Isometric Dreams: The Chris Sawyer Story

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  • Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024

Комментарии • 105

  • @SonOfFurzehatt
    @SonOfFurzehatt 2 года назад +101

    I always suspected Sawyer was a good egg, but his insistence against microtransactions confirms it.

  • @truthseeker-heyoka
    @truthseeker-heyoka 2 года назад +107

    The style of those games is timeless. The ultimate "escapism" video games right here

  • @andrewstrycker9374
    @andrewstrycker9374 2 года назад +48

    Chris has been one of the most influential people in my life, and I didn't even know anything about him.

    • @Retrofire-47
      @Retrofire-47 6 месяцев назад

      the beauty of art. You need not _say_ a word

  • @captainsmith3972
    @captainsmith3972 2 года назад +81

    I have to say, I really like Locomotion, despite all its shortcomings. Maybe because I'm a train enthusiast who adored RCT 1&2. The modding done by the community also helped give it a bit of longevity. At the moment I'm playing Open Loco, they've already made some really good improvements and additional features. I'm excited to see if they are able to get anywhere near Open TTD or Open RCT and realise the potential the original game had.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +16

      I'm annoyed I don't still have my saves from when I first got it - I went all-in, including creating my own animated avatar (which I think was an officially supported option, you could create a sequence of pictures named in a certain way)
      I think the big problem was people like me who wanted a "bigger" game than Transport Tycoon, whereas a typical Lomo game ended up with fewer trains and shorter (to scale) distances. If the OpenLoco team can streamline track building and make managing large numbers of vehicles easier, I think there's a great game under there.

    • @johndalenino
      @johndalenino 2 года назад +4

      I still play OpenLoco (since og loco was no longer working on newer computers properly). Probably my lifetime fave games, RCT2 + Locomotion :)

    • @MukyuMyonNyanMimi
      @MukyuMyonNyanMimi Год назад

      @@johndaleninoStill play it? I play OpenLoco.

  • @NickyDekker89
    @NickyDekker89 2 года назад +19

    I have spend thousands of hours playing Chris Sawyer's games. Starting from the age of 9 up until now (33 years old). A true legend!

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +5

      I'm glad those games came out before the "hours played" counter existed...

    • @NickyDekker89
      @NickyDekker89 2 года назад

      @@TimberwolfK Haha for sure.

  • @aboriani
    @aboriani Год назад +13

    I remember when I was 11 years old, I saw the box of Transport Tycoon Deluxe (CD version) for the first time... At the time our PC did not have a CD reader. My parents bought the game anyways, after weeks of begging and pestering. I read and re-read the manual so many times, wondering how the game would look like on a screen. I forced myself to learn enough English to understand it and I read that that thing so many times that when I finally was able to install the game, I was expert at it. Now 29 years later, I still play that game thanks to openTTD.
    Thanks Chris Sawyer, for this wonderful piece of software.
    BTW, I still have the original box and CD and I treasure it as part of my history.

    • @victor_TH
      @victor_TH Год назад +5

      This story is similar to mine. I played countless hours of the demo that came packaged in the CD of a physical computer magazine of the time 😄 i vividly remember the day my parents left me at home to go shopping and I pestered them while making sure I pronounced the title as plainly as possible in our native language so they would remember lol
      I lost so many hours of sleep to this game 😂 as yourself, i still play open TTD 😉
      These games have something special, just yesterday I was playing a free web based SimCity 1 version. I also spent so many hours playing the monochrome and 4 color versions on my older PCs 🥲

  • @HamsterWheelGaming
    @HamsterWheelGaming 2 года назад +11

    I spent so much time playing Transport Tycoon as a kid, I'm forever grateful by what Chris Sawyer made.

  • @bigeteum
    @bigeteum 2 года назад +24

    Never played his games back in the day , but man, openttd got me hooked good.

  • @griffinrails
    @griffinrails 2 года назад +19

    Locomotion is definitely my favourite game of all time, it's so addictive!

    • @alucardwingates447
      @alucardwingates447 Год назад +2

      yeah.. for me, the harddest map is the one you can't use airplane..

  • @WhatHoSnorkers
    @WhatHoSnorkers Год назад +5

    Well, that was a lovely tour of Mr Sawyer's career (and musical taste!).

  • @Gertofius1
    @Gertofius1 2 года назад +9

    I remember getting Locomotion and reading that Chris hoped that people still played it 10 years later in the manual. I still enjoy it to this day, with the added support of Open Loco. Naturally I am enjoying his other classics in their own Open versions too.

