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Blows my mind to realize that Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2 were technically indie games made by ONE guy. Has to go down as some of the greatest masterpieces ever with that in mind. I don't think I could ever count how many hours I had into RCT1 with my shitty old laptop that I kept forever just to play that game alone. These are the types of things that make me think back to my childish days and smile from ear to ear. God I wish I could go back to the days of no care in the world...
If you look into how freaking detailed RCT2 especially is, it's mindblowing that this was made by 1 guy. The logic that makes the game work is insanely intricate and well thought out, polished AND performed on a toaster. Absolute insanity, Sawyer was a genius.
It was also entirely written in assembly. Chris Sawyer is a genius. He also made Transport tycoon, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. All in assembly. I believe the graphics were made by another person, so that would be a 2 person project, by the game design and programming was 100% Chris Sawyer.
You could move around guests in RCT3, you just couldn't kill them anymore. Also, the reason why guests drowned in RCT and RCT2 was because Chris Sawyer didn't want to have to make an animation for the guests to swim.
@@JackMacLupus I would say it's the fact that for the swimming strategy, you need to move, meaning to calculate where to swim, while drowning is just one more animation and removing the character
@@JackMacLupus A "treading water" animation would be no more work than a "drowning" animation. He likely decided that drag/drop "guest removal" was a useful function.
Remember he created this game in Assembly Language. I have some experience with the programming language, and what Chris did was amazing. Its a difficult language to understand when your projects start to become more complex.
To make sawyers rollercoaster tycoon even more impressive, he wrote pretty much the entire thing in 32-bit assembly.. now THATS impressive, id guess not even 1% of programmers can write a simple program in assembly but this guy made a whole game by himself as a hobby project in assembly..
@@hellowill This was a good while after that. 1999 had Windows 98 and 2000, XP coming soon, C++ being used for most stuff, .NET framework on the verge of existence, javascript and internet explorer everywhere, etc.
By 1999? No, making games in assembly was not normal, especially on PC. On consoles, assembly remained relevant for a while but the N64 devkit could work with C as well. Likely for performance reasons. For example, DOOM was made in ANSI C and came out in 1993.
@@rabbitt7516 depends on what you were missing in the original games. OpenRCT2 mostly got QoL improvements and improvements for running on modern systems with high resolutions
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 where so popular that it basically created a decade long trend of business sims and city builders slapping "Tycoon" at the end even if it didn't make sense, like with Moon Tycoon or School Tycoon.
It's a shame you didn't mention OpenRCT2 nor Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic. Both are basically RCT2 with OpenRCT2 adding more rides, cheats, fixing some bugs and adding multiplayer, and Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic porting RCT2 to mobile and tablet devices and later the PC. I would definitely say that RCT as a franchise hasn't died but is being caried by these two games.
Yeah but OpenRCT2 is a fan project isn't it? RCT Classic (or even OpenRCT2 for that matter) aren't nearly as famous as the originals, Atari blew it on terrible projects
@@unocualqu1era OpenRCT2 is indeed a fan project. While it might be less famous than the originals, I think the community is large enough that it should be mentioned in a video about the game, and why it died. RCT Classic is also an official release, and probably larger in users than a lot of the spin-offs mentioned in the video. It seems really weird to leave these out of the conversation. Especially since the scene starting at 2.57 is using OpenRCT2.
@@Duvelthehobbit He also blatantly ignored the community for RCT3, while going as far as trashing the game without even mentioning the Soaked and Wild expansion packs. Like with RCT2, RCT3's modding community completely transformed that game and what was possible to build.
@Duvelthehobbit i played RCT when it was released. I was a pretty big pcgamer back then but loved RCT. Since I was a kid, i didnt end up buy RCT2 until much later. After I built my first PC (p4 era) i got RCT3 and I remember being excited to finally get to ride my coasters but there were definitly issues which made it less creative and I barely played it. I cant remember how many hundreds of hours I played RCT, i do know a got into modding a little with it but not as much as other games. Jump to a few weeks ago and I decided I didnt want my 7 year old to just know minecraft on xbox and tablet games. I set up an old school "family PC" in a corner. (It is actually a monitor K and M connected to a dock, which connects to a laptop, not a true PC atm) I didnt know about open RCT but picked up RCT classic and it seems at a good level for the kiddo. It simplifies some stuff and updated the gui to be a good transition for him. I also installed warcraft 2 and age of empires 2 HD. Need to get him hooked on the strategy bug. He has loved RCT classic so its a win in my book.
