Jones in the Fast Lane (DOS)

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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!

Screenshots

Promo Images

There are no promo images for this game

Alternate Titles

• "Keeping Up With Jones" -- Working title

Part of the Following Groups

• Game Engine: Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI)
• Genre: Simulation - Human life
• Jones in the Fast Lane versions

User Reviews

Almost an early version of the Sims	jeremy strope (171)
An ingenius alternative to computerized monopoly.	Tomer Gabel (4643)
One of the best computer board games!	Terry Callahan (63)
A fun multiplayer or single player game where you get jobs and buy stuff.	Jon Buder (9)
A great game to play with friends and/or family!	Melissa Leonard (101)	unrated

Critic Reviews

The One	Mar, 1991	88 out of 100	88
Play Time	Oct, 1991	80 out of 100	80
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Dec, 1990	9.2 out of 12	77
Raze	Apr, 1991	76 out of 100	76
The Retro Spirit	Nov 22, 2005	4 out of 6	67
Power Play	Feb, 1991	54 out of 100	54
PC-Spiele '92	1991	5 out of 10	50
PC Games (Germany)	May, 1993	35 out of 100	35

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
New version out on Android	1	Tristaan Polkinghorne (1) Dec 25, 2014

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

Related Web Sites

• Crapshoot (A humorous review on PC Gamer)