RollerCoaster Tycoon
RollerCoaster Tycoon (RCT) is a computer game created in 1999 for Microsoft Windows. It was developed by designer and programmer Chris Sawyer, artist Simon Foster and composer Allister Brimble. It was published by Hasbro Interactive (sold to Infogrames now known as Atari). Despite its title, the game is about amusement park management and development, not only about roller coasters. It spawned two sequels and several expansion packs.
RCT was a sleeper hit. The user interface of RCT borrows substantially from a much older game by Sawyer, Transport Tycoon.
Description
The player is given control over an amusement park and charged with improving it. Sometimes the park is merely a stub of a park with few or no rides, sometimes it is bustly with activity with numerous attractions. Unlike games such as Civilization and SimCity, each park has a goal the player must meet in order to win.
The goal of each park—the scenario—varies. But typical goals include raising the rating of a park (on a 1000 point scale), attracting a certain number of visitors or eliminating a park's debt. All goals have a time limit (usually a few years) that the player must attain the goal within. The time limit must be met, that is, even if a player reaches the goal before the time limit expires, they still must wait until that time is attained. Depending on the goals, this of course means maintaining the achievement (such as patron numbers) until the time limit is met.
Players have the option of building pre-designed rides or building their own custom designs. The ride-building tools are fairly powerful, allowing the player to reshape land and even build parts of rides underground. Rides can also be built around others. This (as one could imagine) can have an effect on the excitement rating of the rides involved. The player may assign fees for rides or the entire park and repaint and rename rides easily. Tools are provided for building paths, designing landscaping and adding facilities such as lamps, restrooms, garbage bins, benches, food stalls and fountains.
As play progresses, sometimes new rides and stalls are invented and may be added to the park's attractions. For example, when the scenario starts only wooden roller coasters may be available. Eventually, steel roller coasters may be discovered and made available to the player.
Only a few scenarios are initially available. As the player wins scenarios, more are "unlocked" and made available for play.
One of the few criticisms of this game made by players is the inability to speed up time. Players must wait for time to progress even if they don't desire to make any changes to the park. Another criticism was the inability to build rides with the game paused, but some noted it as a play balancing artifact. Additionally, some players find fault with the fact that gameplay is constrained solely to scenarios, preventing players from freely being able to build and test designs in a "sandbox" mode. Several third-party patches exist that allow free building, but are not supported by the game's designer or publisher.
Trivia
Chris Sawyer wrote the entire game in complex assembly language, very unusual for a game of this complexity. Just a small portion of C was used to interface with the Windows operating system, the rest was coded in assembly.
Expansions
Two expansion packs were released: Corkscrew Follies and Loopy Landscapes. Each expansion provided new rides, scenery, and scenarios, with few changes to the gameplay. Internationally, Corkscrew Follies is called Added Attractions.
Xbox
RollerCoaster Tycoon is now on the Xbox following its success on Windows. Rollercoaster Tycoon II is being produced by Capcom.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
Initially, the sequel RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 wasn't quite as popular with fans as the first version because the improvements were mostly subtle or in the back end, not quite noticeable to players, especially newer ones. The game proved succesful however, attracting more people and revitalizing the older fan base. One feature that proved to be quite popular was the addition of the ability to import and use user-created scenery items. Players could now create anything their imaginations could come up with.
Eventually, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 held its own, selling more copies than any other PC game for the year it came out.
Expansions
Two expansions for RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 were released called Wacky Worlds and Time Twister.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
A third iteration of the series, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, was released in November 2004. It lets people play in 3D, which allows for the riding of one's own creations (something people had been calling for since the first game), full lighting effects and day-night cycles, creation of fireworks displays, and the use of custom music tracks for in-game sound and music on rides. Also, the much desired sandbox mode was added to the game.
Although Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is based primarily on the previous two games, Chris Sawyer himself was only involved at a 'consulting' level and was not one of the programmers. His touch is still apparent, however, through the amazing replayability of the game. A patch is available on a number of sites that fixes the inordinate number of bugs found in the first release (some reviewers, such as PC Gamer, have gone as far as to call the intial release a beta, similar to the intial release of Mac OS X).
This game was developed by Frontier Developments.
External links
Official
- RollerCoaster Tycoon Official Site
- Chris Sawyer's Home Page
- FAQ for RCT3, including information about the patch
Community Based
- RCT2.com - One of the biggest fan sites for RollerCoaster Tycoon
- RCT3D.com - Large community dedicated to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
- NewElement - A large fan site known for skilled RollerCoaster Tycoon parks