Prison Tycoon | |
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Developer(s) | Virtual Playground |
Publisher(s) | ValuSoft |
Engine | Gamebryo |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Prison Tycoon is a business simulation computer game developed by Virtual Playground and published by ValuSoft in July 2005. The game puts the user in charge of a prison, with the objectives of keeping the prison running, keeping the staff happy, and keeping the prisoners in line, all while trying to make money.
Users are allowed to choose between a New England prison, a modern U.S. Southwestern-style prison, and a West Coast-style prison modelled after San Quentin.
A sequel, Prison Tycoon 2: Maximum Security, was released on September 8, 2006, followed by Prison Tycoon 3: Lockdown in 2007 and Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax in 2008, then Prison Tycoon: Alcatraz in late 2010. THQ Wireless released a version of Prison Tycoon for the iPhone in May 2009. [1]
The premise of the game is to create a functional prison complete with walls, guard towers, and housing wings, plus dining, exercise, and medical facilities. The objective of the game is ultimately to turn your low-security incarceration facility into a profitable maximum-security prison. Funding is collected by the player through state funding, charitable donations, and inmate labor depending on myriad factors, such as employee satisfaction and inmate happiness and rehabilitation. Players have the option to start with a completely blank slate in a free-play mode or with the basic layout of an existing prison but with several problems that need to be addressed in challenge mode. [2]
The challenges range from rehabilitating a certain number of inmates or reducing the number of riots and fights within the prison, to simply reaching a certain level of security. To create a prison, the player places buildings or walls along a grid system by selecting which building they would like and placing it somewhere within the boundaries of the map. There are over 100 different buildings that can be constructed. Within certain buildings the player can build different rooms, from over 100 to choose from, such as individual cells with multiple beds or solitary confinement cells. [3] Buildings come with appropriate staffing, for example guard towers come with guards already positioned in the tower and medical facilities come with medical staffing.
Once a player has constructed sufficient housing and basic amenities, prisoners begin arriving on buses depending on the capacity of the prison. Prisoners continue to arrive as long as there is sufficient capacity to hold them and depart as they complete their sentences. As the number of inmates increases the prison upgrades to a higher security level, beginning at low security until it becomes a maximum-security prison. With higher levels of security the player has access to more advanced facilities and upgraded walls and guard towers.
Players are able to click on both inmates and staff to get a basic description of their levels of satisfaction, fatigue, productivity, as well as misconduct for prisoners. Clicking on one of these things with the prisoner selected allows players to assign prisoners to cells, jobs, and activities. Players can drag and drop guards to areas of high misconduct or to break up riots which occur within the prison if prisoners become too dissatisfied.
The game designers created 96 different-looking inmates capable of over 100 different animations to allow for a varied prison population. Inmates have various meters above their heads which the player can monitor by clicking on the prisoners. They have levels of satisfaction, fatigue, productivity, and misconduct. If inmates do not have activities, such as working out, playing basketball, or performing work, they will become dissatisfied and their misconduct meter will increase. Having high misconduct will result in decreased productivity and an increase in fights and riots breaking out within the prison.
Ultimately, it is important to monitor inmate morale and keep it high to increase profits, as high inmate morale and sufficient holding capacity will result in more inmates arriving. Also, the player has the ability to suggest inmates to the parole board for possible early dismissal. The approval or rejection of a prisoner is based upon the number of fights he has been in, the number of gangs he is affiliated with, and the number of rehabilitation projects he has completed, as well as his misconduct rating.
Prison Tycoon received generally poor grades from critics. Xplay 's Time Stevens gave the game only one star out of five, concluding his review by writing that "Prisons aren't supposed to be fun, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that a game about prisons isn't either." GameZone gave the game a score of 5/10, praising the idea and concept but complaining about clunky graphics, dysfunctional camera angles, and lack of instructions. [4] While most players agreed the basic premise was unique and interesting, some common complaints about the game included bad camera angles, lackluster graphics, choppy or slow framerates, annoying music and sound, and limited help for players. [5]
Prison Tycoon 2: Maximum Security | |
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Developer(s) | Virtual Playground |
Publisher(s) | ValuSoft |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Prison Tycoon 2: Maximum Security is a business simulation computer game developed by Virtual Playground and published by Valusoft in 2006 as a sequel to Prison Tycoon. Three real-life locations are featured in the game, including Angola (Louisiana State Penitentiary), Leavenworth, KS, and Steilacoom, WA (McNeil Island).