  • @robinhogg5254
    @robinhogg5254 Месяц назад

    A big thank you to Chris for the masterpiece that is Transport Tycoon. I loved that game and was enthralled by it from the overall cutthroat business strategies to the tiny details of buses breaking down en route, or the thrill of buying a new type of aircraft. Wonderful game full of great memories.

  • @MyriadColorsCM
    @MyriadColorsCM Год назад +4

    Chris Sawyer is legendary, I still remember spending many hours on my old PC building immense rollercoasters. Itw as one of the formative aspects of my life and, to this day, I still love amnagement-type games (even though I mostly suck at them).

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад +1

      I have the problem that I'm a lot better at Sawyer-style games than I am at other management games! I've always enjoyed them because they're relaxing; you don't have to play a perfect game, you can play around and experiment without having to restart the scenario because you'll miss an objective if you don't play it exactly the way the game wants.

    • @MyriadColorsCM
      @MyriadColorsCM Год назад

      @@TimberwolfK Yeah, iǘe been playing OpenTTD recently. Its incredibly fun.

  • @matoflynn
    @matoflynn Год назад +5

    Only realizing now why I love isometric drawings so much. Chris Sawyer is a legend.

  • @quixmith
    @quixmith Год назад +2

    29 years later, and I still play TTD. Only it's Open TTD now :) Still one of the best games ever made for RTS. Thank you Chris Sawyer for creating this, in my opinion, greatest game ever created

  • @nxthanj
    @nxthanj 2 года назад +4

    it pleases me to see that people to this day still recognise the masterpieces that chris sawyer has created. But he hasnt just created masterpieces, he created childhoods like my own. RCT1, RCT2 and Locomotion were by far my favourite games as a child. I love the themes that they presented and the complexity it brought, especially for a game during its time. I still play RCT2 on an open source version and Locomotion to this day, and having recently found out about OpenLoco, i might see what that has in store. Amazing video by the way, thank you for sharing this

  • @hsjun7142
    @hsjun7142 Год назад +2

    I would rather say Chris Sawyer created an universe instead of an empire. Chris Sawyer, Simon Foster, and Allister Brimble have allowed every player around the world to build their own park, castle, empire in their universe. Sometimes calming and peaceful, sometimes vibrant and joyful, their universe is a pure virtual nostalgia.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад +1

      Don't forget John Broomhall with his collection of Herbie Hancock records! (I swear there's some King Curtis influence in places on the Transport Tycoon soundtrack, too.)

  • @freakoffer
    @freakoffer Год назад +1

    It's kind of funny that Project Zomboid's graphics people always make fun of saying it's like Roller Coaster Tycoon or the original Sims and I scratch my head and wonder why that is an insult I like that style but I guess i'd be the niche market it geared towards... Either way great video Timberwolf!

  • @JasperNLxD
    @JasperNLxD 2 года назад +5

    You did very well telling Chris' story :) Very nice video, thanks!

  • @MickanMansRCTStation
    @MickanMansRCTStation 2 года назад +3

    A really great watch, informative and a good dose of humour in there too. If there's one person I need to buy a beer for, it's Mr Sawyer!

  • @Crash-Rest-Yummy
    @Crash-Rest-Yummy 2 года назад +3

    Thanks for sharing, Transport tycoon checked all the right boxes, even with non curved rails, how amazing is that if u think about it :)

  • @bubblecar2172
    @bubblecar2172 2 года назад +2

    I've been playing RCT since I was a kid. I got a copy of RCT Deluxe from a yard sale when I was a small kid, and played it for years and years. I loved RCT, Zoo Tycoon, Command and Conquer, and so many other top down, RTS games as a kid. I picked up RCT Deluxe and Locomotion on steam a couple years ago, and just got back into these wonderful games. This was a super cool video, giving a glimpse into the developer who shaped a lot of my childhood PC gaming. Cheers to you Mr. Chris Sawyer, and thanks for the great video Mr. Timberwolf. :)

  • @perrrry
    @perrrry 2 месяца назад

    The details man, the details of this video is something else. Well done! Chris Sawyer is the God of gamecoding.

  • @PocketC00KIE
    @PocketC00KIE Год назад

    When Qogo played the Merry-Go Round song, I screamed

  • @MichaelPohoreski
    @MichaelPohoreski Год назад +2

    9:50 Minor correction: OOP is a *programming paradigm.* Robotron (1982) was written in _assembly_ and used OOP a year before cfront (1983), the first C++ compiler, was released.

  • @Gazzell82
    @Gazzell82 Год назад

    Amazing games! I have played these from day 1 and continue to play these games. Transport Tycoon is my favourite game of all time. Thank you Chris Sawyer.

