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Taxi Tycoon

Run your own Taxi company
  (+15, -2)(+15, -2)
(+15, -2)
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A game that let's you manage a Taxi company; - hire drivers, set prices, buy cars, maintain cars, deal with rivals, keeping your image, advertise etc. e.g.; driving with luxury cars would improve your image, and you could charge a bit more.

Or, be a driver (the same game, be-a-driver option) - find a boss, get a nice car, know routes, drive fast, fuel, traffic jam, make a career (maybe start your own company when you have enough money). I like games that involve traffic situations, police, artificial drivers, highways, busy city streets, buses.. and ofcource a realistic gameplay... being a taxi driver! :).

Ther're alot of gameplay possibility's, why a taxi driver? Maybe deliver goods, or even run your own police department, or be a cop, fireman, medic (ambulance), business man or whatever! Just play a role of somebody trying to make their way trough life. You could compare it to "The Sims", but that game is about running an household mainly.

update (10 sept 2001..) When you play the game in driver mode, you should 'obey' the traffic rules, ofcource you can brake em once in a while (speeding, running a red light) but when the cops get you, pay the fine. Driving like an idiot and crash into other cars isn't difficult and won't improve your image. It's pretty weird to wait for a red light and sit behind your desktop (haha) but it doesn't have to be like 1min or something, maybe 10secs... (max).. you could ofcource just step on it and run the light, but if you crash.. it your responsibility.. so you pay the damage to yourself and other party, or you are lucky.

enveekaa, Sep 03 2000

Crazy Taxi http://www.sega.com...ct.jhtml?PRODID=227
More "driver", less "tycoon"... [egnor, Sep 03 2000]

[link]






       The tycoon idea has a lot of merit in itself, with or without a self-drive option. You could almost build a sim like Railroad Tycoon II, with a few significant differences.   

       Add the following capabilities:   

       1) The ability to swear profusely at other drivers 2) The ability to chase other companies' cab drivers out of your designated taxi stands 3) The ability to gouge prices at will (and be gouged by your mechanics in turn) 4) The need to deal with dirty tricks by other cab companies, and pull dirty tricks yourself (eg. sugar in fuel line, get repair depot to cancel contract, steal lucrative cab contracts from rivals, etc.) 5) The ability to go on strike when the mood takes you 6) The ability to charge drunks and grads $100 for cleanup when they yakk on your cab's floor 7) The ability to drive with no regard for the rules of the road whatsoever 8) The option to run independent taxis or taxi companies out of town   

       and you've got a serious contender here along the lines of Ruthless.com.   

       Of course, the swearing might be nothing more than a jumble of garbage characters (eg. @!*%# ) in a word bubble above the car- in order to keep a 'family' rating. ( Sort of like the 'fight' sequences in The Sims )   

       This could be a very fun game- I'd certainly buy a copy. Great idea, if it were fleshed out a bit.
BigThor, Sep 06 2000
  

       BigThor, you got my point ;P The gameplay options are endless, almost everything is possible.
enveekaa, Sep 07 2000
  

       There's a rich political element here as well.... Get squashed by politicos handing out the only new medallions to cronies. Watch sweetheart deals open up licenses for "town cars". This might even encourage people to tip better.   

       I can see a whole new genre of "walk a mile in their moccasins" games. Perhaps various trade groups or unions could subsidize game development.
tenhand, Sep 07 2000
  

       My example is living a digital live as a Taxi driver, but its basicly about living a digital live, this new genre will probably be pretty populair in alot of age-groups, cool for kids (play a badguy, act like a madman etc.) or give it a serious try.. get rich, or be killed.. whatever you want!
enveekaa, Sep 10 2000
  

       Hmmmmmm.....   

       Any game developers out there? This looks like a winner.   

       How about a sequel or spinoff- SimCityHall?
BigThor, Oct 10 2000
  

       Just call it Sim Bribery... no, that's for legislative bodies worldwide
thumbwax, Oct 10 2000
  

       Or, on another tack, you could do Taxi Driver itself- maybe along the lines of a game like 'Kingpin'.   

       It might be tough to get Robert De Niro or Jodie Foster to do any full motion video sequences, though. They'd be pretty expensive now.   

       Mark Hamill might be available, though- he does lots of voiceovers and games. Things have been a bit lean since 'Return Of The Jedi', I guess....
BigThor, Oct 12 2000
  

       You could have an option to customise the car - obviously you wouldnt be able to have indicators. In the UK they have them removed at the garage as taxi drivers are exempt from indicating their direction and have complete free reign over the roads.
dja, Nov 07 2000
  

       Do you mean that UK taxis have no turn signals? Sounds pretty hairy....
BigThor, Nov 08 2000
  

       I LOVE your idea! You could take it further. Wire up real cabs and stream to the web. On-line players can do everything from betting on the location/identity/mission of the fare, to whispering or heckling at the fare. The on-line players pay for this of course. In the Cairo version of the game, the on-line players pay the fare and the passenger has to get out wherever the players decide. HA!
tulipmaniac, Jul 28 2001
  

       hi there halfbakery :) /me been gone for a while.. im surprised by the positive reactions.. (cool!)..   

       lat0r.. enveekaa
enveekaa, Sep 10 2001
  
      
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