Railroad Tycoon (video game)

The original idea and inspiration for the game was Avalon Hill's boardgame 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons, published in 1986 based on an original design by Francis Tresham. When Avalon Hill's president Eric Dott found out about the adaptation, he called Microprose founder Bill Stealey and said "Bill, you're doing my boardgame as a computer game." Bill replied, "I'm sorry," but Dott conceded, "Well, don't let it happen again."^[1]

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 starting date varies depending on the map chosen. 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, with Depots serving the smallest area and Terminals the largest. The player can build at most 32 stations. When the player builds the first station they also build their first engine shop. Trains can only be built at engine shops. The player can upgrade and downgrade Depots, Stations and Terminals as needed, and can add other facilities such as stores and hotels.

Once the player builds a station they can build their first train (of the 32 permitted) 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 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.

Not every station buys everything offered to it. Some goods producers buy nothing. There are two economic models the player can choose between: Simple Economy (where a station serving a large enough cities will buy anything) and Complex Economy (where cities will only buy certain products such as passengers and beer). The four geographical scenarios have different products available.