The Classics are Born: 1990 to Present
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (1990)
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,
Design: Sid Meier and
Bruce Shelley
Publisher: MicroProse
Genre: Strategy
Difficulty: Intermediate
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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.
 | "Railroad Tycoon was a neat idea. It basically paved the way for Civilization..."
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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.
Next: Sid Meier's Civilization 
