New and Improved! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Loopy Landscapes

A theme park fan like me has to start with this game, right? Actually, I'm innocent... it was question 1 in the original quiz I adopted.

Anyway, to the real info: "Rollercoaster Tycoon" has been one of the most successful business simulation games of all times and has not only spawned three main sequels and multiple expansion packs but also several specific versions based on real-world theme parks such as Sea World and the Efteling.

With the game's success, the "Tycoon" moniker has become almost synonymous with business simulation games, but those actually do not form a series - they have been developed by many different studios and designers. In fact, it was not even the first to use the name - Sid Meyer's "Railroad Tycoon" predates it by nine years.

What makes this series particularly attractive is that you can design and virtually ride your own coasters, with quite good graphics especially in the third installment. It is probably played at least as much in sandbox mode (where you have unlimited funds and no mission) just to build spectacular rides - or to recreate very accurate renditions of existing coasters or even entire parks.

"Loopy Landscapes" was the second expansion of the first game and added both new ride types and scenarios.

Answer: Necromancer

"Rage of Mages" is probably the least known title on this list. Like the more famous "Diablo", it is a real-time roleplaying game, but with more strategy elements and multiple characters, for a total of four main protagonists plus hirelings. The game was originally developed in Russia and released there under the title of "Allods: The Seal of Mystery".

One sequel to the game exists and again the names differ between the Russian version ("Allods 2: Master of Souls") and the Western one ("Rage of Mages II: Necromancer). In spite of gaining more favorable than negative reviews, it remained a niche title that sold very few copies.

Answer: The Rise of Rome

The "Age of Empires" franchise differs from other historical strategy games in that each title in the series only encompasses a part of human history: The first title covers the stone age and classical antiquity, the second one the Dark Ages to Renaissance and the third is set beginning with the discovery of America and goes to just before World War I. Given this focus, all three of the first titles (originally released 1997, 1999 and 2005, respectively) have received expansions and updates well into the 2010s with a "Definitive Edition" relaunch in 2018 to 2020.

"The Rise of Rome" expands the time frame of the first game to include the Roman Empire as a playable civilization, including an associated scenario.

A fourth "Age of Empires" title has been released in 2021, but it does not cover the modern age (where there are really no empires), but rather focuses on medieval Asia.

Answer: The Art of Supremacy

"Empire Earth" is similar to "Civilization" in its premise, but spans a larger time-frame. In the first version, you begin an open game (one where you just settle and win by conquering the entire planet as opposed to specific campaigns), you start at the year 500,000 BCE, before the appearance of modern humans. Technology advancement is mostly coupled to epochs of which the base game has fourteen - advancing an epoch has specific requirements that must be met while also balancing resource generation and conducting military campaigns to defend and expand your empire. The game features over twenty playable civilizations, many of which have special advantages through certain epochs. Unlike "Civilization", "Empire Earth" is not turn-based but real-time, so you can't just take your time to think and plan.

"The Art of Supremacy" is an expansion for the second "Empire Earth", adding three more campaigns to the base game's existing three and expanding gameplay around Africa, including Zulu and Maasai civilizations.

Answer: Rush Hour

If a theme park was too small and frivolous for you, but you also didn't quite feel like writing world history by guiding a whole culture through the millennia, "SimCity" was just the game to turn to. Players assume the role of the mayor of, well, nothing but empty ground. But all it took to change that was to create some residential, commercial and industrial zones, a power plant and a few roads to connect everything. Soon, your first citizens would arrive, build homes and business and hopefully pay enough taxes to build all the amenities your growing city would need and clean up the effects of any random disaster that might strike.

In addition to the basic building mode, the game also contained scenarios where you took over an existing city and had to meet certain goals - often to face a very serious disaster and emerge stronger than ever.

"SimCity" spawned multiple - mostly numbered - sequels but very few expansions. In fact, the most significant expansion, for the "SimCity 4" game, is "Rush Hour", which, appropriately, focuses on traffic, letting the player fine-tune their city transit with additional road types and then experience the consequences of their traffic planning while virtually driving a vehicle through the city they built, even solving specific missions.

Answer: Hellfire

"Diablo" is a real-time dungeon exploration role-playing game in which the player controls a lone character - a warrior, rogue or sorcerer - fighting through sixteen dungeon levels until they reach Hell and face Diablo, the final boss. Unlike most such games, the locations are not fixed, but rather generated anew each time a player starts a new game, much like the classic text-based "Rogue" games (which are however turn-based).

The first game saw one expansion, called "Hellfire" which added the Monk class (and two unfinished classes that could be unlocked via a hack) as well as side quest dungeons. Several stand-alone sequels have been released with the fourth having been announced in 2019 for a mid-2023 release.

Answer: Alpha Centauri

The "Civilization" series is considered the predecessor of "4X" games, which stands for "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate", outlining the basic gameplay of scouting a map, using resources, building more and more advanced facilities and finally defeating opposing (computerized or human) players - although defeat by conquest is just one way to victory and it is generally seen as the "better" victory to rather build a spaceship and colonize a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.

At the heart of the game is the tech tree where players gradually unlock more powerful and efficient units and buildings through research, with the top (most advanced) researches being those that enable the spaceship to be built. The entire series consists of six numbered main games, each of which has seen expansions, scenarios and spinoffs.

"Alpha Centauri" is a sequel to "Civilization II", using the same game engine and taking place on a freshly colonized world, which turns out to be sentient. It was one of the critically most acclaimed entries in the series but also one of its lowest sellers.

Answer: Battle for Azeroth

"World of Warcraft" is itself a spin-off from the earlier "Warcraft" real-time strategy series but has long overshadowed its origins, becoming by far the most popular and commercially successful MMO game in history. Since its 2004 release, the game has seen at least nine major expansions with "Battle for Azeroth" being the seventh and the last under the old levelling system. With the release of "Shadowlands", levelling up was changed and old level 120 characters became new level 50.

The game has generated some particular controversy because some players choose not to go through the whole, very lengthy, game themselves but rather pay others for gear or levelling services, a trend that has, of course, also attracted a substantial number of less than honest people.

Answer: Riven

"Myst" broke ground in the puzzle adventure genre by providing a no-instructions setup from which the player had to discover not only how to solve the puzzles but also how to interact with the game world itself. It uses a first person perspective and was, in 1993(Mac)/94(Windows), one of the first games to make use of the high capacity of a CD-ROM. One of the game's special features is that you cannot die or fail - there is no way to reach a game state from which you cannot ultimately complete your quest.

"Riven" was the second of ultimately five main "Myst" games and seamlessly continues its story which is finally brought to an end in the final "End of Ages" version. There was also a spin-off called "Uru" which featured a somewhat different interface. In "End of Ages", you could choose to play in the classic interface used by the first two games, the updated one from part 3 and 4 or the third-person one used in "Uru".

Answer: XIV

The "Final Fantasy" series of role-playing games never named any of its true expansions or sequels, instead just distinguishing them with Roman numerals. Most of these games are single-player, but "XI" and "XIV" are massive multiplayer online games. Originally, the first "Final Fantasy" (from 1987) was only a Nintendo Entertainment System, but over the years, it has been ported to other platforms, including, thirty-four years after the original release, an official remaster playable on the PC.

The "Final Fantasy Legend" series, by the way, is not a real "Final Fantasy" game, but rather a rebranded version of "SaGa" for the North American market.