Airport Tycoon

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Genre: Simulation
• Style: Business Sim
• Similar Games: Railroad Tycoon II (IBM PC Compatible), Airline Tycoon (IBM PC Compatible), Transport Tycoon Deluxe (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Airport Tycoon offers players the chance to create an airport from the ground up while taking a hands-on approach to building structures, managing projects, and experiencing the problems and rewards of having your own airport. The main objective in Airport Tycoon is to build and manage a top airport with all the basic elements in place. These core requirements include building a terminal or cargo building (depending on what type of airport you want), a passenger parking lot, runways, control tower, fire station and airplane facility. As owner and manager, it's up to you to deal with the bomb threats, refueling operations, bad weather, delays and baggage snafus.

Many other options are available in the design phase of your airport. More than 75 cities are offered as possible locales, each with unique traffic and weather considerations. Negotiate contracts with over 200 airlines and 200 contractors to establish the facilities and operations pertaining to flight and cargo carriers (and retailers) you want as the backbone of your facility. Create and maintain security for your terminal and airplanes, control taxi, road and rail connections for your passengers and cargo, manage potential disasters involving aircraft, delays and airspace congestion, and monitor restaurants and other daily aspects of airport management.

The game features a tutorial as well as multiple camera views and supports (but does not require) 3D acceleration. Gameplay is handled through a series of on-screen menus, reports and a comprehensive set of action icons. Airport Tycoon was originally released under the title Airport Inc. in Europe.

Roots & Influences

The game was originally released in Europe under the title Airport Inc. and simulates the operations of a major airport.

Review: Overall

The idea behind Airport Tycoon is similar to many other simulations. You build, from scratch, your very own product and attempt to maintain a viable base of operations. Here, you must create an airport. To do so, you create runways, taxis (transport system), a terminal, control towers, and so forth. You sign contracts with vendors to take part in your retail areas, you accept deals with airlines to keep your airport busy, and you must keep customers happy--not such an easy task.

Getting through the initial phase of Airport Tycoon is the most difficult. Herein, you make decisions and create the various sections of your airport. You design where to put the plane stands and where to place the long- and short-stay parking areas. Doing all of this while restricted to a fairly tight budget makes starting your airport somewhat painful. You can, however, go into debt. This option lets you make important improvements to your airport and allows you to pay for them at a later date.

The difficulty in creating your airport is due in no small part to the controls of Airport Tycoon. Unlike SimCity, I found the control of different aspects of Airport Tycoon to be no simple matter. Icons are confusing and, even if you go through the tutorial, you will no doubt have difficulty figuring out how to do everything. Retiring an icon after use is apparently something Global Star Software's designers decided not to implement. For example, after building a road or control tower, the icon remains active and if you accidentally press the left mouse button again, you place a second, unwanted tower. This is troublesome in that there is no way to drop the build icon unless you choose another one; in other words, the cursor doesn't change to a simple arrow you can use to move around the screen.

Another problem I had was in understanding the contracts. Although the tutorial and manual both recommend signing the contracts yourself (as opposed to computer control), I found the process confusing. Once you access the contract screen, you are presented with side-by-side cost comparisons of incoming and outgoing funds. What I didn't understand was why the outgoing amount is always less than the incoming. Even after renegotiations, this still held true. There is no explanation and I disliked the way I was forced to guess at which contract to accept.

The variety in Airport Tycoon is one thing that I can't knock. From taxis to train service to tie stores, the game has them all and there are more than 200 different airlines to work with. You can even set up security to protect yourself from disaster. Although Airport Tycoon certainly is not perfect, it gives you the chance to take on the role of an owner of a huge corporation. Make your decisions wisely; otherwise you will be another smudge on the runway.

Review: Enjoyment

The distracting controls affect the overall entertainment of the game. Getting through the initial building of your airport can try your patience but once through it, the rest isn't that tough.

Review: Graphics

The different views available are decent although some are unnecessary (takeoff, control tower, passenger). The general view gives a good overview of your airport but the graphics are a little too simplistic.

Review: Sound

The sound effects from plane landings and takeoffs are nicely done as are the sounds inside the terminal. There's not any background music worthy of note.

Review: Replay Value

Although there are scenarios to add to the variety, there aren't enough differences to warrant playing through this game multiple times.

Review: Documentation

Good screen shots accompany the text explanations and there is ample description of the various icons.

Production Credits

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