Jones in the Fast Lane

aka: Keeping Up With Jones
Moby ID: 370
Special Edition

Description official description

Jones in the Fast Lane is a simulation of a person's life, presented as a turn-based strategy game. You can play by yourself, or compete with other human players or the computer-controlled Jones. At the beginning of the game you determine what your goals are, in four categories - Money, Happiness, Education and Career: the higher your goals, the longer the game.

The game itself is presented as something akin to a board game. The board represents the city where you live. Each turn (here, a turn represents a week of your life) you have limited time to act, and you have to choose how to spend it. Walking somewhere else costs you time, as well as working, learning, and looking for a job.

The first thing you should do is looking for a job at an employment center. Since initially you have no education, experience or work history, you can only choose the simplest, lowest-paying jobs - such as a janitor or a cook. Later on, as you enroll into various courses at an university, you'll get smart enough to get the high-ranking jobs. But remember that some jobs require you to buy and wear expensive clothes.

Work isn't mandatory, and you can dedicate time to working whenever you feel like it. The money you get can be spent in many ways. You can buy a snack at a fast food restaurant (you should eat something each week, or next week you'll have less time due to hunger). You can buy some appliances for your house, lottery tickets, newspapers and more. You can also store your money in the bank (a wise choice, considering the ubiquity of pickpockets) or invest into stock market. Remember that you have to pay rent for your house - if you don't pay for a long time, your landlord will garnish some amount from the money you earn at work. But if you get enough cash, you can rent a luxury apartment and move out of the stinky hole inside which you've been spending your life earlier!

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Screenshots

Credits (DOS version)

41 People · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 67% (based on 9 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 44 ratings with 5 reviews)

Almost an early version of the Sims

The Good
It was fun. Controlling your alter ego through his weekly life is surprisingly fun and addictive. Playing against the computer or your friends and family are both fun. The concept is intriguing and engaging, You keep coming back asking well if i do this instead of that will it help. I mean even after 10 years its still fun to play. the graphics were good for its era and the people usually had a few witty comments for you.

The Bad
They could have done more. They could have actually shown what you are doing instead of just flashing the clock to show time passing. Also the goals are always fuzzy as to exactly how much needs to be done for you to satisfy that goal.

The Bottom Line
A truly great game in the style of The Sims. It could almost be said that this was the father of the Sims. Definitely a must own game. I bought it back when it was brand new and i still fire it up every once in a while to play a game.

DOS · by jeremy strope (160) · 2001

A fun multiplayer or single player game where you get jobs and buy stuff.

The Good
It's fun because you can get neat jobs at weird places (that have weird people) and collect lot's of money, then go buy hot tubs and computers and TV's. You can get some competition in the form of a weird dude named Jones who is a computer player.

The Bad
The graphics aren't astounding, and the sound didn't work with the sound card, I had to play with PC Speaker sound (ugh). Also you can't buy cars!!!(you drive around in a huge marble)

The Bottom Line
It's a nice game that is fun for a while.

DOS · by Jon Buder (8) · 2001

A great game to play with friends and/or family!

The Good
The chance to live out a "fantasy" life. It's also fun seeing what others decide to do. The graphics are very good, and the little witticisms scattered throughout the game are funny.

The Bad
It's fun to play with 3 or 4 people, but it can be hard sharing the mouse/trackball and all crowding around the computer.

The Bottom Line
In Jones in the Fast Lane, all players start with basically nothing, and have to start their "lives" from scratch - you can be a teacher or an engineer, play the stock market, or work at a fast food joint. You win by being the most successful person first, and success is measured not just by financial worth but by happiness factors as well.

DOS · by Melissa Leonard (100) · 1999

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

This game was developed externally, and shopped around a few publishers before Sierra picked it up. At that time, all the game mechanics were there, but the presentation was all very "comicy", and there was no music or sound at all. Sierra added the whole yuppie look and feel, and this game was one of the first to include digitized actors and superior Roland Sound (which was ported to the CD version).

Title

Jones in the Fast Lane was originally titled Keeping up with Jones for the obvious reference to the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses", which refers to the desire to have at least as much wealth and success as your neighbours/peers (which is exactly what the game is about). The details are unclear, but someone somewhere owned a trademark on the phrase, so Sierra changed it.

Different DOS versions

At least three different versions of the game for DOS are known to exist: Floppy with VGA graphics, floppy with EGA / Tandy graphics and CD-ROM with VGA graphics and Audio CD.

Information also contributed by Tony Van and Trixter

Analytics

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  • MobyGames ID: 370
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MajorDad.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Tony Van, Neville, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 3, 1999. Last modified December 13, 2023.