  • @pokedude104
    @pokedude104 Год назад +2

    OpenTTD and OpenRCT2 are the two games I find myself going back to the most of all the other games I own. If I don't know what I want to play I never go wrong with either one. Its the same deal with civilization. I grew up watching my dad play civ 2 and I've basically been playing it on and off for 20 years now... Some games are truly timeless

    • @Dexter037S4
      @Dexter037S4 7 месяцев назад

      OpenLoco is brilliant too.

  • @ReadyToHarvest
    @ReadyToHarvest 2 года назад +1

    Great work. I hope you get more subscribers! I loved RCT and also Locomotion.

  • @miccrhaafetl5101
    @miccrhaafetl5101 Год назад

    My love of cargo/goods management games started with Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Chris Sawyer and Sid Meier influence so much of my gaming habits.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад

      Sid Meier's autobiography (Memoir!) is an interesting read if you've not picked it up yet. Talks a lot about how in those days they'd iterate on ideas until they found a really fun core gameplay loop, and then build out from that.

  • @keithmichael112
    @keithmichael112 2 года назад +1

    you deserve more subscribers, this was interesting. thanks!

  • @thib_frcs
    @thib_frcs 2 года назад +1

    that's solid content you deserve more views, thank you for your work and bringing me so many memories

  • @idb2b
    @idb2b 2 года назад +1

    Really enjoyed this, very well made! Made my podcasting research very easy, appreciate it! 🙌🍺

  • @MammothChats
    @MammothChats 2 года назад +1

    Really interesting video, I’m a big fan of Transport Tycoon for the ps1 at the moment

  • @PhilipMurphyExtra
    @PhilipMurphyExtra 8 месяцев назад

    Chris Sawyer is a true legend of gaming for sure

  • @BatRado
    @BatRado 2 года назад

    Mark Evans
    Back in my day, we coded in assembly, 6 CPUs running in the same address space with a custom real time OS. Burned the code into 12 EEPROMs. Was awesome!

  • @superclass4744
    @superclass4744 2 года назад +1

    Well said my friend, well said!

  • @Skeffles
    @Skeffles Месяц назад

    Fantastic video! He's a great inspiration.

  • @sjan111
    @sjan111 2 года назад

    extremely underrated video, good job

  • @cristitanase6130
    @cristitanase6130 Год назад

    Transpprt Tycoon Deluxe is right there on my top 5 games, and if not for UFO 1 would have been the number one.
    Amazing jib for a single developer. Trylly incrrdible.

  • @sanderbos4243
    @sanderbos4243 2 года назад

    Excellent video, thank you for teaching me so much about him!

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +1

      It was interesting to research, I'd had almost no idea about the MTX games (other than a friend mentioning the Qogo music connection)

    • @sanderbos4243
      @sanderbos4243 2 года назад

      @@TimberwolfK I love your channel, I'm watching your "Why aren't there more open-source recreations of classic games?" video right now, keep it up! :-)

  • @Skawagon
    @Skawagon 2 года назад +5

    As a spiritual sucessor to Transport Tycoon I would also mention the Jan Zeleny´s Mashinky - if for no other reason than the factthat Jan Zeleny did most of the coding, asets and graphics for the game himself.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +1

      I need to find the time to play Mashinky! Been enjoying Railway Empire a bit of late - has a few frustrations and rough edges, and I could do without the "characters", but an interesting spiritual successor to Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon.

    • @vaakdemandante8772
      @vaakdemandante8772 Год назад

      It's too expensive for what it offers and has no demo, so it's hard to get a feel for the game before buying. Certainly looks nice.

  • @NuStiuFrate
    @NuStiuFrate Год назад +1

    Man i was so let down by locomotion. It felt like an old game, even on day one.
    Rollercoaster Tycoon felt like its own game, separated from Transport Tycoon. Locomotion felt like i was playing a weird combination of both games, Like Sawyer just didn't know what to do anymore.
    And yeah, the colors were so dull.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад +1

      Similar, to use words I'm sure Chris has in an interview, "the world moved on and I didn't". I played a decent amount of it when it was new, and even worked out how to add myself as a custom face, but it's not endured in the same way as the recognised classics for me.

    • @NuStiuFrate
      @NuStiuFrate Год назад

      @@TimberwolfK Ah that explains it. I was expecting the next big thing to blow my mind, like the previous two series did but...nothing, the magic was gone.
      Oh well, i'll always be grateful to him for his classics, that are part of my childhood.

