Transport Tycoon
Developed by British programmer Chris Sawyer, Transport Tycoon would originally have been named I.T.S., for Interactive Transport Simulation. But then Microprose bought the game and renamed it to fit their Tycoon line of games that had started with Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon.
As far as I know, Transport Tycoon was the first PC game that ran in SVGA mode only (SimCity 2000 was a port from the Macintosh). A Macintosh version came out very soon (as well as a PSX version), but the PC version is the original. There were technical problems in the beginning, soon patched, finally overcome in next year's Transport Tycoon deluxe.
The original Transport Tycoon was distributed in Europe only. 1995 it was re-released in Europe and the USA as Transport Tycoon Deluxe with some significant changes.
In early April 2004, Chris Sawyer announced he was working on a new version of Transport Tycoon, Locomotion, using the Rollercoaster Tycoon engine, and graphics very similar to those of the original, main update would be in the AI. Locomotion was released in September of the same year.
In the same year, Transport Tycoon Deluxe saw an open-source fan remake as OpenTTD, which is still in active development.
| Easy | Medium | Hard | Custom | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum no. of competitors | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0–7 |
| Competitors start time | 6 months after player | 3 months after player | Immediate | 9 months after player |
| No. of towns | Normal | High | ||
| No. of industries | High | Normal | Low | |
| Maximum initial loan | £300,000 | £150,000 | £100,000 | Up to £500,000 |
| Maximum interest rate | 2% | 3% | 4% | 2–6% |
| Vehicle running costs | Low | Medium | High | |
| Construction speed of competitors | Medium | Fast | Slow | |
| Intelligence of competitors | Low | Medium | High | |
| Vehicle breakdowns | Reduced | Normal | None | |
| Subsidy multiplier | ×3 | ×2 | ×1.5 | ×1.5–4 |
| Cost of construction | Low | Medium | High | |
| Terrain type | Flat | Hilly | Mountainous | Very Flat |
| Quantity of sea/lakes | Low | Medium | High | |
| Economy | Steady | Fluctuating | ||
| Train reversing | At end of line, and at stations | At end of line only | ||
| Disasters | Off | On | ||
As much as we admire Chris Sawyer, and are amazed at the skilled programming that went into Transport Tycoon, we cannot help but be amazed at the performance of the "artifical intelligence" players pitted against us by the game. We have all seen the amazingly dumb things the computerised players have done to get from point A to point B.
