What year did Railroad Tycooon 2 come out?

[CFioren317]

I know I played it in August of 1995, yet everything I read says it was released in November of 1998.  I KNOW I played the game in August of 1995 because it was before my first year of law school.  I lived in Ohio and bought a state of the art Pentium 100 from Best Buy and i think it included this game.  It was very addictive and I played pretty much every day and night until school started.

 

This was not the first DOS version.  It was the windows version.  I definitely know this.  Am I crazy??

[MrFlibble]

Here is the official press release for Railroad Tycoon II:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Gathering+of+Developers+and+PopTop+Software's+Railroad+Tycoon+II+Hits...-a053152392

 

It is dated Nov 2, 1998.

 

Are you sure you weren't playing some other isometric railroad game back in 1995, like A-Train?

[Gwizz]

There were at least 2 versions of Railroad tycoon that came before RRT2.  

I found the 2nd version on sale cheap, but only played it a couple of times since RRT2 was already out and I was still learning it.

 

I will look for it and the build date.  But not tonight.

[jeffryfisher]

There was at least one upgrade to Sid Meier's original and one subsequent version from Microprose before Railroad Tycoon II came out in '98.

[CFioren317]

There was at least one upgrade to Sid Meier's original and one subsequent version from Microprose before Railroad Tycoon II came out in '98.

Would they have updated the DOS version into a version very much like RR2?  Like a 1.5 beta?  That only came with certain machine purchases?  I bought a Compaq Pentium 100 at Best Buy.  And I actually was off a year...it was july/August 1994!  And I was playing a version of Railroad Tycoon from a cd that I can't fnd right now but I know it is around here somewhere.  It feels like one of those time travel anachronisms LOL.  I know the game I played and the pictures of the RRT2 are exactly what it was.  You got $500K and $500K in credit and would build stations and build tracks and engines and add cars.  Mail, coal, etc.  You could build refineries and make oil cars or gas cars and they would change at the station.  You could build hotels and restaurants at the stations.  One train was the "rocket" and it would get a special name when it hit a high speed.  Does that sound like the same game?

[jeffryfisher]

If you're going all of the way back to 1994, then you were probably playing either Sid Meier's original RR Tycoon (1990) or RR Tycoon Deluxe (1993).

I'm looking at both now... The original came on 5.25 inch floppies, and Deluxe came on 3.5 inch diskettes.

There was also something called "version 2", but it is not the same as RR Tycoon II. Rather, it was v2 of Deluxe (or some such). In other words, it was Microprose's version-up of the older game, and not the PopTop's redesign that we play here.

As I recall, the v2 was a nightmare that added nothing to gameplay. Instead, somebody messed with the graphics and turned all grass into a bright chartreuse that hurt my eyes.

I see a personal floppy with the install disks. It's labeled "Saved RR's". I wonder if my oldest PC can still run the game and load one of those saved games from what's now a 20 year old floppy???

[Silverback]

TRANSPORT Tycoon was out in 1994 and had an isometric view and could be confused perhaps but it had other modes of transport too e.g. boats, planes.

 

The Railroad  tycoon games - both original and deluxe - had a top down map view.

 

In 1994 it would not have been Railroad Tycoon 2 which was released in 1998 and required at least Windows 95 which was released in August 95. This game had an Isometric view.

 

Railroad tycoon 2 was made by a totally different company than Railroad tycoon original/deluxe.

 

Memory plays funny tricks sometimes.

[CFioren317]

TRANSPORT Tycoon was out in 1994 and had an isometric view and could be confused perhaps but it had other modes of transport too e.g. boats, planes.

 

The Railroad  tycoon games - both original and deluxe - had a top down map view.

 

In 1994 it would not have been Railroad Tycoon 2 which was released in 1998 and required at least Windows 95 which was released in August 95. This game had an Isometric view.

 

Railroad tycoon 2 was made by a totally different company than Railroad tycoon original/deluxe.

 

Memory plays funny tricks sometimes.

I agree about memory playing tricks but there is no way I am wrong here . The only reason I remember so well is because it was the first year of law school and that July and August of 1994 was my last months of actual time killing fun I had lol.

I guess maybe it was Railroad Tycoon the first version. That's the DOS version right? Would that version have looked exactly like RRT 2 except not windows?

[jeffryfisher]

No, I think you had Microprose's RR Tycoon version 2, which is not RR Tycoon II.

[Silverback]

I agree about memory playing tricks but there is no way I am wrong here . The only reason I remember so well is because it was the first year of law school and that July and August of 1994 was my last months of actual time killing fun I had lol.

I guess maybe it was Railroad Tycoon the first version. That's the DOS version right? Would that version have looked exactly like RRT 2 except not windows?

The 2 games look totally different. 

 

http://theodor.lauppert.ws/games/rdx.htm shows a screenshot from Railroad tycoon deluxe - there is also a link to the download the game (free and legally) from

 

http://downloads.2kgames.com/railroads/Railroad_Tycoon.zip

 

 

Theres a screenshot for Railroad tycoon 2 here http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/529975-railroad-tycoon-ii-platinum-edition/images/screen-4

 

 

Finally  if you look at http://www.sedore.net/rails/ then there are (broken) links to patches one of which is described as converting Railroad Tycoon Deluxe to version 2 (of railroad tycoon deluxe) - the page is dated before RR Tycoon II was released.

 

jeffryfisher is correct I believe.  Railroad Tycoon Deluxe would run under windows 95 but was a DOS program, and I have heard it described as version 2 

 

RRT II is not the same as RRT DLX v2

 

Perhaps you could download the game from the link to a windows PC, play it and see if that's what you remember from 20 years ago!.

[CFioren317]

jeffryfisher is correct I believe.  Railroad Tycoon Deluxe would run under windows 95 but was a DOS program, and I have heard it described as version 2 

 

 

Looks like this is the one I played on Windows 95.  I looked at some of the pics and I guess it had to be this.  Unless I am involved in an anachronism and somebody went back in time and messed something up...a la Time and Again.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone.

[Gwizz]

If you were using a mac,  I believe the mac game had a different version number.  Could it be from your period of time?