  • @travisrauh
    @travisrauh Год назад +1

    Chris Sawyer is a legend

  • @thepaintjobber
    @thepaintjobber 7 месяцев назад +1

    I heard a rumor that Chris Sawyer used a big portion of his royalties from TTD to travel the USA and visit amusement parks before making RCT, is that true?

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  7 месяцев назад

      He definitely talks about visiting theme parks and "falling in love" with roller coasters during the development of what was originally supposed to be a Transport Tycoon sequel and became RCT as he became fascinated by how roller coasters worked and the physics algorithms behind them. How much that cost is off the record as far as I know!

  • @N00N01
    @N00N01 2 года назад

    Hope most new-comers see this, to know and maybe even respect the legacy more

  • @Yash-Gaikwad
    @Yash-Gaikwad Год назад

    "He might have good contacts who taught him or was very rich to get necessary resources"
    Above statement is to make myself feel smart again...

  • @jjc2896
    @jjc2896 Год назад

    The day that Locomotion/OpenLoco gains a properly functioning signal system (that allows complex rail networks to be built) will be the day that I stop playing other games. There is so much potential there!

    • @Ash_18037
      @Ash_18037 2 месяца назад

      Agreed. But even more important is much larger map sizes, the original game had pathetically small map limits. Sadly Open Locomotion devs seem to think they need to reimplement the entire game in C++ before making any of these actually interesting improvements.

  • @ashleyhamman
    @ashleyhamman Год назад

    I was never very into the RCT games, but Locomotion came to me at that point in my childhood where I was old enough to understand the main systems and have fun with it, while still being very young and impressionable. I had already experienced a few 3D games at that point, but the sorta cute isometric style with its soundtrack that takes you through the eras really grabbed me, much more so than Railroad Tycoon 2 or Sim City 3000 Unlimited which came into my life within a couple years of Locomotion. My main disappointment with Locomotion as an adult is that it lacks the fine depth (signalling mainly) that I could find in it's significantly less charming predecessor-opensource-remake, OpenTTD.

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад

      I did play through quite a lot of it, it's a shame I didn't keep the save files (although I think this is in my "I'll just put the hard drive in a drawer, it's not like the bearings will seize up from lack of use" era). What got me in the end is just how *fiddly* it is to maintain a big network, especially if you play without a "vehicles never get old" mod.
      It's a shame because I do like the chunky models and more options for track layout.

  • @m6isme
    @m6isme 2 месяца назад

    With a huge shout-out to Allister Brimble for composing such wonderfully catchy songs!

    • @Ash_18037
      @Ash_18037 2 месяца назад

      John Broomhall did the catchy tunes in the Transport Tycoon games and Locomotion.

  • @Bittamin
    @Bittamin 2 года назад

    So I really enjoy the voice you have going on AND the audio quality is phenomenal, but I have to know is it voice acting? I’m impressed by everything going on here regardless but I had to ask. Big into voice acting, even if this comes naturally to it you should audition for things. Very David Attenborough type vibes

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +2

      It's sort of half-and-half; it's based on my natural speaking voice but "pushed" if that makes sense, rolling a little more into the sounds and giving it more of an obvious accent.
      There's surprisingly little to the sound. I use an SM58 with a FetHead, through a FocusRite Solo, and then just basic compressor/limiter/noise gate. Sometimes do a little cleanup in RX8 if there's anything obviously wrong (too much background or mouth noise) but that's about all.

    • @Bittamin
      @Bittamin 2 года назад +2

      @@TimberwolfK it turns out great dude!!

  • @Ash_18037
    @Ash_18037 2 месяца назад

    Chris created some classic games for sure. But I remember finding Locomotion extremely disappointing. The biggest issue for me was the small map size limit (for 2004 it was already noticeable). I think the trains could be quite long too, but that just made the small maps all the more disappointing. That fact it didn't add a huge amount of actual new gameplay over TTD didn't help either. Open Locomotion is not (yet) the answer either. Sadly the devs are quite slow and apparently need to recreate the entire codebase in C++ before adding any new features such as bigger map size. So maybe by 2030 if we're lucky!

  • @karltownsend2615
    @karltownsend2615 2 года назад +1

    Good Watch!

  • @CentralJerseyRailfan
    @CentralJerseyRailfan 2 года назад

    0:55 mfw when the merry go round music comes on🗿🥸

  • @Pugragger
    @Pugragger Год назад

    i've played these games for countless hours, I could of mastered many musical instruments but instead i can quickly complete scenarios in pretty much any of his games... is that still talent?

