Тропико: Симулятор Карибского Острова и Эль Президенте

2001 simulation video game

Tropico is a construction and management simulation video game developed by PopTop Software and published by Gathering of Developers in April 2001. Feral Interactive has developed and published a number of the games in the series for Mac OS X. The games see the player taking the role of "El Presidente", who rules a fictional Caribbean island country named Tropico during the Cold War era and beyond. The game is tongue in cheek in its presentation of semi democratic banana republics, using a great deal of humor while still referencing such topics as totalitarianism, electoral fraud, and the interventions of powerful companies (United Fruit is implied) and the Cold War superpowers (the United States and Soviet Union). This is similar to the previous 8bit Game Dictator by DK'Tronics, except in Dictator the success is measured by the amount you put away in your Swiss bank account, which is an offshore bank account. Tropico features Latin styled Caribbean music, largely performed by Daniel Indart. The game won the "Original Musical Composition" award during the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Tropico has several expansion packs and new editions, including Tropico: Paradise Island, plus a combined copy of the original and Paradise Island titled Tropico: Mucho Macho Edition (released on June 27, 2002). A sequel, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, was released on April 8, 2003. The third game in the series Tropico 3, was released in the autumn of 2009. A fourth game, Tropico 4, was released on August 26, 2011, and a fifth game, Tropico 5, was released on May 23, 2014. Tropico 6 was released on March 29, 2019. The game was re released in the three game pack Tropico Reloaded, packing the original game, the expansion pack Tropico: Paradise Island, and the sequel Tropico 2: Pirate Cove into one release. It is available both digitally on Steam and GOG. com, and on disc.

Regardless of any other stated victory condition, the main goal of any Tropico game is to stay in power. If the island's populace disapproves of the player's actions, they may vote their leader out of office. Individual factions and powers can also end or disrupt El Presidente's rule. Rebels can defeat the army and storm the Presidential palace. If the army is dissatisfied, it can stage a coup d'état. If "El Presidente" manages to stay in positive view of the Soviet Union and the United States they will supply him with foreign aid money. If either of the Cold War superpowers becomes unhappy with the player's regime, it may launch an invasion to overthrow it. The superpowers may build a military base on Tropico, protecting the island from the other and offering monthly payments. If an army base is established in the country, it may ask for specific tasks, and low satisfaction will lead them to overthrow "El Presidente". Tropico can be played in two gameplay modes: scenario or custom game/random map. Scenarios are predetermined game conditions with defined goals that must be accomplished in order to win. The game includes several scenarios, each with a stated level of difficulty. Custom games allow virtually all starting conditions to be controlled. The player can customize the map of the island, adjusting its size and steepness to personal preference. Many other aspects of gameplay, such as political and economic difficulty, can also be customized to make the game easier or more difficult. The custom game also allows the player to choose how many game years the simulation will run for (a minimum of 10 years, a maximum of 70), and what conditions will determine victory (if any). The game also includes a tutorial level, which teaches the player the game mechanics and controls of the game. The player is able to issue a number of governmental edicts, some of which require funding or the availability of particular buildings. Edicts are used to achieve various game effects, from appeasing one of the superpowers by openly praising them, to instating martial law or giving a tax break to the populace. Before starting a custom game, the player may either design their own "El Presidente" character or select one from a list of pre made leaders. These include real life figures such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Augusto Pinochet, fictional rulers such as Hernando Blanco and Sancho Baraega. Lou Bega, who is a pop musician commonly known at the time for the song "Mambo No. 5", is also available as a dictator persona. After the player has chosen a leader, the player can customize their profile by specifying the strengths and flaws of their character's personality, the means by which they came into power and their social background. These choices affect the attitudes of factions and superpowers towards the player, and can also alter the costs or consequences of in game actions. The game calculates a score for the player at the end of the game. This score is based on a variety of factors, including the happiness of the island's citizens, the health of the island's economy, how much money the player has set aside for their retirement in a Swiss bank account, and the level of difficulty chosen at the start of the game.

The game was developed in 23 months.

The Banana Republic idea was the first of these that we agreed on. It was original, though not radical. Everyone likes building games, but the two predominant models, set out by Civilization and SimCity, have been cloned to death. This would be a fresh take on the building game concept. Moreover, the Latin American setting provides a rich background for the political side of the game. Building a prosperous country in and of itself is not enough – you’ve got to bribe your generals and repress your dissidents to avoid a coup de tat or a mass uprising. The singer Lou Bega was included as part of a licensing deal that also saw one of Bega's songs integrated into the German release of Tropico.

After the completion of Tropico, Steinmeyer was uninterested in developing further games in the series. However, later in 2001, Take Two Interactive requested an expansion pack to capitalize on the game's success.

Tropico was a commercial success; Geoff Keighley of Computer Gaming World declared it one of Gathering of Developers' few "certified hits". It placed sixth the following two weeks, before holding at tenth for the May 13 – June 2 period. On NPD Intelect's monthly charts, Tropico took places nine and 19 in May and June, respectively. According to NPD, the game sold 67,000 copies in the United States by October 2001. According to Phil Steinmeyer, the game's highest sales came from "the U. S., Germany, and Britain, respectively", in its first seven weeks. He noted that Tropico did not fall from the top 10 of these markets' computer game sales charts during the period, and that it reached #1 on Germany's chart. As of November 2007, Tropico had sold 1 million copies in total.

John Lee of Next Generation summarized, "Tropico tends to be slow, with no tedium breaking clash of arms like other city builders, but there's enough innovation to give it charm." It also won the "Best Music" awards from Computer Games Magazine, Computer Gaming World and GameSpot. Computer Gaming Worlds staff called the score "brilliant" and summarized it as "easily the year's most evocative soundtrack".

The Paradise Island expansion pack adds new in game music, more edicts, and new buildings, especially factories and tourism related facilities. It also acts as a patch, fixing problems in the original game release. As a result, buildings can now be rotated, fully refunded if cancelled prior to construction, and the construction process is now significantly faster.

The Presidential Palace, main building of the game, is modeled after Palacio de Valle in Cuba.

Tropico was followed by a sequel, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, in 2003. Tropico 2 was the final game in the series to be published by Take Two Interactive. No further entries were greenlit until November 2008, when Kalypso Media bought the Tropico intellectual property from Take Two and announced Tropico 3, developed by Bulgaria's Haemimont Games. The game was released in 2009. Afterward, Haemimont Games developed Tropico 4 (2011) and Tropico 5 (2014), both published by Kalypso. Tropico 6, developed by Limbic Entertainment and published again by Kalypso Media, was announced in June 2017 and released on March 29, 2019.