Virtual Resort - Spring Break aka Beach Life

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[CoconutKid]

I think I found a good place to try to start a small thread. 

Another game which is great is "Spring Break/Virtual Resort" Tho not really a city builder as such, but you do need to maintain the holidaymakers/staff happiness by managing economy/pollution/entertainment, etc. It is fun/amusing and definately not a "b" grade game.

So at least one other person knows of it. 

It was published in the US as _{Virtual Resort} - Spring Break, and in Europe (UK) as Beach Life. There is still a UK link alive:
http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/games/info.html?gmid=133

Summary:

Think Fun, Sun, Sand and Sex and you've captured what Beach Life is all about.

Set against a variety of exotic locations around the world, players must fight it out to build the best possible holiday experience for their guests and then watch the results. Along the way they'll experience all the joys and the headaches of a typical package holiday ; from romance and over indulgence to dodgy water and half-built apartments.

Beach Life offers the gamer something different to what they've ever experienced before. Offering the planning and management options of a Tycoon style game with the people watching intrigue of The Sims. Players must build and run their island whilst reacting to the needs of their guests and then watching the hilarious and sometimes disastrous consequences.

One of the staff positions is "security guard" so you have a pseudo-police force. You can decrease/increase the tolerence level of the security guards and adjust the level of the fines they hand out to suit your ideas about control of unsavory guests.

Another staff position is "holiday rep" and they are female. They routinely chat with guests to find out how they're feeling and if they're having a great time or not. You have to provide quarters for them. One speculates that they started off as prostitutes, but the developers couldn't get that past the rating boards.

I suppose it is almost a fit in "Tycoon" style game - although I haven't played very many of them - but it seems to me to have more interest for builders than many of them. (Besides, some here have expressed interest in the Zoo Tycoon series.)

I find the buildings attractive\interesting; but since the scale is small, the landscaping and street furniture features are absolutely lovely. There is a complete day\night cycle (with a suitable changes in the background music) so the player's placement of the various street lighting elements is a fascinating element.

The placement of trash cans and toilets plus scheduling of clean-up crews is not so much fun - but still interesting. 

My problem with the game was that the maps are limited to those available in the "campaign" and I had a thing going about maps when I first played it. Besides one had to beat the campaign to unlock the maps for "sandbox mode" -- and I whimped out on the last three. I never found a cheat to unlock them. The game when down the popularity tube because the buyers concentrated on beating the campaign as quick as possible and showed no interest in the sandbox mode. So 98% of them were done with it in two weeks max. Even a facilitation of posting screenshots would have extended that a bit.

Anyway, if someone wishes to exchange views\comments about it, I'm here. 

[RhiannOn]

 

I used the unlock all buildings cheat a few years back to play about and I had to start from the beginning again as it screwed up all my "clean" saves permanently.  So I did away with it and restarted again...with no cheat.  But I found this for unlocking the maps for sandbox mode
Shift-Alt-U

You will find it at the bottom of this page http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/beach.htm

I think Virtual Resort is a gem of a game that has been definately overlooked, even when it first came out.  It is fun, challenging - tho the day limit in the campaigns to succeed is not fun at times on the odd map, it is still "reasonably" ample in length to get the challenge done on most.
Oh, now I want to fire it up and play it....

[CoconutKid]

... Oh, now I want to fire it up and play it. ...

  Thanks for the unlock and thanks so very much    for the link -- it's very, very good.

One small hint - 'Smasher' brand beer causes guests to break stuff even at weaker strengths. That isn't so bad if you charge enough and have a good supply of security guards and mechanics. I don't remember if the fines count as revenue or not. edit = Yes they do. Indeed, that is probably the rationale for 'Smasher' (drunks break things) and 'Thumper' (drunks hit other guests) brands - in addition to their default prices - because one can build a set-up for collecting a lot from fines. One needs plenty of security guards set to a low tolerance.

Do you have the manual\handbook? The one I got with the game didn't have all the pages; but I got Edios to send me a good one. If you don't, I'll answer questions. I may even post some stuff anyway.

   

[City Builder]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've thought about this game.  I did just come across the manual the other day but not the disk unfortunately else I'd reinstall it and give it a whirl once more.

