Sid’s Return to Railroads

Sid has been quite busy since 1990 designing some other titles you might recognize – the Civilization series, Gettysburg, Alpha Centauri, SimGolf, Pirates (to name a few) and was inspired to revisit his railroad game by a couple of things: a recent visit to Miniatur Wunderland – a huge miniature railroad museum in Hamburg Germany, that reignited his passion for railroads and trains, and by the tons of fan requests he has received over the years asking him to make another train game. So, he got busy working on a prototype, 2K Games loved it, and here we are! Sid is back, he has his engineer’s cap on, and he’s re-inventing a PC gaming classic with a ramped-up Railroad game built on everything he’s learned about game design in the past 16 years, and taking advantage of today’s amazing PC power to deliver another blockbuster game.

The Game

In Sid Meier’s Railroads! you are an ambitious entrepreneur with a drive to shape a nation by creating the most profitable and powerful rail empire ever. Bring the land to life with towns and villages near resources, big manufacturing centers, and booming, thriving metropolises. Transport passengers and goods across the country, manage your business strategies, outwit your competitors and retire a successful and phenomenally wealthy business icon. Combining the best of real-world and model railroads, Sid Meier’s Railroads! is the triumphant return of a million-selling hit title re-envisioned for a new generation of gamers.

• Real-time action – lay track, route the trains, and the world comes to life. Cities and industries grow up around you as you service them, hauling raw materials to market and carrying manufactured goods away; Cargos are loaded onto train cars and passengers shuffle between cities.
• Easy to get started – laying track is as easy as clicking and dragging. Bridges, tunnels, railroad stations and switches sprout up automatically where they’re needed.
• Challenging to master – with a new market system that tracks supply and demand and complex random events that can cause a boom or bust at any time, players must stay on their toes at all times or risk obsolescence, financial collapse, or hostile takeover.
• It’s all about the trains! – over 30 trains to use, from the primitive 0-4-0 Planet to the Super powerful 4-6-6-4 Challenger, from the classic diesels to ultra-modern bullet trains.
• Train Customization – Outfit your roster of trains with your own custom train liveries, from unique color schemes to custom logos.
• We’ve got the goods – over 20 different goods to harvest, produce, and sell, and 30 unique industries, from lumber mills to war factories, each with detailed, unique animations.
• Scenario and map editor support – enables user-created maps and scenarios. Want to create a race to complete a transcontinental railroad in 30 years using only steam engines? No problem!
• Something for everyone – build your dream train layout in train table mode, or challenge historical giants like Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and others in single-player scenarios.
• Multiplayer – Ruthless real-time LAN and Internet play for up to 4 players. Engage in all-out economic warfare and buy out your rivals!