To claim that RCT3 is "uninteresting and bland" and that it was a failure is a massive oversimplification that stems from ignorance, especially when you leave out the following factors: 1)It was the first game to bring the management side of the coaster genre to 3D in a somewhat realistic style. (1999's Theme Park World/Sim Theme Park did it earlier, but that game had a more cartoon style.) 2)Frontier released two expansion packs to RCT3, Soaked and Wild, that massively expanded the game by adding functional waterparks and zoos to the coaster mix. This had never been done before, and until the announcement of Planet Coaster 2 just this past week it hasn't been attempted since. 3)During the franchise's hiatus, RCT3 (And also RCT2) experienced a renaissance due to the development of mods, which added brand new scenery, coasters, and flat rides. The modding community arguably saved the entire genre, and is the inspiration for Frontier's Thememaker Toolkit for Planet Coaster & Zoo. 4)The mixed reception ultimately comes down to everyone's personal preferences. Both 3D and 2D games had their strengths and weaknesses, with fans gravitating towards the game that best fit their style.
@user-bt5qt9pp4x I understand your sentiment. A lot of it has to do with RCT3 being limited by the tech and game engine available at the time, and it gets even harder if you limit yourself to the officially released assets. That's why the modding scene was such a huge boone for RCT3, because it completely changed how people played that game. And even then, the 2D games just have a completely different feel to them, and the in-game objects of RCT1&2 are perfectly designed to fit within the limited zoomed-out perspective.
I think RCT3 is definitely not uninteresting. I think it's not bland either but something feels amiss. I think the theming and the them of the rides that's available may feel bland but the game is not bland at all. RCT3 has a big lack of themes in my opinion but at least each theme provides a lot of stuff compared to RCT2 with themes only having 10 or less, other having 20+ pieces. Continuing with themes or theming, the non-rollercoaster ride designs were really hit-or-miss for me. I loved the fact that it got rides according to the themes present in the game (western, space theme etc.) but I feel like some rides, even the "generic"-themed rides, are aesthetically hard to place. I think part of it is the game being 3D and it not aging well as I often had a hard time saying. "Yeah, this ride looks good enough". When it comes to rollercoasters, being able to ride along is great! However, the theming with rollercoasters...it's inconsistently subpar for me due to 1) not being able to use tunnels unless you had the Wild! expansion 2) bizarrely enough, not being able to place walls on the same tile as a rollercoaster. In RCT 1 & 2, it was easily possible. With 3, it's not and if you place the walls on the tiles next to it and build a roof on top of a ride piece, it looks so off as the walls protrude. And of course, it also blocks off the usage of other elements requiring a full tile so for a 1 x 1 house with roof, you had to waste 2 tiles instead of 0. RCT3 did a lot of good things, I especially love the ride-along cam for nearly all rides and the three-tier objective system. Granted, this gives you the weird deviation that you never have a fail state like in the previous games and thus it misses the urgency some scenarious required in previous titles but I'm okay enough with it. Nowadays, I'm glad RCT3 + both expansions are dirt cheap because base RCT3 is not as striking as the RCT2 in my opinon, especially when there were no expansions back then. Now, however, with all the expansions and mods available, it's worth a try and loading times shouldn't be as bad as back then either.
Give parkitect a try, it’s essentially a modern RCT without getting complicated. You can make a beautiful and full park in a few hours rather than a few weeks.
@@keydenluster4501 Only thing holding me back with Parkitect is the cartoonish graphics which are a huge turn-off. But honestly RCT3 didn't even age that bad, especially the Complete Remastered Edition. That's why I disagree with this video because the graphics and micro-managements make the game play good. Also you can still grab peeps with the tweezer tool so idk what he's on about. Lol
@@krabgrass I felt the same with Parkitect when it was released, I gave it a try a few weeks ago, aaaaand, I can't stop playing, it's different from RCT, but it also has all the things that made me love RCT while adding some depth of gameplay. And Honestly, you can make your parks look more "realistic" since you can recolor basically everything, now yeah the texture are still the same but you can get very creative it's actually quite insane!
