Start, Run & Grow your Business PLUS

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1. Kernykaleyfan "Maureen" says:

   February 22, 2011 at 7:56 am

   8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

   
   I WISH I DIDN’T BUY IT, February 18, 2010

   By 

   Kernykaleyfan “Maureen” (Simi Valley, CA United States) –

   This review is from: Start, Run & Grow your Business PLUS (CD-ROM)

   The software is easy to run and follow. BUT….it is a scam, although honest in its own way. It directs you to other business sites where you have to spend MORE money. For example, Logoworks. You can go there and design all you want for your own business logo. But once you like it, and want it, you have to pay $49. Ditto for business cards, bookkeeping software, etc. Fortunately Palo Alto Software has a 60 day money back guarantee. I’m returning it and getting my money back. Fast.

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2. Caleb Iorg says:

   February 22, 2011 at 8:01 am

   8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Excellent Product – Saves time and money, November 13, 2009

   By 

   Caleb Iorg –
   
     

   This review is from: Start, Run & Grow your Business PLUS (CD-ROM)

   Start Run Grow is a fully comprehensive small business product. Its easy to lose track of the details when running a small business but Start Run Grow helps to keep track of the little things. The calculators (Break-Even, ROI, etc.) are extremely useful as it provides easy-to-use, quick analysis of how effectively the business is running. The program also offers plenty of information about business decisions, when to incorporate, how to trademark your company name or logo, etc. These are useful especially if you have a good business idea but don’t know how to take advantage of it. The discounts on other products helpful for running a successful business, like Business Plan Pro, Marketing Plan Pro, and many others, make this product extremely useful. I highly recommend!

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3. Michael Mourain "M. Mourain" says:

   February 22, 2011 at 8:46 am

   4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Worthless! Don’t Bother, March 15, 2010

   By 

   Michael Mourain “M. Mourain” (Los Angeles, CA) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Start, Run & Grow your Business PLUS (CD-ROM)

   I absolutely hated this product. I spent $50 on the thing and all it does is refer you to other places that charge more money. Don’t waste your money or time.

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4. Tim Challies says:

   February 22, 2011 at 9:02 am

   202 of 208 people found the following review helpful:

   
   We Expect Better From Sid, October 20, 2006

   By 

   Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) –
   
     
   
     

   Fun: 

   This review is from: Sid Meier’s Railroads! (CD-ROM)

   I’ve spent some good time with the game now and, despite the fact that I’m about as big a fan of Sid Meier’s work as you’re likely to find, have to admit disappointment with this game. When it comes right down to it, the game seems more like Sid’s golf game than the original RRT. It’s shallow, fast and just not nearly as fun as you’d hope.

   Of course it’s not all bad. The graphics are beautiful, the music is great and you actually get a real manual. The game looks nice and plays nice, even on a system which is not a true gaming rig. The animations are great as well and I love how each of the train cars at a depot have to be filled individually with coal or grain or whatever the case may be. The patent auctions are well done as well.

   Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the game:

   First, the game moves too quickly. For example, if you play the Eastern USA scenario, you may start in Baltimore. You can immediately join with Washington, plunk a depot in Washington, and get a little Grasshopper to run a single mail car and a single passenger car back and forth. By the time the train has made its first run from Baltimore to Washington, you’ll have enough money to connect to your second city (Baltimore to Frederick). So you do that, and get your second train. Give it four or five minutes and you’ll be able to either double the line between BAL and WAS or create a third line to a nearby resource. Within fifteen minutes you will have connected to every city and needed resource in the vicinity. By then your opponents (assuming you are playing against two) will have pretty well done the same so that every good-sized town has at least one connection. The opponent railroads are a complete mess, with weird overpasses and tunnels all over the place. Much like the previous iterations of RRT, the AI seems to deal with brute force rather than sophistication.

   Second, the maps are too small. RRT and RRT2 had a real epic feel. RRT2 was especially good with this, allowing you to make huge railroads stretching across an entire continent. The maps in SMR are tiny in comparison and few in number. This could be my single biggest point of disappointment. It contributes, of course, to the first problem, since you now have three railroads stuck in just a small corner of a country.

