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This Rollercoaster Tycoon page
contains lots of useful info about the hugely addictive management sim...
This page is in the process
of being massively improved. We have had great feedback over the years on how
the RCT page has been the most useful, but we still think that it could do with
more downloads and more cheats. So, within three months we aim to contain the
biggest collection of free downloadable rides and parks available on the
internet. And that is no joke. So, if you can help to contribute, then please
email
rct@gamesway.co.uk and your help will be truly
appreciated. Remember, this site is purely for the use of every RCT fan in the
world - not for any commercial gain - so we might as well make it a good one.
If you look closely (or even if you
don't), you will find the following things on this page:
Introduction to the game
Rollercoaster Tycoon is, as
the name suggests, a game all about rollercoasters.It follows the ever-popular
''Transport Tycoon'' and ''Railroad Tycoon'' games written by Chris Sawyer for
Microprose. I am a proud owner of Transport Tycoon too and if anyone requires
information on that game, they can easily
mail me
with the request.
Rollercoaster
Tycoon (RCT) is very similar to Transport Tycoon. The layout is the same, the
graphics are the same, even some of the noises are the same! The difference in
the two games is, in TT, you control trains, planes and automobiles whereas RCT
gives you the task of controlling car, track and vomit!
RCT borrows
working elements from ''Theme Park'' heavily but the graphics and running of the
game are entirely different. This game focuses more on the building and
maintenance of a theme park -- especially rollercoasters -- than Theme Park ever
did. In this game you can:
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Design and
construct your own rollercoaster rides, or choose from fantastic pre-built
designs, all with accurately simulated motion dynamics. |
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Raise the
prices (or lower them for that matter), increase research, monitor your
customers' moods, hire and fire your staff - all at the click of a mouse... |
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Take
advantage of technology as it develops; from the traditional 'Wooden Roller
Coaster' to the high-tech 'Steel Corkscrew' and the terrifying 'Reverse
Freefall'. |
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Raise and
lower land and water levels to enhance your rides, build tracks underground,
in tunnels or suspended over lakes. |
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Invest in
food and drink stalls, hire entertainers and deck out your park with themes,
colour schemes, trees, statues and fountains, making it more attractive to
your public. |
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Carry out
nearly 30 mission-based scenarios in a diverse range of environments. |
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View all
events clearly and instantly with superbly high-detailed quality graphics,
menus and message boards. |
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Personalise
and customise to your heart's content. You can even save your rollercoaster
designs to disk and use them in other scenarios (or
email them to us
to be included on our downloads page)
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System Requirements
The designers of the game
state the following as minimum:
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Windows
95/98 |
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Pentium 90 |
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16 MB RAM |
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Quad speed
(4x) CD-ROM Drive |
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50 MB Hard
Drive space |
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1 MB SVGA
card |
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Win95
compatible sound card |
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Mouse |
This is
fantastic as even people with crap computers can enjoy this game. The graphics
are incredible and don't even need a 3D graphics card. I think computer
specifications are not a problem for the vast majority of people, and the game
only costs £10-£15 now it has been out for a while. All in all, it's a fantastic
game. We give it our marks below (each out of 20)
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Gameplay:18 |
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Addictiveness:17 |
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Ease of
use:19 |
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Smooth
running:13 - gets a little jumpy with a full park |
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Value for
Money:18 |
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Overall
quality of game:19 |
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Overall
ease of use (installing, saving, exiting etc):19. |
The only
major disadvantage is that it does not have a freeplay option - you must stick
to the scenarios. This does not bring the game down much at all, it's still fun,
but maybe there should be an option to start a theme park with no objectives or
missions. For those of you who think this is a good idea, you can download a
completely empty park created by gamesway - no boundary wall, no trees,
completely flat land and £50,000 in the bank from our
downloads page. You do not need anything other than your original copy of
RCT for this and all the other downloads we have. [top]
Tips and Cheats
If you have any additional tips or
cheats that aren't listed here, then please
email them to
me.
There are some great game trainers on our downloads page. These are the ultimate
cheating devices.
Click here to get
to the download page. The
only in-built "cheats" on RCT are the Easter Eggs embedded in the game in the
form of renaming guests. Renaming a guest to one of the following names will
cause him/her to perform a special action. These actions are listed in the table
below.
| Rename a guest
to... |
He/She will... |
| Chris
Sawyer |
Stop and take photos |
| Melanie Warn |
Be instantly happy - even
if previously in the depths of despair. Buys a lot and stays in your park a
long time |
| Simon Foster |
Stop and paint portraits |
| Tony Day |
Buys burgers at a rate of
knots |
| John Mace |
Pays double to go on
rides |
| Damon Hill |
Drives Go Karts very fast |
| John Bubrough |
Every time you press the
'L' button, park rating increases |
| John Wardley |
Thinks 'Wow' all the time |
| Richard Branson |
A very rich guest. |
| Katie Brayshaw |
Waves to other guests |
Now, because you can't
have two guests with the same name, you must rename the guest afterwards to be
able to convert more than one guest for each cheat. So, all you do is name the
guest whatever for the cheat, then when the guest starts being happy or snapping
away, rename him something entirely different and move onto another victim!