@jaeko Yea it was like that for me with Parkitect. I eventually got over the graphics and started playing more with steam workshop mods. One of my favorite things about Parkitect is how you can pick different styles for the queue line tiles and the underground chutes for moving around supplies and waste-
Roller coaster tycoon 3 was literally my childhood. I love that game so much, and since i started with the 3 it was very difficult to me like the 2D style in the RCT2 and RCT1
I have RCT3 completely different in my mind especially after the soaked add on. I was in love and have no idea how many hours I have spend playing that and then I found out about mods.... omg that made it all brand new again. Of course it worked not as smooth as today, but it was my first encounter with modding. I loved that game and I still do. I think 4 years ago I played with it for a few more days. And then stuff happened in my life and wasn't able to get back to playing games, although I bought the best pc money could buy in 2020. That PC hasn't been switched on even for years. Planet Coaster 2 is now on my list to hopefully return to gaming later this year. Can't wait to fully update my office/game room.
Hey, Frontier also has your back there with Planet Zoo! They recently released a barnyard pack and now my guests can get spit on by alpaca! @JTScottOfficial
Just some feedback, I really don't like the one word animation popping up in the middle of the screen in rapid succession. It makes my eyes hurt honestly and serves very little purpose imo. I would rather just listen to your narration while seeing a still image or preferably gameplay footage.
They lost their vision and milked the franchise dry. At this point just play Planet Coaster, or if you're into the isometric perspective, Parkitect. Wonderful game that still capture that early RTC spirit.
Nothing has been "milked", in my view... That's not what you can apply to this franchise. There haven't been that many games and three of them were big hits. - What else is there?... That "World" one?... Who cares?... It's hardly "milking" it. - They actually didn't do ENOUGH with it, both in terms of releasing anything or at least in terms of quality.
And, if you want to play a game that's like RCT World but better, look no further than Park Beyond. It's arguably superior to RCT World thanks to the impossification feature.
I think you're too hard on RCT3, while it is indeed true it couldn't quite match the excellent coherent unified direction its predecessors had, it still stood on its own merits quite well and I have fond memories of it. The integration of both waterpark and zoo management stuff in the expansions was pretty great.
I was one of the beta testers for RTW. It was a joke from the start. They rarely listened to our complaints, advice, released updates which caused more problems, didn't agree with us on what was considered stupid or didn't work, and each time the developers changed, it got worse. The last one just wasn't capable at all. A lot of us got frustrated each time our feedback, submitted bug reports were just cast aside. They knew they'd messed up as right before launch we were all offered a chance to have our Steam usernames removed from the beta tester section in the game credits.
Came here to say the same thing. RCT just built upon the foundations layed by TP. IIRC, TT was the result of trying to make RCT originally. Or the other way around.
Totally agree. Some elements of that game are found in RCT, such as the alert that of "visits think your prices are cheap, perhaps you should raise prices".
@@andywolan The sequel, Locomotion, was a lot of fun for me, and i played it a ton. It felt a lot closer to RCT than the others did. I also prefer the visuals of it over the all the (Open)TT(D) versions. It probably just came too late, it was already outdated by the time it was released. OpenTTD has proven to be much more future proof though, thanks to a fantastic dedicated community.
You forgot about RCT Classic and Touch which Chris Sawyer did work on quite extensively. Classic was released the same year as World so he was working with Atari to develop the title.
I loved roller coaster tycoon. I played it so much back in the day. Built every type of roller coaster I could think of. However, most of the time my roller coasters were too hard-core for my riders lol
Stating that people thought that RCT3 looked "uninteresting and bland" is completely revisionist history. It was seen as a massive graphical achievement of the management sim genre. Most RCT fans liked it even if they continued to prefer the older games, and it had a massive online community at the time.
RCT3 was such a vibe. Waterpark & zoo upgrades, the ability to ride your creations, the themeing. Never played the original or RCT2 & I wouldn't want to honestly, I understand their charm & pixelated aura but that just wouldn't cut it for me. I'd love to play Planet Coaster but my Macbook can't handle it so I guess it's RC3 until I upgrade & I'm good with that.