   Third, the financial game is shallow compared to previous RRTs. The same is true of the economies. There doesn’t seem to be much sophistication in this. Also, it is very easy to make great deals of money and, because the game moves so quickly, if you take a few minutes to look around the map, you’ll probably find that suddenly you’ve got a couple million dollars in your account. This may be less the case in the more difficult European scenarios, but certainly I haven’t had any trouble making money in the US of A. The stock market offers buy and selling. There is no splitting, no short selling or anything else. There are ten shares per company and that’s it. I may just be missing something, but it also seems difficult to know how much different resources are worth, which ones are the most valuable, and so on.

   Fourth, there seem to be some problems with routing. It’s not unusual to see trains getting all plugged up near stations, even stations with three tracks running through them. The crossovers kind of work, but not as well as you might hope. When a station gets enough traffic running through it (and that may be only 5 or 6 trains) it can really begin to bog down so trains sit endlessly without being able to unload. There have also been times when the little “end of line” roadblocks have refused to go away, even in the middle of a station. That means no trains can run past the roadblock out the other side of the station. To this point I haven’t found an easy way of resolving this. I think it will prove difficult to have stations with a large number of trains accessing them.

   Fifth, laying track is so automatic it’s almost disappointing. Unlike previous games, there do not seem to be a lot of premiums in placing bridges or tunnels. A track running from Phoenix to Flagstaff, which requires at least one major bridge and a couple of long tunnel sections, will only set you back about $500,000. That wouldn’t get you very far in previous RRT games, and I think it’s better that way. It used to be more important to find just the right route (anyone else remember running trains through the mountains to California in RRT2?), but now it hardly matters anymore. Terrain gets smoothed, tunnels get dug and bridges get built just like that. You can just smack a track wherever you want one and the game takes care of the rest.

   Sixth, there is no campaign. This is hugely disappointing as the campaign in RRT2 was one of the best parts of the game (with the exception of those stupid puzzle ones where all you had to do is route trains). The individual scenarios have a list…

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5. Someone "krs94108" says:

   February 22, 2011 at 9:30 am

   92 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Build the Greatest Railroad in the Tri-County Area!!!!! Or, “They’re writing copy for some other Railroad game.”, October 24, 2006

   By 

   Someone “krs94108″ (San Francisco, CA) –

   Fun: 

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Sid Meier’s Railroads! (CD-ROM)

   I don’t know what marketing person wrote the description on the box, but their pants are on fire.

   The greatest railroad building game of all time is back in a vibrant 3D world

   - well, it is in vibrant 3D. Huzzah. If the greatest railroad building game of all time is “back”, it’s returned battered, bruised, and totally unrecognizable. It’s like the bloody, huddled figure of a long-lost friend collasped on your doorstep. You want to cradle it in your arms and scream “Why? Oh, why?” over and over again while shaking your fist at the sky.

   delivering exciting multiplayer options,

   - exciting = existing; options = option.

   in-game customization tools,

   - Ha! “Should my locomotive be purple? How about green? So pretty!” That is the extent of these “in-game customization tools”. Even your starting city is picked for you!

   streamlined interface,

   - Streamlined = Lacking in Content. The so-called interface offers an intriguing variety of useless menus and pointless reports. But they’re in vibrant 3-D!

   and unmatched gameplay,

   - Unmatched by what? Pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity. “Sid Meier presents: Sisyphus! In vibrant 3-D! With multiplayer- push a boulder up hill for eternity with a friend! And customizable! Well not really; we pick the hill for you- but if you want to push a more colorful boulder, we can do that!” Actually, Sisyphus did it for eternity, and I played Railroads! for about three hours.

   that’s easy to learn yet challenging to master.

   - Easy to learn… oh my yes. Challenging to master… if you leave your monitor turned off, or if your keyboard is in another room. After my first attempt, I cranked the difficulty all the way up. And then I turned off my monitor and pretended I was playing RT2, or solitaire.

