Game Dev Tycoon

In the early 1980s, Paramount Studios began investigating the video gaming industry as a possible outlet for helping it revive its Star Trek property, in conjunction with a more focused movie line and perhaps even a new television show. Given that Trekkies were often techies, it made sense to try a PC game or two.   Alan Peavey,  who had experience creating Trek MUDs  on his own time, was hired for “Enterprise Games’s” fledgling effort.  

Star Trek: The Game was....not a success.  It met with the same reaction as Star Trek: The Motion Picture,  with mixed grudging relief and disappointment.  An inexplicable attempt at a Star Trek vocabularly game also bombed, and Enterprise Games began sliding into debt.  “Look,” Peavey said in an interview, “I’m just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks at this point.” 

It was a spacetime flight simulator that made Enterprise Games’ fortune.  The game was a solid hit,  spreading beyond the Trek fandom, and Flight Command would be the firm’s longest running and most doted on franchise.   It wasn’t until Peavey decided to develop for the NES, however, that he found a solid hit. Star Trek: The NES Game  took the premise of the original game and greatly refined and improved it, leading to overnight success. The firm would add a lead engine tech, Patrick Baldwin,  and Evelyn Riviera, a supplemental designer.  Baldwin and Peavey collaborated on creating the Roddenberry game engines (I-V), as well as the Kirk engine that saw them enter the 2010s.  

The firm’s winning franchises included the Fleet Command series,  simulators that allowed players to take the conn of their favorite starships from the series and books.  Aside from the flagship Command title, which was released for every major platform as they appeared, there were also combat-focused titles in this series like Defiant, Excelsior, and of course Enterprise.  That record-breaking game introduced the first Kirk engine, a next generation gaming engine that allow for dynamic worlds, stunning 3D graphics, and intuitive multiplay.    A separate series about ground combat was also a financial success, although diehard trekkies often scoffed at the wholly original  ground-based military equipment.   There were also a couple of sleeper hits, including Articles of Federation, a cosmic political simulator;  Deep Space Nine, a city-starbase simulator; and  Ro Laren, an innovative thief simulator that followed the young officer as she performed missions for the Marquis.   That and Roberta Lincoln, a spy adventure game, marked  the industry’s first major female main characters.  

There were also absolute bombs, as Peavey was committed – along with continually improving the  flagship series – to exploring new frontiers.  Rules of Acquisition, a Ferengi-oriented business sim, failed memorably, perhaps because, as one snarky reviewer put it,  no Star Trek fan has any idea how market a economics actually work.  Other notable failures were the dance game Keeping Up with the Cardassians, so awful Paramount refused to allow it to carry the Star Trek  title on the box art, and Tribblecare.  The last was a  petcare game  marketed for iOs devices.  “I’m not sure what the trouble with Tribblecare was,” said Peavey.  “I see parents letting their kids play game on their iphones all the time. Maybe it was just too hard to keep them from multiplying exponentially and then starving en masse?  We tried to make it realistic. Trek fans are really critical if you stray from canon.” 

When Alan Peavey finally retired this past December,  he commented on how proud he was of the work he had done, although he did admit to mistakes. “We should have expanded more once we met success – I mean, we’re competition with mammoth publishers and we’re a three man operation! It's just...well, we had a good team, nicely balanced,  and  I didn’t realize we were falling behind until..um, a few months ago.”    The firm has expanded slightly since that realization.  Although Enterprise Games 1 could have broken into the triple-A titles with more aggressive management,   it does have beloved series and cult favorites to its credit.  Other industry leaders praise Enterprise Games 1  its variety of games and persistence.  An anonymous developer said, “They designed some of the weirdest games – do you remember the Wild West one, the one based on Spectre of the Gun – but they could be fun.”  

 Under a new manager, the firm will no doubt boldly go where no developer has before. 

=================

Like "Alan", I literally didn't realize my mistake until a couple of months before the 35 year endgame mark.  I  was supposed to hire more people, then move to a higher office, then make a research lab --- well, Alan Peavey will code again!

Bon Apetite

So, Don Salieri had a great idea. Morello's pushed us back as far as he can, but we've slaughtered most of his troops in the process. He's exhausted, and the road is paved for us to bounce back. The don wants to celebrate at his favorite restaurant -- one which happens to be in Morello territory.  His bodyguard Carlo called in sick, so guess who was invited to join him?   Not that I'm complaining about free food!