Prison Tycoon 2: Maximum Security scored 5.8/10 from user reviewers at GameSpot. The game was not reviewed by GameSpot itself.
Prison Tycoon 3: Lockdown | |
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Developer(s) | Virtual Playground |
Publisher(s) | ValuSoft |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Prison Tycoon 3: Lockdown is a business simulation computer game for Windows. It was released in 2007 as the third game in the Prison Tycoon series.
Prison Tycoon 3: Lockdown was reviewed by PC Gamer UK , who rated the game 3.8/10. The game has a 5.5 rating on GameSpot.
Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax | |
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Developer(s) | Virtual Playground |
Publisher(s) | ValuSoft |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax is a business simulation computer game released for Windows in 2008 as the fourth game in the Prison Tycoon series. This version of the game introduced several improvements, including a brand-new graphics engine, advisers, and more control over various aspects of the game, such as the closing/opening of gates, tunnels, and more.
Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax has not been reviewed by many professional critics. IGN's Jimmy Thang gave the game a rating of 2.5/10 and called it "terrible". [6]
Prison Tycoon: Alcatraz | |
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Developer(s) | Virtual Playground |
Publisher(s) | ValuSoft |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Business simulation game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Prison Tycoon: Alcatraz is a business simulation computer game released for Windows in 2010 as the fifth game in the Prison Tycoon series. As with previous installments, the game puts the user in charge of a prison, in this case Alcatraz Island.
Similar to several of its predecessors, Prison Tycoon: Alcatraz was not reviewed by professional critics. [7]
Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is a supermax prison facility in Crescent City, California. The 275-acre (111 ha) prison takes its name from a shallow bay on the Pacific coast, about 2 mi (3.2 km) to the west.
USP Florence ADMAX is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.
Millhaven Institution is a maximum security prison located in Bath, Ontario. Approximately 500 inmates are incarcerated at Millhaven.
A prison escape is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers. Escaping from prison is also a criminal offense in some countries, such as the United States and Canada, and it is highly likely to result in time being added to the inmate's sentence, as well as the inmate being placed under increased security that is most likely a maximum security prison or supermax prison. In Germany, and a number of other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison and it is considered as a violation of the right of freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself.
Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned for armed robbery, one of which was overturned. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing corrections officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death. Correctional officers refused to talk to Silverstein out of respect for Clutts.
Maximum security prisons and supermax prisons are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries, which pose a higher level of security to prevent prisoners from escaping and/or doing harm to other inmates or security guards.
The United States Penitentiary, Marion is a large medium-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Southern Precinct, unincorporated Williamson County, Illinois. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security male offenders.
The United States Penitentiary, Florence High is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Colorado. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. USP Florence High is part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence, which is situated on 49 acres (20 ha) of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security. It is named "Florence High" in order to differentiate it from the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADMAX, the federal supermax prison located in the same complex.
Hotel Giant, known in North America as Maximum Capacity: Hotel Giant, is a business simulation game developed by Enlight Software and published by JoWooD Productions for Windows.
Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that while the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment gives rise to a liberty interest in not being placed in a Supermax prison, Ohio's procedures for determining which prisoners should be placed there satisfied the requirements of due process.
Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) is a supermax state prison located in unincorporated Wise County, Virginia, near Pound. Operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC), it houses about 800 inmates. The prison opened in August 1998.
Alcatraz Island has appeared many times in popular culture. Its appeal in film derives from its picturesque setting, natural beauty, isolation, and its history as a U.S. penitentiary – from which, officially, no prisoner ever successfully escaped.
Maximum Security may refer to:
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, remand center, hoosegow, and slammer, is a facility where people are imprisoned against their will and denied their liberty under the authority of the state generally as punishment for various crimes. Authorities most commonly use prisons within a criminal-justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those who have pled or been found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment.
A prisoner is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison, or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a sentence in prison.
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.
The Escapists is a strategy game developed by Mouldy Toof Studios and following a Steam Early Access release in 2014, was released in 2015 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It was released on iOS and Android in 2017. A Nintendo Switch version of the game containing all downloadable content was released in 2018. The game was launched on the Epic Games Store on 23 September 2021, with the weekly free game campaign of Epic Games. Players assume the role of an inmate and must escape from prisons of increasing difficulty.
Cimarron Correctional Facility is a medium security prison in unincorporated Payne County, Oklahoma, located 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of the city of Cushing. It is owned and operated by CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the United States Marshals Service.
Paid prison labour is the participation of convicted prisoners in either voluntary or mandatory paid work programs.