Railroad Tycoon II
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''Railroad Tycoon II'' is a business simulation video game in the ''Railroad Tycoon'' series developed by
PopTop Software PopTop Software Inc. was an American video game developer based in Fenton, Missouri. The company was founded in 1993 by Phil Steinmeyer, acquired by Take-Two Interactive in July 2000, became part of the 2K (company), 2K label in January 2005, a ...
and published by Gathering of Developers. It was released for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...
,
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
and
Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...
. It was later ported and released for Linux. Gameplay is displayed in dimetric view, unlike the top-down view of '' Railroad Tycoon''.


Gameplay

''Railroad Tycoon II'' is a railroad simulation that covers the entire history of railroads from inception to the present day and beyond. The
player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...
chooses a map and assumes the role of chairman of a railroad company. The player tries to make profits for investors and completes various other objectives while being hindered by rivals, random events such as train breakdowns, train robbers, economic swings, and scripted events particular to the scenario. Most of the gameplay consists of building tracks, stations and trains, which are used for hauling passengers and freight from one station to another. Delivery revenue varies by time, distance, demand, cargo type, economic state, station improvements and difficulty level. Companies can connect to and use each other's tracks and stations, with revenue being split. Expenses include fuel, track and engine maintenance and overhead. The fuel cost depends on the cargo weight and the distance each engine runs. Engine maintenance depends on engine age and the engine's type (some locomotives cost more to maintain than others). Track maintenance is solely calculated from track mileage. The player determines what kind of cargo(es) to load and unload at each station that they add to a train's schedule. Way-points may also be inserted to override default track selection where multiple paths are possible. There are many industries in the game, and each can produce and/or convert specific cargoes. For example, coal mines produce coal, iron mines produce iron, and
steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...
s convert 1 load of
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
plus 1 load of
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
into 2 loads of
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
. The players are encouraged to find a chain of production to make new cargo by hauling the right type of cargo to each step of the industries. By discovering the correct combinations, the player can haul raw materials one way, "create" manufactured return cargo, and make even more money hauling finished products back the other way.


Locomotives and industry

One of the key elements of gameplay relates to the player purchasing and operating a variety of locomotives, each of which possesses different attributes relating to speed, fuel type, preferred cargo, and the ability to traverse hills and steep track grades. In general, the player should balance the cost of operating a train and the time required to transport cargo, with the balance being that the profit from cargo delivery outweighs train operating costs. The player also may purchase various industrial plants to earn extra money based on the amount of cargo received and delivered. Basic industry, such as
bakeries A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...
,
textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
s, and tool and die factories, earns less profit than advanced factories such as canneries, steel mills and
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
plants, although the latter require multiple goods delivered to produce one final product. Furthermore, idle industries which do not produce goods will generate a negative profit, thus increasing overall operating costs and overhead. Which locomotives are available depends on the time period and scenario. All locomotives begin their operational lives with a set chance of mechanical failure, with some types more prone to breakdowns than others. Breakdown percentage chance increases the older a locomotive becomes. A train may also suffer a wreck, which completely destroys the locomotive and all hauled cargo.


Economics

Gameplay also includes financial manipulation of companies, issuing bonds,
share repurchase Share repurchase, also known as share buyback or stock buyback, is the reacquisition by a company of its own shares. It represents an alternate and more flexible way (relative to dividends) of returning money to shareholders. Repurchases allow s ...
s,
stock issues {{Policy Debate In the formal speech competition genre known as policy debate, a widely accepted doctrine or "debate theory" divides the argument elements of supporting the resolution affirmative into five subtopical issues, called the stock iss ...
, manipulating
dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...
s, merging with other companies and declaring
bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
. These features are required in some scenarios and may be used for either great financial gain or total fiscal disaster. In normal financial mode, the player may buy or sell any companies' stocks at various prices depending upon the economy. . The economy may fluctuate during gameplay, with five economic states possible: Booming, Prosperity, Normal,
Recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...
and Depression. When the economy is good, the revenue of hauled goods and stock prices will be higher. Bond interest rates will also be adjusted with the economy level, including the interest received from cash and the interest paid for the bonds.


Campaigns and scenarios

The original game features eighteen missions, divided between North America, Europe and the rest of the world. The missions can be played on three difficulty levels, and each also includes three listed objectives. Completing only the first objective awards the player a bronze medal, the first two a silver medal, and all three a gold medal. The player may play any mission in each set as many times as they wish; they may also continue even though a mission has been failed. The final score for the whole 18-mission campaign is calculated by the difficulty level and the number of each type of medal achieved. In addition to the campaign, ''Railroad Tycoon II'' features many single scenarios. As with the campaign, each scenario is based on a geographical location, which may be fictional. Most scenarios also have a medal system similar to that of the campaign, although any scenario may be played in
sandbox mode A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a ...
as well. Many scenarios constrain the player to some specific point on the timeline and feature scripted events: for example, the
Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
n map presents an
alternative history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
as the player is informed about the averted Korean civil war. Additional single scenarios may be created using the
map editor In Video game, video games, a level (also referred to as a map, mission, stage, course, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progres ...
included. Maps may be imported, drawn from scratch, or edited from existing maps and saved under new names. Many fan creations have been shared on various fan sites.


