The brilliant work of board-game designer Francis Tresham has been an inspiration for three popular computer games: Sid Meier's Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, and Civilization. Now, one of Tresham's own games has finally hit the PC screen.
The game, 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons, covers the birth of US railroads. You and your computer opponents are early capitalists competing to get rich while screwing over everyone else. The game doesn't present you a vast simulation with a zillion parameters that you have to keep in trim. Its complexity comes from good design. At each turn, you must make critical decisions that affect the outcome. What companies can I control? Should I buy a train this turn?
Your computer opponents play by the same rules you do. But they know these rules inside out and use them to shaft you in appalling ways.
It's terrible to watch as an opponent strips a company of all its assets and dumps stock on the market, making you - the only player dumb enough to still own stock - the new president, personally responsible for its debts.
But what great fun to figure out how your opponent did it. And once you've learned how, it's even more fun to exact your revenge.
1830: Railroads & Robber Barons on DOS CD-ROM and diskette: US$59.95. Avalon Hill: (800) 999 3222, +1 (410) 426 9600.
STREET CRED
Smut BlockerCD Jukebox
REAdME On the bookshelves of the digerati
Best Eaten Cold