@@robotm99 This. It always bugs me when people complain about the game when they weren't even around to play it and be in the community. There was so much innovation with RCT3 and without it we would not see the park management sims we see today.
Yea he really should rework this video, huge L. Lol RCT3 is honestly the best out of all of them and in the remastered Complete Edition, the graphics look pretty good. The modding community is still active and alive even 20 years later!
@@krabgrass i mean the graphics are pretty bad objectively speaking for a 3d game (even for the time), but they are endearing, and style ends up being more important. it's like saying N64 games had trash graphics-like no shit. even still, that game had so much soul. i see people praising the RCT1/2 soundtracks as well, as if they're even in the same galaxy as 3s. it's so funny. I'd imagine most of the criticsm comes from people not being able to run the game well back in '04, and it's just carried that bad reputation ever since.
Stoked to watch this as a diehard fan of the originals. I hope Parkitect gets mentioned! It's amazing and is the spiritual successor to the original RCT games. It also has multiplayer and is a ton of fun with friends.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is my most played RCT. Not because I like it the most, but because of the ability to ride my rides. My son LOVES to ride the coasters that I remake off of real life rides. Perhaps I could buy Planet Coaster?
Planet Coaster is mostly an improved version of RCT3. But if you wait just a bit longer, Planet Coaster 2 has been very recently announced, and it looks like it will be mostly the same (with just a few tweaks, mostly coming from their experience with Planet Zoo) and the addition of the one thing I really missed - a water park. It's supposed to come out in Fall this year. That said, Planet Coaster goes on sale fairly frequently these days and it does have a relatively cheap subscription option that lets you check it out with all the DLC. If you don't care about the water park, I'd say this is a great option.
planet coaster is a great game but even as someone who loves rct3 its very complicated its completely offgrid and coasters are a lot harder to build (in my opinion at least) but still a great game jsut not the easiest to get into
Just one thing to note, Planet Coaster and (presumably) PC2 have a very different feel. They are designed with full creative freedom in mind meaning that, if you put the time in, the things you can make are absolutely incredible. The grid and small selection of track pieces are replaced by freeform modeling tools, smooth tracking, scenery objects that can be placed anywhere, rotated, and colored to your liking, and more that really makes it so the only limitation is your imagination. However, this also means that it loses some of the charm and nostalgia of the old games, and it definitely seems more complicated upfront. It's still by far one of my favorite games, but I would highly recommend you watch some gameplay or ride videos from it just to see if it will scratch your itch.
Watching this randomly and finding out that Planet Coaster 2 has been announced just an hour ago! Can't wait for another GREAT game in the original spirit of Rollercoaster Tycoon!
This game never fell off or died. I still have it on my laptop and I sometimes play it during lecture or when I have free time at school. Not sure where you’re getting this info from.
RollerCoaster Tycoon never died. Both it and its sequel have continued to see fame and reverence across the globe, even to this day. Even Frontier Development's spin-off "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3" is well-loved. There are no other RollerCoaster Tycoon games outside those 3, and despite this, they each live on.
First game i palyed form this series was RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 ! It was so amazing me and my brother have played over 400 hours of this game each , we loved it .
@@Radioactive-ju9rb it is decent, it’s got a similar coaster builder to the original rct, taste of adventure DLC I recommend, gives you a new campaign and gives you track pieces for some coasters like switch tracks and drop tracks, there are mods, they are just on the steam workshop, and the devs host challenges every month so they still care about this game, it just got a small update with new entertainers and some scenery pieces, it also has a 5th anniversary scenario. It does have good coaster types, highly recommend silvarret’s video on how to build a coaster in parkitect, you’ll be able to build some decent coasters from that tutorial.
Just play Parkitect? At this point it’s the definitive edition of the old games with a new fresh lick of paint… But a fun fact that I didn’t realize myself? The studio/person who made the RCT3 soundtrack is the same that made the Rimworld ost
Parkitect has a lot of charm for sure. Love the decoration mechanics in that and how you gotta keep the immersion up for the guests. My only gripe with it is the lack of more advanced stuff like different launch modes for coasters that RCT had.
