- #ZOO TYCOON 2001 ACTIVATE COMPLETE COLLECTION HOW TO#
- #ZOO TYCOON 2001 ACTIVATE COMPLETE COLLECTION SOFTWARE#
All you need to do to start is to build a fence. Wheeler said it was important that there were few barriers to entry. Players must clear land to gain resources to build enclosures, each of which will differ depending on the animal that’ll live there.
#ZOO TYCOON 2001 ACTIVATE COMPLETE COLLECTION SOFTWARE#
Before it, there were plenty of games that took on the “Tycoon” naming convention and shared similar gameplay: MicroProse’s Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon, Software 2000’s Pizza Tycoon, and another game by RollerCoaster Tycoon creator Sawyer, Transport Tycoon. RollerCoaster Tycoon can be credited for the increase of tycoon-esque games that were released in the 2000s, but it certainly wasn’t the first. Zoo Tycoon was not wildly different than the other tycoon games popular in the late ’90s. And he says, ‘ Airport Tycoon? Why wouldn’t we make, like, Zoo Tycoon?’” “That was Brian Shea, one of our very early employees. “Of course, the next person who walked into my office, I mentioned it to them,” Howie said.
Howie said that Wheeler asked him not to mention the idea to anyone while he worked it out. Airports aren’t fun places for the most part. People are usually stressed out.”īut RollerCoaster Tycoon is popular because there’s roller coasters. “But RollerCoaster Tycoon is popular because there’s roller coasters. “I get the ‘Tycoon’ thing,” Howie told Wheeler, the former studio president told Polygon. The idea didn’t make it far out of Blue Fang president Hank Howie’s office after being suggested by studio co-founder John Wheeler. Like Zoo Tycoon, it was meant to be a riff on game developer Chris Sawyer’s 1999 theme park sim RollerCoaster Tycoon. But before there was Zoo Tycoon, Blue Fang considered another simulation-style game: Airport Tycoon. There were four of us.”īut the company moved into an office when it began work on Zoo Tycoon, growing from those first four to 20 employees. “My wife said it was alright, and we just packed into the space - well, not really packed. “We were just starting out and didn’t really have money to spend on an expensive office space,” Levesque told Polygon. Building the zooīlue Fang started with a small team of developers set up in co-founder Adam Levesque’s basement. Just like in The Sims, I was telling my stories - just with animals instead of humans. In more mischievous moments, I created zoos for the sole purpose of reigning chaos, “forgetting” to close in an animal only for it to wreak havoc on my guests. Instead, I just watched the animals interact. I used cheats to have infinite money, and I never had to worry about guest satisfaction. But the reason many latched onto the game is because they could play it however they pleased. There is, of course, a technical way to win: engage in the capitalistic practice of increasing profits.
#ZOO TYCOON 2001 ACTIVATE COMPLETE COLLECTION HOW TO#
Players could pick and choose how to play. Zoo Tycoon was popular for plenty of reasons, among them the ability to curate your own experience. I tested out scenarios, adding gazelles and other animals to the enclosures. I spent hours constructing the perfect environment from them: all the right trees for shade, lots of dirt, and plenty of food. In particular, I remember building a single enclosure the size of the lot for a pride of lions, my favorite animal at the time.
I was enamored by Zoo Tycoon and the freedom it gave me to create something in a way I’d only ever dream about. I wanted to be a veterinarian - someone who helped injured animals, the wilder the better. Many wild animals won’t thrive in captivity - there are many for-profit zoos that are, frankly, inhumane - and being a zookeeper certainly didn’t mean we’d be petting wild animals day-by-day. For many of us, we realized the unlikeliness of these dreams becoming reality. We lived out these fantasies in books and by playing pretend, dreaming up the research centers we’d fund, the animals we’d rehabilitate, and the fur we’d snuggle up to at night. This is a normal day at work in Blue Fang’s Zoo Tycoon, the management simulation game published by Microsoft in 2001.Īs a kid, I wanted nothing more than to be in the presence of all the animals I loved, whether that was scooping their poop or studying their movement. Maybe you can’t keep up with the animal poop, and now the zoo’s patrons are throwing up, too. Sometimes, it’s because the wrong food has been placed in their habitat. You can tell because of the tiny, red frowning faces that have popped up above their heads.