was a game called Iron Horses. This railway strategy, in order to avoid scandal, was planned to be created extremely unlike Railroad Tycoon. However, the developers unexpectedly managed to get permission from Micropores, and the need to create a fundamentally new game disappeared. This is how Railroad Tycoon II was born.
History pages
I think few people remember the days when 80086 computers seemed like high-performance monsters to especially impressionable teenagers. A crowd of friends crowded into the room of the happy owners of these monsters to look at the masterpieces of the gaming industry, such as Kings Bounty, Death Track, Boudican, Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon. The first Tycoon, even in its four-color guise, was received with a bang by gamers.
Still, after all, one of the first real-time strategies, although not in the usual sense of the term for us. The “plot” of the game, as well as quite decent graphics for that time, tied the lovers of computer games to themselves for a long time. They spent hours, days, weeks playing Railroad Tycoon with abandon. But now, technological progress has produced 286 and 386 processors, and Railroad Tycoon was replaced by Dune 2, Civilization, and many other hits of my time.
The mighty 486 rushed into our lives, and with it appeared on our screens and Transport Tycoon, the rightful heir to the railway series. The graphics in this game look very good even now, the dynamics of the gameplay was enhanced by the introduction of cars, ships, planes, helicopters, funiculars, and the ability to put a statue of yourself in the city delighted all fans of the game for a long time. The only negative of this game is the lack of a logical end, in any case.
I never managed to live up to it (I turned off the monitor and left, leaving the monotonous process of the game to chance, in the hope that when I come, I will see an inscription like “Congratulations. You win”). However, despite its quite solid “advancement”, Transport Tycoon did not gather around itself such a number of fans as its predecessor gathered at one time. Perhaps this is due to the fact that with the growth of computer performance.
competition in the field of computer games increases exponentially. Now, it’s much more difficult to maintain the same concept, only updating the graphics and sound according to the latest fashion. I don’t know what the creators of the relatively recent Industrial Giants toy were thinking when they ripped off a good part of Transport Tycoon without improving (and many will probably say that worsening) the graphics at all. But be that as it may, the interest in trains, which each of us has endured from that happy time when the trees were large, is not going to fade over the years.
Pop-top Software obviously counted on such a kind of childhood nostalgia when it decided to return to a long-forgotten game. The release of Railroad Tycoon II is also designed for fans devoted to this topic, whose number is decreasing every year and to which yours truly belongs. This concludes my brief excursion into the history of the railroad magnates and goes directly to the culprit of this article. Recently, there has been a trend in the gaming industry towards the so-called “modernization” of hits of past years.
This is how Railroad Tycoon II was born. Indeed, why throw one of the most famous creations of Sid Meier into the landfill when it can be “modernized”, repainted and thrown back on the counter. Now the game has become more musically colorful, equipped with a modern interface and design. The S3D engine, according to the manufacturers, is capable of rendering up to 300,000 polygons simultaneously. In a word, for fans of the series, as well as just fans of strategies, a completely solid and, of course, very interesting game has been released, or rather returned.
What’s new?
It would be unfair to claim that this game is an exact copy of its predecessor. Still, it was called Railroad Tycoon II, not Railroad Tycoon Gold. If earlier on one, pre-selected map, your railway empire could develop and exist peacefully for an unlimited time, and victory or defeat meant the end of the whole game, now you have to start all over again 18 times, since the company (Campaign) in this game contains 18 scripts (well, not Tycoon, but C&C of some kind). But only if, for example.
for C&C it was organic (captured territory, if you please, land on the next one), then for Railroad Tycoon it is at least strange (didn’t have time to properly settle down on the Baltimore-Ohio line, as you are already on BAM are sent). None of the Tycoons had this, not even Pizza Tycoon. If you play single scenarios, then you get a maximum of 2 hours of playing time, which, you see, is not enough for a modern gamer. This, in my opinion, is the only unsuccessful innovation.
although it is quite possible that someone will consider it successful, but here, as they say, “there are no comrades for the taste and color.” The rest of the novelties are quite acceptable. The train control system has been improved, new components for the functioning of the steam locomotive have appeared. Somewhat expanded compared to the first Tycoon, and the ability to improve the station is quite successfully implemented (by the way.
it is very much like the arrangement of cities in Civilization and Colonization). The characteristics of locomotives are as detailed as possible, and there are more than 50 of them (steam locomotives) in the game. A certain political aspect of the company’s life has also appeared: relations with states play an important role. There are no tunnels or traffic lights. By the way, here’s another thing: if earlier you were one with your company, now you are offered the role of a manager with a wallet separated from the main treasury of the company. Well, enough, now you can go directly to the game.
