The Roller Coaster Tycoon Thread

[Chino]

Due to popular demand in the Sim City thread I figured I should start this.

Downloading Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 with this many weeks left in the semester was one of the worst decisions I have made in all of my college career. The nostalgia factor is off the charts. I never played the second one, but I did spend thousands of hours playing the first one and all of its expansions. I'm so relieved to see that it is EXACTLY the same as the first one.

I blew through the first park in about 12 minutes and just completed the Woodstock one. It didn't take me long to get back to my old ways... When starting a park with a bunch of premade scenery and paths, I just pillage the hell out of it. I clear the land, make a few thousand bucks off the bat, and then go to town.

One question though. I could have sworn in the first installment you were able to pop balloons people were carrying. Can you no longer do that in the second one?

[Zydar]

I spent many many many hours playing RCT1 and 2, especially the first one. Didn't like the third at all.

Don't know about the balloons though.

[Chino]

I spent many many many hours playing RCT1 and 2, especially the first one. Didn't like the third at all.

Don't know about the balloons though.

The third one was awful. It was too toonish for my liking and the POV camera on the rides was really underwhelming.

[perfey]

Remember me and a friend playing it when we were young, maybe will get it again^^.

[theliloutkast]

First one was easily the best, could be nostalgia, but whatever.

[Big Hath]

Any fans of Railroad Tycoon?  I spent countless hours playing the original one.

[Lynxo]

Like many others, played the first and second to death.

Like many others, didn't really enjoy the third one.

A fourth one could be interesting though...

[Implode]

Sadly, you could never pop balloons that guests were holding. You have to wait until they let them go.

And RCT2 was great. It's basically RCT with a few design changes and upgrades, but it complrtely focused on creativity and sandboxing. The only thing I miss are the dozens and dozens of scenarios in the first game that I could use for inspiration. Luckily I found the RCT community to help with that. The custom content and what people have made still amazes me to this day.

When I get back from out of town, I'll have to share some screenshots.

[Zydar]

Did you guys get any of the expansion packs? I only bought Loopy Landscapes for the first game.

[Implode]

I had both expansions for the first game. The expansions for the second aren't really good. That's the time Chris Sawyer left the development team and where the game went downhill. All they added was some obnoxious animated scenery and "new rides" which are actually just the same ride as before with snake themed cars and crap like that.

[Liampie]

DTF-lurking active RCT player reporting.  :)RCT1 and 2 are the shit, especially with custom scenery and that kind of shit. In the right hands it's an art medium. I'm an admin at New Element, the only decent RCT1&2 site still around: https://www.nedesigns.com/

Selection of pretty bits that showcase some possibilities:






LOOK AT THOSE COLOURS












- - - - -

Lastly, this is an area in a less serious stream of consciousness type of park. The area is called Metropolis and coasters are not surprisingly called The Miracle and the Sleeper. HOBBY OVERLAP




I might do another DT-related thing sometime. A Change of Seasons would be cool.





edit: 11 posts? I thought this would be my second. Either way I'm a lurker.

[Ultimetalhead]

Love 1 and 2 to death (Though the expansion packs to 2 suck). 3 can go fuck a tree though. It's amazing how much 1 person leaving can completely undermine a game. I don't even want to know how many hours I spent playing those games. I had all the expansions for 1, and I don't think the Loopy Landscapes disc left my computer for a good, solid 4 years. I don't care for the scenarios in RCT2 as much, but I really love the roller coaster designer sandbox. I'm really tempted to start playing again, but I think I'm going to have to wait until summer because I know I'll slack on my schoolwork if I get sucked back into it. 

[Implode]

Liampie, admin at NE? That place blows my mind. Small world.   

[Chino]

I can't fucking stand how I make a roller coaster no where near as intense as the premade monsters and not a single person will ride because "it's too intense for me"... fucking pussies.

[Implode]

Maybe you should get better at making coasters. Hoohoohoo. 

But seriously. Making sure the trains don't go through inversions quickly helps a lot, particularly corkscrews. Also bottoms of hills, tops of hills, and turns, but I'm sure you're aware of that. To boost excitement, make the ride go underground or drop over water. Also, there are just some types of coasters that are really to make. Like gigacoasters. They made it so lenient in intensity and excitement ratings. You have to try really hard to make a gigacoaster people won't ride.

[Ultimetalhead]

Making a coaster that people will actually ride is hard as balls. It took me a really long time to figure it out. The number and frequency of inversions has a HUGE impact on what they will ride, so take it easy on those. I wouldn't build them as high as they can go either, because in my experience that never works. The mechanics are kind of fucked up though. For example, helixes must be ranked extremely high in the "excitement" category, because it's possible to make a coaster (preferably a giga coaster) that goes as high as it can go, does a bunch of small helixes all the way down, and then ends. Not only will people ride it, they will fucking LOVE it.

So yeah, if there's ever an issue with your coasters not making the grade, toss in some helixes.

[robwebster]

From the other thread...

I still play RCT and RCT2 to this day. They are among my favorite games of all time. I don't think them making a new one would be good though. They'd most likely screw it up. I mean, heck. They already did when the expansion packs to 2 came out, and 3 just continued down the wrong direction.

