Feral Updates 'Sid Meier's Railroads!' for macOS Compatibility

[MacRumors]

Feral has announced that Sid Meier's Railroads!, the classic "tycoon" strategy game released on PC in 2006, has been updated on Mac to include full compatibility with Apple's latest macOS platform.

If you missed Sid Meier's Railroads! last time around, the game is a re-imagining of the best-selling Railroad Tycoon, which was released in 1990 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS DOS. The game has been in dire need of a compatibility and stability update for several years, so today's announcement should come as good news for die-hard fans.

Like the original, players are tasked with constructing a rail empire across one of four locations: the Western United States, the Northeastern United States, Great Britain, or continental Europe.

Lay track, route trains and watch the world come to life in this compelling mix of train set and business simulator. Become the ultimate railroad robber baron with the drive to shape a nation, build an empire and amass a fortune.

Spanning the history of the railroads from the steam engines of the 1830s to the bullet trains of today, Sid Meier's Railroads!, out now on Mac, is a bold re-imagining of the legendary Railroad Tycoon (1990) that launched the "tycoon" genre.

Players get to control 40 historically accurate trains across seven historical scenarios and over 150 years of American and European history. Features at the disposal of budding tycoons include corporate warfare, demand and supply, stock trading, patent bidding, and industry building. A LAN multiplayer mode also lets players sabotage their rivals and monopolize the industry.

Minimum requirements for the game are as follows: MacOS 10.12.4 or later, Intel 1.8GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 2GB disk space, and 256MB graphics memory. The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI HD2xxx series, ATI X1xxx series, Intel GMA series, Intel HD3000, Nvidia 9xxx series, Nvidia 7xxx series, Nvidia 1xx series, and Nvidia 8xxx series. The game is not currently supported on volumes formatted as case-sensitive.

Sid Meier's Railroads! is currently on offer at the special price of $2.49 on the Steam store until May 29. The game is also available on the Mac App Store ($17.99) and direct from Feral's online store ($9.99). Existing owners of the game should see an update in the Mac App Store.

Article Link: Feral Updates 'Sid Meier's Railroads!' for macOS Compatibility

 

[Telos101]

Finally!! Credit to feral for taking the time to bother after 4+ years. Time to re-download my copy from the App Store...

 

[justperry]

Minimum requirements for the game are as follows: MacOS 10.12.4 or later, Intel 1.8GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 2GB disk space, and 256GB graphics memory. The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI HD2xxx series, ATI X1xxx series, Intel GMA series, Intel HD3000, Nvidia 9xxx series, Nvidia 7xxx series, Nvidia 1xx series, and Nvidia 8xxx series. The game is not currently supported on volumes formatted as case-sensitive.

256 GB Memory, no computer has that(Home use), should probably be 256 MB.

 

[coolboy561995]

It's about time! Finally it won't crash just after getting to the good part of the game!

 

[timmyh]

256 GB Memory, no computer has that(Home use), should probably be 256 MB.

Good spot! Updated now - thanks.

 

[jacjustjac]

Steam: We make our money selling games, and a little bit of hardware, but let's sell it for $2.49
Apple: We make our money selling hardware, and a little bit of software and games, but let's sell it for $17.99 (and you only get the Mac version).

 

[Trusteft]

So when it says it required Sierra, it means even though the game is from 2006 it won't run on previous OS version, like, anything from 2006+?

 

[yiasou]

Steam: We make our money selling games, and a little bit of hardware, but let's sell it for $2.49
Apple: We make our money selling hardware, and a little bit of software and games, but let's sell it for $17.99 (and you only get the Mac version).

Yep why the rip off on App Store?

 

[Janichsan]

Steam: We make our money selling games, and a little bit of hardware, but let's sell it for $2.49
Apple: We make our money selling hardware, and a little bit of software and games, but let's sell it for $17.99 (and you only get the Mac version).