Oh wow I didn't know about the Rimworld OST. 2k+ hours in that game (rookie numbers :P ) and never even thought about turning off the music, it's so good! :)
Every single "video game history" video ends up coming down to corporate greed and poor treatment of game developers/artists... Makes you think about our priorities as a society.
@@hellowill I mean, if pushing back mean getting hate by my dev teammate, PO, PM, designers, I would definitely shut up once they don't see the obvious problem
Atari's intentions with releasing it one day before Planet Coaster was desperation and competition. They knew the state of their game in comparison to Planet Coaster, and they knew they can't compete. Releasing it before Planet Coaster was an attempt to force people to decide what game they want to spend their money on. If they bought their game, then people were less likely to then buy Planet Coaster. But they also knew that if they released it before Planet coaster, they might actually make some money than if they released it after. They knew their product sucked, and they knew that they loose any chance to make any money from it after Planet Coaster was released.
Releasing a worse version of a Rollercoaster Tycoon sequel a day before the superior version which is a spiritual successor rather than part of the mainline series? Real smart Atari. 😆 Reminds me of the Sim City 2013 disaster.
And how Cities Skylines took over from a big company that tried to monetize too hard, except that the grid-based greatness of SimCity 4 is so much better any CS.
I think you skipped over the real reason behind 1 and 2 feeling special. Sawyer was a brilliant programmer, and wrote an extremely efficient game, and he did all of this by himself in assembly language. Not C++ or any other normal game language. Just to be closer to the machine and make it perfect. The result of that is a game that feels snappy, optimized and effective. Add to that the soul and obvious care that went into the development and you have a hit.
Rollercoaster Tycoon may have been the gold standard but all the management games you mentioned could be traced back to Sim City (1989) or theme park (1994) or the sid meiers franchise like railroad tycoon (1990). All of them successful in their own right Rollercoaster tycoon refined the genre and brought a lot of people to the genre but it was built on what came before
11:42 A move like realising a game so close to a competitor that is looking to do far better saleswise, is likely a strategy to mask culpability. This way, they can simply blame their competitor, rather than having higher management and investors breathing down their necks.
This video has some pretty obvious personal biases slipped in there. I love RCT to death, but yeah, that was a very silly statement. Man also talks about rct3 like it wasn't a smash hit with fans and critics alike
Hi I’m 32 years old and roller coaster tycoon 3 was my favorite childhood game, it blew my mind and was amazing, I loved getting to ride my coasters in pov and I loved the 3d coaster design. Also because of this I have played probably hundreds of hours of this game and I remember being able to grab customers as employees and move them around the park.
I wouldn't give Frontier too much credit. Corporate greed held back Planet Coaster's full potential. Denuvo and overpriced DLC (for which they then introduced a subscription service for, well after dropping support for the game) leave a bad taste in my mouth for what is otherwise a superb park building experience. I blame the suits for those boneheaded decisions. Planet Coaster feels like a passion project; RCT3 walked so PC could run, which only dials up the frustration. At least the OG games still hold up, especially combined with OpenRCT2.
Disagree. I agree that Denuvo is a POS, but that's the way non indie games seem to be going. That being said, I agree that RCT3 walked so that Planet Coaster 1 & 2 could run.
I don't know what planet the announcer lives in but the RTC 3 ATARI back in the early 2000's version was awesome alone with the additions etc. I loved it! He is extremely negative.
I never played the original titles. I did play Sim Theme Park, and that was fun as a kid. As an adult, I did try Rollercoaster Tycoon World, but I was really disappointed to find that almost everything was put behind paywalls. If you wanted ANYTHING other than the very basics of basics, you had to pay extra. Because of that, I was hesitant to play Planet Coaster, but eventually, it was on sale, and it was a million times better than Tycoon World.
There is one reoccurring pattern of when a brand goes downhill badly. It's always the company (or at least the people making the decisions) not understanding its own product.
the first rollercoaster tycoon game was part of my childhood growing up. I absoultey loved that game. It felt so good managing and building a successful amusement park
It's a shame Sawyer dipped out when offered a bag. I recall a few years ago the rights were extended another decade to Atari from him, even though he himself is completely uninvolved.
