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RollerCoaster Tycoon at 25: 'It's mind-blowing how it inspired me'
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- interbased 3y agoI loved this game. One of the first games I really started to play on own during a period of mostly watching my brother play games. In the same rhythm of games teaching you actual skills for real life, I’ve always felt that way about RuneScape and the economy, heh.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- YesBox 3y agoI loved playing this game so much as a kid. Its inspired me to create my own game using the same aesthetic [1]. Im basically answering the question "what if RCT was a city builder?" Thanks Chris! [1]https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/
- laurentlassalle 3y agoLooks amazing!
- nickzelei 3y agoWow I love the look of this. Wish listed!
- mysterydip 3y agoLove the aesthetic! Good luck!
- thiago_fm 3y agoLooking great! Any chance of having g really tight economics management? Lots of potential to be an amazing city simulation game
- YesBox 3y agoI plan on diving deep into economics at some point, but not immediately.
- Aeolun 3y agoI’ve seen this before. Have to admit I’m mostly attracted by the 1998 in the title. Childhood good times were had :)
- candiddevmike 3y agoI've had this wishlisted since you put it on steam! Any hints on when it will be available?
- YesBox 3y agoAiming for EA by the end of the year :)
- philistine 3y agoI very well know it might be impossible, but you're in the exact market that is often profitable on Mac. Please consider releasing on our beloved platform if it's at all possible.
- EspadaV9 3y agoAnd Linux/SteamOS? If it's Windows it could "just work" with Proton, but a native Linux build would be amazing
- YesBox 3y agoI plan on porting at some point during early access. The graphics engine already supports Mac, and the game is C++, so shouldn't be too difficult
- philistine 3y agoIf you do port to Mac, do not forget to port your demo as well. Very often demos are Windows-only and that can definitely impair my purchasing choice.
- vinyl7 3y agoLooking forward to this!
- me_me_me 3y agoReminds me of Jagged Alliance 2. They don't make games so good anymore.
- affgrff2 3y agoAccording to Wikipedia, the code of the game is written 99% in assembly, too bad the article doesn't mention that. Maybe they decided that is not a valuable information for their readership but I guess, here, lots of people will be as impressed by that.
- baliex 3y agoThis always completely blows my mind. I just can’t fathom how he was able to do that. Brilliant game.
- orthoxerox 3y agoHe used a relatively high level macroassembler. It's not HLA, but it could do things like dereference struct fields and reference various (global?) variables. See here, for example: https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/28 https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/28
- whartung 3y ago> I just can’t fathom how he was able to do that. Honestly, it's not that hard. Not for a decent assembler. The "hard parts" of assembly are things like trying to do multi-precision stuff on smaller precision machines (like 16- 32- bit math on an 8-bit processor). Just coming up with the tiny algorithms we all take for granted. Of course, today, you don't have to invent those. Folks think that written in assembly is all bit twiddling and high, dense data structures. But that's not necessarily true. On a modern x86, it's not that much different from normal C in terms of data sizes and data structures. 16- and 32-bit registers. Add/Sub/Mult/Divide instructions. Block move instructions. Modern assemblers handle structured data. Stupid assemblers handle offsets readily. Assemblers handle local and private symbols, exporting routines, code modularity. You don't have to worry about addresses and what not, linkers do all of that. Symbolic debuggers like anything else. Not like they have to burn a PROM and shove it into a board every dev cycle. But, most important, once you've got started, once you have the common elements of programming (parameter passing, looping, math, structures, pointer dereferencing), I mean, that's it, right? Rinse and repeat. That's what higher level languages give you "for free". Not every line is hand crafted, hand optimized, etc. Much of it can be stomped out with macros for anything that takes more than a few instructions. Tada -- you now have a higher level language (for small values of "higher"). If anything it's just more tedious. Less code density (assuming little macro use) per screen, etc. But even then, once you have your momentum, once you have your routine patterns, they just fall out of the code as you read it. I remember my assembly class in college (I was not a good college student). I stopped going to class because the teacher kept asking me system questions. She gave me an incomplete, and I had to do all the projects again next term (that was, honestly, quite nice of her -- she could have just failed me). So, I did those projects. Those simple Assembly class projects. Trivial little programs "Convert decimal to binary" type stuff. What I did was I wrote a large macro library, inspired by Forth. I basically ported a rough Forth vocabulary to assembler macros. That "convert decimal to binary" project? ; Convert 10 to Binary and print it PUSH 10; PUSH 2; PUSH BASE; STORE; PUSH BUFFER; NUMBER; PUSH BUFFER; PRINT So I turned in my projects, each one was like that -- 10, 20 "instructions". I said "Here's my projects", handing 10, small, 2-3 page printouts, "but you'll need this to understand them" and I gave her a 3/4" thick printout of the macro library. Yea, I was kind of a jerk. Just where my head was at. Figured I'd get an F or and A. She gave me an A. (I mean, if nothing else, I did demonstrate a solid understanding of assembly language programming!) But the underlying point is that it's just patterns, patterns we get used to using and writing. It can be inscrutable to the uninitiated, but the curve, particularly on modern processors, is not that steep. Like I said, you're not just shifting and adding to multiply anymore like the old days. And staring at a disassembly of raw code is not the same thing as writing assembly language with modern assemblers.
- danielecook 3y agoLoved this game as a kid. I played the traditional way, but I also had a lot of fun sending the coaster down a steep drop and up short ramp to nowhere so it would go airborne across the park.