Apple doesn't set the price, Feral does. You'd have to ask them why they didn't change the MAS price (which is still below to what you had to pay for the game on Feral's own store in the past) to match their new price.

 

[Macaholic868]

For all the money Apple charges for hardware it would be nice if they put a halfway decent GPU in one of their desktops for gaming. Their GPU's are a joke.

 

[4jasontv]

So when it says it required Sierra, it means even though the game is from 2006 it won't run on previous OS version, like, anything from 2006+?

FYI
MIN Requirements
Windows Version:

• 
  Windows 2000, Windows XP
  1.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
  512 MB RAM
  64 MB Video card with hardware pixel and vertex shaders (GeForce 3, Radeon 8500 or better)
  DirectX 7 compatible sound card
  1.7 GB of free disc drive space

Mac Version:

• 
  Mac OS X 10.12.4
  1.8 GHz Intel
  4 GB RAM
  256 MB Video card
  2 GB of free disc drive space

Recomended Requirements
Windows Version:

• 
  Windows 2000, Windows XP
  2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
  1 GB RAM
  128 MB Video card with hardware pixel and vertex shaders (GeForce 3, Radeon 8500 or better)
  DirectX 7 compatible sound card
  1.7 GB of free disc drive space

Mac Version:

• 
  Mac OS X 10.12.4
  2.4 GHz Intel
  6 GB RAM
  1 GB Video card
  2 GB of free disc drive space

For all the money Apple charges for hardware it would be nice if they put a halfway decent GPU in one of their desktops for gaming. Their GPU's are a joke.

Part of the problem is that these ports use far more resources than their original release. Look at the Recomended specs. The 20% CPU increase isn't terrible, nor is the extra 300 MB of disk space, but the 896 MB more on the GPU and 5 GB more ram is absurd. Even if the entire app is compressed how do you go from needing RAM:HDD ratio of 1:1.7 to 3:1?

 

[beanbaguk]

FYI, it's on for just $2.99 for a full bundle pack including Railroads, and all the Railroad Tycoon collection.

Get yourself a bargain!

 

[macpeach55]

FYI, it's on for just $2.99 for a full bundle pack including Railroads, and all the Railroad Tycoon collection.

Get yourself a bargain!

Was tempted myself, but only Railroads in the bundle was for the Mac, the others being Windows only, so opted for just Railroads

 

[jlc1978]

Steam: We make our money selling games, and a little bit of hardware, but let's sell it for $2.49
Apple: We make our money selling hardware, and a little bit of software and games, but let's sell it for $17.99 (and you only get the Mac version).

While I like Steam's pricing my biggest gripe is you often need an internet connection to play them, or at least start the game, which means no go if you do not have internet connectivity.

Apple doesn't set prices, developers.

 

[beanbaguk]

I rarely if ever buy games on the App Store if I can help it. (Unless the pricing is spectacularly good). I'll stick to Steam as if I were to move over to a PC or use my games on a PC, I know I will have both versions to hand....

 

[Altis]

So when it says it required Sierra, it means even though the game is from 2006 it won't run on previous OS version, like, anything from 2006+?

Welcome to gaming on Mac.

... That and the fruity mouse acceleration.

 

[Applebot1]

For all the money Apple charges for hardware it would be nice if they put a halfway decent GPU in one of their desktops for gaming. Their GPU's are a joke.

Totally agree how hard can it be!

 

[Trusteft]

FYI
MIN Requirements
Windows Version:

• 
  Windows 2000, Windows XP
  1.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
  512 MB RAM
  64 MB Video card with hardware pixel and vertex shaders (GeForce 3, Radeon 8500 or better)
  DirectX 7 compatible sound card
  1.7 GB of free disc drive space

Mac Version:

• 
  Mac OS X 10.12.4
  1.8 GHz Intel
  4 GB RAM
  256 MB Video card
  2 GB of free disc drive space

Recomended Requirements
Windows Version:

• 
  Windows 2000, Windows XP
  2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
  1 GB RAM
  128 MB Video card with hardware pixel and vertex shaders (GeForce 3, Radeon 8500 or better)
  DirectX 7 compatible sound card
  1.7 GB of free disc drive space

Mac Version:

• 
  Mac OS X 10.12.4
  2.4 GHz Intel
  6 GB RAM
  1 GB Video card
  2 GB of free disc drive space

Part of the problem is that these ports use far more resources than their original release. Look at the Recomended specs. The 20% CPU increase isn't terrible, nor is the extra 300 MB of disk space, but the 896 MB more on the GPU and 5 GB more ram is absurd. Even if the entire app is compressed how do you go from needing RAM:HDD ratio of 1:1.7 to 3:1?

Why did you quote the min requirements for Mac? Isn't that a Sierra version? Isn't that what I said?
Confused.
It makes no sense to have requirement of a 2017 ish OS, for a decade old game.

 

[4jasontv]

Why did you quote the min requirements for Mac? Isn't that a Sierra version? Isn't that what I said?
Confused.
It makes no sense to have requirement of a 2017 ish OS, for a decade old game.

I pulled those numbers from steam (pc) and the link provided in the post (mac). The Mac has different minimums and recommended hardware so I included both. There might be an emulation or support reason for needing a more modern OS, but there is no reason for needing more ram than hdd space.

 

[Trusteft]

I pulled those numbers from steam (pc) and the link provided in the post (mac). The Mac has different minimums and recommended hardware so I included both. There might be an emulation or support reason for needing a more modern OS, but there is no reason for needing more ram than hdd space.

The difference in hardware requirements is insane.
Either there is an error in the text or this is the worst update in history of gaming.

 

[carlvsam]

While I like Steam's pricing my biggest gripe is you often need an internet connection to play them, or at least start the game, which means no go if you do not have internet connectivity.

I guess it depends on the game, as Steam does has an "offline" mode that allows one to play a game when their is no connection available (I use this for the games I have on my Surface Pro when traveling to and from work it does have have to log-on to the service every few days, however...

 

[kwikdeth]

it has more to do with the development tools for OSX than it does the game developer themselves. xCode only lets you go back so far with compatibility for releases of OSX. Apple requires releases to be compatible with the latest and greatest in order to be available in the App store. Build for Sierra, and you're forced to drop compatibility with older versions. Simple as that.

 

[sudo1996]

Finally!! Credit to feral for taking the time to bother after 4+ years. Time to re-download my copy from the App Store...

As usual. They have a history of porting somewhat old but excellent games to Mac.
[doublepost=1495874796][/doublepost]

While I like Steam's pricing my biggest gripe is you often need an internet connection to play them, or at least start the game, which means no go if you do not have internet connectivity.

Apple doesn't set prices, developers.

And also that it's glitchy, but so is the Mac App Store.

 

[Kris Kelvin]

I really appreciate the continued support from Feral.
However, version 1.1 is MUCH slower under macOS Sierra 10.12.5 than the previous one on my Mac Pro (8x3.33 Ghz, GTX 1080) at 3440x1440 to the point where it's unplayable. I'm seeing 170% CPU while the game is paused. The GPU is basically idling.
Version 1.0.1 with same settings (resolution etc.) would sit at 2% CPU when paused.
Anyone experiencing the same?

 

[Life2Short]

I really appreciate the continued support from Feral.
However, version 1.1 is MUCH slower than the previous one on my Mac Pro (8x3.33 Ghz, GTX 1080) at 3440x1440 to the point where it's unplayable. I'm seeing 170% CPU while the game is paused. The GPU is basically idling.
Version 1.0.1 with same settings (resolution etc.) would sit at 2% CPU when paused.
Anyone experiencing the same?

It's doing the same for me on a Mac Pro with a HD 7950. It's un-playable in its current state. The pointer responds REALLY slowly to mouse movements, as in several second delay even with the video options scaled WAY back. Hopefully they can fix this, I wrote to Feral support.