Our tour through history of gaming continues, so that games of old do not remain forgotten, and that any developers who are visiting these pages see how games were once done, long, long ago... Originality and true innovation is what we have been missing and despite bloomy 3D innovative graphics and next gen AI of new games (which are all but not innovative), my mind just keeps going back in time to the classics of yore. The games I speak of are the lost gems of PC gaming. Titles that were so well-created they’d remain forever etched in your mind — if you ever noticed them.
This game is another such gem, swallowed by time and next gen innovation. It featured many things we just don't have the opportunity to see anymore. My dear codexians, I present to you Pizza Tycoon!!
It was published 1994 by one of my favorite R.I.P. publishers. I am talking about none other than legendary Microprose. If you ever wanted to know how it feels to be a small time gangster who wants to become the biggest selling pizza maker in the world, this is a game for you.
You start by choosing your character. Depending on your character, you will start with more or less money, which makes the game easier or harder. All the characters are goofy and by the time you create one that is to your liking you will already have quite a few laughs. The game then begins with you in one of the famous cities of the world. To tell you the truth, I don't remember if your starting position is randomized, or character dependent, or always the same, but it doesn't really matter. You will be able to build your Pizza Empire all over the world. The goal of the game is to own more than 50% of Pizza restaurants in each of the cities, which is no easy task. To be more precise, the goal of Pizza Tycoon depends on which game you choose. You can either play Free Mode, which just involves surviving as long as you can while earning points, or Mission Mode, which lets you follow a curriculum vitae or resume. No matter which course of action you choose, you're always trying be the best pizza parlor in the world.
The only difference in the modes is weather you will start the game with already established Pizza restaurants or you will have to do it from the very beginning with nothing more than a few thousand dollars in your pocket. But which ever mode you decide to play, you will have a long and hard way to go before you manage to become the biggest pizza maker in the world. The thing that you will need the most is money and you can earn money in many ways. One of the cheesy exploits is to resell weapons all over the world. Basically, if a guy in Paris sells weapons cheaply and the guy in New York buys them expensively, all you will need to do is buy in Paris and sell in New York. By repeating this, you can become a millionare in a matter of weeks and after that you can concentrate on expanding or starting your pizza empire. Since I despise such exploits in games, I suggest you don't overuse it and concentrate on getting money other ways. Some of the other ways include working for the local crime lords by doing various quests, borrowing money from the bank or crime lords, or just by concentrating on running your restaurants if you started with already owning a few. Note that crime lords will come after you if you borrow money from them and you don't return it with huge taxes, so I would not suggest doing it unless you desperatly need money. Doing jobs for local crime lords is a bit more fun and the rewards are also better, although earning money like that is more risky and it takes longer than by reselling weapons. Not only it will increase the possibility of arrest, but it will also be more risky because if you screw up a few times you will get the crime lords after you and you don't want to end up in a river with your legs inside a concrete block. The quests you get, usually involve being on a specific place at a precise time, picking an object and delivering it somewhere else at some other time. Nothing special, but I would recommend doing at least a few jobs before starting to resell weapons, just for the sake of experiencing how it is to work for the mob.
The game is filled with humor and what made me laugh quite a few times were the important people you meet. Crime lords will very often be famous people from our world like Micheal Jackson, Mihael Gorbacov, etc. Some other characters will have a bag over their face, or a pizza instead of their head and funny things like that. But those characters are not there just to make you laugh. Each and every one of them can be useful to you. Police officers can be bribed to look away when you are doing jobs for the mob. Banks give you loans which you have to return with extra taxes, insurance companies allow you to get money if someone bombs or sabotages your pizza restaurant, advertisement companies advertise your pizza restaurants, etc. As you can see there is quite a lot you can do in this game, but everything I have written is just a tip of the iceberg and there is a lot more.
When you finally rent or buy a place where your restaurant will one day appear, you will have many options how to decorate the place. It works in a similar way as The Sims, and there is quite a lot of furniture you need to buy to be able to keep your customers happy. First you will buy some tiles and floors, then you will want to buy a very good oven so you will be able to make pizzas faster and more tastier. Then you will need to buy some furniture like chairs and tables. Some decoration also does not hurt, and don't forget to buy a jukebox which will play music and raise the mood of demanding customers. When you are done with that, you will probably want some waiters, cooks, maybe even managers, etc. You will therefore have to hire some staff and each character you hire has certain skills. Some will make good cooks, while others will make good waiters, others will have high management skills etc. If you want to have the best staff available you will have to give them a high pay or else they will leave after a while. You can also start with lousy, cheap staff and send them to training, but be prepared to pay for it and you will have to hire new people to work in the restaurant while the others return. There is a lot of micro management involved and this is why I love this game so much. Every restaurant will be special in some way and you will grow to like it.
