Ohhhhh man, do I remember the first “wave” of tycoon games. I also remember the first time I saw a $100 price tag on a computer game, and it was Transport Tycoon, believe it or not. Anyone encounter similar… thirty years ago, heh?
Nice comparison. I like the US more, but if I had to actually pick the game based on the art I’d pick the German. It looks more fun, there is a lot more personality to it.
I played the crap out of this when it came out.
Making those “creative mode” pizzas in just the right way so it would hit all tastes maximally was a lot of trial and error. But once you had one you were good to go.
My favourite thing to do was weapon trafficking right at the start of the game. You just called a weapon supplier via phone, bought whatever you could afford. Then you fly to a random place, call the weapon supplier there and hope they pay more than what you paid. If not, restart game.
That way you could build a bit of a bank account before even starting a restaurant.
It’s is a pretty unique game even by modern standards.
I first played it when I ~10 in the late 90s and it was so difficult. And this was back when I had a lot more patience (in video games and generally) and time.
But even my young self could recognize that this was a deep game.
