Motor City Download (1994 Simulation Game)

In Motor City you are the President of an upstart car company. You have the control just about everything, from designing cars and opening branches throughout Europe to hiring workers and engineers. You have to build larger and larger factories. The game starts at the beginning of the 20th century and takes you slowly forward to the modern ages and the technical revolutions.

This is one of my personal favourites! The game idea is a bit like Detroit, but this one is way more complicated and way more advanced than the game Detroit.

You own a company, a car factory. Your goal is to build cars that everyone wants so you can make lots of money out it. What you first have is an almost empty lot, with an administration building and a warehouse. A train track is leading straight through the middle. Build things like a research department, a factory or a storage place. You climb your way up from the most simple 1-cilinder 5 HP cars to the most luxury limousines. Become the greatest car factory in the world.

What makes this game different from Detroit? Well, that's not a hard question. This game is in many ways different from Detroit, because this game is much more detailed. Detroit is not as realistic as this game. In this game you're in total control of everything. In Detroit everything is just a bit too much based on faith if you ask me!

But ok, I recommend this game over Detroit, but if you like this game, you might want to try Detroit too.

The last game developed and published by Austrian developer Max Design before they were bought out by Sunflowers, Motor City (marketed in Germany as Oldtimer) is an excellent simulation of the car industry that is sadly not as well known as Impressions' Detroit. Although they both tackle the same subject matter, Motor City is a much better game due to a more realistic and versatile economics model that underlies the game.

The idea in Motor City will be familiar to Detroit players: as manager of a fledgling car company, your job is to expand your business by designing and selling cars. Similar to Detroit, most of the time you will be looking at the premises of your company, on which you start with only two buildings: administration, and warehouse. Motor City includes many more options and details that Detroit lacks. For example, before you can build a car you must choose general concepts, e.g. size (small, medium, or large), whether its roof can be opened, chassis type, and engine type. All these components cost money, of course. Since building cars take time to complete (and the time varies depending on how many bells & whistles you add to it) but you have fixed costs to pay every month, having a long-term business plan, including astute timing of when to market new models, is crucial to winning the game. There are numerous statistics you can access at any time to see how you faring in the industry, from overall financial position to track record and trends.

Overall, I am very impressed with Motor City's depth and variety of options. Detroit is a lot of fun, but it often feels as if it could have been about any other industry had Impressions substitute cars with other products. Motor City, on the other hand, contains many industry-specific details that aren't common to other industries. The bottom line is, if you want a more sophisticated business simulation than Detroit, Motor City is a must-have. It may not be as accessible as Detroit, but its economic model is hard to beat (and quite educational as you put more time into studying how the market works).

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Motor City have also downloaded:
Detroit, Ocean Trader, Car Tycoon, Rags to Riches (a.k.a. Wall Street Manager), Air Bucks, Ports of Call, Mad TV, Ultimate Domain (a.k.a. Genesia)