Product Details
 | Roller Coaster Tycoon |
| List Price: | $14.99 |
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Product Description
Experience the challenges and pulse-pounding excitement of creating and running the ultimate amusement park. Start with an undeveloped tract of land, a modest bank account and your wildest dreams. Accurate motion dynamics/physics produce thrilling rides - or the ultimate disaster Excitement/Nausea ratings let you design attractions for guests of all stomach strengths Track your financial performance For Windows 95/98+Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2840 in Video Games
- Brand: Atari
- Model: 23121
- Released on: 1999-05-18
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95
Features
- The rest is up to you
- Construct, demolish, design, test and tinker
- Along the way, you'll encounter bad weather that keeps attendance down, roller coasters that prove to be menaces to society, and guests that get lost or complain because you haven't put in enough restaurants or rest rooms
- Running an amusement park isn't all fun and games, but when you get it right - it's sweet success
- Features 14 fantastic roller coaster styles which can be constructed in unlimited configurations
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Want
to build an empire without all the usual bloodshed? Try RollerCoaster
Tycoon, which puts you in total control of a theme park, managing
every detail from ride development to rescuing lost guests.
A
simulator in the style of SimCity, this game has a simple enough
concept: build a park attractive enough to draw in hoards of tourists
and then separate them from their hard-earned money. This is
accomplished by researching and building rides, along with amenities,
gardens and decorations. Once you have your infrastructure, and the
staff to maintain it, it's time to sit back and watch the funds roll
in...all in hopes of building an even bigger rollercoaster somewhere
else!
The big draws in a theme park, the coasters are expensive
and flashy. They lure in thrill-seeking guests prepared to pay top
dollar for a wild ride. RollerCoaster Tycoon even allows you to
design the coasters yourself, a finicky but ultimately rewarding
operation.
Despite a clunky interface and the usual simulator
drawbacks--such as long waits while you acquire funds for the next
ride--RollerCoaster Tycoon is an utter gem of a game. Its
soundtrack, a mix of calliope music and ride machinery, is mixed with
the sound of guests squealing with delight and terror as the coasters
hurl them around. The sound mix is joyfully evocative, and you can
almost smell the cotton candy and the popcorn.
Best of all, you
can play in this theme park for hours without once losing your children
or friends, getting sore feet or experiencing motion sickness. --Alyx
Dellamonica
Amazon.com Product
Description
Design your own roller coaster. Start with a tract
of land, a few bucks in the bank, and the single-minded ambition of
Donald Trump. Along the way you'll encounter all of the pratfalls of the
typical real estate tycoon.
GameSpot
Review
MicroProse's RollerCoaster Tycoon is a combination of
two somewhat popular PC games: Coaster, an older game from Disney in
which you design roller coasters, and Bullfrog's Theme Park, about the
trials and tribulations of running an amusement park. Now, Chris Sawyer,
the developer behind the very addictive and somewhat zany Transport
Tycoon, has developed a brand-new amusement park simulation, with an
emphasis on creating funky new roller coasters. Since Theme Park is
pretty much the only real competition, RollerCoaster Tycoon has the
potential to capture a pretty good niche market - and for the most part,
it succeeds.
The premise is pretty simple: You must run a
successful amusement park. RollerCoaster Tycoon offers a selection of 21
different scenarios, as well as a tutorial, for building your empire.
In actuality, only five of the 21 scenarios are available at start-up -
as you complete a portion of the initial scenarios more will become open
to you. The scenarios typically involve either open or prebuilt
amusement parks, challenging you to accomplish an objective, like
achieving a certain attendance or profit goal.
Like many games of
its ilk - Sim City 3000, Transport Tycoon, even Theme Park -
RollerCoaster Tycoon uses an isometric angle to view the overall map.
The map has multiple zoom levels and can be rotated 90 degrees in either
direction. A grid is superimposed on the terrain to provide a
structured area to determine definite sizes of buildings, sidewalks,
lakes, and so on. Manipulating the terrain and building or destroying
structures costs money; these costs, along with other amusement
park-related costs, are balanced against the revenues brought in by
customers.
You have the option of building a number of different
structures to please your customers: thrill rides, roller coasters, mild
rides, water rides, food vendors, souvenir stands, and even bathrooms.
The big rides are the most interesting, and of course, most players will
probably go straight for the roller coaster. Laying out the rides and
concourses requires some skillful planning - you must place not only the
rides, but the queuing area and entry gates as well. Lines for rides
that spill out onto the concourse are not good for the moving traffic,
and vomit-inducing rides (should you choose to keep them) might need a
few strategic stalls nearby. At the outset, you only have access to the
basic rides and vendors, but money and time put into research will earn
you new types of amusements and technologies.
