This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2007) |
RollerCoaster Tycoon | |
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Genre(s) | Construction and management simulation |
Developer(s) |
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Publisher(s) |
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Creator(s) | Chris Sawyer |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Xbox, macOS, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Android |
First release | RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999) |
Latest release | RollerCoaster Tycoon Puzzle (2020) |
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of construction and management simulation games about building and managing an amusement park. Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and allowing players to construct and customize their own unique roller coasters and other thrill rides.
The first game was created by Scottish programmer Chris Sawyer, with assistance from various leading figures from the real-world roller coaster and theme park industry. [1] The rest of the series contains three other main games, expansion packs, a number of ports, and a mobile installment. A refresh of the series, RollerCoaster Tycoon World , was released in November 2016, and followed up by RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures for Nintendo Switch in 2018 and PC in 2019.[ citation needed ]
Licensing for the series is currently held by Atari Interactive, who renewed their deal with Chris Sawyer on 11 October 2022, for ten more years. [2]
1999 | RollerCoaster Tycoon |
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2000 | |
2001 | |
2002 | RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 |
2003 | RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe |
2004 | RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 |
2005 | |
2006 | |
2007 | |
2008 | |
2009 | |
2010 | |
2011 | |
2012 | RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D |
2013 | |
2014 | RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile |
2015 | RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Mobile |
2016 | RollerCoaster Tycoon World |
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic | |
RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch | |
2017 | |
2018 | RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures |
RollerCoaster Tycoon Joyride | |
2019 | |
2020 | RollerCoaster Tycoon Puzzle |
RollerCoaster Tycoon was released for Microsoft Windows on 22 March 1999. RollerCoaster Tycoon was later ported to the Xbox Video game console in 2003. The game was developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Hasbro Interactive under the MicroProse brand.
RollerCoaster Tycoon received two expansion packs: Added Attractions (released in North America as Corkscrew Follies) in 1999, and Loopy Landscapes in 2000. Two special editions were released: RollerCoaster Tycoon Gold/Totally RollerCoaster in 2002, which contained the original game, Corkscrew Follies, and Loopy Landscapes; and RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe in 2003, which contained the content in Gold plus more designs for the different customizable rides.
A port for the Xbox was released on 23 March 2003, handled by Frontier Developments and published by Infogrames Interactive. This version featured both expansion packs as well.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was released on 15 October 2002. The game was developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Infogrames Interactive.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 has two official expansion packs: Wacky Worlds and Time Twister, both released in 2003 and had no involvement from Chris Sawyer, instead being handled by Frontier Developments. The Combo Park Pack edition contains the original game and the Wacky Worlds expansion. The Triple Thrill Pack contains the original game and both expansions.
In April 2014, an open-source project, known as OpenRCT2, was launched to enhance the gameplay of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, including fixing bugs and allowing the game to run natively on macOS, Linux and modern Windows. The game is completely rewritten in the C++ programming language, but still relies on assets from the original game. OpenRCT2 reduces limitations in the original, and adds other completely new features such as multiplayer. [3]
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was released on 2 November 2004, in North America. Although the core features of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 are based on the previous games, Chris Sawyer, the developer of the first two games, acted only as a consultant. The game was developed by Frontier Developments instead, and published and advertised by Atari Interactive featuring a completely different structure.
Two expansion packs for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 were released - Soaked! and Wild!. A bundle, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Gold, was also released, including the original game and the Soaked! expansion pack; this was followed by RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum (Deluxe for the EU version of the game), including both expansion packs and the original game. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum was released for Microsoft Windows and MacOS X.
A remastered version of the game titled RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition, developed and published by Frontier Foundry, was released for Windows, macOS, and Nintendo Switch, featuring widescreen support and revamped controls to accommodate for Switch features.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World was developed by Nvizzio Creations for Atari Interactive and RCTO Productions and released on 16 November 2016. The installment is different from previous games in that players build coasters with a spline-based system. It also introduced a new "Architect mode" and "safety-rating" options when building coasters. The game is also the first to incorporate the Steam Workshop.