  • @daniel69
    @daniel69 6 месяцев назад

    Chris Sawyer - GOAT

  • @nanoblast5748
    @nanoblast5748 2 года назад

    chris "the legend" sawyer

  • @Jkauppa
    @Jkauppa Год назад

    appearances to the heck

    • @Jkauppa
      @Jkauppa Год назад

      8-bit gpu's dont have to slow

    • @Jkauppa
      @Jkauppa Год назад

      rip old mate

  • @ParDeRuz
    @ParDeRuz 2 года назад

    thank you narrator from stanley parable for making this video

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад

      One day I should figure out how to give you lot the outtake where one of the dogs comes and interrupts recording and I (entirely by accident) slip into a pitch-perfect impersonation of Kevan Brighting. Apparently third-person narration is the missing final step in the transformation.

    • @ParDeRuz
      @ParDeRuz 2 года назад +1

      @@TimberwolfK Brighting narrates over Stanley in the third person!!!! :OOOOOO

  • @ADR69
    @ADR69 Год назад

    Chris is a national treasure

  • @latbat58
    @latbat58 2 года назад

    Interesting

  • @djcb4190
    @djcb4190 2 года назад

    We're taking 3 dimensions.

  • @victor_TH
    @victor_TH Год назад

    I refuse to believe that our fountain of ideas just dries up as we get older, maybe complacency? I never had any success like Chris but I used to have plenty of breaking ideas and that seems long gone though

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  Год назад +2

      Jeff Minter has an interesting counterpoint to Sawyer's "games have become too complex with big teams" view, which is that while you can't make a top-flight commercial game as a lone developer any more there's nothing to stop you making indie games and continuing to implement whatever ideas can be built by one or two people working alone.
      (Admittedly, Sawyer exited game development a few years before indie titles really started breaking through thanks to digital distribution and indie-focused storefronts)

    • @victor_TH
      @victor_TH Год назад

      @@TimberwolfK Very good points, totally agree. I started mobile development back in the old J2ME days, I think it shared many similarities with early game dev. I am now getting started on VR as I also think it is now in such a stage. Just good mechanics/gameplay/fun element is all that's needed for a solo or small team to compete against bigger players, specially on "emerging" tech where their presence is still small.

  • @luk3z517
    @luk3z517 2 года назад +1

    For me Locomotion is too mixed with RT. Successor of TTD should be TTD2 not Locomotion. Anyway best ideas for games come form '80 & '90. Some isometric games are better than 3D and TTD is a good example.

  • @NNokia-jz6jb
    @NNokia-jz6jb 7 месяцев назад +1

    All the best games were on the c64.

  • @SevenDeMagnus
    @SevenDeMagnus 11 месяцев назад

    Genius

  • @HyperBlueWolf
    @HyperBlueWolf 2 года назад +1

    Dino Dini
    It's pronounced "Dino" as in Ferrari, NOT "Dino" as in Pterodactyl ... Otherwise, great video :)

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +1

      Aargh! I think I even saw an out-take from Digitiser: The Show with exactly the same mistake, and then didn't think about it when I recorded the voiceover track for this...

  • @NNokia-jz6jb
    @NNokia-jz6jb 7 месяцев назад

    TTC looks like a-train. Same style title graphics also.

  • @matsv201
    @matsv201 2 года назад

    Its not like 100% of RTC was written in assembly, while it was a majority of runtime, it wasnt really the case for code. For RTC2 most of the code was compiled with mostly drawing algoritm in asseblmey.
    There was a lot of code replaced between rct1 and 2. That is why rct2 runs much bettwr on modern computers

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад

      I'm going with what both Chris Sawyer and the OpenRCT2 project state.

    • @matsv201
      @matsv201 2 года назад

      @@TimberwolfK the stats its self is not wrong, it how it was presented.
      Take doom as a typcal game of the era. Ot was 10% assembler in code, but 90% in runtime. This is typical for all games in the era.
      That dont imply that 99% of then written code is assembler, its always messured two ways

  • @killer1479
    @killer1479 2 года назад

    then his legacy came to a train wreck of an end, with the shit show known as, rollercoaster tycoon world :|

    • @TimberwolfK
      @TimberwolfK  2 года назад +2

      In the few interviews he's done Chris has been diplomatic but also noticeably careful to never express an opinion on what Atari have done to the franchise since 3. The Eurogamer interview he did back in 2016 is... uh... carefully worded, to say the least.
      There was some talk a little while ago they weren't going to extend the agreement for Atari to use the RCT name beyond 2022, although Atari's recent financial statement claims both parties are looking to renew when the current deal expires in September.