Railroad Tycoon 3

[Tom Coletti]

I was rummaging through YouTube the other day and found a bit of a rare gem from the gaming world... I remember playing Railroad Tycoon 3 as a kid, since overall it was a very fun game, but I had forgotten how much I had loved the soundtrack until just recently. This game's soundtrack was my very first exposure to the the sound of a mandolin and Dobro, so I was glad to have found it again. After all, it has probably been a good seven years or so since I've last heard it.

While most video games from that period still used MIDI or synthesizers or even 8-bit in the case of some handheld consoles, Railroad Tycoon 3's developers went full-out and did something quite admirable: They gathered up a bunch of musicians (I'll try to find the credits to see exactly who played what) and made good quality recordings of about 40 or so tracks with mandolin, violin, Dobro, banjo, guitar, harmonica, lap steel, upright bass, and more, not only touching on some popular fiddle tunes and traditional songs, but also some originals written specifically for the game. Here's a bit of a sampling:





Railroad Tycoon 2 (this game's predecessor) also has some great bluesy stuff, though there isn't any mandolin from what I recall...

Cheers,

--Tom

[Tom Coletti]

And a few more:





--Tom

[Marty Jacobson]

That old Gibson oval hole mandolin (I presume) sounds cool on the 2nd track.