Aerobiz

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Aerobiz
Image:Aerobiz box.jpg
Developer(s)	KOEI
Publisher(s)	KOEI
Platform(s)	Super NES, Sega Genesis
Release date	^JP April 5, 1992 ^NA February 1993
Genre(s)	Business simulation game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	n/a (released pre-ESRB)
Media	Cartridge
Input methods	Super NES or Sega Genesis controller (only 1 controller is used for all 4 players)

Aerobiz (Air Management: Ōzora ni Kakeru in Japan) is a business simulation video game for the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive/Genesis game consoles, released in 1992 by KOEI.

As CEO of an international airline, the player has a limited amount of time to expand their business to become the industry leader against three other airlines (either AI-controlled or human opponents). The player has control over many aspects of how their airline develops, such as the name, investments, what routes to fly, plane purchases, and much more while at the mercy of world events such as politics (for instance, if you run your airline out of Moscow, you can initially only buy Soviet planes, and you have a harder time negotiating with Western nations) and natural disasters. The player can also get the company involved in peripheral businesses such as hotels.

The sequel Aerobiz Supersonic was released in August, 1994 for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis. The player is presented with a wider variety of options in everything, but the game play is much the same. Another sequel known as Air Management '96 was released only in Japan for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation.

1 Gameplay
2 Cities
3 Airplanes
4 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Aerobiz features two scenarios: 1963 to 1995, and 1983 to 2015. The players then choose a city for their airline's headquarters. This allows a certain amount of handicapping: some cities, such as New York, London, and Tokyo, start the player with many airplanes and a large amount of money; others, such as Lima, Nairobi, and Honolulu, start the player with only a couple of airplanes and a small amount of money. The players then select a difficulty level, which affects the amount of passengers, world events, and the reactions of the passengers to those world events, and the win conditions.

The gameplay is superficially straightforward: players negotiate for access slots at each airport, buy airplanes, then open routes and start flying.

The routes command allows the player to open new routes (up to 30), change existing routes, or close unprofitable/redundant routes.

The negotiation command allows the player to assign representatives to bid for access slots into each airport or give back unneeded slots.

The trade command allows the player to buy and sell airplanes.

The budget command allows the player to set the maintenance, service, and advertising budgets.

The marketing command allows the player to run special ad campaigns in order to boost traffic.

The investment command allows the player to set up airport hubs to create new routes, build hotels to attract passengers, and buy and sell stock in charter companies.

The board meeting command gives the player some hints on possible moves to make in order to increase business.

Information on the cities, distances between two cities and any air routes flying between them, and data on the player's company is also available.

After each player has made their desired moves, the game shows any world events that affect the players (for instance, a labor strike will delay shipments of aircraft from that company, while an Olympic Games will boost traffic worldwide, particularly to the host city). The game then shows the results of direct competition between airlines flying the same routes, then it shows the quarterly results of sales, expenses, profits, and passengers flown. After the January-March quarter of every year, it also shows annual results.

The game is won by the first player to achieve the win conditions: link all 22 cities and carry a certain number of passengers (between 2.5 million and 4.5 million, based on difficulty level), all while remaining profitable. If a player goes for four quarters with a negative balance, the company is declared bankrupt and offered reorganization. If the game goes for 32 years (128 turns) without any player meeting the win conditions, the game is called a loss.