While the food was good, I didn't too much like the desert, which consisted of two carloads of hoods sending hot flying lead our way.  As an added bonus, they threw in a grenade. Explosives don't make good digesitifs.

The Don and I decided to split  up. While he kept their attention focused in the restaurant, I would sneak out through the delivery entrance, run around front, and take them from the side.

No plan survives contact with the enemy, though. The alleyway was blocked by this character, and soon as I'd taken care of him with five shots from my Colt 1911,  a door opened behind me

Right in the keister. Ain't  I a stinker?

All the dopes out front tried to run through this congested little hallway at the same time. Three came out the door, and the rest attempted to follow. Ever see what 600 rounds per minute does to a crowded hallway? It ain't pretty.

The only man left standing had taken the second floor above me, and could have surprised us had he not kept yelling that we were done for.

Well, boss? Did I earn my Thanksgiving turkey this year?

We agreed that the only guy who could have known when and where the Don was eating was his ratfink bodyguard, Carlos, so we high-tailed it over to Little Italy and stormed his apartment. The Don, who lacks all appreciation for tact and ambushes, hollered, "All right, Carlo, you old bastard, we're comin' for you!".  Things go so much easier when you can just bushwhack someone from behind. Now after kicking down the door I had to rush through the guy's apartment and nail him before he'd made cover.

Look, dude, if you're going to betray a Mafia boss it's best not to sit around your house in your underpants. This is an unpredictable business we're in.  You can be murdered at any time; might as well have it done when you're in a suit, right?  You want pity or respect when you're lyin' there dead on the table? "That guy was murdered real good, but at least he died with style."

Could have been worse, I guess. He could have been wearing briefs.

==

You have to be really quick to get Carlo before he hides behind the sheds; essentially as soon as the game stops the "climbing out of the window" animation, spin 'round behind and shoot him. It will probably take a few attempts to know where he's going to be, but if you can nick him once he'll stop in his tracks and you can finish the job. 

Visiting Rich People

So, times are hard here at Salieri, Inc.  Last week Morello cost us our best supplier of bootleg, and two days ago I was told the family consigliere had turned and I needed to off him. And I did, as far as they know.  In reality, once I found out that the cops were holding Frank's family hostage and forcing him to betray us, I had to let him go.  It doesn't help us, of course --  there's still that impending criminal case based on the testimony he gave before scampering off to the French riviera.

Luigi tells me that since I offed Frank, the don's only friend has been the bottle.  Well, the good news is that Salieri's best men are on the job of damage control. Sam and Paulie are off de-convincing the witnesses, presumably by violent means, and I've been tasked with sneaking into Oak Hill and doing a little petty burglarly. The delegation makes sense; of the three of us I am by far the snappiest dresser.  Paulie's suits are from Woolworth's, and Sam -- Sam wears tuxedos in the middle of the day, for pete's sake.  No, for this you want the sole man in this crew with dress sense, and that's me, and for a job of this importance I need a fedora. Obviously.

The job does require hiring a subcontractor, a safe-man named Salvatore. We Salieri men can do many things, most of them involving guns and booze and girls, but finessing delicate equipment ain't one of them. So, I zipped over to Oak Hill in my most stylish car, picked up the shabby-looking Sal, and voila! We were in.

As far as jobs go, this was a doddle.  With a bat and a firm enough fedora, a man can do just about anything he puts his mind to.

After engaging in batting practice on that one guard (who happened to own keys to the side door of the mansion), Sal and I crept around to the side of the house and let ourselves in.

We arrived in an office with an impressive safe and an even more impressive library, which was good because Sal took an hour with that safe. I had time to make decent progress in Gibbon's Decline and Fall!

Presently, the councilor arrived from his evening of smoking cigars, drinking brandy, and scheming on how to eat all the poor people (I assume this is how the rich spend their evenings), and I informed Sal to hurry up. Also, I found something else for him to break into.

We sat around the library for a little bit, me with a shotgun on the door, until the councilr stumbled in and got himself to bed, at which point we crept down the stairs. There was one outside guard posted, but I smacked him with the bat, too.

I could have shot him, too, I guess, but that always attracts attention. A bat was fine, and after that I beelined for the Silver Fletcher and told Sal to open `er up. He complied and we drove off into the night, with the important documents and an interesting fountain pen in our pockets. 

