Brilliant game, scummy business practice
Review edit: I'm leaving the original review below, but some credit where it's due:
According to OpenTTD, there's some collaborative effort ongoing between them and Atari, and they're at least partially helping to cover the costs of running the OpenTTD servers. In light of that, I will adjust the rating for this game to 2 stars.
That said, it doesn't change the fact that the way Atari handled this matter was both deceptive and dishonest, and they turned what would have been an easy PR win into an absolute PR disaster. I did consider revising the review up to 3 stars, but as of yet, the reality of the matter (OpenTTD not actually being a mod) still isn't reflected in the store listing of OpenTTD. Hopefully, they will rectify that eventually.
Original (1 star) review:
Transport Tycoon Deluxe is a true blast from the past, and it's a brilliant game, even today. The price point, at 10 USD (or your local equivalent) is also more than acceptable in my humble opinion. Even though it has definitely aged, the game is still one of the best transport simulation games there is, even decades after it was first released.
So... Why the one star review?
Simply put, Atari and GOG (as well as Steam) have decided to lie on their stores and say that OpenTTD - a free, open-source game which is still actively being developed and improved by an active team of volunteers - is a mod of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and that you NEED to buy this game in order to play it.
This is blatantly false. The fact of the matter is that OpenTTD doesn't use ANY resources from Transport Tycoon Deluxe - all the graphics, all the code, everything has been made from scratch. It is possible to load in the resources (graphics, sounds, etc) from the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe and play with those, but it's not at all required. It is quite frankly a disgusting display of dishonesty on the part of Atari (or whatever vultures inhabit its corpse), and it makes one wonder about the morals of GOG (and Steam) to run with it.
If they had released this game normally, without any of this nonsense, I would have welcomed this release. I might even have bought it, if only to show my appreciation for them officially bringing back this absolute gem. However, we should all avoid rewarding this deceptive and quite frankly disgusting behavior.
Save your money. If you want to play this game, get OpenTTD (for free!). If not on GOG, then from the OpenTTD website. It is better, more feature-rich and has a ton of quality of life upgrades to improve your experience.
If you still want to buy it just because you want to support the developer, then know that Chris Sawyer, the man behind the original game won't see a single cent of your purchase. Atari bought the rights in 2024, they'll be the only ones profiting. And if this is the way they act, I don't think they deserve it.
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