Video game:Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon

During the nineteenth century railroads started appearing everywhere in the United States. By the end of the Civil War, Cornelius Vanderbilt had become the first railroad tycoon and controlled a majority of the nation's lines. In 1990, Sid Meier created the videogame "Railroad Tycoon" in order to give gamers the opportunity to create their own iron empires. The game is equally entertaining and educational, and teaches users about business planning, competition, and economics.

With a starting amount of one million dollars, gamers must build and manage a railroad company. Players use different locations, as well as multiple types of stations and trains in building their empires. The game features a miniature stock market where players buy, sell, and manage stocks of their choosing. In order to win the game, players must earn enough money to build their railroad in a certain amount of time.

"Railroad Tycoon" received excellent reviews from critics. In its review, "Computer Gaming World" magazine wrote, "Richly detailed and graphically inspiring, this is a gamer's game," and gave it five out of five stars. "Computer Gaming World" named it as "Game of the Year," and in 1992 they added it to their Hall of Fame. The game also won the "Software Publishing Association Excellence in Software" award for best strategy program.

In 1993, MicroProse released "Railraod Tycoon Deluxe," which included several additions to the original game. These included new areas for building, improved graphics, new trains, and bandits and sheriffs. Unfortunately, due to slow gameplay and other bugs, the deluxe version did not sell as well as the first. Nevertheless, Take-Two Interactive released a sequel to the original entitled "Railroad Tycoon II" in 1998.

At a time when videogames were making a comeback, and many were doing so using violence and action, the "Railroad Tycoon" series showed that videogames could be educational and based on strategy, yet still extremely entertaining and very successful.