   Combining the best of real-world and model railroads,

   - That doesn’t even make sense. It is a computer game, not tabletop trains, not Amtrak. It is not like tabletop in that you are expected to earn money. It is not like Amtrak in that you are expected to earn money. It is not like tabletop in that you have no way of “driving” the train. It is not like Amtrak in that your network may span two states. This is not a “I’m an engineer!” sim, and it’s not a business game.

   However, it is like tabletop in that the cities are about four inches apart, and that your train is typically in three stations at once, but I do not know that’s the “best” part of model railroads. (It’s like Amtrak in that it is highly overpriced.)

   Sid Meier’s Railroads! puts you in charge of building the greatest rail empire in the nation

   - HA! HA! HA! You can run an astonishing Pittsburgh-to-Chicago route; Washington DC-to-New York City is an exciting, seven minute option. The maps are so small that, perhaps, “greatest rail empire in the state” would be possible. This game would be tolerable if you could at least go from NYC to Chicago, or manage a transcontinental line. Nope. The European maps are even worse.

   while engaging in all-out corporate warfare against rival tycoons, slick entrepreneuers, and robber barons!

   - all-out corporate warfare = all-out corporate lie. There are no bonds, no options, no short selling, no stock issuance, no nothing. There is “stock”, and there are ten shares of it. No more, no less. They might as well have done away with that aspect entirely, but then we couldn’t claim to have all-out corporate warfare. You can’t even use another company’s tracks or stations. So all-out corporate warfare is a bald-faced lie.

   So disappointing!

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6. Andrew M. Zumwalt "amz0f4" says:

   February 22, 2011 at 9:36 am

   109 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Did anyone at Firaxis play RRT3? RRT4 this is not!, October 17, 2006

   By 

   Andrew M. Zumwalt “amz0f4″ (Columbia, MO USA) –
   
     

   Fun: 

   This review is from: Sid Meier’s Railroads! (CD-ROM)

   SID!!! SID!!!! Did you ever play RRT2 or RRT3 or Locomotion?????

   In the media excitement leading up to the release of Railroads!, preview authors often commented on the possibilities stemming from Sid Meier and his reconnection with his old game, Railroad Tycoon. I, too, was ecited. I had spent many hours playing the original, Railroad Tycoon 2, Railroad Tycoon 3, and Locomotion. Locomotion wasn’t the game I was expecting, and Poptop stopped developing the Railroad Tycoon genre after releasing the Coast-to-Coast expansion for RRT3. However, after playing Railroads for a few solid hours, I’m must say that Sid has disappointed me.

   Poptop released Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3. After they released RRT2, they made some awesome changes to RRT3. The economy was dynamic in that goods would move even without a railroad, if the demand was high enough for a good. That same dynamic isn’t in Railroads; you get paid for moving goods (supply and demand does play a role, but only on a global scale). Poptop created a tool by which you could see the amount of the goods on the map and the price difference between different points. Again, nothing like it in Railroads. Poptop allowed players to upgrade all engines of one type into another type with two mouse clicks. Sid has no such tool, so the player must upgrade each engine one at a time. RRT3 (and RRT2) had an interface that meshed with the game (For example, setting routes was handled in one window and it was easy to stay on top of things); Railroads seems clunky and a throwback to the original.

   Finally, my biggest complaint is the rail system. In the original game, there were signals that allowed trains to move; the system was simple, and if you double tracked, trains did pretty well. The genre expanded with Transport Tycoon. In TT, there were some serious signal and track work (for examples of what I’m talking about, google Transport Tycoon). RRT2 and RRT3 simplified this and put in place a hierarchy; trains that stood higher in the hierarchy would pass over trains that didn’t. Signals weren’t used. It wasn’t as sophisticated as TT (or Locomotion, TT’s successor), but it made gameplay simple, and maps could accommodate massive amounts of trains without the tediousness of trackwork late in the game. With Railroads, the signals are back however, in TT, you could make smart signaling decisions (one way signals, non-reversing trains, and loops). In Railroads, the signals just indicate whether a train can proceed or not (and you can’t place them, like you could in the original! They just appear at intersections and at stations). Even then, if a train has stopped at a signal long enough, it will just decide to move forward. The design of the rail network attempts to replicate the original Railroad Tycoon, but the genre has moved on. If a game is going to use signals, then give the player some control over them! If the game isn’t going to use signals, use waypoints! Both RRT3 and Transport Tycoon advanced the genre using these tools; Railroads lacks both.

