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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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

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

Good game, more or less.

The Good
This sim city-like game is much more layed back than others, but fun at the same time. For lack of better wording, it inspires creativity.

The Bad
I never was partial to sim games. Once you build a big city (or in this case, amusement park,) the fun just seems to go away.

The Bottom Line
It's a sim game, where you build stuff, try to keep the people happy and make money. One of the better ones, I think.

Windows · by Sam Tinianow (113) · 2000

Great fun whether you play it seriously or not.

The Good
I normally hate this kind of game. I never liked any of the Sim games. This one grabbed me though. I think the management aspect of the game was easy enough to handle but still challenging enough to make it fun. The graphics and sound are nice and it ran well on my PII/233, even when I had an enourmous park with a million things going on at once. The rides were interesting and there were enough roller coaster designs to keep the game from getting stale. It's also kind of fun to make a deathtrap roller coaster that kills a few people every now and then. Though the physics of the game aren't perfect, it still takes things like gravity and speed into consideration. I also like the fact that you need to put a lot of bathrooms and garbage cans at the exits to the rollercoasters so people can throw up in them. Otherwise you get this gross little splotches on the pavement that never seem to get cleaned up.

The Bad
The perspective is a little skewed and at times it's hard to manipulate land when you accidentally lower it too far. Customers get lost much too easily and frankly, they're annoying when they whine about how they can't find the park exit. I like to think that in real life, someone just might figure out that the park exit is not going to magically appear in the 20 square foot area they refuse to leave. And in real life, maintenance men are not that lazy. They're probably teamsters but I am constantly having to make them clean the place up and it really distracts from the parts of the game that are fun. And the park guests are the biggest weenies I've ever seen. Sure the coasters look scary and I would never ride them in a million years, but don't you think that when you let someone design a rollercoaster that will never materialize in the real world, they're going to make it as scary as possible? Half of my coasters are never ridden because the guests are too chicken to get on.

The Bottom Line
I guess it would be best compared to a Sim game but I hate those and love this so draw your own conclusions. It's really like nothing else out there.

Windows · by Courtland Funke (53) · 2000

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.