Tycoon Games

[DrewCCU]

Okay - there are A LOT of tycoon games out there ... and i love tycoon/management style games.

Do you?

If so, is there a tycoon game out there you love the most AND is there a tycoon game you would love to see? (or maybe one that could be made a lot better - if so how?)

[ThreeOhFour]

Transport Tycoon is pretty much the first non "breakout" or "asteroids" style game that I ever played.

I love it like it was a child of my own. So far nothing else has managed to hold my attention for as long, although I enjoyed the first 2 RollerCoaster Tycoon games!

I guess I could say that I'm a big fan of SimCity 4, but that's not really a tycoon game (is a management game though).

...and my computer has trouble running it

[Jared]

I played Theme Park an awful lot as a kid, have some fairly fond memories of it. And I have to say that Theme Hospital was one of the most baffling sequel decisions ever... and not a very fun game.

Recently I enjoyed The Movies but I felt it got a bit overwhelming. There's quite a bit of micro-management and I was being constantly frustrated at my attempts to improve actor's 'star' ratings..

[GarageGothic]

Not sure it's strictly considered a tycoon game due to the arcade elements, but my personal favorite among business simulators is Ports of Call - man I used to love the two-player mode in that game though neither me nor my friends were very good at it.

A recent title that won my heart - though more of a political statement than a proper game - is the browser game Oiligarchy. Very clever in terms of communicating its message as well as being quite fun to play.

As for suggesting games we'd like to see made, one I'd love to play - and have mentioned before on the forums - would be Plasmid Tycoon a Bioshock spinoff where you play an unscrupulous entrepreneur abusing the hyper-capitalist free market system of pre-collapse Rapture. Or, in case you can't get a license agreement to the Bioschock franchise, just change the titles and graphics and have it deal with the 2007 (and onwards) financial crisis.
If that's too close for comfort, a 1990's DotCom Tycoon could also be interesting  - how many banner ads can you sell before your customers realize that nobody in their right mind will click on them? Pro-tip: Add an "e-" prefix to your company name to double the value of your stock!

[Oliwerko]

Tycoon games are fun.

Apart from Transport Tycoon, which is a classic, I really much liked Pizza Tycoon, which is rather old but still quite impressive when gameplay is considered.

Another one, not really a tycoon-type game, Port Royale II is my favourite sea trade game from 16th century.

[kconan]

I played Theme Park an awful lot as a kid, have some fairly fond memories of it.

Having worked 6 years at a theme park growing up I can say that game was strangely accurate.

It's not really a tycoon game, but I liked SimAnt and there was a Prison Tycoon game (name escapes me at the moment) years ago that was absurdly fun.

[m0ds]

All the ones mentioned I suppose, Theme Park (was my favourite as a kid) and the one they made after that...Dungeon Keeper? I can't remember the title. I loved TT Deluxe too but never finished it - in fact, I don't even know if you can finish it? The only one I've properly finished is Roller Coaster tycoon 1, which I've recently replayed cos I love it! And RCT3 which I've completed all but one mission, but not touched for a year or so now - I just found it too repetitive.

I guess to add to the mix the only other one I've enjoyed and played a lot is Operation Genesis (Jurassic Park). It's not particularly advanced but there is a lot to love about it. A few hacks in a .dat file also means you can have a mahoosive park & twisters screwing it all up is fun!

I bought Zoo Tycoon I think from a charity shop a few months ago, but I hated it. I never got into Sim City myself either, was never a fan of all the pipe works and stuff. The only Sim game I really enjoyed was Sim Tower.

As for tycoon games I feel we're missing I dunno. I've tried to make a cinema one and also one about car parks, lol. The one I most want though is some kind of Sim Museum, where you would start with a small museum say, have to deck it out, get visitors but also send off explorers to bring you back valuable artefacts and stuff. That would be neat!

[Monsieur OUXX]

I really much liked Pizza Tycoon

Haha, I didn't think anybody would remember that one.
Anybody for "Macchiavelli the Prince" ? (just kidding)

[Sam.]

I never really played these, I'll just wait for the movie.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/13/rollercoaster-tycoon-movie-picked-up-by-sony-pictures/

[mätzyboy]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the original Tycoon game, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon. I absolutely loved playing this with my brother for hours and hours in the early 90ies on our Amiga 500 building our railroad empire under the name "InterSnailroad RailRoad".

It's available for download free from this site, and I warmly recommend it. The GUI is admittedly a bit clunky, but that's how it used to be in those days! The page  is promoting some new railroad game by Mr. Meier that I haven't played.
http://www.2kgames.com/railroads/railroads.html

[Domino]

Can I mention a Tycoon game that really sucks.....well, it is Mall Tycoon.

Game blew big time.  I love Tycoon type games, to bad I just got over my RCT3 addiction. It got boring.

And yes, I played Pizza Tycoon years ago, it was kind of fun making all those weird pizza's.

[Peder 🚀]

TRANSPORT TYCOON! HELL YEAH! .
I have spendt ALOT of hours playing that!
Anyone up for some playing online sometime?? .

I also like Theme Hospital and have actually been thinking of making a similar game but for running a grocery store! .

[InCreator]

Played all of them...

Theme hospital rocks... despite getting seriously broken, especially at later stages (those doctors are NEVER happy, forget their assigned offices and objective system is a strange mess)

I especially liked Pizza Tycoon. If it had any system around it at all, it wouldn't have been best tycoon-game ever. Sadly, there was none, opponents cheated with money, you could stack your restaurant to the point where it was impossible for customers to move and still rack 400 orders a day, etc. Break the game. Hot-seat multiplayer made it still awesome though.

Rollercoaster tycoon had a lot of fun in it too, but worked better as a level/coaster editor... I never cared about money part.

Dungeon Keeper is more of a real-time strategy game, but absolute favourite also. Pity there's no part 3: DKII looks incredibly ugly and plays worse than original.

[R4L]

I've only played Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, and I love them both haha. I haven't played 3 yet, but it looks cool being able to ride your own coasters and all the modding I've seen from youtube videos looks interesting.

Has anyone played Tropico?

[InCreator]

Tropico 3 rocks. No lie.
First and second - not so much.

[Arboris]

Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It still has awesome gameplay compared to games now. And with OpenTTD you can easily play it in windows, with some added options for larger resolutions etc.  

For a more recent title I'de suggest Tropico 3, it's great playing as el presidente. But it's more of a simcity  type of game.  

[Peder 🚀]

Any with OpenTTD you can also easily play online .