RollerCoaster Tycoon

aka: Guoshanche Daheng, RCT, White Knuckle
Moby ID: 288
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Description official descriptions

Rollercoaster Tycoon is a real-time isometric amusement park simulation, in which the player takes the role of a theme park manager, creating rides and attractions to amuse his guests, as well as shops and stalls in case the guests are hungry.

Ride stats differ, with some being gentle and meant for "waking up" tired guests, and others being rather intense. Each and every guest has his own excitement and nausea tolerance, which will reflect on the rides' popularity and the park's tidiness. Hence, handymen are employed. Rides can also break down, and some of them can even crash, leading to a tragic ending. Mechanics can be employed to inspect rides for possible errors and to fix already broken rides. Security guards prevent vandalism in their line of sight, and entertainers keep guests happy while waiting in a long queue line.

Guests are also impressed if there is some wonderful scenery scattered around the park, leading to an increase in the park rating. They all have their opinion on the park, so it is a good idea to check their thoughts every now and then, as the park rating depends on the guests' satisfaction.

All these features require money. Loan can be raised from a bank, but the more one borrows, the more the bank asks in return. Certain rides, or even the park itself, can also be advertised, while vouchers are also available for discounts or free rides or food.

Spellings

  • 过山车大亨 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

106 People (89 developers, 17 thanks) · View all

Design
Programming
Graphics
Sound
Music
Additional Programming
Representation
Manual
Layout
  • Louis Saekow Design
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 124 ratings with 13 reviews)

A great sim for the theme park enthusiast.

The Good
The controls on the indiviual sims in the game made it adictive for continual play. Being able to moniter their spending habits along with their excitement level makes this game a joy to play.

The Bad
There are times that the sims get to tedious to manage, such as, when they get lost in the park or not being able to find the food stand when they are standing right in front of it.

The Bottom Line
A great game that puts the player in the drivers seat in creating roller coaster works of art.

Windows · by Benjamin Willis (2) · 2000

Simple, elegant, and (most importantly) fun!

The Good
Roller Coaster Tycoon has a wonderfully short learning curve. You don't have to be the Supreme Roller Coaster Designer or Fortune's CEO of the Year to get started building your first successful park. The game comes with plenty of pre-built coasters that you can just plop down in your parks (if you have the cash), and the business management aspects of the game are extremely simple and easy to master.

Of course, if you can master the art of building a good coaster, the game becomes even more fun. It's really a blast to make an exciting coaster with lots of visual appeal and then watch your park guests zip around your creation. Once you start making your own coasters, the game becomes a challenge of trying to top your last design, or trying to make a good coaster within the limitations of the scenario's landscape. (One of my favorite custom coasters was a small wooden coaster that I built entirely inside a small hill.)

The Bad
The pathing management for your park employees is really a pain. I would love to have the ability to highlight just the path that I want my groundskeepers to walk instead of having to lay out a 4x4 grid everywhere. The 4x4 grid makes it very difficult to get proper coverage because you can't always keep your staff out of areas with a zillion intersections. And it's far too easy to miss sections of path if it's on a bridge or if there's a level difference between the path and the surrounding terrain.

The designer of the game, Chris Sawyer, seems to be extremely anal retentive about 3rd-party, fan-created add-ons to the game. He's released a couple of patches that served no purpose other than to thwart the existing crop of fan-created add-ons. And the programs he's most opposed to are the programs that allow you to create your own scenarios, or that let you play in "sandbox" mode (i.e. just a blank landscape without any scenario restrictions or requirements). In short, Sawyer gives the impression that he's a control freak who's determined to make sure that you can only play the game the way he wants you to play it. Fortunately, the fans have not yet been thwarted to any permanent degree, so these programs are still available and still work despite the efforts of Mr. Sawyer.

The Bottom Line
Despite my gripes, the game is fantastically fun and addictive. I recommend it highly to anybody who likes SimCity type games or who likes going to amusement parks.

Windows · by Afterburner (486) · 2001

A Sim game for those who don't like a ton of micro-management.

The Good
Everything. From the moment I heard about RTC being released, something told me that this would be an incredible game. Taking its cues from Theme Park and Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon gives us a chance to design our own theme park, with so much to design with.

The graphics, although Isometric, are fantastic. Haunted houses, Ferris wheels, go kart tracks, and scenery are all produced very well. The animations get choppy on my P233 w/ 64 Meg RAM, but more so when I am zoomed in real close and with a LOT going on in the park.

The sound is fun and amazing. The sounds fade as you center your screen further from the park, and even slow down if a ride breaks down (listen to the Merry-go-round when it happens... the effect is really neat). Flushing Toilets, screams from coaster riders... it's pretty cool.

The game play is good. You can set prices for indiviual rides, the prices for food, souveniers, umbrellas, maps, etc. It seems like a lot to manage, but you have such a fun time playing you don't really notice it. Watching the costers run is also a great side-product of this, but not quite (I'll explain in a bit.)



The Bad
Although I love this game to death, I have a few dislikes.

1) As another reviewer said... There is no way on Earth that Maintenance men are that lazy. The constant task of cleaning up messes that they should be cleaning up in the first play really detracts from the whole game experience.

2) No Sandbox Mode. Railroad Tycoon II was great for the simple fact that you could build your railroad empire without worrying about scenario deadlines or running out of money. This game DESPARATELY needs a sandbox mode.

3) The game also needs a decent Coaster editor. Something so that when you want to build a coaster you can actually work on getting the physics and layout right BEFORE you commit ant real game-time into doing so. Would be nice to have so when it comes time to build that Batman the Ride -type ride, you can get it right the first time.

The Bottom Line
If you love roller coasters, pick this up. It's a great sim for people who really can't get into them. It's a sim at heart, but the theme-park cover is so fun, you won't even realize that this is really a sim game... Great fun!

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

[ View all 13 player reviews ]

Trivia

Rollercoaster Tycoon was voted #31 overall in PCGamer Magazine's Readers All-Time Top 50 Games Poll (April 2000 issue).

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  • MobyGames ID: 288
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Kasey Chang, Unicorn Lynx, phlux, Luchsen.

Game added September 22, 1999. Last modified March 14, 2024.