Development

In late 1997, Bruce Shelley said of his chance of developing ''Railroad Tycoon II'', "I would be happy to work on such a game but there are real doubts about its ability to generate sufficient sales in this blockbuster market where a few of the games make most of the money." The soundtrack of ''Railroad Tycoon II'' consist mostly of classical "railroad" blues and bluegrass from the era the game revolves around. These pieces were not, unlike most contemporary games, midi files, but rather high-quality studio recordings; some even with vocals. This fact has contributed to the solid ratings this game has received.


Editions and ports

''The Second Century'' is an
expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...
released in 1999 for Windows and Macintosh. ''Railroad Tycoon 2: Gold'' is a collection of the main game, the expansion pack, and 12 new scenarios. ''Railroad Tycoon 2: Platinum'' is equivalent to the ''Gold Edition'' but with over 50 community-made maps, enhanced mouse-wheel support, and an electronic version of the
strategy guide Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and video game walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the ...
. Scenarios developed specifically for ''Platinum'' may not function in some earlier versions. The
Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...
version released in 2000 has remade
3D graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the purposes of perfor ...
and all the scenarios from the main game and the expansion pack and some new scenarios. Tremor Entertainment developed the Dreamcast port, which released on July 31, 2000. This replaced the original 2D graphics with new, full-3D ones.


Reception


Sales

Before its release, Gathering of Developers' marketing director estimated that ''Railroad Tycoon'' would sell 250,000 units during the 1998 holiday shopping season. He speculated lifetime sales of 500,000 units. The game proceeded to become a commercial success. Its sales surpassed 500,000 copies globally by February 1999, and its computer version alone sold more than 1.5 million copies by August 2001. In the United States, the game and its ''Gold'' edition together sold 351,000 copies by October 2001. According to Franz J. Felsl of PopTop, much of ''Railroad Tycoon II''s success came from European markets; he explained that it "did better in Europe than it did in the US, which is not the way things usually end up." By August 2000, ''Railroad Tycoon II'' had been released in 39 unique SKUs worldwide, including eight Windows versions in English alone. PopTop's Phil Steinmeyer wrote that roughly 33% of the game's sales were derived from the ''Gold'' edition and ''Second Century'' expansion, and that the port for Macintosh "sold respectably", while the PlayStation version was unsuccessful. He accredited the game's number of versions with its commercial success, and wrote in August 2000, "Overall, had we only released the original game, in English, for Windows only, our sales would be less than a quarter of what they are now." In 2003, Steinmeyer remarked that ''Railroad Tycoon II'' continued to sell "pretty well". The Dreamcast version in the U.S. sold 24,379 units.


Critical reviews


Awards

''Railroad Tycoon II'' won '' Computer Games Strategy Plus''s and CNET Gamecenter's 1998 "Strategy Game of the Year" awards; the former magazine's editors wrote that it "capture almost all of the things gamers had come to love about the original." It also received
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
's "Best Soundtrack" award. The game was a finalist for ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
''s 1998 "Best Strategy",
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's "Strategy Game of the Year", IGN's "Best Strategy Game of the Year" and ''
PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
''s "The Best Real-Time Strategy Game" awards, all of which ultimately went to '' StarCraft''. ''Computer Gaming World''s editors lauded ''Railroad Tycoon II'' as "a brilliant update of a gaming classic", and the staff of ''PC Gamer US'' wrote that the game "did a terrific job of immersing the player in a richly detailed world of empire-building, commerce and micro-management." In 2000, the PlayStation port of ''Railroad Tycoon II'' received a nomination for ''GameSpot''s "Best Simulation Game" prize among
console game A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connec ...
s, which went to '' Theme Park World''.


''The Second Century''


Legacy

''Railroad Tycoon II'' became the first game published by Gathering of Developers to sell 1 million copies, and
Geoff Keighley Geoff Keighley ( ; born ) is a Canadian video game journalist and television presenter, best known for his role as the host of several video game industry conferences and presentations. He is the executive producer and host of the Game Awards s ...
of ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
'' declared it one of the publisher's few "certified hits." In the United States, the publisher's combined lifetime sales reached 1.3 million copies by October 2001, including the sales of ''Railroad Tycoon II''. Gathering of Developers president Mike Wilson believed that the game put his company on the map, at a time when others in the computer game industry doubted that an independent publisher could succeed. It was featured in G4 Icons' episode 12 Sid Meier as part of Sid's history with games and computers. A sequel, '' Railroad Tycoon 3'', was released in October 2003. As of 2012, ''Railroad Tycoon II'' was used in staff training by a major Turkish railroad company.Tanış, Hasan & Demir, Ömer & Özgür, Adem & Tuzun, Hakan. (2019). Railroad Tycoon II. 10.1184/R1/10557950.


References


External links


''Railroad Tycoon II''
at
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''Railroad Tycoon II: The Second Century''
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