Railroad Tycoon

1990 · Simulation · PC/DOS

Overview

Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (1990) is the MicroProse business simulation, designed by Meier and Bruce Shelley, in which the player builds and runs a railway company for a century.

Deep Dive

Players lay track, build stations and buy and schedule trains in one of four regions, with the books closed every two years. Supply and demand, a stock market and rival railway companies shape the economy, which comes in Simple and Complex models.

Developer Story

Meier and Shelley designed it at MicroProse's MPS Labs, with music by Jeff Briggs. It came out for MS-DOS, Amiga, Mac, Atari ST, FM Towns and PC-98, and planned SNES and Mega Drive ports were never released. Sales passed 400,000 by September 1997, and the DOS version became freeware in 2006.

Did You Know?

It was based on Avalon Hill's 1986 board game 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons.
Computer Gaming World named it Game of the Year for 1990 and added it to its Hall of Fame in 1992.