Dino Island

Dino Island (also known as Dino Tycoon) is a 2002 PC business simulation video game developed and published by Monte Cristo.

This article is about the 2002 game. For the 1993 game, see DinoPark Tycoon.
Dino Island
Developer(s)Monte Cristo
Publisher(s)Wanadoo Edition (Europe)
Strategy First (North America)
Designer(s)Yanik Buttner, Jérôme Cukier, Nicolas Frémont
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseMay 22, 2002 (France)
June 7, 2002 (UK)
October 10, 2002 (NA)
Genre(s)Business simulation game
Mode(s)Single-player

Story

In a more or less near future, scientists have managed to recreate dinosaurs. In order to fund research, government has set up dinosaur-themed amusement parks that the player will manage.

Gameplay

Dino Island is a theme park simulator not unlike Theme Park, Roller Coaster Tycoon, or even Zoo Tycoon. However, it is rendered in full 3D - players can rotate, pan and zoom at will. Dinosaurs, staff and visitors are fully animated. The game uses a typical point and click and menu interface.

Breeding dinosaurs

In Dino Island, there are 20 pure, historical dinosaur species, including Tyrannosaurus rex, Troodon, Giganotosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Iguanodon, Ankylosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus. The dinosaurs are classified in 6 families: large carnivorous, armored quadrupeds, light bipeds, etc.

The player can mix any two dinosaurs to create a new one. The resulting creature will be a genetic hybrid of its parents: it will inherit features from both of them, based on genetic dominance. Each dinosaur is made of many parts: legs, arms, head, etc. Each part of the resulting dinosaur will also be a mix between that of its parents. For instance, the mix of a Diplodocus and a Triceratops will have a head in between that of its parents. Mutations can also occur, either accidentally or, when the player masters the technology, voluntarily. Mutations include feathers, extra horns, weird scales, and the like.

Visitors

Visitors also come in several categories, which all have likes and dislikes. For instance, kids like cute dinosaurs but do not like big ones, hooligans like to see dinosaur fights from up close but do not like peaceful dinosaurs, pensioners like diverse dinosaurs but not too much action, etc.

Every item in the game, dinosaurs, attraction or park installation, radiates several attributes like comfort, fear or cuteness, which will attract or repel different visitor types. Visitors will move in the park according to their needs. For instance, if the player's park has many other older visitors, it is not a good idea to put a path to the shops next to the most violent dinosaurs, as they will hesitate to go that way.

Park management

The game also has a light park management aspect. The player can build facilities that sell stuff like restaurants, food stands, shops, attractions, parks, enclosures to put the dinosaurs in and has to build a farm to manage staff that will feed the dinosaurs, among other things. As this was not the focus of the game, there are very few options in that department, compared to other games in that category.

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