The next day, Paulie presented the Don with a little opportunity. He'd been in contact with some southern fella, a Bill Gates, who could offer the family a pipline to genuine Kentucky booze. The don decided to buy a trial load, and if it sold we'd buy more.  Salieri wanted to be careful given our recent luck in buying liquor, so we decided to go as a party of five -- the Unholy Trinity, plus two dopes.

            

Sam: Hey, don't these guys look like Billy the Rapist and the Standard-Issue Morello Lackey?

Paulie: They're just here to die and establish drama, Sam. Relax.

Eugenio: Hey!

We met the Dixie boys on the top floor of the commerical deck, and right away I knew something was squirelly because not a one of these guys sounded southern. They might as well have been from Nebraska. I didn't have much time to think on that, though, because after a minute of chit-chat the doors of hell swung open and we were fighting with Morello's entire army.

"A Greal Deal" is, for my money, the second-hardest mission in the entire game, with "The Death of Art" being first.  Both missions force the player to wade through an enormous amount of gangsters with no savepoints, but what Great Deal lacks in numbers, it provides in AI stupidity. You must not only survive, but see that Paulie and Sam survive, and given their ardent desire to stand right in front of a spitting tommygun, or to run into the path of advancing flames, that ain't easy. 

In truth I can't remember too much of what happened after that, because it involved a lot of noise, explosions, and fumes. Ever mix gasoline and bourbon fumes together?  Don't. Just...don't.  We were initially ambushed by two carloads of hoods, with a third arriving after the initial fracas. I made things a bit easier by nailing a gas tank, which made Morello's boy's day a bit more hairy. Or less, once it had been burned off by the explosion.

On the next level were two men in the service cage, another waiting in ambush on the right, and still one more hiding behind a white Schubert.

Behind the Schubert, though, I found grenades. Excellent!  When you have a lot of trash to take care of, but not a lot of time, Acme Grenades do the job. I oughta write ad copy. 

I immediately used the grenades to good effect, first knocking out two dopes waiting in ambush, and then dropping another down a stairwell.

At the bottom, we discovered a roadblock. I made to throw a grenade, and Sam runs right out in front. I yelled for the dumb bastard to clear the area, and fortunately he did, because while I was throwing a grenade the guys behind it were readying molotov cocktails. The area was not friendly to human life for a few moments immediately thereafter.

The explosion took care of most everyone waiting at the bottom, aside from a few who needed a shotgun dispatch.After this, Sam and I agreed we needed to skedaddle while the skedaddling was good.  Right outside, though, were three more carloads of hoods. I had to shoot `em all down while Paulie and Sam yelled at me to get in the truck.   I got in and promptly took a few detours in case anyone was following.  After six years driving cabs in this city, I know so many side trails I can get from the Works Quarter to Oak Hill without even my exhaust tailing me.

Unfortunately I missed a few, and even more unhappily they weren't dumb. After five years of working for the Mob, though, if I know one thing it's how to introduce cars chasing me to lampposts. Even so the creeps kept coming, chasing us all the way to Salieri's headquarters where they perished.

Once we arrived back at the bar, we told the bad news to the Don. Another day, another roasted deal at Morello's hands. The don, however, knew something we didn't: Bill Gates wasn't a Kentucky bootlegger, he was a local thief who had made off with a truck of Morello's booze. We didn't lose a supplier, we stole a few thousand dollars worth of Morello's drink and wasted a few score of his guys.  After today's massacre, whatever advantage  he had in numbers is gone.

--

"A Greal Deal" is usually a mission that for me involves several replays, because at some point Paulie or Sam die -- most often when we reach the bottom and they run into a molotov cocktail. The grenades allowed me to take this in one run, however. The screenshots from the chase afterwards are taken from three different runs: one in which I used my last grenade and a thompson to wipe out everyone chasing us; one from when I tried to evade them; and another from when  I did a little shooting and a little evading. In that last photo Morello's goons actually shot me, not the other way around.   I'm still sold on the the idea that making a stand outside the parking garage and shooting everyone there is best.

Don't Call it a Comeback

Despite the fact that I've owned Conquests since its release, until a few weeks ago I'd never played through the Middle Ages scenario. After a trial run as the Danes, in which I destroyed Europe completely, I made a 'civilized' attempt as the Byzantines. Being a student of history, my first order of business was crushing the Bulgars. That done, I set my sights on Jerusalem. 

