It's yours: Jurassic Park! It's your job to make it work. Just build the Park and populate it with dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs. This will be the greatest theme park in the history of the world! Your job is to keep the Park gates open. Prove to InGen that the Park is viable...and safe....Oh yes, you have a T. rex. But don't forget, she's a hunter! Design it. Build it. Breed dinosaurs. It's yours: Jurassic Park!
— John Hammond
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is a business simulator developed by Blue Tongue Software, based on the Jurassic Park franchise, and released in 2003 for PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The player's goal is to build Jurassic Park and make it a profitable success.
In August 2017, a spiritual successor titled Jurassic World: Evolution was announced for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
This game provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Peter Ludlow, the Big Bad of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, could be considered at worst a non-hostile Obstructive Bureaucrat here with the quarterly reports he presents alongside his uncle.
- The Aloner: Kentrosaurus will panic and run away at the sight of any large herbivore, and is happiest when living with its own kind, or with other Stegosaurs (or Ankylosaurus).
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Utilized as an in-game mechanic, no less. If you stick dinosaurs from different time periods and different continents together in the same enclosure, some of the nerdier visitors will point this out, and their enjoyment of the park will subsequently go down. And of course any inaccuracies from the movies are carried into the game, including large raptors, poisonous Dilophosaurus, featherless theropods, pronated front limbs, etc.
- Artificial Stupidity: It isn't uncommon for dinosaurs, especially the large predators, to go on rampages due to not having water- even if there is a lake or river in their enclosure.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Both of the African Dig Sites: The dinosaurs from each individual site cannot stand its neighbors at all, and they are expensive.
- Boring, but Practical: Hell Creek Site B. The only site with no carnivores whatsoever. However, it gives you a five star dinosaur (Triceratops), and all three of its dinosaurs are likeable, low-maintenance, and can be housed together for authenticity, cost effectiveness, and further pleasing the fun-lovers. Even the thrill seekers will sort of like seeing the Pachies rut.
- Carnivores Are Mean / Herbivores Are Friendly: Played with. While the large carnivores (Allosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Spinosaurus) are the most dangerous species that can AND will kill anything (be it herbivores, other carnivores, or even humans), the large herbivores (Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Torosaurus) can hold their own in a fight and even occasionally kill them, as well as wreak havoc on the park themselves. The small carnivores (Albertosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus, and Velociraptor) are easier to control and have a bigger chance of fleeing from a fight they cannot win. Due to its enourmous size, the Brachiosaurus is invincible from all carnivores but hard to maintain thus making it a potential safety hazard for the park, while the Kentrosaurus could kill even large carnivores despite its small size. However, all dinosaurs (except for Dryosaurus, Gallimimus, and Homalocephale) will easily chase down humans instead if given the chance.
- Cool Versus Awesome: You can put different carnivore species in the same habitat and watch them fight each other, up to and including the chance to recreate the famous T. rex versus Spinosaurus fight from Jurassic Park III.
- Demoted to Extra: The movie characters, since this is a game about what you do with Jurassic Park. In fact, John Hammond is the only character whose dialogue is not limited to very brief voice clips.
- Extinct Animal Park: The game focuses on you customizing your island, building a functioning park, and cloning dinosaurs from fossils and amber. There's also a Site B mode, where you can create a true Mesozoic ecosystem with no human interference beyond hatcheries.
- First-Person Shooter: When you fly a helicopter, you can take a first-person perspective to shoot the dinosaurs, whether to vaccinate them, sedate them, or kill them. With a cheat code, you can also unlock the ability to shoot to kill from a jeep. Of course, people will be displeased if you kill the dinosaurs for no reason.
- First-Person Snapshooter: A few missions (about three or four) require you to take pictures of dinosaurs. The last one you have to acquire 200 points taking pictures of predatory dinosaurs fighting each other, hunting, or eating. If you get too close, they may attack your car or you may bump into them, hurting them and resulting in losing points. Sounds hard, but it's not really. You have to complete these to access the missions after them, but otherwise it's not a real important part of game play.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- This game frequently won't run on modern computers due to not being compatible. If you try, it often crashes. There's also guides on the internet for uninstalling the game, because it's prone to not uninstalling correctly.
- While not strictly game-breaking, the Site B mode can be ruined by a case of Artificial Stupidity wherein the dinosaurs migrate as far to the southwest as they can, potentially starving or dehydrating themselves to death in the process.
- Game Mod: Due to the files being editable with just Notepad, modding the game is extremely easy. ADDING actual content, however, is not that easy, due to the strange way the models are coded.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Brachiosaurus is too big to be threatened by predators.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Uncle and nephew pair John Hammond and Peter Ludlow, respectively. Hammond warmly congratulates you for properly maintaining your park and awards you stars as they are earned; Ludlow sternly brings the park complaints to your attention and will fire you and shut down the park if you do a poor job of addressing them or lose too many stars.
- Hostile Weather: The twisters that will destroy your park.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Carnivores have no problem feeding on fallen members of their own species.
- The Juggernaut: Brachiosaurus, which absolutely nothing can kill thanks to its immense size. It can, however, die of malnutrition. Large carnivores may accidentally bite it, but they will usually simply flee from it.
- Lighter and Softer: Operation Genesis is about making JP into a financial success and bringing dinosaurs to the public. In a way, the game is what Hammond saw in the park in the first place - wonder. As such, the game is far more optimistic and trouble free than Jurassic Park (1993), unless you deliberately make it into a death park.
- Multiple Endings: There is a "good" and a "bad" ending.
- If you succeed in making your park a successful venture and get up to five stars, John Hammond will announce to the world that you now own the greatest theme park in the world.
- If you are in deficit for a prolonged period of time, Peter Ludlow will fire you, and your park will be abandoned to the dinosaurs.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: The Kentrosaurus, which is perfectly capable of killing large carnivores.
- Realism: One type of park visitor, the 'Dino Nerds' are easily the hardest fans to please as they're a stickler for realism. They hate any enclosure that has dinosaur feeders or hatcheries and get mad if dinosaurs from the wrong time periods are in the same paddock.
- Raptor Attack: Velociraptor, obviously.
- Red Alert: Emergency mode. If something bad is happening or about to happen to the park, smart players quickly slap the emergency button. This sets off a park-wide alarm that sends visitors scrambling for emergency bunkersnote . While this tanks your earnings (visitors cowering in bunkers aren't spending money on rides and $7 sodas), it does mean that if someone does get chomped your reputation hit won't be as severe. It also means that if push comes to shove, your airborne dino containment team can use lethal force against dinos without repercussion.
- The Team: Your command staff, of which you are in charge. The teammates include Ray Arnold, who keeps track of visitors and your buildings;
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: This game can make even some sadistic choices in other simulation games look benevolent. Want to lower entrance fees to very low to entice park goers just as you take down a gate letting out a few T. rex and maybe a couple dozen raptors for kicks? Go for it!
- Videogame Caring Potential: On the other hand, however, you can spend a great deal of time making sure all your dinosaurs are happy and leading healthy, care-free lives along with improving the experiences for all visitors.
- What the Hell, Player?: If you're not in emergency mode, you get fined pretty heavily when visitors are killed, and Ludlow will rip you a new one. Likewise, your visitors will leave en masse, and they will be furious if you kill a dinosaur for no reason (you can only kill a dinosaur in emergency mode without penalty).
- The Worf Effect: Ankylosaurus is capable of defeating every large carnivore with ease, including Spinosaurus.