   There is more to this list, and I’ll add to it as I think of them, but Firaxis and Sid Meier have really disappointed me with this game. It seems that they brushed up the original with new (I admit they are very cool) graphics and sound, but the gameplay hasn’t really kept up with the time (Did anyone at Firaxis actually play RRT3 or Locomotion?). If you’re thinking about buying the game, I advise you to first download and try the demo.

   Railroad Tycoon 4 this is not!

   Andrew

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7. John C. Willis says:

   February 22, 2011 at 9:45 am

   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Finally…A Book About Online Income that isn’t garbage, January 17, 2011

   By 

   John C. Willis –
   
     

   This review is from: Online Income Blueprints Vol. 1: 14 Internet Entrepreneurs Reveal The Secrets To Their Online Success (Volume 1) (Paperback)

   Everybody and there brother seems to be writing about online marketing and 99 percent of the ones I’ve read have been garbage. Mr. Allen fits the other 1 percent. By interviewing successful online marketers he gives the reader a true feel for what it takes to be a success. His interview subjects range from someone who sells Japanese bento lunchboxes to an info-product creator. Each of the interviewees are successful in their chosen field and Mr. Allen brings out what they did to become successful. Probably the best part of the interviews, at least for me, is that every person was asked the same questions, i.e. how did you start, what did you do wrong, how long before it became profitable, what would you do different, and so on.

   Overall I consider Online Income Blueprints Vol. 1 an excellent investment of your time and money. Now I wonder how long before volume 2 comes out.

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8. GirlGeek says:

   February 22, 2011 at 9:58 am

   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Case Study Insights Really Get the Ideas Flowing!, January 6, 2011

   By 

   GirlGeek –

   This review is from: Online Income Blueprints Vol. 1: 14 Internet Entrepreneurs Reveal The Secrets To Their Online Success (Volume 1) (Paperback)

   Mr. Allen has done a fabulous job of putting together a blueprint for success that is practical, useful, and insightful. In asking each entrepreneur the same set of questions, he is able to maintain a thread of continuity throughout the book – and all of its 146 pages. This makes it really interesting and helpful to quickly compare and contrast some of the success secrets shared by each online marketer – and through these observations, I am able to recognize some of the shared patterns of success. At the same time, the background, experiences, and core businesses of each interviewee are quite varied, making it easy for the reader to relate to a wide spectrum of business ideas and possibilities. I found the book insightful and inspiring – a wonderful idea-generator. Very well done!

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9. Kevin Riley "Book Lover" says:

   February 22, 2011 at 10:48 am

   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Great set of case studies, January 4, 2011

   By 

   Kevin Riley “Book Lover” (Osaka, Japan) –
   
     

   This review is from: Online Income Blueprints Vol. 1: 14 Internet Entrepreneurs Reveal The Secrets To Their Online Success (Volume 1) (Paperback)

   Disclaimer: I’m one of the people who was interviewed for this book.

   I love case studies. You can learn so much from how others have done something, and this book is no exception. There’s a number of people in here who make a great living off the Internet (I know, as I know some of them personally, and I make a very comfortable living off the Internet myself) and you can learn a lot from what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.

   I recommend carefully reading through each interview, and then going back over them a second time to pull out the nuggets that apply to your situation. Then, sit down and draft out your own plan of action.

   Only thing missing? Pictures. I like pictures. But then, I guess they aren’t really needed in this great set of case studies.

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