The Crusade was a triumph,  redeeming the patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch.  Having restored Jerusalem to Christian rule, another quest was set before the Throne:  to unite Christendom itself. Rome remained in barbarian hands. Thus was born the Second Crusade.

Since Burgundy is a formidable power here, we enticed the Franks and Germans to attack their brethren.

That alliance proved fruitful, allowing us to take Italy with ease. The Franks established themselves as our stout allies. After destroying the Fatimid caliphate in Africa,  we worked together to attack Cordoba and  redeem Europe completely.  Because of our incontrovertible status as the Defenders of Christendom, the Franks and other  tribes would abandon their papist heresies to seek communion with the Orthodox faith.  The Germans attacked us at some point, but the Franks came to our aide; after a royal marriage their king was appointed emperor of the west, and the Roman Civilization once again ruled the continent.

I then followed this with Fatimid and Turkish playthroughs. The only civ-type I haven't played as, ironically, is western Europe.

Nearly Twenty Grandchildren

Mayor Horatio Green and his wife Edele (Cornwell) Green are celebrating the birth of their seventeenth grandchild,

"Good God", said an unidentified source, who may or may not be Doug Honker. "Seventeen? Isn't that a bit much?"   With five children, such a number isn't beyond the realm of possibility, but what surprises many is the source of the most recent births: his oldest daughter, Harriet.

Harriet giving birth while her mother Edele (Cornwell) Green and her husband Matthias Ingersoll look on.

Townsfolk were astonished when Lady Harriet suddenly began using her husband's Matthias Ingersoll's name a few years ago. Married at an early age, Lady Harriet (conscious of being the great-grandaughter of two venerable town fathers, and the daughter of the mayor) refused to abandon her family name for any other.  Their first children carried the surname Green, and so thoroughly did Harriet raise them as hers alone -- it should be noted she only married out of duty and never viewed Matthias as a partner of equal standing in their relationship -- that he left the Green home in disgust, moving in with his ailing grandmother.  The two spent the next fifteen years estranged, living seperately but attending odd public events like balls as a couple for appearances. Recently, they seem to have reconciled: with the boys off to university and the girls helping nurse an elderly relative in another home,  Harriet decided to join her husband at his family home, and adopted his name to boot.  Newlyweds in spirit,  they've apparently decided to give furthering the Ingersoll line another go. 

The line continues, but for how much longer? Hiram and Edgar are quite content to remain Greens, as are Georgiana and Emma. Harriet's last pregnancies  -- including the surprise of twins -- have produced, in order, three girls:  Cameron, Joan, and Abigail.  Horatio Green is enormously proud of his daughter and adopted son for having made up, and wryly notes that Matthias seems to have gotten his luck: the mayor and his wife were pregnant four times, and each time produced a girl. (Hence his agreeing to Harriet's most unorthodox name-retaining...)

Considering that his second daughter Elizabeth has four children and twins on the way, it appears the mayor will easily have twenty grandchildren before long. (Pictured above: Anne, Tobias, Klaus, and Christopher Potter.)  Some family members are urging him to retire so that he can spend more time doting on his impressive horde of descendants.

Girls are predominating this generation of Greens: Isabel, who kept her family name as well, has a host of girls, the eldest being Lily and Eve. Barbara, who also kept her family name  by virtue of marrying into the Perceval Green branch of the extended family, has yet to have kids -- but at least one is inevitable.  While some are concerned with the size of the Green clan, the mayor is pleased. "There's plenty of room for hands at the family farm," he says, alluding to the expansive ranch the family owns. That is its newest aquisiton: the family also owns the General Store, operates a bank, and completely dominates city government to the point that their clan is something of a superpower.

Other families have been grossly large in the past, but fallen apart. Such a fate may be avoided by the Greens, who are obsessively close to one another:  members of the Green clan don't simply wander away from home. Not a Green lives alone; families share homes, and  the close connectively keeps their varied interests working in combination with one another. Horatio's brother Nathaniel is the richest man in Queen's Bluff, being both president of the bank and city treasurer. (It should be noted that no one other than a Green has ever been city treasurer.) 

The brothers' close working relationship will continue into the next generation:  Harriet's son Hiram and Nathaniel's son Calvin are as close as brothers, constantly at one another's side and both destined for great things. Recent graduates from university, they're already being groomed for leadership roles in both the family businesses and the city at large.