As mentioned above,
roller coasters are a big part of the game, and would-be designers will
not be disappointed. You can custom-build your own coasters - including
your own twists, turns, dips, runs, and so forth - to your heart's
desire. Well, almost to your heart's desire. The problem, if you can
call it that, is physics. RollerCoaster Tycoon uses a real-world physics
algorithm to model its coasters accurately. If you build an all-wooden
coaster track, with an 80-foot drop and a hairpin turn to the left,
without angling the track properly, the cars will go flying off the
track, and you can expect a reduction in attendance in the near future.
Of course you can prevent all that by testing the tracks, which provides
all sorts of statistical goodies.
Like similar games,
RollerCoaster Tycoon lets you access any number of the attendees
wandering throughout the park. With this feature, you can tell if your
arrangements and layouts are working or if a ride is just too much or
just plain boring. All sorts of employees are available for hire. Rides
will break down, requiring handymen. People hate standing in line, so
you must hire entertainers. Crowds typically bring petty crime,
requiring security. Another nice little feature is customization, which
lets you name practically everything in the park to your liking. The
sound effects are really good: People scream on roller coasters, and
little motor cars sound like little motor cars. The sound is even
positional, so when coaster passengers go from the left to the right
side of the screen, their screams go from the left to the right speaker.
Unfortunately,
such a big and somewhat complex simulation doesn't come without
problems. Graphically, RollerCoaster Tycoon is pretty good, with only a
few clipping problems between animated objects and the terrain behind
them. Some may find the depiction of elevation hard to cope with, and
strangely enough, the game only runs at two speeds - stop and go - so
when you're trying to manage your newest amusement park, time is ticking
by, perhaps faster than you'd like. The roller coaster physics model is
nice, but you must have a completed track to test it out properly.
Finally, there are only 21 scenarios and no way to make more, and
there's no generic "start from scratch and build till you drop" scenario
either.
RollerCoaster Tycoon is another fun management simulation
from the mind of Chris Sawyer. One can only hope he continues to make
games in the future - and with less time between them. --Alan Dunkin
--Copyright
©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
part in any form or medium without express written permission of
GameSpot is prohibited.
Customer Reviews
The best sim game ever has finally come to PC!
This addicting game is a best
seller and for a good reason. This fun (and sometimes funny) game
requires a lot of free time, a strategic brain, and a good imagination.
RCT
has a very user-friendly interface. It is easy to roam around your
park, create and maintain rides, hire staff (janitors, mechanics,
security guards, and entertainers), keep the park clean, and much more.
Even if you're new to this game, a quick overlook at the game's
features will get you going. But even a quick look won't satisfy you
with this very addicting game. I can guarantee that you'll want to play
this all day and night.
Creating your own ride is very fun. Make
all the drops, vertical loops, etc. you want. But be careful to keep
within the budget range! Sounds hard? It gets harder as it unlocks more
parks as you complete scenarios. But no matter how hard or frustrating
it is, it will get more fun as you research more rides and attractions
as time passes.
So if you're trying to beat the park objective,
keep within budget range, create the best roller coaster, keep your
guests happy, or just play for fun, you'll agree from the minute you get
into the game that the best sim game ever has finally come to PC!
The
expansion pack is a great addition to a great game. Be sure to include
the Corkscrew Follies addition with your order.
Even an old man loves this game
I've been a gamer for years,
but lately I've found that a lot of new games are just retread of old
games with better graphics and sound. Or they simply just suck -- e.g.
Mech Warrior 3. Roller Coaster Tycoon (RCT) certainly isn't that. I
found the game, addictive, exciting and fun. The first time I booted it
up I was planning on just figuring it out for a couple of minutes. To my
surprise, I played for about 4 hours straight. I was so immersed that I
completely lost track of time and space.
I think that the most
interesting part of the game is how deep the game is and how many
different variable one has to keep track of while building and running
an amusement park. Also, I found it very challanging as I tried to
update my park from kiddie rides to the more exciting rollercoasters.
Finally, you can monitor the thoughts and actions of your customers and
modify your park to respond to their needs.
This game is a blast!
So Addicting It Should Be Illegal!
Have you ever gone to an
amusement park and thought you could make the rides just a little bit
better, at least in your imagination? Well folks, here's your chance.
Especially if you have any love for rollercoasters. A little warning
though, when I first bought the game I stayed up until 5:00 in the
morning playing it so if you buy this game for your kids you might want
to monitor how long they play. You are set up as the budding Theme Park
tycoon and your initial goal is to attract a certain amount of guests to
your park with a certain level of customer satisfaction (your park is
rated by each guest and the computer keeps track). If you start from
scratch (the funnest way to play, hands down) you will get frustrated.
Your rollercoasters that you design most likely won't work exactly as
you plan, but it's ok you can fix it. If you are looking for a family
oriented, non-stop fun PC game look no further than Roller Coaster
Tycoon!
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