Railroad Tycoon - MicroProse RRP œ34.99
     (Railroad simulation for ST, Amiga and PC)

I'll never moan about Southern Region again! Having spent a load
of time trying to manage my own railway system, juggling
passengers, mail, coal, textiles and other products, trying to
build tracks and bridges to make the most profitable route for the
goods to travel from A to B, I can now appreciate what a hard job
it is. I reckon I got more fun out of Railroad Tycoon than British
Rail do out of their daily routine though.

Having been out for quite some time on the PC and more recently
for the Amiga, Sid Meier's railway simulator is now available for
the ST, coming on two double-sided disks.  It's hard not to be
intimidated when you drag a 180-page manual onto the table and
start reading about rostering trains, controlling signals,
gradients, track types and so forth. However, as with all these
types of games, the manual contains a lot of general background
information to the subject as well as details that apply to the

game itself. There's also a tutorial to try out before you embark
on your own network so it's quite easy to get into.

You can vary the difficulty level in several ways. Firstly you can
play as an investor, financier, mogul or tycoon. Then you can pick
a reality level. These vary between no collision or dispatcher
operation (whether or not you use signals), friendly competition
or cut-throat competition (in the former, your competitors don't
try to take your company over or start rate wars) and basic or
complex economy. In a basic economy game, city stations will
accept any cargo but in a complex economy they will only take
items needed by the local community. This makes the planning of
the trains' routes more vital. These three different reality
factors can be mixed as you wish or changed during the game.

You can start your railroad in one of four different places and
times - Eastern USA 1830, Western USA 1866, England 1828 or Europe
1900. Passing the copy protection (identify a train from the
manual), you can view the map of the area in several ways, varying
the scale and amount of detail given. Once you've decided where
your first bit of line is to run to and from, you can start to lay
the track, build your first station (again, several choices are
available from a small depot to a large terminal), and put on
your first train. There is only one available type in the earliest
scenarios but bigger and better ones come along as time passes.

Big cities are always happy to transfer mail and passengers from
one to another so this is a good way to start off making some
money. You start off with a million pounds but everything you
build costs money and once you go into the red, you won't be
allowed to build anything else. When you feel ready, you can start
to look at other markets. For instance, steel mills need coal so
you could find a coal mine and connect that up to the network. The
steel produced needs to be transported to a factory and the result
will be manufactured goods so you'll need to take those to an
outlet that needs them. Another example; sheep farms produce wool
and nitrates. Wool must go to a textile mill and the resulting
textiles taken to their destination. The nitrates go to chemical
or power plants to be turned into fertilizer. Villages can often
use this end product. Each scenario has its own speciality
products eg grapes/wine in Europe, hops/beer in England,
wood/paper in the USA. Some products have more than one possible
outlet (coal to a steel mill, power plant, landing or harbour).

To add to the complications, you may sometimes be offered a
priority shipment. Perhaps mail needs to go urgently from one
depot to a station. You'll have to re-route a train and connect
the relevant trucks and containers to collect it, then deliver it
to its destination. In return for your trouble, you'll be offered
a generous amount of money. However, as time passes, the amount
you collect on delivery will drop and if it gets too low, the
shipment will be cancelled, upsetting the company who authorised
it in the first place and who will think twice before asking you
to do another one.

As with most simulations, there's a temptation to build too much
too quickly. Starting off relatively slowly is a far better idea,
as is keeping a note of the routes of, and containers needed for,
each train.  Once I got over 500 miles of track and had 7 trains
zipping about, I found it was all too easy to get confused between
the trains and put them on the wrong tracks with the wrong
containers!

Having so many permutations and combinations of the different
difficulty levels, plus four scenarios, makes for a continually
challenging game. According to the difficulty level picked, the
game will end after a certain number of years (40-100) but you
will have to option to continue after this time at a higher
difficulty level.

I can see why the PC and Amiga versions have been praised so much
since they were released! It really is addictive but not a very
relaxing game as you have to keep thinking all the time, even on
the easiest level, though there is a pause option.  Its
fascination is a combination of the planning, construction and
realistic operation of the resulting network, complete with
atmospheric "whoo-whoo!" noises and puffs of smoke coming from the
animated trains. Buy this game but be prepared to get hooked!

                                                         Sue