Scratch that, I just found it in my Game catalog and it says it's in slot 171 and sure enough there it is.  I've so let my game catalog go to hell that I don't know what's really in it, and what's sitting on the spare desk or on the shelves, floor, etc etc etc.  Anyway, off to install it and take a blast to the past.

[City Builder]

Totally forgot how small the maps are.  I used the code to unlock all the maps, then realized it "completes" all the scenarios too, so I reset it with the reset button in the menu of the game so that I can play through the scenarios like they intended.

I thought I had it down when I got notification that some of my guest couldn't reach one of my beaches so I thought, hmmm, I better go play the scenarios to see what it is that I've forgotten.

A game like this makes me thankful for the improvements in the GUI of all these other games that we love to play, wow, talk about primitive.  Still, a little blast from the past can be fun.

I don't suppose either of you has the patch for the U.S. version or know where to find it on the web now adays?

I did a search and found Eidos old forums but the link to the patch appears to be dead and everywhere else that came up in google only had the demo but no patch.

Thanks,

[Khalan]

Here you go:
http://dlh.net/cgi-bin/dlp.cgi?lang=eng&sys=pc&file=vrspring11.zip&ref=ps

[City Builder]

Thanks Khalan,  Much appreciated.

[RhiannOn]

Thanks for the unlock and thanks so very much    for the link -- it's very, very good.

Do you have the manual\handbook? The one I got with the game didn't have all the pages; but I got Edios to send me a good one. If you don't, I'll answer questions. I may even post some stuff anyway.

   

Good to know the link was helpful.
Yep have the manual thanks...but tips and tricks are always helpful. Did you add your own music to the game? I have the folk rocking to Paint it Black, Sash, Equador and couple of others in the evening 

[CoconutKid]

@ CB & Khalan -- many thanks for the reminder of and link to the patch!

The small maps are part of the challenge, eh?  
@ RhiannOn --

Did you add your own music to the game? I have the folk rocking to Paint it Black, Sash, Equador and couple of others in the evening.

I don't recall that the music bothered me; besides, I love the music of T1 --- BUT - if I were going for my favorite music, I would really have to search for it in a format I could add to the game. Do you remember:

Rudy Vallée
and the Connecticut Yankees?

He was the original "crooner" and used a megaphone before electronic amplification. Vallée's trombone-like vocal phrasing on "Deep Night" would inspire later crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como to model their voices on jazz instruments. In 1929, Vallée made his first feature film, The Vagabond Lover for RKO Radio (a talkee). Along with his group, The Connecticut Yankees, Vallée's best known popular recordings included: "The Stein Song" (aka University of Maine fight song) in 1929 and "Vieni, Vieni" in the latter 1930s. Vallée sang fluently in three Mediterranean languages, and always varied the keys, thus paving the way for later pop crooners such as Dean Martin, Andy Williams and Vic Damone. Another memorable rendition of his is "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", in which he imitates Willie Howard's voice in the final chorus. One of his record hits was "The Drunkard Song," popularly known as "There Is a Tavern in the Town." Vallée couldn't stop laughing during the first take, and managed a second take reasonably well. The "laughing" version was so infectious, however, that Victor released both takes. (Now that would be a good fit for the game at night, eh?) Vallée's last hit song was the 1943 reissue of the melancholy ballad "As Time Goes By", popularized in the feature film Casablanca in 1943.

When Vallée took his contractual vacations from his national radio show in 1937, he insisted his sponsor hire Louis Armstrong as his substitute (this was the first instance of an African-American fronting a national radio program).

In middle age, Vallée's voice matured into a robust baritone. He appeared in the campy 1960s Batman television show as the character "Lord Marmaduke Fogg".

So you can see that with my music, the resort would be playing to ghosts.

 

[RhiannOn]

No I haven't heard of them but similar era to Bing Crosby, Fred Estair, Frank Sinatara?  I remember seeing them on tv in the black and white films that screened here ages ago. Haven't  seen any run for a long time now, which is a shame as there must be a good number of older citizens that would enjoy watching them again.
 
Here's a link to Rudy Valee and the Connecticut Yankees in the 1920's, Coconut Kid

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/rWDvlc2GIo8&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/rWDvlc2GIo8&rel=1</a>