Given the bullshit that Atari got up to, that was probably the right choice, to be honest. If he'd stayed involved, then the only thing that would've resulted in is him burning out due to having to deal with Atari's ridiculous demands and ideas.
I remember the day a friend of mine ran in to school with the latest "PC Gamer" magazine and it had Rollercoaster Tycoon advertised as coming out soon. The excitement was real and both RCT and RCT 2 did not disappoint. tbh I didn't actually mind RCT3 too much, although it definitely felt very different to the previous too (not surprisingly). I still found myself spending a good few hours on it. Anything on from then it was game over. Planet Coaster took over my life and now we await Planco 2.
Great retrospective. I think this is the perfect example of "Names don't matter in gaming". I don't think Frontier "beat the odds against them". they slanted the odds in there favor by, well, making a good game. When the rollercoster tycoon game was failing. This should be a lesson to any CEO in the gaming industry that fans can (and will) make better alternatives if the current games aren't great, and everyone will move the the better alternative
Frontier got done dirty. First of all, because of putting those Roller Coaster Tycoon World complaints over footage of Planet Coaster. Second, lumping RCT3 in with the dredge that followed. I loved RCT1 and 2, but it was clear they had just about maximized on iso builders (which is why Open and Parkitekt are so similar). A lot of desired features required 3D, which was more difficult and graphics-intensive (cue simpler human designs). Frontier did great for the time, and most nitpicks were just that. What we wanted was further development of what was achieved in 3, both new capabilities plus the return of some from 2. We wanted a proper 4. We finally got that with Planet Coaster thanks to Frontier. 3 was great and a good step forward.
I have heard some people like the riding coaster feature, I imagine the fans of it probably are just really into riding rollercoasters irl and it gives them a way to do that at home. I even remember a story from someone online who bought a knockoff of rct for that feature alone (and was greatly disappointed lol)
Answer, the spinoffs and everything after RCT3 had nothing to do with the original creator Chris Sawyer. Even for RCT3 he only acted in an advisory role. Chris Sawyer is a programming LEGEND and he is who created RCT 1 RCT 2 and RCT Classic.
Sorry to burst you bubble, but Rollecoaster Tycoon, while being a great game, wasn"t as influential as you might think. It in no way 'kickstarted' the rise of simulation games and on PC even came very late to the party within the genre while PC games in general already were very popular. What it was, was a very good continuations and evolution of the genre. It basically was a spiritual successor to the game 'theme park' from 1994, which had a sequel in 1999 that was poorly received and thus Rollecoaster Tycoon took over the lead in the theme park simulation genre. Other popular Tycoon games I played before RCT were plenty, like Theme Hospital, Sim City, Pizza Tycoon, Transport Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon. Also Cities Skylines is clearly inspired by Sim City, not Rollercoaster tycoon. i still love RCT though, but get your facts strait.
Anyone that is a fan of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon needs to play the new spiritual successor to that game, Parkitect. It is absolutely brilliant and I was immediately brought back to my childhood. It is a masterpiece.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and 3 were the ones I spent the most time on. They are easily some of my favorite games of all time. Planet Coaster basically took over the reigns of the series after 3.
between the ages of 10 and 21, i loved building sims. I played the hell out of RTC 1 & 2, I even enjoyed RTC3 and Sim city societies. When city skyline came, I tried it and even played it for like 80 hours, love the mod support but games like these, never felt the same as they did when i was young. skylines or even planet coaster for that matter, was the game, that I wish i had, when i was 16, I had time an passion to play these games, spend 600+ hours on perfecting a city or a park. nowadays, that feels like a monumental task that I dont have the time, patience or motivation for. adulthood kills a lot of things..
STORY TIME! I worked at infograms in tech support back in the day before that CEO took over. I loved my job. More than any job I have ever had in my life. About a month after he took over one day we had a company wide meeting. As you entered the big room, someone with a clipboard would direct you to the right or left side of chairs. After all the praise of the new ceo and how well games are going they said "But unfortunately if you are on the left side of the room this will be your last day here" that is how they laid us off
The part where you mention Infogrames is a little confusing. While yes, they technically rebranded, Infogrames actually acquired Atari as a whole in 2003, but Atari still existed before then. Just the wording I found a little off.
rct3 was EVERYTHING. the ones that get it, get it. it might be different to the first two but it's DEFINITELY loved by the fans and still has gameplay value to this day. planet coaster was frontier's opportunity to show what rct3 paved the way for.
