Recommend me a Good Tycoon game.

[Brotherofwill]

I've just played Recordshop Tycoon over at Kongregate and it's reminded me what a sucker I am for Tycoon games. The last proper games I've played were Zoo Tycoon 2 and Theme Hospital (way back) and I haven't payed much attention to good, recent releases.

Any recommendations? I don't care too much about the theme of the game aslong as it has a nice progression and the giddy feeling of building an empire. A cheap price is also a plus, I don't mind if it's old or 2D.

Recommend away!

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Transport Tycoon. No question.

EDIT: Try here - [link]http://www.abandonia.com/games/240[/link]

 

[DazZ.]

Tropico 3. There is a demo on Steam.

Basically you run a tropical island, need to get income from exports, educate your population to fill up the higher workplaces on your island and make sure transport is available.

There is also Rollercoaster Tycoon which is the best tycoon series I've played.

 

[teutonicman]

Zoo Tycoon is awesome. I love making a really popular zoo then I gate up the entrance so no one can leave. I then fire all my staff so they can't protect the visitors. Finally I release all the lions, tigers, and bears to eat the visitors. It makes for a gay old time.

 

[Zyst]

You might enjoy the Zoo Tycoon series =] The exp. packs are cool too.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Rollercoaster Tycoon maybe? Well, the one that lets you run half finished rollercoasters and laugh when it crashes into your theme park main road.

 

[Iwata]

Afterlife, by LucasArts. It's pretty hard to get, and even harder to get it to run, but it's also entertaining as hell.

 

[JWRosser]

Either Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 or 3, depending on what you're after.
RCT2 allows you to build death trap rollercoasters and watch people fly to their firey doom, whereas RCT3 is more civil and let's you RIDE THE RIDES and the water tool is beautiful.

 

[Hateren47]

Check the Railroad Tycoon-series. For something as boring as railways they are quite fascinating. Been a while since I played RT2 though so it might just be nostalgia talking.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

As others have said, you can't go wrong with the original Rollercoaster Tycoon. It's still a great timesink, even for an eleven-year-old game.

 

[SimuLord]

Games that are still in my rotation after all these years:

Railroad Tycoon 2 (1998). Get the Platinum Edition on Steam...five bucks.
Tropico (2001). If you need fancy graphics, get the remake (Tropico 3), but the original is tighter, has better AI, the game mechanics are put together a bit better...and it's leaps and bounds cheaper. Again, Steam. The Tropico Reloaded pack includes Tropico 2, which is good-but-not-great but has pirates!
Capitalism 2 (2001). This one's a bit harder to find (not on Steam) but is one of the deepest business sims ever made.
OpenTTD (2010). They've just released a version that doesn't require the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe---it's a fully standalone product now. Link [http://www.openttd.org]. Open-source. Free. And you don't have to mess around with abandonware sites.
Patrician 3 (2003). Part of the Patricians and Merchants pack on Steam---which means you also get the excellent Darkstar One in the package. Patrician 4 comes out later this week, but not having played it yet I can't make any recommendations on that front. Ask me again on Sunday or so.

 

[DeadSpaced]

There's a lot of those "tycoon" games out there, but they'll never beat the best: Rollercoaster Tycoon (though, as everyone's pointing out, the sequel is a bit better).

It was one of those games that my dad bought back when it came out because my younger sister didn't have anything she wanted to play on the computer. Of course, the problem was that NOBODY could keep their hands off of this game!!!

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

My only experience with Tycoon games were Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, but those were both great games.

 

[Brotherofwill]

I know my shit.

Now that's what I call a proper recommendation.

I've played Tropico 1, liked it, and was thinking about picking up the third after it was recommended here. Is it really just a graphical update?
I know what you mean. Often newer games are nothing but graphical updates with slightly less complex gameplay. If it happens to be the case for Tropico 3, I won't buy it.

Railrood Tycoon...have heard about that one. I can't imagine managing trains to be fun.

God bless Steam. I just bought Kotor for 1.75 pounds. Might check out your other recommendations later.

Oh yeah and thanks for the TTD link. I haven't checked if it works, but the abandonware one the first poster recommended didn't.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I'd have to say either Roller coaster Tycoon 3 or Zoo Tycoon 2, though Cities XL is a very good city manager style game, if it does have a bit of a dodgy road system.

 

[SimuLord]

I know my shit.

Now that's what I call a proper recommendation.

I've played Tropico 1, liked it, and was thinking about picking up the third after it was recommended here. Is it really just a graphical update?
I know what you mean. Often newer games are nothing but graphical updates with slightly less complex gameplay. If it happens to be the case for Tropico 3, I won't buy it.

Railrood Tycoon...have heard about that one. I can't imagine managing trains to be fun.

God bless Steam. I just bought Kotor for 1.75 pounds. Might check out your other recommendations later.

Oh yeah and thanks for the TTD link. I haven't checked if it works, but the abandonware one the first poster recommended didn't.

I am to city-builders, trade sims, and business/tycoon games what BonsaiK is to relationships. When you need a nonviolent game that involves building something, I'm your guy.

(and to answer your question, Tropico 3 does bring a few ideas to the party of its own---most notably an automobile-transport system that can really streamline goods delivery around the island---but I still contend that the original is the far better game.)

 

[temporalcrux]

I am to city-builders, trade sims, and business/tycoon games what BonsaiK is to relationships. When you need a nonviolent game that involves building something, I'm your guy.

Nonviolent is quite the fun of Katamari. Could never get my friends to like it because they didn't kill something.

Transport Tycoon. No question.

EDIT: Try here - [link]http://www.abandonia.com/games/240[/link]

And THIS was going to be my recommendation. TT was the first game I ever played on computer, and I still have it sitting here, original CD and all. I only put it down long enough to play DOOM, then picked it right up again. There was a level mod that the guy at the store recommended when I bought it, and what it did was basically turn the game into a sandbox. You could make the entire word into "Waterworld" with like 5 islands, then build bridges crossing the entire span and just letting cars drive at random.

I love Transport Tycoon, because you can watch cities grow once you divert resources enough to them, killing our competition.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

You could always try Dwarf Fortress. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaves_to_Armok_II:_Dwarf_Fortress]

Makes Transport Tycoon seem like pushing cars in the sandpit.

Let's just say it took me 6 hours to read enough to want to start it up.

There is NO more complex game that exists. IMHO.

 

[GahzlyGriffon]

theme hospital for laughs

i enjoyed raillroad tycoon and 3 for the feel

roller coaster tycoon 1 was the best
number 2 is for making rides
3 is for looks

never played zoo tycoon, but mall tycoon is good

Transport Tycoon. No question.

EDIT: Try here - [link]http://www.abandonia.com/games/240[/link]

Thanks ive been looking for this forever

 

[Withall]

I'd say you could try the Sim City games as well, including the above titles. Good series of games, and they deserve some more attention.