RollerCoaster Tycoon

About RollerCoaster Tycoon

RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999) is Chris Sawyer's theme park management game, written almost entirely in x86 assembly language, which became the best-selling PC game of 1999 and sold over four million copies by 2002.

RollerCoaster Tycoon in Depth

The player completes a series of preset scenarios by building and running amusement parks. Dozens of roller coaster types are available, along with log flumes, carousels, bumper cars, haunted houses, go-karts, Ferris wheels and swinging ships. Handymen sweep paths, empty bins, water flowers and mow lawns, mechanics inspect and repair rides, security guards stop vandalism, and entertainers keep guests amused. Terrain can be raised, lowered and flooded to make the park more attractive and fit rides into the landscape, and food stalls, toilets and information kiosks have to be placed to meet visitors' needs. Players can also design their own coasters and rides piece by piece on a tile grid, setting direction, height and steepness and adding zero-g rolls, corkscrews, vertical loops and on-ride photos.

The game has 21 scenarios, each unlocking the next, and finishing them all opens Mega Park, a near-sandbox with nothing but a $50,000 loan and the objective "Have Fun!". Some parks are based on real ones: Katie's Dreamland is modelled on Lightwater Valley, complete with its coaster The Ultimate. The two expansions added 30 scenarios each.

Making RollerCoaster Tycoon

After Transport Tycoon in 1994, Sawyer chose a roller-coaster simulation as his next game, partly as an excuse to keep visiting theme parks for "research". He spent two years on it, with Simon Foster making the graphics in 3D modelling and paint programs and Allister Brimble writing the music; family and friends playtested it before Hasbro took over wider bug-testing. Hasbro Interactive released it under the MicroProse label in North America on 22 March 1999.

It was announced as the best-selling PC game of 1999, with 719,535 US sales that year, and was second only to The Sims in 2000 and 2001; GameSpot noted it had appeared in the weekly top ten almost continuously for two years. Critics praised its detail and coaster design, Computer Games Strategy Plus named it its 1999 strategy game of the year, and Entertainment Weekly called it "the thrill ride of the summer". The expansions Added Attractions (Corkscrew Follies in North America) and Loopy Landscapes followed in 1999 and 2000, Frontier ported it to the Xbox in 2003, and a series of sequels began with RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.