The Corporate Machine is actually very interesting and well-done. Although the graphics are a little outdated, this game is great. Especially in 2001, if you were making a strategy game, it HAD to be based off war. But this one is like Risk, and still, instead of using your armies to conquer the world, you use competitvley low prices and monopolies to do so. One problem I have with the game is that there is no real in-game tutorial, like modt other PC games of the time. However, there is a manual online.

decent game, but a bit overpriced. i played one game to completion and found that theres not enough going on for the $10.
id wait to pick this up on sale for around $5-7.00 unless you really like these type of game,
i personally expected a bit more,

I think the mechanics arent working to be honest. So I decided to build the company store then upgrade it to the company mall where it promises that I will be able to cut costs of my employees by 15% each level. However, when I proceed to do it. nothing happens. My costs still remains the same. manufacturing costs and the rest are the same. is this game broken? And when i'm playing in the normal mode it seems that even if I had the 'researcher' specialised field, i'm always being overtaken. Even though many years has passed, bugs are prominent in this game causing it to crash. When I research things as well ie.jet engine. my aircraft still looks the same as what I start off with - a propeller driven plane, not like the picture above. what a dissapointment.

The first thing I need to say is READ THE MANUAL! If you're like me and tend to play a casual game or two to get the hang of things it's very easy to have no idea what you are doing and lose the game. A quick skiim of the manual will give you an idea of what is what and how the game runs.
I very nearly wrote a bad review after my first game after giving up in just five minutes, I hadn't read the manual and had no clue what I was doing.

The graphics and sound options on the game are not great, basic graphics and no volume control are something of a turn-off, but you can do what I did and turn off the game's music and ignore the graphiocs quality.

Style of play.... According to the game there are three ways of playing; production, marketing and research. Nope. You either do all three or you'll have a hard time playing. All you really get top decide is which area you have that edge.
Production is the number one priority since lack of products means lack of sales, and with no sales toy have no income to improve the business.
Marketing and Research are roughly equal, the first gives you unstated bonuses in sales as it makes the product more attractive whilst the second can improve the performance/features/whatever of the product or make it cheaper and faster to produce the product, improving your profit margin.

I could go on but I'm not good at writing reviews so I'll finish with some ratings.
Playability 6/10 The game isn't particularly engrossing but is good for quick games (1-2hrs)
Functionality 5/10 The game runs easily but I have dealt with random crashes several times (Regular saving helps)
Graphics 3/10 Not great quality and most of the buttons aren't labelled so you have to work those things out.
Sound 2/10 Volume control is either Loud or Off but the quality isn't bad.

Overall score 4.5/10
I'm going to give the game a positive recommendation since it's one of those games where if you're looking for somethign quick to play it delivers the goods. It just suffers on quality.

16 year old game that still works flawlessly on new PC systems. There's a small learning curve once you start a new game but as soon as you figure it out the game quickly becomes quite addicting and you'll likely find yourself sitting for hours trying to grow your operations to take over the world. 10/10

I got this off of a Humble Bundle. I can't imagine someone actually buying this at full price (9.99 atm).

It's a fun game once you learn what everything means. The UI has no rollover text so it doesn't really explain things fully.
It looks dated, even for a game that supposedly came out in 2001 (it is on par with the original Civilization, if you guys were fortunate enough to play that). And no, there is no play-in-window mode.

You could get used to the quirks, but the real problem is the amount of crashing and weird glitches. Most cause you to have to do a full restart on your computer (save often!). Even alt-tabbing can cause it to lock up the system. FYI, Windows 7.

If you get it cheap enough, sure. Beware the lock-ups.
Full price? Pffffftttt.

I've read that some people have issues getting this to run on Windows 10, but I got zero issues.

Using Windows 10 Pro x64 it started without problems right out of the box after downloading, and without any glitches or issues I played my first game in ages (the last time I played this game it was on a Pentium II most likely).

Its just as good as I remember it, and you still have to build a competitive business in a new market from the ground up.

The research that is required to stay on the edge, while investigating new regions and building factories is what makes this game hard to ballance and master. It takes time and experience to get to a sweetspot in all this. Luckily the user interface has all the tools to provide you with the information you need.

After all these years this game is still a lot of fun, and if you don't mind the highly outdated graphics, and are lucky enough that it just runs on your machine - you're in for a lot of fun.

As a business simulator, it does very very well educationally. As a video game, its mediocre at best with so many demographics and color schemes that you'll more than likely will need glasses or go blind when you're done playing it. It has its moments where I have fun with the silly names and overall domination factor when you completely make your product a standard on just one continent let alone the whole world.

I bought this on sale @ 3.29 USD and worth its price. 9.99 USD is a bit much for the type of game you're getting. At 2001, its a good price for its time. But its well over 14+ years. I would say purchase this once it hits 4.99.

Either way, its a solid game.

surprisingly complex game with an easy interface.

Great AI and a real eye opening commentary on modern consumer economics.

Back then, it was a very good game. Now, in 2019, TCM is barely playable. It cannot run in a window, it doesn't run smooth, it almost crashed my OS (windows 10).

A good game, that feels much better just in our memories.