After you have done everything mentioned above your restaurant is still not ready for grand opening. It is time to do some research on the population in the area and familiarize yourself with people and their tastes. Some areas will mostly be filled with children who love sweet, so there you should have some sweet pizzas, other areas will have a lot of old people who maybe love different kind of pizza, so you should pay attention to details like this before making your first recipe. That brings us to ordering the groceries. Yes, you will have to decide from who you want to buy the goods needed to make pizzas and they come in different qualities and prices. The higher quality will taste better, it will take longer time to get spoiled and it will be more expensive. You can buy the goods every day per needed, or you can make a contract in which you decide how many of which groceries they will deliver to you on a weekly basis. I usually have a manager who also goes to store if the restaurant runs out of something. Now you are all set to make your first pizza. Yep, you get to do that too. LOL! I am telling you this is a great game! When you are making pizza, you should take care of how it looks and how it tastes. There are some good recipes you can find over the net, so I would use them. After you have done all this, you give a name to your pizzeria, you give names to your pizzas, you set the prices and you are almost done. You have to be careful to set the prices so the pizzas are not too expensive for customers, that you have enough money to pay your staff their salaries, to have enough money to order more goods and still make a profit.
But, you are still not ready for opening. Like every serious business you will have to invest into marketing. You can advertise over TV, news papers, wallpapers and even small leaflets which are given away to potential customers. But wait, it gets even better. You don't just come and buy a commercial like some lazy dev fuck would do in today's day and age. You also get to chose how the commercial on TV will look like. How the commercial in leaflets will sound, and many things like that. I would also suggest that you visit some of your old mafia friends and pay them to bomb or sabotage the competition in the area. You can plant a bomb, which is the most effective, but it is also the most risky. You can plant a stink bomb, or plant rats in the kitchen and many things like that. But be careful, so someone else doesn't do it to you.
There are many more things I could write about this game like pizza contests, etc.., but I think this is more than enough to persuade anyone who loves manager games, to give this one a try. A true oldie, which should never be forgotten.
This game is another such gem, swallowed by time and next gen innovation. It featured many things we just don't have the opportunity to see anymore. My dear codexians, I present to you Pizza Tycoon!!
It was published 1994 by one of my favorite R.I.P. publishers. I am talking about none other than legendary Microprose. If you ever wanted to know how it feels to be a small time gangster who wants to become the biggest selling pizza maker in the world, this is a game for you.
You start by choosing your character. Depending on your character, you will start with more or less money, which makes the game easier or harder. All the characters are goofy and by the time you create one that is to your liking you will already have quite a few laughs. The game then begins with you in one of the famous cities of the world. To tell you the truth, I don't remember if your starting position is randomized, or character dependent, or always the same, but it doesn't really matter. You will be able to build your Pizza Empire all over the world. The goal of the game is to own more than 50% of Pizza restaurants in each of the cities, which is no easy task. To be more precise, the goal of Pizza Tycoon depends on which game you choose. You can either play Free Mode, which just involves surviving as long as you can while earning points, or Mission Mode, which lets you follow a curriculum vitae or resume. No matter which course of action you choose, you're always trying be the best pizza parlor in the world.
The only difference in the modes is weather you will start the game with already established Pizza restaurants or you will have to do it from the very beginning with nothing more than a few thousand dollars in your pocket. But which ever mode you decide to play, you will have a long and hard way to go before you manage to become the biggest pizza maker in the world. The thing that you will need the most is money and you can earn money in many ways. One of the cheesy exploits is to resell weapons all over the world. Basically, if a guy in Paris sells weapons cheaply and the guy in New York buys them expensively, all you will need to do is buy in Paris and sell in New York. By repeating this, you can become a millionare in a matter of weeks and after that you can concentrate on expanding or starting your pizza empire. Since I despise such exploits in games, I suggest you don't overuse it and concentrate on getting money other ways. Some of the other ways include working for the local crime lords by doing various quests, borrowing money from the bank or crime lords, or just by concentrating on running your restaurants if you started with already owning a few. Note that crime lords will come after you if you borrow money from them and you don't return it with huge taxes, so I would not suggest doing it unless you desperatly need money. Doing jobs for local crime lords is a bit more fun and the rewards are also better, although earning money like that is more risky and it takes longer than by reselling weapons. Not only it will increase the possibility of arrest, but it will also be more risky because if you screw up a few times you will get the crime lords after you and you don't want to end up in a river with your legs inside a concrete block. The quests you get, usually involve being on a specific place at a precise time, picking an object and delivering it somewhere else at some other time. Nothing special, but I would recommend doing at least a few jobs before starting to resell weapons, just for the sake of experiencing how it is to work for the mob.
