Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (1990)
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is a 1990 simulator video game made by MPS Labs and MicroProse Software, Inc..
Railroad Tycoon hands you a locomotive, a bank balance, and a blank map in the 19th century. Pick a region: the American West, the industrial Northeast, Victorian Britain, or continental Europe. Then lay track between cities and resource nodes, build stations, purchase historically accurate engines, and schedule trains to carry coal, cattle, and passengers where the market wants them. The underlying economic model tracks commodity prices, rival companies, and regional growth, so building a profitable network means reading the land and the ledger in equal measure.
Quick answers
What is Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon about?
Railroad Tycoon hands you a locomotive, a bank balance, and a blank map in the 19th century. Pick a region: the American West, the industrial Northeast, Victorian Britain, or continental Europe. Then lay track between cities and resource nodes, build stations, purchase historically accurate engines, and schedule trains to carry coal, cattle, and passengers where the market wants them. The underlying economic model tracks commodity prices, rival companies, and regional growth, so building a profitable network means reading the land and the ledger in equal measure.
When was Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon released?
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon was released on 1 January 1990.
Who made Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon?
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon was made by MPS Labs and MicroProse Software, Inc..
Similar games
Explore Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon guides
A few thoughts on Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon
Meier brought the same instinct to this game that he would bring to Civilization a year later: layer a clean strategic loop over a historically grounded world, then let the player's decisions compound into something that feels like authorship. The tension between expansion and efficiency here is the same tension that drives his best work.