DinoPark Tycoon
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| DinoPark Tycoon | |
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| Developer(s) | MECC, Manley & Associates Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | MECC |
| Designer(s) | Chuck Bilow |
| Platform(s) | Computer Operating Systems - DOS (Windows 95, Windows 98), Macintosh System 7 |
| Release date | Macintosh System 7 - 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | Ages 8 - Adult |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| Input methods | Computer mouse, 3DO controller |
DinoPark Tycoon is an educational business simulation computer game released by MECC in 1993, and it was widely used throughout many public schools and institutes in North America. One of the most original "business" games made, DinoPark Tycoon is both a strategy and managing game. The player must run a modern park that features dinosaurs as its main attraction. The goal is to take care of the dinosaurs and feed them, while keeping the park clean, organized, and well maintained.
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[edit] Game overview
DinoPark Tycoon was developed by Manley & Associates Inc. and published by MECC. It was released in many public elementary schools across the United States and Canada. It was not required by the schools' curriculum, but mainly a fun way for the students to learn how to manage and take care of their park and dinosaurs with some responsibility. Although mainly recognized in schools, DinoPark Tycoon remained popular as an extremely fun simulation game, along with games such as The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Sim City
[edit] Gameplay
The objective in DinoPark Tycoon is the successful administration of a dinosaur park. The player starts off with a $5,000 loan. This money is used to buy land, dinosaurs, fencing, food, and pay employees, until enough money is earned to pay off the loan. Then the player can expand the park and prosper.
[edit] Real estate
The first thing the player must do before anything else is buy land on which they can host their dinosaur park. There are three types of land which the player can choose from: Desert, Plains, and Marsh. Desert is cheapest, at $500 for an acre (an acre is a dinosaur pen). Flower seeds in Desert mature into edible flowers. However, the price of the low cost is that dinosaurs' discontent with the weather causes them to break out more often. The winter season sells the most tickets. Plains is the most expensive, at $1,000 an acre. However, dinosaurs are more content to stay in their pens. Tree seedlings sprout into trees for food. Ticket sales top out during the spring season. Finally, Marsh costs $750 an acre and is in-between in aptness for dinosaurs to escape. Fungi spores produce fungi to eat, and the summer season sells the most tickets. In the Macintosh version of the game, there is a cheat whereby if you buy a certain value of land (i.e. 2 plains = 1 x $1000 = $2000) and click on the thumb to leave, you can re-enter and press cancel to gain $2000 times per cancellation. If you buy all 5 plains, and perform this cheat, you can go into and out of the land-buying segment of the game and gain $5000 per time.
[edit] Food
The food store provides three types of foods: Meat, plants, seeds. Meat must be bought regularly for meat-eating dinosaurs and is the most expensive type of food. Herbivores can eat plants, which come in fungi (cheapest), flowers, and trees (most expensive). Seeds cannot be eaten, but when bought (and implicitly planted) in the correct land type, they mature into edible plants, except for far less money.
[edit] General store
Fences, concessions, and advertising can be bought at the general store. Three fences, with the option of electrical fence, can be bought, with varying degrees of strength and price. Concessions include bathrooms, food concessions, gift shops, and parking lots. Food and gift concessions, with hired concessionares, can gain more money in addition to the tickets. Parking lots automatically bring more visitors but are expensive. Advertising for the park, which must be bought each season, also brings in visitors.'
[edit] Dino City
Dino City is where you buy your dinosaurs. You can not purchase more than one of the same dinosaur species in one visit; you must wait for the next season. The Vegasaurus, which costs $25,000, is probably an Easter egg to goad the interest of players. When bought, the machine drops the egg outside the cart, breaking the egg, causing the species to become extinct.
[edit] Dinosaurs appearing in the game
- Albertosaurus
- Allosaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Apatosaurus
- Coelophysis
- Corythosaurus
- Deinonychus
- Diplodocus
- Edmontosaurus
- Hadrosaurus
- Hypsilophodon
- Iguanodon
- Ornithomimus
- Panoplosaurus
- Pentaceratops
- Saurolophus
- Stegosaurus
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Vegasaurus
[edit] Ports
DinoPark Tycoon was later ported to the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer home video game console in early 1994. The main game concept is still present in the version, but a few tweaks are also noticeable, while some minor changes were made in the graphics as well. All in all, the game ideas are kept, and the game still has its strategic appeal.
[edit] Trivia
- It is likely that DinoPark Tycoon capitalized on the popularity of the movie, Jurassic Park, released the same year as the game.[citation needed] The setting of the movie was also a dinosaur theme park.
- It also has the same plot to another tycoon game, Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs, an expansion to Zoo Tycoon.
