Transport Tycoon Deluxe

Transport Tycoon Deluxe asks you to build a business through connections between other people's needs. Towns need passenger services, while industries require supplies and the removal of their products. You choose which places to connect, build infrastructure, buy vehicles and assign routes. Income comes from the whole chain working, not from a beautiful station by itself.

Railways make this particularly clear. Several trains sharing a line require carefully planned passing loops, signals and stations. Adding a train can increase revenue, but it can also create a queue that delays everything else. You must observe the system in motion and distinguish a shortage of vehicles from a poorly designed junction. Road vehicles, ships and aircraft offer different balances of cost, capacity and speed.

Chris Sawyer released Deluxe in 1995, a year after the original Transport Tycoon. The new version expanded the landscapes, scenarios and vehicles available. Its appeal is readily explained by visible cause and effect: you can locate an error on the map, rebuild a section and see traffic flow again. Financial strategy becomes both a spatial problem and the observation of your own working construction.