“When I survey my life and contemplate which computer games
have sucked my time away from being an otherwise productive
citizen, Railroad Tycoon stands out high on the list. I spent
many a summer afternoon with my friend Nate and his 286 building
railroad empires while our peers were out living healthy and
energetic lives. Now, Loki has released a new version of Railroad
Tycoon, Railroad Tycoon Gold Edition 2, for Linux. RT2 is very
similar to its predecessor, but has improved graphics, more
scenarios, campaigns, multi-player support, a terrain editor and an
improved and more complex financial model….”
“But if you are only playing to build a railroad, you are
missing the real fun of the game. If you play your cards right, it
will be no time before you are making money faster than you can
spend it. It is time to become a true robber baron and create
monopolies that would make Microsoft drool. If you have a couple
hundred thousand spare dollars, you can begin to buy up all of the
industries around your railroad-though you have to be playing the
most difficult industrial model to do this. While you do need to be
careful to buy and hold only profitable industries, this is an easy
way to earn a little money.”
“The real monopoly building fun, and frankly the most fun part
of the game, is playing a ruthless corporate raider. RT2 has added
features such as buying or selling on the margin give you that
extra edge when playing the market. Thanks to the designer’s
decision to separate corporate funds from company funds, you can
now first personally buy up a bunch of a competitors stock and
thereby guarantee some votes when your company attempts to merge
(or more accurately, take over) the company.”