- dag11 3y agoThis game just looks so good today. I know lots of folks already knew that games don't have to look AAA to be excellent, and the success of Minecraft really drove that idea home to the masses, but this game really stands out to me. It almost looks better and better to me as the years march on.
- leokennis 3y agoIt’s look is the perfect blend of cozy cartoon and aerial view realism. Especially when building a park in a forest, it was so peaceful to just follow around people as they wandered through your park.
- spacechild1 3y agoOne of my favorite games as a kid!
- sneed_chucker 3y agoOne of my favorite PC games of all time. There's an enduring player base and online community for it, as well as a really solid open source reimplementation: https://openrct2.org/ https://openrct2.org/
- gambiting 3y agoMy dad was never into computers, but this was one game he played a lot of. Plenty of my childhood memories are of him playing RCT, he would micro optimize the ticket prices until he was swimming in profits.
- maverick2007 3y agoIn case anyone is curious to see how far people have pushed the game, check out NEDesigns[1]. Some truly incredible RCT (mostly 2) parks. I'm a huge theme park enthusiast and I love seeing the realism that people have managed to get out of this limited game. [1] https://www.nedesigns.com/ https://www.nedesigns.com/
- yreg 3y agoI really miss these building games that used an isometric grid. RC Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, Sim City, TTD, … Yes, it's less realistic, but it is so pleasant to work with. Everything you build aligns perfectly and if you want, you can neatly fill the entire map. In comparison, (even with many mods) my Cities Skylines or Planet Coaster creations never look quite right. Building the roads and paths is always awkward and frustrating.
- SimonPStevens 3y agoTake a look Parkitect. It's very much a modern RCT, complete with grid layout. As a fan of RCT1/2, I found it very enjoyable.
- joveian 3y agoI have mixed feelings about that one. The building is much better than RCT (1-3, the ones that I've played) both coasters and buildings, however I don't like the art style at all and the terrain is mostly flat and much less interesting. Also the additional goods movement and service building hiding aspects that they added somewhat detract from the fun in my opinion. In the first RCT only the entrance (and possibly exit, I don't remember) had to be above ground, so with a bit of coaxing you could build rides that are underground except for a hole above the entrance, which was neat. Also, unlike RCT3, Parkitect doesn't let you move the camera to a path view (grid layout and isometric view are not really related), which is something I like to do. One thing RCT does better than other sim games I've played is having a ton of customization options (Parkitect does this too). I like Timberborn also and wish it would have more customization possibilities like the RCT games. There are some limitations in the RCT games, like setting up a free monorail system doesn't cause anyone to use it to get to the next ride they are heading to, but in terms of decorations there is quite a bit you can do with it.
- Aeolun 3y agoI don’t think the original RCT would let you build underground at all? Seem to recall that starting (or becoming practical?) from RCT2 onwards.
- Sharlin 3y agoI'm pretty sure that 1999 was the peak year of PC gaming. Just consider the number of legendary games published that year, including but not limited to: * Age of Empires 2 * Alpha Centauri * Baldur's Gate * Counter-Strike (the original mod!) * Freespace 2 * Heroes of Might and Magic 3 * Homeworld * Jagged Alliance 2 * Outcast * Planescape: Torment * Roller Coaster Tycoon * SimCity 3000 * System Shock 2 * SWAT 3 * The Longest Journey * Unreal Tournament I've (re-)played several of those (BG, HoMM3, JA2, RCT, Ps:T, SS2) in the past couple of years and at some point realized that they were all released in 1999. If you include the 1998 Christmas market, you can add at least: * Falcon 4.0 * Fallout 2 (definitely should've been delayed until 1999!) * Grim Fandango * Half-Life * Myth 2 * Thief: The Dark Project
- plasmatix 3y ago* StarCraft! (1998)
- Sharlin 3y agoYeah, but I only included ~Q4 of 1998, as I consider those games "morally" 1999 titles given the pressure to publish in time for Christmas. In any case, both 1998 and 2000 were very good years for PC gamers as well.
- adamiscool8 3y agoBrood War :)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- accrual 3y agoSCV good to go, sir!
- jakubmazanec 3y ago
- izyda 3y agoI loved this game and then this style of game (all the Tycoons, SimCity, AoE, etc.). I did not know it, but it was my first experience with economics. I mistakenly thought that this is what policy planners _actually_ did in the real world. Imagine the disappointment when I found out that was not true. Nonetheless, it ultimately inspired me to go into data science in market/competitive intelligence. First at hedge funds and now as my own startup. I have never been able to shake the notion that build a real-time view of the real economy was the most interesting thing to work on.
- samsolomon 3y agoHave to recommend RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic—it is my go-to game for flights. It is essentially RCT and RCT2 with their expansions rolled into a single game for $6. The controls work surprisingly well. App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rollercoaster-tycoon-classic/id1113736426 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rollercoaster-tycoon-classic/i... Also on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/683900/RollerCoaster_Tycoon_Classic/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/683900/RollerCoaster_Tyco...
- realjhol 3y ago[dead]
- cafard 3y agoMy son and his best friend in elementary school really liked this game.
- sebazzz 3y agoIts derivative Locomotion was also written in assembly. Though many people apparently like the arcane looking OpenTTD more, I love Locomotion which has slightly better graphics, and now also an reimplementation in the form of OpenLoco.