The game received largely negative reviews, both from critics and fans of the franchise, particularly compared to Planet Coaster , which was released the day after and received largely positive reviews. [4]
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D was released on 16 October 2012. It was developed by n-Space for the Nintendo 3DS. While using many assets and engine content from Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, this game reverted to an isometric view and, due to the limitations of the Nintendo 3DS, removed features such as additional scenery and pools. [5]
RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile was released on 10 April 2014. The game was initially available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The game was later released for Android devices (OS 4.0.3 and higher) on 18 October 2014. The game was developed by On5 Games without Chris Sawyer's input (other than licensing). [6] [7] The game returns to the isometric view used in the first two games. The game is built on the freemium model with social media integration.
This installment was universally panned amongst fans and critics alike. It was criticized due to Chris Sawyer's absence in the making of the game and the heavy use of microtransactions and wait times. [8] [9]
Released in August 2015, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Mobile Edition is an iOS version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 developed and published by Frontier and is a faithful port of the original game (tutorial mode, original 18 scenarios for career, and a sandbox). [10]
On 22 December 2016, a modified port of both RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was released for iOS and Android, featuring a single price point for the majority of content from both of the original games. It also features three in-app purchases for Expansion Pack content, based on the two expansion packs from RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and an editor pack that allows users to create custom scenarios. [11] [12]
First released for iOS devices in December 2016, RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch is a free-to-play mobile port of RollerCoaster Tycoon World. Like RollerCoaster Tycoon 4, it contains in-app purchases and wait times, but expands upon the social media integration. An Android version was released in April 2017. [13] In October 2017, items based on the Barbie brand were added to the game. [14] On 28 January, items based on Shaun the Sheep were added to the game. [15]
An on-rails shooter based on the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, named RollerCoaster Tycoon Joyride, was released in 2018. The game was poorly received. [16]
In January 2018, Atari Game Partners announced it was seeking equity crowdfunding via the StartEngine platform in order to develop a new game in the series. [17] Titled RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures, it is an adaption of RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch and was released for the Nintendo Switch in Europe on 29 November 2018, and in North America on 13 December. [18] [19] [20] The game was also released on Microsoft Windows via the Epic Games Store on 19 March 2019. [21]
In 2023, Atari released an updated version with new content and features, titled RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures Deluxe. Deluxe is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Nintendo Switch. [22] [23]
RollerCoaster Tycoon Puzzle [24] (originally known as RollerCoaster Tycoon Story) is a free-to-play entry in the series developed by Graphite Lab. Atari released the game in January 2020 for iOS and Android mobile devices. [25]
The free-to-play title is based on the tile-matching genre, in which the tiles to match move each turn on rollercoaster tracks within each level. Completing levels helps the player to restore a run-down theme park as part of the game's narrative. [26]
The player is given control over an amusement park and is tasked with reaching particular goals, such as improving the park's value, attracting more guests, or maintaining the park rating. Some scenarios in the game provide an empty plot of land and allow the player to build a park from scratch, while others provide a ready-built park which usually suffers from deterioration, bad planning, or underdevelopment. The player must wisely invest the limited amount of money provided.
Most scenarios require that the goals be achieved by a specific in-game date, or else the scenario is not 'complete'. Completion of scenarios is a prerequisite for unlocking further scenarios in the first RollerCoaster Tycoon game. In RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, all the scenarios are available for play and the player can complete them in any order they choose.
The player is responsible for building out the park such as modifying terrain, constructing footpaths, adding decorative elements, installing food/drink stalls and other facilities, and building rides and attractions. Many of the rides that can be built are roller coasters or variations on that, such as log flumes, water slides and go-kart tracks. The player can build these out with hills, drops, curves, and other 'special' track pieces (such as loops, corkscrews and helixes), limited only by cost and the geography of the park and other nearby attractions. There are also stationary rides, such as Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, and bumper cars, most of which only contain single ride 'piece' and are very limited in terms of variation. Rides are ranked on scales of excitement, intensity, and nausea, all which influence which park guests will ride those attractions and how they will behave afterward. The player can set the prices for park admission rides and guest amenities, although care must be taken so that guests will not think prices are too high. The player is also responsible for hiring park staff to maintain the rides, keep the park clean, enforce security, and entertain guests. Players may also invest in 'research', which unlocks new rides and improvements as time goes on, though it costs money to continue research. Research in a particular category is disabled when all attractions in that category are researched.
