If it’s 0300, then it must be….
For a typical visitor to Pattaya, the answer would be “time that I had a bar girl for every orifice.” But for a computer gamer, the answer will be one of those totally absorbing games where minutes turn to hours and before you know it, dawn is breaking.
For me, nearly twenty years ago, if was 0300 then it was Railroad Tycoon. This was an early offering from Sid Meier, who went on to develop Civilization, surely the most time absorbing game of all time.
Blessed with the crude graphics of the day, Railroad Tycoon, not surprisingly, required you to run a Railroad, in competition with a motley collection of computer controlled robber barons. The challenge was to match supply and demand, bringing together resources from around the country. Sounds a bore, but it was wonderfully diverting and hours (days) would pass very easily. You can download it (legally) for free here.
Now, if it’s 0300, then it must be AD 1404, Dawn of Discovery. It’s Railroad Tycoon on crack, using boats instead of trains to manage more than 100, often related, resources to supply an increasingly restless population in both an Occidental and Oriental world. And oh dear me it is addictive.
Yesterday I had a message from the game that I had been playing for four hours and maybe I should take a break for a cup of coffee. Then I had a message that I had been playing for six hours and I really should stop for a while. Trouble is, I had stopped after four hours and the six hour message was after starting a new sessions, so that was at least ten hours of play yesterday; and I don’t want to think about how long I played it last week.
It’s one of those “just need to do one more thing” games; and once you have done the thing, another one comes along. You can choose how you want to play. There is a campaign, there are set scenarios, or you can customise your own scenario; but whatever you decide to do, you can say goodbye to around 30 hours of your life. And that’s just for one scenario.
I decided to do the Master Builder scenario, which emphasises the building of big cities with limited interference from angry computer players. It all starts easily enough with peasants demanding no more than fish and cider. But as time progresses your city grows and welcomes citizens, patricians and finally noblemen, who are like spoiled, demanding children. When they first moved in, they triggered a shortage of books, and before I could ramp up book production ( just need wood, indigo, a paper mill and a printing press) they were rioting in the streets, threatening to burn the city. Books supplied, they demanded wine (simple, just bring together an iron mine, iron smelter, charcoal burner, wood, barrel cooperage, vineyard and wine press and transport the resulting wine half way across the world). Suitably tanked up on alcohol and reading, they now decide they want reading glasses (quartz, copper etc. etc.). Meantime, the lesser ranks start grumbling because the increase in population is leaving them short of what they deem to be essentials, so it is off to increase supplies of bread and fish and and..
It’s challenging, but it is also enormously enjoyable, not least because it looks so good, especially if you can run it on the highest graphic settings. From high above there is not a lot to see:
But get in close and it is quite beautiful, with people walking around and talking, flags fluttering, and chimneys smoking. Screen shots do not do it justice.
On the southern islands the look is quite different, with nomad settlements and produce that needs to be shipped to the demanding population up north:
Apart from setting up the various production chains, you inevitably need to move stuff around the islands of your world. Soon you will have a fleet of ships to manage, and protect from marauding pirates and other players.
And what is she who must be obeyed up to while I am endlessly absorbed in 1404? Playing “Pet Society” on Facebook; a game of fishing for doughnut fish and collecting poo as far as I can gather. Don’t care as long as it keeps her interested while I am keeping my noblemen happy.
Oh, now they are demanding brocade robes (silk, gold etc. etc.). Excuse me, I have to go.