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Sid Meier s Railroad Tycoon
The Alternative Presents...
How To Play
R a i l r o a d T y c o o n
by The Byter
Written by Microprose / Cracked by Public Enemy
Railroad Tycoon is another one of those fantastic games from Microprose - the
kind that get you to play for 8 hours into the night (I started my first play
session at 8:30 pm and played until 4:30 am - my girl almost killed me when I
got to bed. It's a strategic game where you build a rail empire. This doc
file is by no means comprehensive, but it should be enough to leave you with
a general idea of how to play the game, and you should be able to work from
there. Hopefully the group that released it (uhh.. Public Enemy, I think) will
be courteous enough to release a complete documentation file in the near future
to help explain some of the more obscure parts of this game. Excuse the rather
chaotic and unorganized format of this file. It isn't that I'm a hopelessly
unorganized person (I may be, but that ain't the reason for the screwy format
here), but the game itself has so many aspects to cover, that it is quite hard
to get all the info down in any kind of global organization. I suggest you
print this file out and use it for reference when playing.
As with many other Microprose games, the game supports a number of video cards,
but just as the other microprose games are, the VGA/MCGA and EGA are indistin-
guishable from one another, despite the fact that the game claims 256-color for
VGA and MCGA. I don't have a Tandy, but I expect it looks the same as the
16-color VGA/MCGA/EGA graphics. On a positive note, those poor souls stuck with
CGA will find the color choices of this game a bit better than the Cyan/Magenta/
White/Black of most CGA games. (it still stinks though). One big disadvantage
of this game is that it doesn't get along with DesqView, which I use to write
these quickdoc files.
It's got nice sound support, ranging from an option for no sound (which gives
quicker operation), IBM awful sound, Tandy, Adlib, Roland MT-32, and an option
to add a custom sound driver (they claim they may release additional sound
drivers in the future).
Controlling the game requires the keyboard, but there is a nice option to use
a mouse which Microprose has thoughtfully provided.
The object of the game is to start small and build a profitable railroad empire
with the resources you have. You start by selling a bunch of public stock to
provide opening capital.
When you have started the game and given it your video/sound/control options,
you'll see the "nice little trains passing by" titlepage and credits. Hitting
the space bar will take you to a cabin where you choose your next course of
action, which will be Loading a saved game, starting a new game, or playing
around with the tutorial.
The tutorial can be handy to start with, because it provides you with a small
railroad already in operation with three trains, and you can build from there.
When you start a non-tutorial game, you will get to choose the scenario you
wish to play from the four possible choices:
Eastern United States - From 1830
Western United States - From 1860
Europe - From 1900
England - From 1828
Each scenario offers its own geography, cities, economy, and technology. You
will probably find one you like best, but will have fun with all of them.
The Displays
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are four main geographic displays which you will need to get familiar
with. They are brought up through the use of the F1-F4 keys:
F1: Giant map. This shows the entire region you are playing in. Cities are
shown as red/yellow dots. Train lines are shown as black lines. You can
see trains as little white dots moving on the black lines.
F2: Station map. This shows all of your stations within a certain range, but
does not show any geographic detail. You only see the station displays,
track, and trains. The station displays will show what cargo may be
waiting for pick up in the form of colored cars (see the section on
"Freight Class" below). If one station has a lot of cars waiting all the
time, be sure to send more trains there. You can click on a station
display box to bring up a detailed description of the station.
F3: Area map. This shows some of your stations with display boxes, like F2
above does, but it covers a smaller area and also shows geographic area.
F4: Detail map. You must use this map when laying track, building stations,
and the like. There are no station boxes here, but you do see trains in
detail, detailed terrain, etc.
F5: Income statement. This shows all your income sources and expenses. With
this, you can decide what you need to spend less on, what freight gives
you the best results, and the like.
F6: Train income. Take a look at this every now and then. It will show the
type of train, its current composition, how much money it made this year,
last year, and in its lifetime. It also shows how much you spent on
maintaining it. Trains which aren't making a whole lot should be either
reassigned or scrapped. Trains which are costing you a fortune to keep
running (ie: high maintenence costs) should have the locomotive replaced.
