Genre: Simulation
Year: 1999
Developed by: Chris Sawyer
Published by: Hasbro Interactive
Platforms: PC, Xbox
#153
Feeling Like: I want to get off Mr. Bones’ Wild Ride!
I’m a wimp when it comes to a few things; moving tables at a restaurant and causing a ruckus for one. Why can’t we stay here? Going to Australia is another – it’s hot, and everything flora/fauna is seemingly designed to cause human beings immense pain or death.
Put roller coasters on that list, too.
I’m not especially terrified once I’m on them, but it requires a large amount of peer pressure and a minor shove to get me in line. The anticipation while staring at the careening, impossibly fast bulk of steel flying past me tends to build trepidation instead of excitement. Still, I’ve done the classic wooden coaster at the PNE in Vancouver half a dozen times (thanks to my fearless cousin Jessica) and I even managed the Behemoth, Canada’s biggest roller coaster. Matt was right, doing the scariest one first meant the rest of the park seemed tame by comparison.
It may look like I’m having fun, but I assure you that is me screaming my head off in exhilaration, not joy. Maybe both.
I never thought a PC game where you design your own theme park would grab a hold of me like it did….but it did. It helped that our woefully underpowered family PC in 1999 was capable of running it smoothly, and I couldn’t say that for very many games. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at how much I loved it, it shares a lot of fundamentals with a SimCity; create a cool thing, watch little digital people enjoy it, try to improve your cool things, look at stats, build a cool new thing, listen to a pleasant soundtrack and watch the time dissolve in front of your eyes.
I do remember being mildly annoyed that most of the stages I tried were pre-set, I don’t remember if I ever got to a fully empty map but knowing my civil engineering skills at 15 years old, it’s probably for the best I was presented with a pre-set park, boundaries and starting rides included. Even though the tileset always seemed to be some kind of green forest, I never balked due to the lack of variety. The real hook was the rides and watching my dudes and dudettes populate them.
Screenshots alone bring a smile to my face. It’s just so easy to see everything, every curve you’ve made on your track, every path you’ve blocked out to ensure park attendees can get ice cream on their way back from the merry-go-round, every umbrella that pops up when it starts to rain, every park and plant you place to improve happiness is all easily accessible. Within a few clicks, you can see every complaint and change everything. That feeling of power is at the crux of RollerCoaster Tycoon’s success.
Each area would have a goal, usually to get a certain amount of profit or a specific number of customers, but oftentimes I’d just sit back and watch the rides go. Challenges would arise; lineups would be too long, rides would be too intense, not enough janitors, not enough bathrooms, food is overpriced. None of these quibbles ever felt more than minor quibbles to work around. Maybe Eric Cartman should have played this game prior to purchasing his own theme park.
This game spawned an entire franchise with dozens of entries, though I only ever played the original. I was fine with that – oftentimes I’m rabid to unwrap a sequel and see what else the developers have in store for me. Not in this case. RollerCoaster Tycoon was so pure and fun that I was almost nervous to find out what they’d changed. Any moderate complaints I’d read about reinforced my decision, I’d really rather just play the original and fool around with my placement of the popcorn stand, or try to ensure I had the cleanest park possible. I’d feel terribly guilty when a ride would crash and immediately scale it down. Safety first!
It’s that kind of game. You can micromanage every detail, or just view the spectacle day in, day out. It’s right up there with Age of Empires 2 as a 90s computer game that players still play to this day, generally with added on modifications. The fact that it was created by one person, Chris Sawyer, is a miracle. It’s both simple and complex, casual yet addictive. I may not be able to brave the creations I made in RollerCoaster Tycoon in real life, but I sure can admire them fondly from my isometric view.
The 500 