The guests, who are integral to the gameplay, are treated as separate entities which can each have particular characteristics and be tracked by the player around the park. The game keeps track of how much money they have, what they are carrying, their thoughts, and what their current needs are (thirst, hunger, etc.). Each guest also has some unique features such as their preferred ride intensity, and their nausea tolerance. Some scenarios are even biased towards a specific guest demographic and require the player to take this into account in designing the park. In RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 , the player can create their own guest groups to visit their parks.
Sequels have continually upgraded the number of rides and amount of customization available to the player.
Planet Coaster , which has been called a spiritual successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, was developed and published by Frontier Developments for Microsoft Windows and was released worldwide on 17 November 2016. [27] Frontier Developments had previously worked in the amusement park construction and management genre with the Xbox port of RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Thrillville, Thrillville: Off the Rails, and Zoo Tycoon.
Parkitect , released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on 29 November 2018 after two years in early access, is similarly considered to be a spiritual successor to the first two RollerCoaster Tycoon games. [28]
OpenRCT2 (2014) is a free and open-source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 which adds some additional features and fixes numerous bugs. [29] [30]
Several user-created rollercoasters received media attention after footage of them were posted on various imageboards and social media. [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
The RollerCoaster Tycoon series spawned a popular Internet meme based on a series of posts made in 2012 on 4chan featuring a slow, ghost train track ride called "Mr. Bones' Wild Ride" that took four in-game years to complete, leading the passengers in the game to express "I want to get off Mr. Bones Wild Ride". At the ride's conclusion, the passengers were then greeted by a skeleton prop with a top hat, with a sign stating "The ride never ends". Both phrases have become popular memes. [37] [38]
RollerCoaster Tycoon has been cited as an inspiration of professionals working in the real-life rollercoaster industry. [39]
The franchise has also spawned a board game and a pinball machine by Stern, both released in 2002, [40] [41] and a series of gamebooks released in 2002 and 2003. [42] In 2010, it was reported that Sony Pictures Animation had acquired the rights to develop a film adaptation of the series. [40] [43]
Railroad Tycoon is a business simulation game series. There are five games in the series; the original Railroad Tycoon (1990), Railroad Tycoon Deluxe (1993), Railroad Tycoon II (1998), Railroad Tycoon 3 (2003), and Sid Meier's Railroads! (2006).
Transport Tycoon is a city-based video game designed and programmed by Chris Sawyer, and published by MicroProse on 15 November 1994 for DOS. It is a business simulation game, presented in an isometric view in 2D with graphics by Simon Foster, in which the player acts as an entrepreneur in control of a transport company, and can compete against rival companies to make as much profit as possible by transporting passengers and various goods by road, rail, sea and air.
Christopher Sawyer is a Scottish video game designer and programmer. He is best known for creating Transport Tycoon, which has been considered "one of the most important simulation games ever made", and the best-selling RollerCoaster Tycoon series.
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion is a video game designed and programmed by independent game developer Chris Sawyer, and published by Atari Interactive in September 2004. The game is a simulation game in which the player takes on the role of a transportation company manager, building transportation networks and managing the flow of goods and passengers in order to compete against rival companies. Sawyer independently developed the game over nine years from the 1990s as a "spiritual successor to Transport Tycoon", with the game featuring "fundamentally the same" gameplay but with "differences in detail, scale and presentation" to update and refine the features that Sawyer "wanted to get right" in its predecessor.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is a 2004 construction and management simulation video game. It is the third installment in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, and was developed by Frontier Developments and published by Atari Interactive. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 places players in charge of managing amusement parks; rides can be built or demolished, terrain and scenery can be adjusted, and prices can be controlled to keep visitors happy.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is a 2002 construction and management simulation game developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Infogrames Interactive. Released for Windows as the sequel to RollerCoaster Tycoon, the game simulates the management of amusement parks.
