
They go after the larger, more lucrative cities to establish themselves, then they’ll move into your turf to compete against your routes. They might build some funny-looking roads at times, but on a strategic level, their decisions are usually sound. Your Tycoon rivals are pretty savvy, too. Will it be roads or rails to start? Should you borrow $50,000 to build that tunnel? Should you buy the exclusive rights to that new, untested locomotive? These decisions and a host of others challenge your strategic thinking at every turn. And so each move you make - especially early in your career - is a strategic decision that may have a profound impact on whether you end up in rags or riches. Naturally, time marches on as you’re building your transportation empire. Start small - maybe a few bus routes - but keep your grand strategy in mind. That bankroll isn’t a gift it’s a loan, so use your capital wisely. In the beginning, you’ll only have access to a couple of locomotives and buses, and a single small airplane - plus a few hundred thousand dollars - with which to build your empire. At the normal setting, you’ll have 20 towns to work with - enough to keep you busy for weeks of gaming. It’s no simple matter of connecting the dots, though, as topography will force you to work through, over, and around mountains and waterways to link towns. Play begins in 1930, and your challenge is to link the cities of your world by building a transportation network that will not only help the world thrive, but also make you filthy rich. Unlike SimCity, however, you don’t build the cities in Transport Tycoon, but the transportation networks. It picks up where those classic sims left off, creating a small world that evolves under the influence of your decisions. Though it clearly draws more than a little inspiration from SimCity and Railroad Tycoon, Transport Tycoon is very much its own strategy game.

Take the gorgeous graphics of SimCity 2000 and combine them with the intricate economic model of Railroad Tycoon, and what do you get? Transport Tycoon, an instant classic.