Balance Sheet: The balance sheet shows how your assets and liabilities are
currently. Keep an eye on this from time to time.
F9: Call Broker. When you call your broker, you'll be put into the stocks
area. This shows you your railroad's status, and that of any competitors
who are currently playing. You'll get a report of current stock values,
net worth, profits, etc. Options at the top of the screen allow you to:
1: Cash. From the cash menu you may buy or sell $500,000 bonds. Sell them
when interest rates are low, if possible. Pay them off when you can. If
you are in considerable debt, you may also have an option to declare
bankruptcy.
2: Buy stocks. You can buy treasury stock (stock in your own railroad) or
stock in other people's railroads. If you get more than half of the stock
in any given railroad, you will take it over. At the Investor and Financier
levels, you may only hold stock in one railroad other than your own. At
Mogul, you may hold stock in two other railroads. At Tycoon level, you can
hold stock in all three.
3: Sell stock. Self-explanatory.
4: Operate Railroad. If you own controlling stock in another railroad, you
can use this option to manipulate its finances.
How to Start Playing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you start the game, you will automatically sell 100,000 shares of stock,
which will give you about $1,000,000 to work with. Now what you want to do is
locate a large city from which to base your train operation. Hitting F1 will
show you a big map with all the cities, and you can pick out one that looks
larger from there. A large city will have a yellow core surrounded by red dots
while a small city will only be red dots.
Another consideration when choosing your city is to find one close to many
resources and other cities. Decide which second city or resource area (a place
where you can encompass many resources with one station) is to be your first
destination, and build a track from your main city to the destination.
To build a track, go to the B)uild menu and select "Build Track". Place your
cursor on the center of the city you wish to start on (or at the center of the
area you want your station to serve - sometimes it is better to put the station
off-center from the main city, so that it can encompass a few resources as
well. This may take building a few stations to get used to, but you'll pick it
up). Once you've placed your cursor, you can start building track by hitting
the numlock key (or shift keys work too, for small areas of track) and using
your numeric keypad to design the path of the track. The directions are as
follows:
Up
7 8 9
Left 4 6 Right
1 2 3
Down
When laying track, there are a few things to consider. The best and quickest
route is USUALLY a straight line from one location to the other, but there are
a few variables to consider.
1: Land value. You can lay track through just about anything, but some areas
cost a lot more. Forest, desert, hills, and plain area are the cheapest.
Farms cost a bit more. Producers (coal mines, lumber mills, stockyards,
chemical plants, villiages, and city centers) are quite a bit more costly.
Moving your cursor onto a square and pressing '?' will tell you what is in
that location and how much property rights will cost.
2: Incline. Trains go slower when they're going up hills, so it's best to
try to use level ground. If the incline is of a high enough grade, you
will be given the option to build a tunnel. Trains pass through tunnels
at full speed (instead of slowing down if you built the track over the
hill), but the tracks are only one track wide (ie: train's can't pass
without stopping) and are expensive to build. There is a limit to how
long a tunnel can be.
3: Rivers. When you get to a river, you'll have to build a bridge over it.
Bridges are costly, ranging from $50,000 to $400,000 (the more expensive
the bridge, the less likely it is to collapse and the quicker trains can
pass over it). Avoid crossing rivers as much as possible, as they are
expensive, but it is neccessary sometimes.
4: Resource areas. If you can pass close to a bunch of coal mines or oil
wells or a similiar concentration of resources, do so. You can add a small
station (like a depot) later to capitalize on those resources.
Once you have finished laying the track between your two desintations, you will
need to build a station at each one. The first station you build will be the
center of your rail empire, and it should be big. Usually of Terminal size.
Even if Terminal looks a lot bigger than you'd need, cities which get a lot of
commerce will grow, and the only way to make a station larger than it was when
you first build it is to destroy the old one and build a brand new one - quite
expensive.
The second station can be between Depot and Terminal size, depending on the
size of the city / resource field. Again, make sure to consider growth for a
city. Resource fields rarely grow much larger, however.
