''Chris Sawyer's Locomotion'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

game developer Chris Sawyer from 2004. According to Sawyer, it is the "spiritual successor to ''

Transport Tycoon ''Transport Tycoon'' is a video game designed and programmed by Chris Sawyer, and published by MicroProse on 15 November 1994 for DOS. It is a business simulation game, presented in an isometric view in 2D with graphics by Simon Foster, in ...

''".

Gameplay

The game allows the player to use

railroads Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

s, trucking lines, buses,

airplanes An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectr ...

and ships to earn money in a

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

company between the years 1900 to 2100. It contains over 40 pre-designed scenarios and a scenario editor, and can also be played in multiplayer mode with another human-controlled competitor. The game is played in an 2D isometric view like the other games by Chris Sawyer, particularly '' RollerCoaster Tycoon'', which uses the

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

that was originally developed for ''

''. The scenarios have five difficulty levels: Beginner, Easy, Medium, Challenging and Expert. Different objectives are available, some require the player to finish on a certain position in the company ranking list while others require the transportation of a specific amount of cargo. In some cases these objectives have additional limits, such as that the player must finish within a certain time limit. While many of the scenarios are fictional, some are based on real-world countries such as the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In recent years, several add-ons have been created for the game, including hundreds of trains, trucks, airplanes and other vehicles. Some people have used special programs to convert

Microsoft Train Simulator ''Microsoft Train Simulator'' is a 2001 train simulator developed for Microsoft Windows. It was released on May 31, 2001, and developed by the UK-based company Kuju Entertainment. It sold one million units worldwide by 2005. Features Microsoft ...

rolling stock for use in Locomotion.

Downloadable content

Early on in the game's development, some Japanese vehicles and buildings were created, only to be omitted from the published game. One of these vehicles was the

Shinkansen 0 Series The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

, which later became downloadable from Chris Sawyer's website. These Japanese assets were likely switched out for the Swiss ones.

Development

''Locomotion'' was developed by game developer Chris Sawyer as "spiritual successor to ''

''". The game was published and released by Atari in the U.S. on September 7, 2004 and a few days later in the rest of the world. In 2013, an Android and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

version of ''Transport Tycoon'' was released, primarily based on ''Locomotion''. On March 17, 2015, the game was re-released through

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other s ...

on Steam and

gog.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...

. In January 2018, the open-source project ''OpenLoco'' was launched to enhance the gameplay of ''Locomotion''. This includes fixing bugs, translating the game to more languages, and allowing the game to run natively on

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. Furthermore, OpenLoco features reduced limitations compared to the original, e.g. disabling vehicle breakdowns, unlocked building options, and using custom resolutions.

Reception

Reviews of the game were generally not favorable, with many noting that the game's

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

and AI were both poor in comparison to the original ''Transport Tycoon''.

References

External links

Chris Sawyer official website''Locomotion''
at MobyGames
''Repository of OpenLoco''
at

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

{{Authority control 2004 video games Business simulation games Assembly language software Railroad business simulation video games Transport business simulation games Transport Tycoon Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Allister Brimble Video games scored by John Broomhall Video games with isometric graphics Windows games Windows-only games