Transport Tycoon

Transport Tycoon, released in 1994, is the work of Chris Sawyer, a programmer who would later create RollerCoaster Tycoon, and it stands as one of the most quietly influential business simulations ever made. Published by MicroProse, it hands you a growing map and challenges you to build a profitable transport empire from nothing, laying railways, roads, bus routes, shipping lanes and air links to haul passengers, mail, coal, oil and other cargo between towns and industries.

The genius is in the interlocking systems. Industries produce goods that other places demand, towns grow when you serve them well, and rival companies compete for the same lucrative routes, all playing out over decades as vehicle technology advances from wheezing steam engines to modern trains and jets. Signalling your rail network so trains do not gridlock becomes an engrossing puzzle in itself, and the satisfaction of watching a well-oiled logistics network turn a steady profit is hard to beat.

Its influence echoes on today through the enormously popular open-source remake OpenTTD, which keeps the game alive and modded for new players. Even in its original form it remains endlessly replayable, approachable yet deep, and a genuine landmark of the management genre that has aged far better than most of its contemporaries.