Once you've built your track and two stations, it's time to build a train. Get
a cheap locomotive to begin with, and only give it a couple of cars. You can
choose which cars to give it initially, or just choose none. You will then be
presented with the route menu (discussed in "Moving Goods" below), and you can
decide which cars to use from each destination. Big cities will take any
resources you send to them (unless you're playing Complex Economy), and resource
fields and villiages usually don't want anything. If you've got a city and a
set of coal mines, you'd want to send ONLY a caboose from the city to the coal
field, and a couple coal cars in return.
Once you've got a train operating between the cities or resource fields, you'll
start making profits and can consider expansion. Connect to other nearby cities
and resource fields, and build more trains, but don't expand TOO quickly, or you
won't be making enough profit to sustain your empire. I recommend buying as
much Treasury Stock as you can afford as soon as possible, while the price is
low ($5-$20 per share). Later, if you are successful, it will rise to $40-$70
quite quickly, and you can make a killing. Don't invest in stocks your first
few games, however, as you'll probably just be wasting your money.
Financial Operation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although the game is about running a railroad, one of the most important parts
of the game is controlling your finances. There are a number of ways to get
the capital you need to lay track, build new trains, connect to different towns
and cities, and make your empire larger. Periodical events (Wall Street Crash,
Worker Strike, Boom Times, etc.) will affect your cash and cash flow.
When trains haul cargo of whatever type into a city or town which will pay for
it, you'll get a nice bit of change for the delivery service. Some cargoes,
such as 2 tons of mail or 3 passengers, aren't worth a whole lot, and the route
which produces it should probably be altered. Cargoes like 240 tons of coal
(which one train I had provided - six cars full) will net you a bundle. One
other type of cargo - a priority cargo - will give you a large bonus which can
be as high as $980,000 (the highest I've seen), and counts down the longer it
takes you to deliver the priority cargo. The game will tell you where to pick
up the supplies, and where to deliver it. I keep a fast train or two around
to be used when a priority comes through.
Another way to raise quick capital is to sell a 1/2 million dollar bond. This
will give you that half million right away, but you'll pay interest on it until
you pay it back, so it's a good idea to avoid getting too many.
Yet another way of making money is to play the stock market. You can hold
stock in your own railroad and in any of the other three which may be in
competition with you. At the "easy" levels of play, you may only hold stock in
one other railroad, and at the "harder" levels, you can hold more. If you are
playing with "Cut-throat competition" (described later), you should always hold
on to some of your own stock. Some good advice is to buy as much of your own
stock as you can when the game has just started (even sell a bond or two to do
so), as it will rise QUITE quickly as you are successful. A few years down the
line, you can sell it for multiple times what you paid for it. If you own ALL
of the stock in another railroad, you control its board of directors, and can
do what you like with it.
How to spend your money: Your money can be spent in these basic ways.
1: Paying off debts. When you have some bonds you need to repay, its a good
idea to pay one off whenever you get an extra 1/2 million, to keep your
interest payments down. You should avoid selling bonds when interest rates
are high.
2: Buying stock. As covered above, speculation can be rewarding over the long
term. Be careful in investing in tiny railroads with really low stock
prices, because if they go under, you'll loose your investment.
3: Laying more track. The more track you have, the more cities and resource
areas you can reach, and thus increase your profit potential. When you make
single tracks into double tracks, two trains can pass side by side without
crashing or stopping. Sometimes you may wish to reroute a track for more
efficiency, and so you can also remove track (thus reclaiming the property
values of the used land) and re-lay it elsewhere.
4: Building and improving bridges. To cross water, you've gotta build bridges
to span rivers. These can be of three types: Wooden ($50,000), Iron
($200,000) and Stone ($400,000). The better the bridge, the faster a train
can cross it. Bridges can become a bottleneck for your train system if you
don't plan them carefully.
