Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is a business simulation designed by Sid Meier. The game is the first in the Railroad Tycoon series. An expanded version of the game titled Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, was released in 1993. A port of the game for the Super NES was planned for a 1994 release, and screenshots were shown in the March 1993 issue of Nintendo Power; however the port was never released. Though no reason was officially given, it may have been due to the DOS release of Transport Tycoon, and its planned release on the then-upcoming PlayStation console. The DOS version of the game was released as freeware for download in 2006.
Gameplay
The objective of the game is to build and manage a railroad company by laying tracks, building stations, and buying and scheduling trains. The player acts as a railway entrepreneur and may start companies in any of four geographic locales: the Western United States, Northeast United States, Great Britain, or Continental Europe. The company starts with one million dollars in capital, half equity, half a loan. The company may raise additional capital through the sale of bonds. The player manages the business as described above and may also handle individual train movement and build additional industries. The game models supply and demand of goods and passengers as well as a miniature stock market on which players can buy and sell stock of their own or competing companies. The game also has other railroad companies attempting to put the player out of business with stock dealings and rate wars. There are four types of stations: Signal Tower, Depot, Station and Terminal. The Signal Tower acts as a passing loop and may control movements. The rest service surrounding areas: the Depot serves its own square and the adjoining eight squares, the Station takes another ring, and the Terminal handles up to three squares away. The player can build at most 32 stations. When the player builds the first station they also build their first engine shop. Each engine shop is the manufacturing area for the player's different trains. The player can upgrade and downgrade Depots, Stations and Terminals. Other facilities such as stores and hotels may be added. Once the player builds a station they can build their first train at any engine shop. The player then can add cars to the train and send it on its way. The player can at any time change the consist, with options including pure mail and passenger cars as well as specialized freight cars for each of the game's nine other commodity types. The player can continue to build the track network and build stations until they run out of funds. The game runs for a century, with accounting periods being two years long. Stations built or rebuilt in a particular accounting period pay the player double freight rates for everything they purchase in that period. Not every station buys everything offered to it. Some goods producers buy nothing. There are two alternatives the player can choose between: Simple Economy and Complex Economy. There are product variations over the four geographical scenarios.
Reception
Railroad Tycoon sold more than 400,000 units by September 1997. On its release in 1990 Railroad Tycoon was hailed by reviewers as one of the best games of the year. In 1990 Computer Gaming World gave the game five out of five stars, named it as its Game of the Year, and in 1992 added it to the magazine's Hall of Fame for games that readers highly rated over time. Both the PC version of Railroad Tycoon and the Macintosh version were rated 5 out of 5 stars by Dragon. It won the 1991 Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Award for Best Strategy Program. The editors of Strategy Plus declared it their 1990 game of the year. In 1991, PC Format named Railroad Tycoon one of the 50 best computer games ever. In 1994, PC Gamer US declared it the fourth best computer game ever. In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Railroad Tycoon the 41st-best computer game ever released. In 1998, PC Gamer US declared it the 25th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "groundbreaking in every sense".
