Air Bucks
Description official description
Air Bucks is a business simulation game which tries to capture the ins and outs of the airline industry without bogging the player down with details. It starts in 1946 and the goal is to build up a successful airline with a small starting budget. There are many details in the game, e.g. the player can buy rights to airports, arrange seats on the planes to carry more or less first-class passengers, decide on the quality of in-flight food or entertainment, and more.
The game features "special events" similar to Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, which require quick changes in the plane operations to accommodate them. Other important industry-specific activities include designing global routes and paying for landing rights, tinkering with plane layouts, and determining fares for each leg. All those decisions are made inside various menu screens. The competition consists of up to three human or AI-controlled opponents and the world map is randomly generated with every new game.
Spellings
- Airbucks - Alternate spelling
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
11 People
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 60% (based on 15 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 13 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
Fast to begin. Good concept. Real World.
The Bad
Slows down Expotentialy after a year or 2
The Bottom Line
Air bucks is your classic Airline business game, you buy planes, give them routes, to airports you have rights to, price the tickets, set the comfort, etc.
And, for a little while thats great.
But, with the Default 4 players (1 human and 3 PC, but you can change this to 4 human, or cut some players out altogether), the games limitation on 2-airlines-per-airport is a real drag once you get 10 years into the game, when there is nowhere else to fly to, instead, you have to build on existing routes, or fly the new planes futher than before.
At the Invention of the Jet plane, however, I have found, more often than not, that the competing airlines cut their fleets drasicly, and dont replace them. Leaving airports without services, and, with the two-airline rule, unable to be servcied by your rapidly expanding Jet Plane empire. I would have appreciated a "if you dont fly here for x amount of years, you loose rights" rule as well.
Its Good, But avoid it. If you want a game simular, there are better alternatives, with a greater replay value.
DOS · by Chad Henshaw (27) · 2002
Trivia
Amiga versions
Originally Amiga version marked as 1.0 was dedicated to OCS/ECS chipset machines. An updated version of game marked as 1.2 was re-released in two versions - for OCS/ECS and AGA machines. The latter had enhanced graphics - the rest of the game remained the same.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Andrew Hartnett.
Amiga, Atari ST added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: formercontrib, mailmanppa.
Game added November 30, 2000. Last modified January 27, 2025.