5: Building stations. For a train to stop, it must have a station. Build a
station wherever you wish to pick up or deliver goods and supplies. You
should concentrate stations in cities and areas with many resources (ie:
oil wells, coal mines, lumber mills, stockyards, etc.). There are four
sizes of stations, which all cover different areas:
1: Signal tower. Costing but $25,000, these stations do NOT allow a train
to transfer goods, but only allow a train to change direction. In some
cases you will need one of these to avoid laying lots of extra track.
2: Depot. A small station which covers about 9 blocks (3x3), these are
good for small towns or areas with a few resource sources you wish to
serve. They cost $50,000.
3: Station. A station covers 25 blocks (5x5) and are good for serving a
wider area. Their cost is $100,000.
4: Terminal. The giants cover 49 blocks (7x7), and are great for covering
a great area like a large city or a large area of great resources. The
cost for a terminal is $200,000.
6: Improving stations. You can pump extra money into a station to make it
better and more powerful. The options you can add include:
1: Engine shop. Allows you to build train locomotives.
2: Maintenence Shop. For doing general maintenence on locomotives. This
maintenence is needed to keep the trains in good working order. A
maintenence shop is a good investment.
3: Switching yard. Allows for storage of carloads of resources. Good
for large rail empires.
4: Goods Storage / Cold Storage / Livestock Pens. Nonessential, these
allow a station to keep resources around for a longer period of time.
5: Restaurant / Hotel. These are related to passenger comfort.
6: Post office. Allows for mail collection and delivery.
7: Building rolling stock. Build more locomotives to haul more trains, and
give quicker / more frequent service. As the years pass, faster and more
powerful locomotives will become available.
Moving Goods
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The crux of your railroad operation will be the efficiency in which you move
goods, passengers, and mail from location to location. Speed is important, but
you may want to make long slow trains as well, for moving large amounts of
cargo. Design your train routes with a thoughtful eye. Pay attention to the
needs and resources of each location, and plan the route accordingly.
You can edit a train's route by clicking on the locomotive as it steams from
one city to another, or by clicking on the status box at the lower right hand
side of the screen. A third way is to click on the locomotive when you are
looking at the train income screen. When you do this, you will be presented
with a full-page diagram showing the train's current configuration, what cargo
it may be carrying, its speed and destination, and what locomotive it has. At
the bottom of the screen are four "destination" areas, which can be set to
whichever cities you desire. The destination area allows you to choose the
configuration of the train as it leaves that station, to let you change the
cars to optimize the train's efficiency. Clicking right before the station
name on the destination display will place a 'W' marker there, which indicates
that the train will sit and wait until it has a full load before moving on.
The current destination of the train is shown in black letters, and other
destinations will be grey.
City A City B Station C
passengers passengers coal
mail mail
goods steel
City A and City B are large cities which produce mail and passengers, plus an
extra commodity. Station C is a depot which produces a small amount of coal.
Here is a route which would work nicely:
Train begins at City A carrying a carload of passengers, a mail car, and one or
two cars of goods, depending on production. It carries these products to City
B, which gladly pays for them. At City B, the train takes on a new form, that
of just a caboose (no extra cars for added speed). The new train heads to
Station C, where it picks up a few cars of coal, and delivers them back to City
B, which is the last destination. At City B, the train changes configuration
to that of passenger, mail, and steel, which it carries back to destination #1,
which is City A.
Other good routes are two-station routes, such as a big city which requires
many resources, and a large oilfeild. A slow train carrying loads of oil from
the oilfeild to the town can be quite profitable. Another good route is a
mail/passenger train which cycles between three or four cities in a circle.
Reality Levels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a few variables which you can decide to use or ignore during the
course of the game which can make it more difficult or easier to play. The
more difficulty options you enable, the higher your score. These options are:
1: Dispatcher control. If you have this turned off, trains will never crash
(except in the case of a broken bridge) and will pass each other on single
track. If you turn it on, the stations will use their little lights to
tell trains when the line is safe. These are automatic, but you can change
them by clicking on the corner of the station where the light is located.
A green light means it is safe to head for the station. A red light means
that it is not safe. Yellow will allow the next train to pass, and dark red
will stop all trains.
