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I just watched a 25 minute video [1] explaining the basics of the game. Looks interesting and extensive. Next I went to download this game, the zip archive is o

I just watched a 25 minute video [1] explaining the basics of the game. Looks interesting and extensive. Next I went to download this game, the zip archive is only 7.6MB! This is both impressive and a bit sad that more software isn't like this anymore. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMXFMjZu8j8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMXFMjZu8j8

TylerE 5y ago
That’s a bit misleading as the download doesn’t have any assets, which are either provided from an original TTD install, or you download the alternate versions from within the game. It’s still small by modern standards, but a working install will be 100-200mb, minimum.
- dpedu 5y ago
  I've got this installed on my system and the asset files from the original game are 5.6MB.
  - TylerE 5y ago
    I think it depends on which version you sourced the original from. The really old versions on TTD used midi for music, whereas the later cd-rom version had higher quality synthesized verionss.
flatiron 5y ago
I’m always amazed at old nintendo and Gameboy games. I believe the first Pokémon was 512k!
- Ekaros 5y ago
  512KB sounds pretty reasonable consider how simple the graphics and gameplay actually is. 90s really were much more efficient time. Nowadays we consider nothing of half-a-meg useless images or javascript libraries...
  - flatiron 5y ago
    I disagree. They took a bunch of time to compress the story and characters into that size. It was a triumph. Not close to “reasonable”
  - Macha 5y ago
    A typical PNG screenshot of many classic games is often larger than the game it's taking a screenshot of. Sure, you can save a lot of space building a custom simple indexed palette loader and using some sort of 2bpp format, compared to the standard 32bit ARGB PNG format, but is it worth the dev time cost?
    - kd5bjo 5y ago
      PNG supports an indexed-palette mode natively, so there’s no need to write a custom loader. cf. http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/book/chapter08.html#png.ch08.div.5.1 http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/book/chapter08.html#png.ch08.d...
- TylerE 5y ago
  The really amazing one to me is Donkey Kong Country. 40 levels? Most with unique FULL color pre-rendered graphics, and the whole game is 4MB
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    And Ocarina of Time is like 30mb. That’s a lot more than 4 but considering it’s a full fledged 3D game with 9 dungeons and a semi-open world (with two states, an adult and child one) it seems crazy considering games are like 100gb these days.
- chongli 5y ago
  That’s nothing! The original Super Mario Bros was 40k! What allows these old games to be super small is that they’re 8-bit and use sprite, tiles, and tile maps; and palettes for everything. Almost everything was done in hardware so you didn’t need to implement a renderer in software, you just poked bytes in various places and stuff happened. Even the loading data was handled by DMA.
  - flatiron 5y ago
    Mario and Pokémon are in different leagues. Text takes up room.
RandomWorker 5y ago
My tip in 1950 is to start with a single coal train, between a mine and a power plant. Enjoy!
- dspillett 5y ago
  Optimising for as long a distance as you can afford to build, with as little incline as possible.
  - mekster 5y ago
    It's always odd to think that it's the distance that pays instead of what you delivered.
    - pas 5y ago
      It's both, no?
      - mekster 5y ago
        In reality, if you deliver same amount of cargo from a location compared to a location further, you get paid the same, assuming same contents. But in the game, you get rewarded for carrying it from a far location for no good reason.
        Const-me 5y ago
        In reality, some goods become prohibitively expensive when shipped too far away. Transportation companies don't care, and the rate they charge per TEU is roughly proportional to the length of the route.
        mekster 5y ago
        In reality, if there is a source of resource closer to destination, then the client would question why you're transporting from a further source making it unnecessarily expensive and you will not get a contract.

TylerE 5y ago

That’s a bit misleading as the download doesn’t have any assets, which are either provided from an original TTD install, or you download the alternate versions from within the game. It’s still small by modern standards, but a working install will be 100-200mb, minimum.

dpedu 5y ago
I've got this installed on my system and the asset files from the original game are 5.6MB.
- TylerE 5y ago
  I think it depends on which version you sourced the original from. The really old versions on TTD used midi for music, whereas the later cd-rom version had higher quality synthesized verionss.

flatiron 5y ago

I’m always amazed at old nintendo and Gameboy games. I believe the first Pokémon was 512k!

Ekaros 5y ago
512KB sounds pretty reasonable consider how simple the graphics and gameplay actually is. 90s really were much more efficient time. Nowadays we consider nothing of half-a-meg useless images or javascript libraries...
- flatiron 5y ago
  I disagree. They took a bunch of time to compress the story and characters into that size. It was a triumph. Not close to “reasonable”
- Macha 5y ago
  A typical PNG screenshot of many classic games is often larger than the game it's taking a screenshot of. Sure, you can save a lot of space building a custom simple indexed palette loader and using some sort of 2bpp format, compared to the standard 32bit ARGB PNG format, but is it worth the dev time cost?
  - kd5bjo 5y ago
    PNG supports an indexed-palette mode natively, so there’s no need to write a custom loader. cf. http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/book/chapter08.html#png.ch08.div.5.1 http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/book/chapter08.html#png.ch08.d...
TylerE 5y ago
The really amazing one to me is Donkey Kong Country. 40 levels? Most with unique FULL color pre-rendered graphics, and the whole game is 4MB
- edgyquant 5y ago
  And Ocarina of Time is like 30mb. That’s a lot more than 4 but considering it’s a full fledged 3D game with 9 dungeons and a semi-open world (with two states, an adult and child one) it seems crazy considering games are like 100gb these days.
chongli 5y ago
That’s nothing! The original Super Mario Bros was 40k! What allows these old games to be super small is that they’re 8-bit and use sprite, tiles, and tile maps; and palettes for everything. Almost everything was done in hardware so you didn’t need to implement a renderer in software, you just poked bytes in various places and stuff happened. Even the loading data was handled by DMA.
- flatiron 5y ago
  Mario and Pokémon are in different leagues. Text takes up room.

RandomWorker 5y ago

My tip in 1950 is to start with a single coal train, between a mine and a power plant. Enjoy!

dspillett 5y ago
Optimising for as long a distance as you can afford to build, with as little incline as possible.
- mekster 5y ago
  It's always odd to think that it's the distance that pays instead of what you delivered.
  - pas 5y ago
    It's both, no?
    - mekster 5y ago
      In reality, if you deliver same amount of cargo from a location compared to a location further, you get paid the same, assuming same contents. But in the game, you get rewarded for carrying it from a far location for no good reason.
      - Const-me 5y ago
        In reality, some goods become prohibitively expensive when shipped too far away. Transportation companies don't care, and the rate they charge per TEU is roughly proportional to the length of the route.
        mekster 5y ago
        In reality, if there is a source of resource closer to destination, then the client would question why you're transporting from a further source making it unnecessarily expensive and you will not get a contract.