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Anti-trust violations, gross stock market manipulation, nation building. These aren't just recent news stories; Railroad Tycoon 3 takes us back to a simpler, yet still similar time when monoclewearing tycoons measured their worth in millions only. In a variety of scenarios, your role is to build a transportation empire during the golden age of railroads and connect one city at a time. Railroad Tycoon 3's depth is its strongest asset; beyond shipping goods, you can buy and build factories, play the stock market and try to put the competition out of business. Yet even this can grow repetitive.
Jumping into the game, the overhead graphics are impressive. Zoomed all the way in, trains fill the screen, with puffs of smoke trailing behind. In an instant, you can zoom all the way out, viewing city names across countries and continents.
The historical missions are our favorite game type; they are usually about linking certain cities or hauling certain cargo within a time limit, like connecting Sacramento and Salt Lake City. In addition to the basic task of winning a level, other victory conditions are added, like moving ten carloads of troops from Salt Lake to San Francisco. We like how the challenge of the levels can scale within the multiple goals; at times, we had enough trouble connecting the two cities, but in some missions, we strove for the perfect victory.
Of course, you're running a business here; you have to establish profitable routes and then reinvest earnings back into the company. Our best way of making reliable cash is to connect cities where goods were cheap with high-priced locations. If that fails, you can issue bonds or stocks to a point, but if the company tanks, nobody wants to pay for your worthless promises.
The various industries in play are also a unique and entertaining way to make more cash. After saving enough, you can buy oil wells and ship that oil to your own refineries. (Nothing says "tycoon" like oil wells.) Dozens of other structures -which can be bought, built or sold -can add to earnings. We tucked hotels and restaurants near stations, bought Mexican coffee farms and purchased weapon factories. If you're indifferent to trains, the game has much more to offer than a railroad fantasy.
A few other game types are included with less of an emphasis on history. You can compete with human or computer opponents to build an empire without the mentioned city-connecting victories. Railroad enthusiasts who don't care as much about the businesses can play with dozens of trains in the "sandbox" mode; everything is free and can be built without concern of earning back money. Railroad Tycoon even includes a map editor in which you can make new worlds and scenarios.
Some interface quirks and occasional bugs did put a little rust on our engines. Sometimes after an hour or so of playing, the game would unexpectedly quit. Fortunately, Railroad Tycoon kept auto-save files for each "year" of play, and little of our progress was ever lost. We would like if the control were more fluid while laying track. While you can undo mistakes, it is frequently hard to get the track to curve around buildings. When cities grow, we'd like to upgrade smaller train stations, but we are often told that a building is blocking the path. However, nothing ever seems too close, and we don't want to bulldoze the neighborhood to guess at the conflict.
Railroad Tycoon 3's detailed trains and historic, global settings make it a must for train buffs, while simulation fans will enjoy them as a means to an entertaining end. While we feel that the game eventually becomes repetitive, after a day or two away from the railroad, we're ready to build another empire.
-ZACK STERN
RAILROAD TYCOON 3: 
MacSoft | www.macsoftgames.com | 866-512-9111 | $50
Pros: Engaging management, detailed graphics, historic settings.
Cons: Occasional bugs, interface quirks, eventually becomes repetitive.
Requires: OS 10.2.8 or higher, 400MHz or faster, 256MB RAM, 32MB VRAM
macHOME recommends: 667MHz G4 or faster
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