I'm broadly pretty positive about technological change and quite like the march of progress, but as early as RCT2, I found I really missed the gradual progression from level to level - the way you unlocked new parks by winning at old ones. I don't know if I might've just had some special Game of the Year type copy, (it had a lot of Six Flags content on it, so... probably!) but all the levels were unlocked straight out of the box. Which is fine, and I'm sure a lot of people liked it, but it kind of removed any impetus to complete the objectives. Became less of a game, and more of a big sandbox. I used to love the accomplishment of hitting the objectives and then having a brand new park to explore. It was half the reason I played. Definitely sank more hours into the original than I ever did into either of the sequels. Money, too - got all the expansion packs.

ETA: Just found this discussion's been moved into another thread. Whoops - over we go!


So, yes! Usually roll my eyes at purists, but RCT's one of the few places I agree with them. I found the original game the more compelling by far. Really cool formula. Played a different game from my childhood over the summer each year, and RCT was my most recent. Got quite far! And I still get a kick out of building rides underground. Or making two rollercoasters launch and return simultaneously. Great fun.

[JayOctavarium]

Downloading RCT2 from Amazon as we speak. I had $10 in gift cards that were originally going towards another Roku... but... ya know.... RCT2 > TV.

I'll just buy the Roku on payday

[Ultimetalhead]

Oh god that blue text is horrible.  Totally agreed, though. The progression from level to level was completely undermined with RCT2, and having them all themed right off the bat didn't sit well with me either.

[Chino]

Oh god that blue text is horrible. 

It's super serious blue.

[Super Dude]

Oh my goodness. Oh my damn.

Former theme & scenery whore reporting in. Sadly I haven't owned RCT or a computer capable of running it in a decade.

[Ultimetalhead]

I made the absolutely huge mistake of finding my original + Loopy Landscapes disc just a few minutes ago. I made the even bigger mistake of installing them both. The temptation to play is staggering.

[robwebster]

Oh god that blue text is horrible. 

Arg! Sorry. I was trying to set it apart from the main post without wrapping it in a series of quoteboxes, but couldn't find a neutral grey in the drop down menu. I was trying to keep one eye on aesthetic, did pick a colour I hoped would look fine against every skin, and it looked cool on mine...



...but, evidently, not that great across the board! 'Pologies, squire.

[FreezingPoint]

I too enjoyed RCT more than RCT2. I found that the levels were better, and in RCT 2 they took away they way I made major money in the original.

It wasn't until the second or third cycle of playing RCT where I made some serious cash. We came near to 200k once, but I can't really remember. (I am honestly not sure if that is a lot. It seemed so at the time). I think that was the part of the game that I loved the most. Building great roller coasters was fun, but seeing the happy people walking out with no money to spend was better. We (my brother and I) found out that people are quite willing to pay for both the park entrance fee and for rides. Find the rides that are really short but people pay big money for. Shuttle Loops used to be our big cash cow. And when they get old, they are so cheap and easy to remake that it pays for itself very quickly, especially given the short ride time. But in the levels that I remember playing in RCT 2, they would not let you charge for both fees.

Another thing I remember: Want to make an awesome go-karts? Just spend a bundle on it and build it around the entire park. The problem is, even if you had the laps set at 1, the winner would take some sort of victory lap and hold everyone up.

[Ultimetalhead]

Yeah, this is how it looked for me.

[robwebster]

Sweet zombie jesus.

[Implode]

I probably have posted these pictures before, but I'll stick them out here again. They are the only screens I have of my old games before my new computer. I remade the Maverick from Cedar Point.





It fully functions with a lifthill that goes up at 10-15 mph and the launch underneath up to 70mph.

[Ultimetalhead]

I remember gawking over those pictures when you first posted them. I am now gawking again. Which coaster did you have to use in order to make everything work? In my experience, almost all of the coaster types didn't have the features needed to re-create a standard Cedar Point ride.

[Implode]

I had to use one of those hacking programs I mentioned earlier to merge some track designs. For most of the track I used the gigacoaster, which is based off Intamin's track style, of which Maverick is. I used regular steel twisting coaster for the inversions and the first hill, and I used the LIM coaster trains both because they looked similar to Maverick's design and they were needed for the inversions. For the lift hill and boost, I set the chainlift speed to 70mph. The supports are all custom scenery made by other people.

And thank you, but don't gawk at my photos! Check out what Liampie posted or go to nedesigns.com. I wish I could be half as good as what some people there create.

[Ultimetalhead]

So, I gave in to the temptation and started plowing through the original scenarios once again. I played through Forest Frontiers pretty much building the park the way I had when I first got the game so many years ago. The nostalgia was incredible. I can't believe how small that park was though. I seem to remember not having as much difficulty fitting all the rides I wanted back in the day. I had to buy extra land just so I could build another roller coaster, and I don't remember having to do that.

[Implode]

Same! I think it's because of the bigger computer screens. When I first played RCT, my monitor resolution was 640x480. 

[Ultimetalhead]

After messing around a bit more I realized how many scenarios are in the original games. 21 in the original, and 30 for each expansion pack leading to a total of 81 (and that's not counting the extras). RCT2 didn't have anywhere near that many even with the expansion packs, IIRC.

[Implode]

You're right. There were only like 20 maybe 30 total with the expansions.

[Tunnel Vision]

I've started playing RCT3 recently. Previously I had only noodled around in sandbox mode, but now I'm going through career mode and actually learning how to play

[Silver Tears]

Ah I used to love playing this game!