Below are some tips on how to run
an effective park. They consist of common sense and my own experience. Feel free
to add to the list - mail your tips
here.
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If the
intensity of a ride is too high, NO-ONE WILL GO ON IT!!! They are all too
scared. A good intensity ride is between 2.50 and 8.00.And even at 8.00 not
many people will go on the ride! I am currently having problems with building
rollercoasters - I cannot build a long rollercoaster with a reasonable
intensity. The last intensity I had was 20.14!!! |
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A good ride
is one with intensity 6 or 7, nausea rating no higher than 3 or 4 and
excitement above 5. |
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Try to
place theming objects around your rides. For example, a runaway mine-train
ride (wooden rollercoaster with mine trucks) could have a mine wheel thing
that is available after a certain amount of research (they come under the mine
theming in the gardens/benches etc window) and a nice paved area suspended
over a lake could have a fountain as the centre-piece. I'm sure you can think
of other things. |
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Don't just
raise and lower land and water levels for the fun of it as it costs a lot of
money and it cannot be refunded, even if you are returning the land to it's
original level. |
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If, when
building a rollercoaster, you get a message telling you that the next section
cannot be built because it is too high for the supports, then raise the land
(only if you are sure the rollercoaster will be worth it) under the proposed
section of track until it lets you build it. Please remember that the land can
only be returned to it's original level AT A COST! |
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If you are
building a monorail, try and make the station platforms as big as possible.
This will allow you to have a really big, modern train. When you have finished
construction, click on the 'train' tab on the ride control centre then on the
bit that tells you that you have small, monorail cars and change it to 'large
monorail train'. This looks a lot better. |
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Another
monorail tip. The monorail does not have to be a complete circuit, unlike the
miniature train. To have an incomplete circuit, simply click on the 'gears'
tab and click on the box with 'continuous circuit mode and change it to
'shuttle mode'. This will then enable the mono-train to travel back and forth
on the same piece of track. |
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When building a rollercoaster, don't have the train going too
fast into a corner. This creates a lot of G-force and bumps up the intensity
and nausea ratings. Instead, bank the curve or install brakes just before the
corner. |
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One Mechanic for every three rides is about right. |
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Try and pay off as much of your loan as you can as soon as you
can. This reduces interest payments, but don't repay too much or you'll go
into the red when wages come round. Try and keep your balance above £1,000 all
the time. |
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If you have seen a tip advising that you drown or trap guests
in tunnels if they are unhappy, DON'T DO IT. This will dramatically decrease
your park rating. Although it is funny. |
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If vandalism is a problem, don't just hire more security
guards. It is happening because there are a lot of unhappy guests. See why
they are unhappy and rectify the problem. |
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If you have very little space, for example in Bumbly Beach,
then build on top of your existing paths and rides. To build a ride above
another ride, simply find a single square of land in the area and raise it
until it is high enough above the first object, then build your ride/shop so
that at least one square is sitting on the raised bit. This automatically
builds supports under the rest of the object. The same can be done with paths. |
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If your park is very crowded but you have no room to build
extra paths, build on top of your existing ones. Don't build double paths as
the guests will wander round in circles for ages. Make sure there are plenty
of access ramps to your main path. |
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When guests come to a fork in the pathway, they make a 50/50
decision on which path to take unless they already know where they are going.
Therefore, try and keep all your rides/buildings on the main path and try not
to have lots of side paths branching out. |
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If your park is prone to rain, make sure that all your
uncovered rides (e.g. Rollercoasters above land, Ferris Wheel, Log Flume etc.)
have very large queue lines. This means that when it does rain, your ride will
still have a good supply of people to pay for rides as no guest will join a
queue for an uncovered ride while it is raining. |
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When a ride crashes, you must click
the Red button (to switch off the ride) TWICE. The ride can be restarted -
though you may need to change the track layout if that was what was caused the
crash. |
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Try to aim for your rollercoaster to
climb only one hill. For example, it should climb a hill/lift at the beginning
and coast through the rest of the ride without any more lifts. |
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For each four decreases in height on
a rollercoaster, you should have three increases before a corner. See tip
above on how to avoid approaching a corner with speed. |
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When taking a track underground through flat ground, lower the
ground to get the track in rather than raising it. This looks better and
doesn't get in the way when building on the ground later. [top] |
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