The first post, with what will hopefully be a regular feature.

So, here's a brand new blog. I have no goal in mind except to write about nifty stuff. So, today, as my first post, I'll offer up a review of a classic game. Hopefully, I'll write regular retro reviews.


The first review: Aerobiz Supersonic.

Overview: A spiffy business simulator that puts you in the fancy, comfortable leather chair of an airline's CEO office. You have 20 years to turn your airline into a global travel provider. Buy planes, open routes, get slots at airports, it goes on. We'll go in depth soon.

Sound: This was on the old Super Nintendo and Genesis systems, so, the quality is give and take. But it works well. When viewing different regional areas, different musical scores will play. The Southeast Asia region will play a tune with a bit of a southeast Asian feel to it. The North America overview offers a nice relaxing little tune, you get the idea. Between quarters, a tune plays to show the previous quarter sales, profits, and other figures.

Graphics: For a simple little business simulator, the graphics available are quite satisfactory. And then some! When you have a board meeting, your various executives will be represented by headshot-like avatars that are quite detailed for the time, and well animated. The planes, which are actual licensed likenesses, are fairly accurate. Eventually the planes are substituted for fantasy ideas, such as Boeing's non-existant supersonic mid-range jet, or the Boeing Hyperjumbo, the fantasy equivalent of the A380.

Gameplay: Here's the meat of the game, naturally. You pick from four scenarios, each a different twenty-year span in aviation history. The dawn of jets, jetliners becoming common, the first supersonic flights, and then "the future." Which in actuality is now, but at the time this was the future. You pick your era, you pick the place you want to begin. Now, you can adjust the airline name and the color that represents you. Once you're done, though, its time to hop into the game. You begin with a sum of money, a handful of planes, and a lot of slots at the city of your choosing. You'll also have a smaller number of slots at a few airports in your region. Where you go from here is entirely up to you. A good idea is generally to pick up new planes, and start flying between cities in your regions. Now, suppose, however, you started in Paris, but you want to fly to New York. You have to send one of your board to negotiate for slot space at the airport. Depending on the relationship between the countries, this will either be easy, or hard. You'll get the slots, but it'll change the length of the negotiations. So once you have your NY slots, you can start flying there as well.

Naturally, you can change the fares, the flights per week, the type of plane used on the route. But here's what gives the game depth. Suppose you want to start flying regionally in North America. You can open up a regional hub! Now, you have a whole new base of operations for flights to originate from. Now, suppose you want to see if you can increase tourism in New York. You can buy a concert hall, or a museum. Suppose you want to give people better access to your services. You can buy a shuttle service, commuter airline, and even hotels. Once you've done this, you could advertise your companies arts and leisure services, or the convenience of traveling with your airline. This makes the ways you can run your airline pretty flexible.

Aside from this, things change in the world around you that will affect travel. Bad weather can cancel flights to and from a city. Some cities might become huge travel spots. The Olympics will go to different cities, boosting travel to the region immensely. During the Cold War era, you probably won't be making any flights to Moscow, and forget about buying Russian planes.

Its this kind of depth that makes a game good. If you like simulators, business ones in particular, give it a shot if you can find a way to.

Overall, I give it a 8.75 out of 10.