Ludography
Air Bucks cover

1992 · Impressions Games · Business simulation · Simulation

Air Bucks

Air Bucks was one of the first business simulation games dealing with running an airline. It involves purchasing land rights for cities around the globe.

Released
1992
Platforms
AmigaAtari STAtari ST/STEMS-DOS
Genres
Business simulationSimulationStrategy
Developers
Impressions Games
Publishers
—
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
Business
Country
United Kingdom
Age ratings
ESRB E

About

Air Bucks is a 1992 business simulation game developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. The game involves managing an airline company.. In 1993 an enhanced version, Air Bucks v1.2, was released for the Amiga.

Keywords

  • management

Media

Air Bucks screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game begins in 1946, after the Second World War. Using default settings, the player controls the airline "Air Bucks" with three AI competitors; all are based in the city of Miami. Each player purchases landing rights for a surrounding airport not more than 1,000 miles away, as the only plane available at the beginning (the Douglas DC-3) has a range of 1,000 miles. Usually the first landing rights purchased are in either New York or Washington D.C. Aside from the initial base airport (Miami by default, but customizable) only two airlines can have landing rights to any one airport.

While waiting for landing rights to be awarded, which takes one month at the beginning of the game and two to three months later on, the player can acquire airplanes and adjust each plane's LOPA (layout of passenger accommodations) by altering the number of first class and coach seats.

Reception

Computer Gaming World gave Air Bucks a negative review. The magazine criticized the interface, version 1.0's slow game speed, and poor computer AI and economic model. In 1993 Impressions released version 1.2, advertising that it was a "New Air Bucks!" with "the features you want", including better VGA graphics, interface, computer AI, and economic model. The company ("Committed to customer satisfaction") offered the upgrade for free to registered owners of the game.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
MS-DOS31 December 1992North America
Amiga31 December 1992Worldwide
Atari ST/STEUnreleased

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Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.