The game is filled with humor and what made me laugh quite a few times were the important people you meet. Crime lords will very often be famous people from our world like Micheal Jackson, Mihael Gorbacov, etc. Some other characters will have a bag over their face, or a pizza instead of their head and funny things like that. But those characters are not there just to make you laugh. Each and every one of them can be useful to you. Police officers can be bribed to look away when you are doing jobs for the mob. Banks give you loans which you have to return with extra taxes, insurance companies allow you to get money if someone bombs or sabotages your pizza restaurant, advertisement companies advertise your pizza restaurants, etc. As you can see there is quite a lot you can do in this game, but everything I have written is just a tip of the iceberg and there is a lot more.
When you finally rent or buy a place where your restaurant will one day appear, you will have many options how to decorate the place. It works in a similar way as The Sims, and there is quite a lot of furniture you need to buy to be able to keep your customers happy. First you will buy some tiles and floors, then you will want to buy a very good oven so you will be able to make pizzas faster and more tastier. Then you will need to buy some furniture like chairs and tables. Some decoration also does not hurt, and don't forget to buy a jukebox which will play music and raise the mood of demanding customers. When you are done with that, you will probably want some waiters, cooks, maybe even managers, etc. You will therefore have to hire some staff and each character you hire has certain skills. Some will make good cooks, while others will make good waiters, others will have high management skills etc. If you want to have the best staff available you will have to give them a high pay or else they will leave after a while. You can also start with lousy, cheap staff and send them to training, but be prepared to pay for it and you will have to hire new people to work in the restaurant while the others return. There is a lot of micro management involved and this is why I love this game so much. Every restaurant will be special in some way and you will grow to like it.
After you have done everything mentioned above your restaurant is still not ready for grand opening. It is time to do some research on the population in the area and familiarize yourself with people and their tastes. Some areas will mostly be filled with children who love sweet, so there you should have some sweet pizzas, other areas will have a lot of old people who maybe love different kind of pizza, so you should pay attention to details like this before making your first recipe. That brings us to ordering the groceries. Yes, you will have to decide from who you want to buy the goods needed to make pizzas and they come in different qualities and prices. The higher quality will taste better, it will take longer time to get spoiled and it will be more expensive. You can buy the goods every day per needed, or you can make a contract in which you decide how many of which groceries they will deliver to you on a weekly basis. I usually have a manager who also goes to store if the restaurant runs out of something. Now you are all set to make your first pizza. Yep, you get to do that too. LOL! I am telling you this is a great game! When you are making pizza, you should take care of how it looks and how it tastes. There are some good recipes you can find over the net, so I would use them. After you have done all this, you give a name to your pizzeria, you give names to your pizzas, you set the prices and you are almost done. You have to be careful to set the prices so the pizzas are not too expensive for customers, that you have enough money to pay your staff their salaries, to have enough money to order more goods and still make a profit.
But, you are still not ready for opening. Like every serious business you will have to invest into marketing. You can advertise over TV, news papers, wallpapers and even small leaflets which are given away to potential customers. But wait, it gets even better. You don't just come and buy a commercial like some lazy dev fuck would do in today's day and age. You also get to chose how the commercial on TV will look like. How the commercial in leaflets will sound, and many things like that. I would also suggest that you visit some of your old mafia friends and pay them to bomb or sabotage the competition in the area. You can plant a bomb, which is the most effective, but it is also the most risky. You can plant a stink bomb, or plant rats in the kitchen and many things like that. But be careful, so someone else doesn't do it to you.
There are many more things I could write about this game like pizza contests, etc.., but I think this is more than enough to persuade anyone who loves manager games, to give this one a try. A true oldie, which should never be forgotten.
