Air Management - Oozora ni Kakeru (Jpn) - エアーマネジメント 大空に賭ける
Aerobiz (エアーマネジメント 大空に賭ける, "Air Management: Ōzora ni Kakeru") is a business simulation video game for the Super Nintendo, Sharp X68000 and Mega Drive/Genesis game consoles, released in 1992 by Koei.
As CEO of a budding international airline, the player has a limited amount of time to expand their business to become the industry leader against three other airlines (either AI-controlled or human opponents). The player has an amount of control over how their airline develops, such as the name, investments, what routes to fly, plane purchases, and other various aspects, while at the mercy of world events such as politics (for instance, if the player runs his or her airline out of Moscow, he or she can initially only buy Soviet planes and will have a harder time negotiating with Western nations) and natural disasters. The player can also get the company involved in peripheral businesses such as hotels and shuttle services. Once Perestroika is initiated, then the Cold War restrictions no longer apply in the game.
The sequel Aerobiz Supersonic was released in August 1994 for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis. The player is presented with a wider variety of options in nearly everything, but the game play is much the same. Another sequel known as Air Management '96 was released only in Japan for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation.
Aerobiz features two timeframes to play the game through: 1963 to 1995, and 1983 to 2015. After selecting the timeframe, the players then choose a city for their airline's headquarters. This allows a certain amount of handicapping: some cities, such as New York, London, and Tokyo, start the player with many airplanes and a large amount of money; others, such as Lima, Nairobi, and Honolulu, start the player with only a couple of airplanes and a small amount of money. The players then select a difficulty level, which affects the amount of passengers, world events (and the reactions of the passengers to those world events), and the win conditions. A charter system of independent airlines can have their shares bought or sold on the stock market; owning at least 51% of the company makes it eligible to be assimilated into the main airline.
The gameplay is superficially straightforward: players negotiate for access slots at each airport, buy airplanes, then open routes and start business. After each player has made their desired moves, the game shows any world events that affect the players (for instance, a labor strike will delay shipments of aircraft from that company, while the Olympic Games will boost traffic worldwide, particularly to the host city). The game then shows the results of direct competition between airlines flying the same routes, then the quarterly results of sales, expenses, profits, and passengers flown. After the January-March quarter of every year, it also shows annual results. There are elements of enhancing airline service, such as improving the convenience of arrivals/departures, along with reductions in fare, improving the quality of service along with advertising campaigns.
The game is won by the first player to achieve the win conditions: link all 22 cities and carry a certain number of passengers (between 2.5 million and 4.5 million, based on difficulty level), all while remaining profitable. If a player goes for four quarters with a negative balance, the company is declared bankrupt and offered reorganization. If the game goes for 32 years (128 turns) without any player meeting the win conditions, the game is called a loss.
MegaTech magazine said the game had massive potential, and that "strategy buffs will cream over it".
As CEO of a budding international airline, the player has a limited amount of time to expand their business to become the industry leader against three other airlines (either AI-controlled or human opponents). The player has an amount of control over how their airline develops, such as the name, investments, what routes to fly, plane purchases, and other various aspects, while at the mercy of world events such as politics (for instance, if the player runs his or her airline out of Moscow, he or she can initially only buy Soviet planes and will have a harder time negotiating with Western nations) and natural disasters. The player can also get the company involved in peripheral businesses such as hotels and shuttle services. Once Perestroika is initiated, then the Cold War restrictions no longer apply in the game.
The sequel Aerobiz Supersonic was released in August 1994 for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis. The player is presented with a wider variety of options in nearly everything, but the game play is much the same. Another sequel known as Air Management '96 was released only in Japan for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation.
Aerobiz features two timeframes to play the game through: 1963 to 1995, and 1983 to 2015. After selecting the timeframe, the players then choose a city for their airline's headquarters. This allows a certain amount of handicapping: some cities, such as New York, London, and Tokyo, start the player with many airplanes and a large amount of money; others, such as Lima, Nairobi, and Honolulu, start the player with only a couple of airplanes and a small amount of money. The players then select a difficulty level, which affects the amount of passengers, world events (and the reactions of the passengers to those world events), and the win conditions. A charter system of independent airlines can have their shares bought or sold on the stock market; owning at least 51% of the company makes it eligible to be assimilated into the main airline.
The gameplay is superficially straightforward: players negotiate for access slots at each airport, buy airplanes, then open routes and start business. After each player has made their desired moves, the game shows any world events that affect the players (for instance, a labor strike will delay shipments of aircraft from that company, while the Olympic Games will boost traffic worldwide, particularly to the host city). The game then shows the results of direct competition between airlines flying the same routes, then the quarterly results of sales, expenses, profits, and passengers flown. After the January-March quarter of every year, it also shows annual results. There are elements of enhancing airline service, such as improving the convenience of arrivals/departures, along with reductions in fare, improving the quality of service along with advertising campaigns.
The game is won by the first player to achieve the win conditions: link all 22 cities and carry a certain number of passengers (between 2.5 million and 4.5 million, based on difficulty level), all while remaining profitable. If a player goes for four quarters with a negative balance, the company is declared bankrupt and offered reorganization. If the game goes for 32 years (128 turns) without any player meeting the win conditions, the game is called a loss.
MegaTech magazine said the game had massive potential, and that "strategy buffs will cream over it".
Scenarios
- Scenario 1
- This scenario starts in 1963 with the intense competition for the airlines heating up with aircraft that can fly for longer distances without re-fueling. All airlines are desperately trying to cross the long Pacific Ocean in the quest for intercontinental superiority.
- Scenario 2
- This scenario starts in 1983 with the supersonic airplane become the hottest topic in the airline industry.
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60.098476 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 6
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Clones of Air Management - Oozora ni Kakeru (Jpn)
Cities
- Beijing, China
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cairo, Egypt
- Delhi, India
- → Hong Kong
- Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Lima, Peru
- London, UK
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Mexico City, Mexico
- → Moscow, Russia
- → Nairobi, Kenya
- New York City, New York, USA
- Paris, France
- Rio de Janerio, Brazil
- Rome, Italy
- → Republic of Singapore
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Tehran, Iran
- Tokyo, Japan
- → Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- → Vladivostok, Russia
Airplanes
- Boeing 707
- Boeing 727
- Boeing 737
- Boeing 747
- Boeing 747-400
- Boeing 767
- Douglas DC-8
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- McDonnell Douglas MD-12
- Lockheed L-1011
- Ilyushin Il-62
- Ilyushin Il-86
- Ilyushin Il-96
- Tupolev Tu-154
- Concorde
- Airbus A300
- Airbus A310
- Airbus A320
- Airbus A330
Remake
A remake of this game was made for the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Windows PC called Air Management '96 (エアーマネジメント'96). Graphics have been enhanced in this version.