Note: This article was previously published in the April 2018 issue of The Gamegezer magazine. By Silk Atam
My story about Pizza Tycoon, a 1994 co-production of MicroProse and Software 2000, is a bit innocent and a little funny. If I remember correctly, I set up the two-disc game and open it on a whim. But what is that? It’s a mess, it’s unclear where to start…
The flowery GameShow magazine, which was photocopied in that period, examined Pizza Tycoon that month (it was issue 3), and I bought the magazine with the floppy disks. I start with Quick Start by reading the article, put in ready-made shops and pizzas, and learn a little bit about the game from the people who write in the magazine. But when it comes to opening my 2nd store, I have no idea how to open it. Of course, what does the internet, Youtube and so on… Even more timid than I am now at the time, I decide to call the person who wrote the review in the magazine. What I would normally never do is do it somehow to be able to play the game that day, and I call the magazine and ask the person who reviewed the game on the phone (timur’s name, if I remember correctly). “How am I going to open a shop in Pizza Tycoon?” After a few seconds of dumur silence on the phone, he explains nicely to me the person in front of me (hi if he’s reading, thank you for not discouraged me). I’m taking notes, and my restaurant chain is slowly growing. I’m even a millionaire by being a mob boss and selling illegal products (I learned that from the magazine). He plays like crazy, erases the game when he’s bored (you know the hard drive sizes at the time), I re-establish it when I feel like it, and that’s how this cycle goes…
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PIZZA TYCOON
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I have this memory of Pizza Tycoon. Thanks to the last Coin, my memories came alive when I remembered, and years later I re-established the game. You know, when we’re kids, there’s a more beautiful, exaggerated reminder of what we loved than they were. I wondered if this game was really that good, or if it was my “childhood exaggeration” before I set up the game, but when I played a little bit, I realized it was definitely not an exaggeration. The sense of nostalgia I had when I saw that empty pizza dough, the happiness mixed with a strange sadness… You won’t understand. It’s a game that will rock current strategies with the freedom to make pizzas with a variety of ingredients, a lot of detail, micromanagement features. Tycoon-themed games, which were officially raining at the time, have always been my favorite with Theme Hospital.
| Do not fall under the illusion that it is just a game that we make and sell pizza. We eat once in a while!
I’m really annoyed that even non-old games come to remake-remaster, not coming to real classics like this (skipping the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment, and grateful for those remakes). It’s not that it needs to be rebuilt or anything, which is too holistic to need a touch other than the graphics to be refreshed, but it would still be a nice surprise. There won’t be a remake, it’ll be a new game to build a restaurant chain, and that’s positive.
Hing Legend?
IN DETAILS
I’ll count the differences a little bit: to view the percentages of salt, fat, bitterness and sweetness of each pizza, to see to what extent a pizza will appeal to which segment of society, Speaking of segments of society, 6 separate segments consisting of children, young people, white collars, blue collar workers, businessmen and the elderly, the knowledge of which taste, even which vegetables, meat etc., to be able to strategize accordingly by looking at who the people sitting around the shop are composed of, to have regular quality controls, to be punished if bad material is taken, to sabotage other restaurants with mice etc., to have different furniture tastes of each segment… There are many more details, I assure you, but let me say goodbye to this box.
THE FREEDOM TO DO IT
Yow there’s an empty dough in front of you. You can choose a wide variety of ingredients from the categories of vegetables, meat, fruits, cheeses and spices, grate what you want and put what you want in its whole form. The great thing about the game is that you’re completely free to do it. You can only make fruit pizza, as well as a fantastic pizza that you put on top of the dough as well as a whole lobster. It’s your decision, it’s your pleasure.
DATES
The game’s user manual (the GOG version comes in pdf format, the game is $6, by the way) has 14 pizza recipes. You can use these recipes in real life or you need to use them to make pizzas on the menu. If there are only pizzas you make on the menu, people don’t come to the restaurant, so you have to make at least 4 of the pizzas in the recipes. And this was the game’s copy protection system, at the time.
MİkRO MANAGEMENT
There are a lot of things you can do, intervene, deal with (in short, micromanagement) from buying the materials of the stores that vary in price/quality, signing contracts with these markets, paying attention to the skills of the personnel to be taken, getting insurance, buying tables, chairs, décor or carpets from different shops, advertising, bribing the mayor, becoming a mafia boss
CREATER PORTRAITS
The banks, insurance companies, real estate agents that we call by phone are also colorful. Some are mummy-shaped, some have completely cockroach heads, even Michael Jackson.
