Airline Tycoon

Airline Tycoon is a business simulation game, in which the player must successfully manage an airline. The original was developed by Spellbound, and published by Infogrames, however, the succeeding versions were published by a variety of publishers. The original Airline Tycoon was created for Windows, however, the later Deluxe version was also ported to Linux, Mac OS X and ZETA. In this game, like all Tycoon Computer Games, the objective is to become a tycoon, and in this case, an “Airline Tycoon.” This is achieved through the balance of income and expenditures.

Gameplay
A simulation computer game where the player acts as manager of an airline, competing against three other tycoons. The names of the four tycoons are: Tina Cortez (Sunshine Airways), Siggi Sorglos (Falcon Lines), Igor Tuppolevsky (Phoenix Travel) and Mario Zucchero (Honey Airlines). The player must keep their aircraft in good shape and equip them at such a level as to keep the customers satisfied, buy new planes (from the expensive Airplane Agency or from Mr Schlauberger at the museum who sells old planes at a much lower cost) and take out bank loans if required. The player must also manage their personnel, plan flights, form relationships with the air hostess, buy fuel, attend meetings in the airport manager's office and, if there is the time, slip into Rick's café for a quick cup of coffee. The player can also perform sabotages on the other players. The graphics are bright and decidedly tongue in cheek: the tycoon Igor Tuppolevsky has a set of Russian dolls on his desk—and an open tin of caviar, while Tina Cortez has a picture of a matador and a bull's head.

With a network, up to four people can play at once and the game status can be saved (as it can in single-player mode) for longer games.

Releases

 * Airline Tycoon, 1998
 * Airline Tycoon First Class, 2001
 * Airline Tycoon Evolution, 2002
 * Airline Tycoon Deluxe, 2003

Overview
The original game was released in August 1998 in Germany. It wasn't released in any English-speaking country; however, there was an official English demo.

The first Airline Tycoon title to be released in United States and the United Kingdom was Airline Tycoon First Class. It was published in 2001 by Monte Cristo; however, the publisher decided to remove First Class subtitle from the game box and manuals, though it remained in-game. Features added in First Class include ten brand new missions, multiplayer mode with up to 4 players, new MIDI music, cargo transportation and more.

In 2002, Airline Tycoon Evolution, second Airline Tycoon rerelease was published by Monte Cristo. The game introduced ten new missions, possibility of buying self-designed aircraft (and possibility of sharing these planes via Internet), possibility of hiring aircraft security agents, five new sabotages and more.

In 2003, Spellbound released third Airline Tycoon addition, named Airline Tycoon Deluxe. It included all of previous versions, the only new part of the game was twenty new airports and possibility of accepting cargo from remote estates. Originally it was released in limited edition of 5000 items. It was available only in Germany, though it wasn't translated into other languages. However, Linux, Mac OS X and ZETA versions released in Autumn 2005 and Winter 2006 by RuneSoft are available in English, German and French.

Future sequel
On May 24, 2006 Spellbound announced it would be releasing a full sequel to Airline Tycoon, Airline Tycoon II due to be released in Germany sometime in the second half of 2007. The release date was, however, not met. Spellbound stated they could not find a publisher for the game and announced no new release date. On October 22, 2009 Airline Tycoon II was announced by Kalypso Media and scheduled to be released in 2011.