2: Complex Economy. With a basic economy, all large cities will pay for all
goods, regardless of their contents. If you have the complex economy option
set, cities will only pay for the goods that they require.
3: Cut-throat competition. If you have this option turned on, other companies
will try to buy stock in your railroad, and eventually try to take it over.
Turning it off makes everyone passive.
Freight Class
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are five types of general freight, and a train will be placed into one
of these categories, depending on what it carries. They are:
Mail - Your train is primarily a mail carrier. Cars are white.
Passenger - Your train carries passengers. Cars are light blue/cyan.
Fast Freight - Quick-moving freight, such as livestock or food. Yellow cars.
Slow Freight - Heavy stuff, such as steel or paper. Cars are red.
Bulk Freight - Resources moved in great quantity, such as coal. Black cars.
News and Reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throughout the game, you will be given various news flashes and reports. The
news can be broken down into three general areas:
Local News - This is the state of your personal railroad. If there is a
crash, or if one of your cities gets its first train, or if
a priority shipment is announced or rescinded, you'll hear about
it as local news.
Wall St. News- All stock market information appears here. You will also get
various messages relating to the state of the economy, and if it
is improving, lagging, or whatall.
Railroad News- All news about railroads will appear here. This includes any
information about a new railroad starting, a railroad connecting
to a new city, or a trade war.
All three news types may be turned on or off from the options menu. You will
also be presented with periodic reports. In the upper right hand box, you will
see shipping reports from time to time, which include the train's #, the city
they arrive in, and a shipping roster showing the contents of the cars and the
money you receive for shipping it. The border of the report is normally grey,
but sometimes it will be White (which means double income) or Red (one-half
income). These are a result of a trade war or opening a new city. For one year
after you take control of a city, all shipping revenue is doubled. When you
are involved in a trade war, you lower your prices to one-half normal.
Command Keys
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a number of keyboard commands which you will use. Here is a quick
reference:
Movement: 7 8 9 Shift or Numlock will either
4 6 lay or lift track, depending
1 2 3 on your BUILD setting.
F1 : Regional display
F2 : Broad area display. Station Boxes / Resource map. No geographic detail.
F3 : Area display with geographic detail. Station boxes / resource map.
F4 : Detail display. Resources visible. No station boxes.
F5 : Income statement.
F6 : Train income report.
F7 : Build a new train.
F8 : Build a new station.
F9 : Make an appointment to see your stock broker.
F10 : Enter survey mode.
#D : Shift-D makes a single track into a double track.
#S : Shift-S makes a double track into a single track.
#? : Get information on a square.
I : Also provides information.
Alt-Q: Quit game.
<ESC>: Abort a menu
Use top-of-screen menus by pressing Alt-Letter.
Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~~
Although this is by no means a comprehensive documentation file, it should
serve to familiarize most people with the basics of a very complex, yet
extremely addicting game. I have probably spent more time on this game in the
short week I've had it than anything since Simcity. It's that good!
Salutations
~~~~~~~~~~~
A big hello to the following folks out there:
Public Enemy : Great job! I love this game! Congratulations on finally
releasing something other than those shitty French imports.
R. Bubba Mag. : Are you EVER gonna put up Celerity?
The Slavelord : LSD is looking better and better. Good work.
Lord Icon / Dr. Crunch / Humble Slave #7: Keep up the good work with the bug
reports. Now if I can shake my Railroad Tycoon addiction,
I'll start fixing some of those and implimenting new features.
The Viking : Get ahold of The Hitman yet?
Plus congratulations to The Humble Guys, I.N.C., N.Y.C., and The FiRM for
getting the new wares out.
Celerity & Board Ads
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Unknown Division.......Part of Binary Systems/TSAN.............805-492-7174
The Genisis Division.......Part of Binary Systems/TSAN.............818-706-9839
Instant Replay.....................................................714-544-7571
The Citadel........................................................213-271-4232
Absolute Monarchy!.........I.N.C. Courier System...................214-343-0600
The Lost Caverns...................................................404-451-0521
The Proving Grounds........TRIAD-90/TSAN...........................913-842-9828
Thanks for reading all of this...
The Byter
