I'm on the mood to play a game like Rollercoaster Tycoon these days, but I'm not sure which one would be a good fit considering their age and repetitiveness. I used to love it when I was 10-12, but the more I remember the game, the more I think it's too repetitive. I remember spenting more time cleaning vomits than building rollercoasters, but that was probably my fault. Don't get me wrong, the game was still fun, but I had no motivation to spent my time doing almost exactly the same things on 20+ levels. There were basically two types of levels: those with pre-built rollercoasters, which were a breeze to earn money and build whatever you want - like Diamond Heights - and those that had (almost) no attractions - like Evergreen Gardens - which were more difficult to work with, but you usually had a lot of time to start slow. I remember a very small stage that gave me quite a challenge at the time to complete the goal, but other than that a 10 year old could easily clear everything.

It would be nice to hear opinions on similar games that might be less repetitive and more challenging that you guys would recommend. Zeus + Poseidon seems to be the second highest user-rated game on GOG, is it really that good? I know I shouldn't trust these reviews, but 2nd place overall is something that can't be missed. Do Theme Hospital or even Sim City 2000 offer more variability on the gameplay or do they all suffer from excessive repetitiveness?

Management sims age well, I still play many old ones regularly. MadTv, MadNews,Winzer,1869,Capitalism,Pizza Connection,Theme Hospital,Trade Empires,Patrician 3, Transarctica, for me they are just as much fun as back then. They are all repetitive.
Zeus and Pharaoh are really that awesome, but more city builders than managers. But I play them often, they have aged really well, the graphics are beautiful.

The thing I'm personally finding with Bullfrog games in particular (specifically Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital) is that, without a sandbox mode, each successive level is basically the same thing that you did in the previous level but with a new thing on top, rather than a radically different situation or limitations.

They're by no means bad, but Theme Hospital in particular is guilty of this, and sometimes it shows.

I'm playing a lot of RCT right now myself. Does SimCity2K count as a management Sim? What gets me is not only is it still the best one out there, nothing else, in my humble opinion, has even come close. There are other fine city builders but none that even approach being as user friendly and just plain fun as 2K.

I don't really like those games all that much, but from what I've seen, Startopia is still pretty nice today, and comparatively rich in variety.

I would also look to OpenTTD. That's an open source remake of transport tycoon deluxe from microprose.
http://www.openttd.org/en/

I really really want Zeus now. I sort of spent my gaming budget already but it's 50% off so...


More on topic, I remember playing capitalism plus back in the day. I don't think it was that repetative . I remember trying to keep on top of all my products and research whilst being competive and opening new stores... it was a lot of fun. It's been a long time since I played it though so that might just be nostalgia talking. Hm. perhaps I should buy that as well (I lost the disc I had) or maybe 2 is better than plus? I don't know vas I never played it.

Games are timeless.

Now pick one and play it.

(also The Guild is the best one)

Pizza Tycoon: the original pizza restaurant game that has spades of character and still is fun to play

Transport Tycoon (or its open source version): great game

Theme Hospital & Theme Park: a slightly funny slant on management but very fun. I prefer Theme Park over Rollercoaster Tycoon because it has a million times more character.

Caesar II: fun Roman-age sim game with some battle stuff to it

Settlers II: utterly brilliant game - not a traditional management game but very fun

Didn't there use to be a Star Wars sim game, I think with Gungans, that dealt with running a planet or eco-system or something. Does this ring any bells or am I hallucinating the whole thing?

That's how I feel about all my early gaming memories.

Did you ever find a way to consistently beat the game? I did it one time, mostly by trading in the mediterranean until I could afford a new steamboat and then trade in far off lands. The thing that irked me was the fact that wooden sail ships that you could afford in the beginning were slow, had to be repaired regularly and with the moderately competent crew, you could not get enough goods into their tiny holds to even break even, unless you only shipped wine between european cities. And even then you could profit only so much.

Apart from that, I really like the game, and in fact all of the early Max Design games. They had some serious atmosphere that they knew how to get out of the graphic capabilities of the time.

I am terrible at finishing games. Usually I quit near the end and then start all over a year or two later...and do it again. I've finished Zeus + Poseidon about 11 times...it's fun.

If a managerial sims get repetitive for you it means that you should probably increase the difficulty. Yeah, I know that it's not possible in every game (RCT for example) but seriously - higher difficulty offer you more complex problems that you would never encounter with normal difficulty. Two examples:

Patrician 3. On normal difficulty the game is pretty much straight forward. You start doing business, earn money, invest, earn even more money, get a higher reputation and so on. Playing on hard is significantly different. First of all you have to take a loan at the very beginning. You won't be able to make enough profit to repay it and still run your business so you will have to take another one. But that put a lot of stress on you. You cannot just sail around to see what's what. You have a deadline so you have to earn money. Fast. By the time you repay everything you'll encounter other problems. Hanseatic League will give you a lot of quests and errands (on normal they are easy to fulfill). Sometimes you have to deliberately ignore them and get a fine that you cannot pay at the moment. You have to take a loan again; If you don't pray and donate to the church enough you will get accused e.g. that you think the Earth is not in the center of the universe and your trial will begin. Don't worry. You will be find guilty and get enormous fine which you cannot possibly hope to repay at the moment (on normal you can get it too but the fine will be very low). So... how about a loan? I can continue but I guess you can already see the pattern ;)

Second example, Zeus. I'll mention just two things: first of all you cannot allow to completely fill your storehouses with one type of wares especially if it is crucial and/or expensive to get. Sooner or later some of your storehouses will collapse. And if you kept 32 units of oil there and you don't have it anywhere else you are completely ruined. It's so much safer to keep 4-8 units in several storehouses. And my personal favorite... in some missions it's so much better to put your pride aside and... surrender to one of your rivals and become his vassal. It's a very complex situation and you should carefully choose the right moment and the right opponent. I love it when a winning strategy requires significant sacrifices. In the end, obviously, you will have to liberate yourself...

Just a short conclusion: everything I mentioned is pretty much random but you will never get just one problem at a time, you will have to face several of them simultaneously. There are a lot of possible combinations and believe me - each disaster combo requires different solution and therefore the game won't be that repetitive anymore...

The force is strong in this one:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/star-wars-episode-i-the-gungan-frontier