Download Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe

TOI 2023-12-23 1 point

Installation instructions?

Download gives me a zip file but no idea what to do with it.

The Pilgrim 2023-03-28 0 point

This game is a glamered version of the classic Railroad Tycoon (also available in this site). Gameplay is much the same, with supposedly nicer graphics. Veterans will ofter find the original game to be better.

If you are using doxbox, it's adviseable to increase the CPU speed (Ctrl+F12) to at least 12k cycles, otherwise the game will lag. There is also a problem with the game not recognizing the numpad keys to lay track. As explained in other comments, you can use the arrow keys to lay straight track + the utility keys above them for diagonals. The numpad keys can often be unlocked after pressing the numlock.

Now about the differences between this game and the original version, besides the graphics and some sound effects, are the new scenarios of North America, South America and Africa, not present in the original. The original scenarios have some new features, though, that I will discuss first.

OLD SCENARIOS:

- Eastern USA & Western USA:
They are very much the same than the original, but you can now choose four starting points on both (1830, 1850, 1880 and 1890) as opposed to the fixed dates of 1830 (for East) and 1866 (for West) in the original.

Some locomotives have been changed, and the Grashopper is no more, now you get the John Bull if you start in 1830 - but it's crap anyway and you beter get rid of it as soon as the Norris shows up. The rest of the XIX Century locomotives are the same, but the XX Century diesels have been reworked.

One new feature in those scenarios is the presence of Bandits. Any train carrying mail is susceptible of being robbed. In order to avoid it, you need to build post offices at the stations (which you should be building anyway). They come with a Sheriff (you may notice the SHERIFF sign above them) who will protect the trains running through their Station and eventually catch the robbers, then you get a bounty reward.

- Europe:
You may now choose two starting dates: 1830 or 1870. The original starting date of 1900 is no longer available. This helps make this scenario a bit less dominated by passengers-and-mail delivery, and makes working the economy a bit more profitable, specially if you start in 1830.

For the XIX Century, you will get the locomotives available in the England scenario of the original game. The XX Century locomotives have been totally reworked, and the Hamilton is absent, replaced by some other models. The Electric locomotives have been totally changed. The TGV is gone, as it originally appeared in 1981 but you no longer get that far, the game will now end in 1930 or 1970, depending on the starting date chosen.

- England: There is no England scenario in this version of the game. Not anymore. It's gone. Not sure why they removed it, but that's it. If you want to play the England Scenario, you must play the classic version.

NEW SCENARIOS:

- North America:
This is basically a combination of the Eastern USA and Western USA scenarios. You get to build your rail network across the whole USA at once!

You can choose the same starting dates (1830, 1850, 1880 and 1890) as in the other USA scenarios. You get the same locomotives and rivals, you get the bandits, and the bounty in the Western USA scenario for building a transcontinental railroad (now having to go all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific). You don't seem to get the double-fare for east-west deliveries and the half-fare for north-south ones, present in the Western USA scenario.

All in all, this scenario feels a bit out of scale, and ends up being just a glorified version of the Western USA scenario. Like in that one, it's not worth to play the economy, just connect cities and ferry passengers and mail around.

- South America:
You start in 1890, making it the scenario with the latter starting date in this version of the game. And you get the same locomotives and rivals than in the Northern American scenarios.

The presence of the big Andes Mountains basically limits you to trying to build your rail network across Argentina or Brazil, but even there the Cities are generally too few and too small to let you get away with just passengers-and-mail. You need to work the economy, and it's hell, as resource sites are very volatile.

To make things worse, most resources (Lumber, Coffe and Sugar, who are converted to Export Goods in a Factory) can only be delivered to Landings or Ports, meaning that you will need to be careful to avoid long unprofitable empty return trips.

It's better to go for the Oil, which is converted to Manufactured Goods (not Export) in a Refinery, and they can then be delivered to any city or village (and not only to villages, like in North America). But beware when you build industry, as it can be swallowed by Slums, making you lose the money invested. Grain and Livestock can be converted to Food, but good luck finding a place with two city squares to accept it.

Later in the game, some Cities will grow like crazy and you can set up some good passenger-and-mail routes in them, but they will not be that many and you will have to keep chasing the ever-changing resource sites.

- Africa:
You start in 1870, and get the same locomotives and rivals than in the Europe scenario. Much like the South America scenario, the city network is too small to sustain just a passengers&mail network.

Worse still, ALL the resources here have Harbors and Landings as their sole ending point. You get Rubber and Sugar, which are converted to Export Goods in a Factory, and Iron and Copper, which are converted to Export Goods too in a Foundry. And export goods can only be delivered to Harbors and Landings.

But there is a trick: Harbors produce Troops and Food, and a single Outpost is a valid destination for both Troops and Food. And you can build Outposts, just like any other Industry, and are rather cheap at 400k each. So you can lay very lucrative resource networks by building an Outpost in an area with a lot of resources, then carrying those resources to a harbor and bringing Troops and Food back. This makes historical sense, as the european colonial powers went to Africa for the Resources, and were very interested in deploying troops to secure those resources from both the native population and their rival colonial powers.

By the way, if you get a Priority Shipment that involves carrying Troops to one of you stations, you better get those troops there pronto, because if the shipment gets cancelled, the destination station will be overwhelmed by a native attack and reduced to a plain Depot, with all improvements built in the station also lost.

Try to concentrate in resource sites that have either Iron&Coal, or Rubber&Sugar, this way you only need to build one industry type at destination for conversion. Generally, it's best to seek the metals, their rate of production is higher, and Foundries are cheaper than Factories.

Always use fast trains and short convoys, because while resources and export goods are Bulk and Slow Freight respectivelly, the Troops and Food are Fast Freight, and thus VERY sensitive to speed.

Livestock-to-Food conversion is also a nice side source of income, as even if a city is too small to accept Food, you can still build a single Outpost there, then Food will be accepted.

You can even just connect ports along the coastline, build Outposts in them, then carry troops and food between them, just like you would ferry passengers&mail between two cities (you don't even need to change the train consist in this case).

Later in the game, Africa will suffer a demograpich explosion, and cities will spring everywere like crazy, often outside the area of places with a name label. You can then build new stations there (maybe closing down too some of your resource sites, whose resources may have dissapeared by that point) and stablish lucrative passenger-and-mail convoys connecting those new cities.

...

Well, that's all. Hope it helps you and lures you into trying this fascinating game!

The Pilgrim 2023-03-28 0 point

Regarding the problem with laying track, use the arrow keys (the ones to the left of the numpad). The utility keys above the arrow keys will lay diagonal track. Those keys always work. The numpad ofter works after turning on and off the numlock key, and/or after laying track with the arrow keys.

frustrated! 2022-09-12 1 point

Can't lay tracks with shift+numpad in dosbox, but it works in qemu. This must be a dosbox bug.

Trusteft 2021-06-08 1 point

To those asking about building tracks diagonally, use the numpad so for top right press the 9 in the numpad.

Name 2021-03-12 -3 points

How do you run this on dosbox?

mell 2020-02-22 -19 points

does it run in windows10?

Track Layer 2019-12-22 0 point

To get track to lay, it's combination of num-lock and shift+num-loc. I just push both until it works.

KC 2018-11-14 -21 points

This game was not even good when I was a kid. Poor graphics, even for the time. Transportation Tycoon is much better in every way.