Tropico

Cover

The European version of the cover has a Castro-ish dictator standing on the island. This is the first appearance of El Presidente, who would be the default appearance of the player character in later titles in the series.

Designer diary

Tropico designer Phil Steinmeyer contributed a running series of articles to Computer Games magazine throughout the game's development. His topics ranged from play balance to determining and managing system requirements. He even mentioned designing the box and the reasons for the general/no general versions.

Dictators

The game comes with a collection of biographical sketches of (in)famous world leaders such as Fidel Castro and Eva Peron.

Lou Bega

Lou Bega, a German musician and songwriter, appears as playable dictator. He also contributed a song which is exclusive to the German version.

Title

The game was meant to be named Banana Republic (in reference to the real life Banana Republics), but it had to be changed to Tropico since there is a clothes brand named Banana Republic. Tropico means Tropic in Spanish (duh).

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • April 2002 (Issue #213) – Best Music of the Year

Information also contributed by ClydeFrog, Jiguryo and Scott Monster.