Frontier Developments plc. is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier develops management simulators Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo, and has produced several games in David Braben's Elite series, including Elite Dangerous. The company takes its name from the earliest titles in the Elite series with which it was involved, a port of Frontier: Elite II and development of Frontier: First Encounters. In 2013, the company was listed on the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange. It published third-party games under the Frontier Foundry label between 2019 and 2022.
John Richard Wardley is a British developer for theme parks in the UK and Europe: an innovator of special effects, dark rides and roller coasters in the themed attraction industry. He is known for Nemesis at Alton Towers and other major roller coasters in the UK and Europe.
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a 1999 construction and management simulation video game developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Hasbro Interactive. It was released for Windows and was later ported to the Xbox by Frontier Developments in 2003. It is the first game in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series.
Thrillville is a simulation and strategy video game developed by Frontier Developments that depicts theme park management, similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Thrillville is available for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and, in North America, Xbox.
There have been numerous Monopoly video games based on the core game mechanics of Parker Brothers and Hasbro's board game Monopoly. They have been developed by numerous teams and released on multiple platforms over 35+ years.
Zoo Tycoon is a series of business simulation video games in which the player is tasked with building and running a successful zoo. The series was initially developed by Blue Fang Games and published by Microsoft Studios who later in 2001–2008 went on to create two stand-alone video games and seven expansion packs for PC and Macintosh platforms. In 2013, Microsoft Studios released a new Zoo Tycoon game, developed by Frontier Developments for Xbox One and Xbox 360. An enhanced version of the Xbox game, Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection, was released for Windows 10 and the Xbox One on October 31, 2017. Frontier Developments, the developer of the final Zoo Tycoon game, released the spiritual successor to the series, Planet Zoo, in 2019.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World is a theme park construction and management simulation video game developed by Nvizzio Creations and published by Atari for Microsoft Windows. It is the fourth major installment in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. The game was released on 16 November 2016 to largely negative reviews.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D is a 2012 construction and management simulation game developed by n-Space and published by Atari for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is a spin-off of the RollerCoaster Tycoon and its first portable game.
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games since 2011. As part of the Living Card Game (LCG) genre, it is a cooperative and strategic card game set in Middle-earth, a fantasy world featured in literary works by J. R. R. Tolkien, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile is a defunct 2014 construction and management simulation video game, developed by On5, UAB and published by Atari. It is an installment in the RollerCoaster Tycoon, the second to be released for mobile devices, after Frontier Developments made a port of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 for iOS. The original creator of the series, Chris Sawyer, had no involvement with the development. The game was initially released as payware, but has since become free-to-play.
Planet Coaster is a construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Frontier Developments for Windows. It was released worldwide on 17 November 2016. Frontier had previously worked in the amusement park construction and management genre with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Thrillville, Thrillville: Off the Rails, and Zoo Tycoon. A version for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, known as Planet Coaster: Console Edition, was released worldwide on 10 November 2020. The PlayStation 5 version was released in North America and Australia on 12 November 2020 and in Europe on 19 November 2020. A macOS version, developed by Aspyr, was later released on 17 November 2020 on both Steam and Mac App Store.
Parkitect is a construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Texel Raptor. After a successful Kickstarter campaign and a two-year-long early access beta period, the game was released on November 29, 2018. Parkitect simulates amusement park management, similar to the RollerCoaster Tycoon series.
OpenRCT2 is a construction and management simulation video game that simulates amusement park management. It is a free and open-source re-implementation and expansion of the 2002 video game RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. In order to create an accurate clone of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, the game was incrementally written in the platform independent C programming language. In addition to various gameplay changes, the developers fixed a number of bugs and issues that were in the original game.
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is a construction and management simulation video game developed by Origin8 Technologies and published by Atari. The game's initial release is a port of both RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 combined into a single game. Both games are amusement park management simulators created by Chris Sawyer for the PC. RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic was released for Android and iOS in December 2016 and for Microsoft Windows and macOS in September 2017. A Nintendo Switch version is due for release on December 5th 2024.
The world of games moved on and I didn't.