I'd have probably mentioned Parkitect. It's closer to the Rollercoaster Tycoon style. I've not played Planet Coaster, but Parkitect is really good fun.
He didn't "retire when it made him rich". He had fullfilled his vision and didn't want to work further on the project based on someone else's vision. He simply let it go to follow other passions of his (like making Locomotion), which in my book commands much more respect.
Chris Sawyer had a association with David Braben/Frontier going back to the early 90s. He was responsible for porting Frontier: Elite 2 from Amiga/Atari ST to PC, and assisted Braben in coding the PC-Only sequel, Frontier: First Encounters - that's why they were selected to make the RCT games when Sawyer stepped back. So, yes... Planet Coaster really is the spiritual sequel, if anything is.
The reason 1 and 2 were so good, was that chris sawyer is a programming god. I mean the guy programmed it in assembly, basically direct machine instructions. 3 was not a bad game imho, with all the expansions - which aren't expensive, you can get everything for 10€ - you get a lot of content. I must've put several hundrets of hours into RCT3
I've always found the hate for RCT3 to be unjustified. To me, I think it is a great sandbox game much like the same for RCT1 and 2, and probably the best in terms of just building a sandbox. Obviously, OpenRCT2 makes a game like that unviable in terms of updates, but the hate because it was "different" to the other games whenever the complaint that RCT2 was "the same" as RCT1 is also used is so bizarre.
@@Theel25 Same. RCT3 was one of my favorite games at the time but RCT2 was close by. Though, I have spent more time in RCT3's sandbox, building my own parks, but I have beaten the campaign a few times.
OpenRCT 2 is still hugely populair. And a lot of people stay this genius game (RTC2). After that, only Planet Coaster came close to the succes/greatness of this game.
Remember every game you have ever played. You played for the last time and never knew it was the last time. 😢😢😢 enjoy these works of art while you can.
As someone who beta-tested RCTWorld I can confirm that Atari and Nvizzio were given TON'S of feed-back as to what was wrong with the game, and TON'S of feed-back with suggestions as to how to fix it...almost all of which was ignored. Towards the end the relationship between the developers and the beta-testers was so toxic that Nvizzio basically told the beta team that their opinions were no longer desired as Nvizzio knew what it was doing, a sentiment Atari backed up, followed by Atari basically telling fans they didn't know what they were talking about.
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what a loser
no
sponsor block set.
don't you try to bypass sponsorblock!
If you are going to promote other games when you are suppose to talk about RCT then this video is nothing more than clickbait.
Blows my mind to realize that Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2 were technically indie games made by ONE guy. Has to go down as some of the greatest masterpieces ever with that in mind. I don't think I could ever count how many hours I had into RCT1 with my shitty old laptop that I kept forever just to play that game alone. These are the types of things that make me think back to my childish days and smile from ear to ear. God I wish I could go back to the days of no care in the world...
Same goes for The Incredible Machine, iirc
If you look into how freaking detailed RCT2 especially is, it's mindblowing that this was made by 1 guy. The logic that makes the game work is insanely intricate and well thought out, polished AND performed on a toaster. Absolute insanity, Sawyer was a genius.
It was also entirely written in assembly. Chris Sawyer is a genius.
He also made Transport tycoon, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. All in assembly.
I believe the graphics were made by another person, so that would be a 2 person project, by the game design and programming was 100% Chris Sawyer.
You could move around guests in RCT3, you just couldn't kill them anymore.
Also, the reason why guests drowned in RCT and RCT2 was because Chris Sawyer didn't want to have to make an animation for the guests to swim.
Heh, interesting to know. XD
But actually, where is the difference in making a "drowing" animation and making a "swimming" animation? XD
@@JackMacLupus I would say it's the fact that for the swimming strategy, you need to move, meaning to calculate where to swim, while drowning is just one more animation and removing the character
@@JackMacLupus A "treading water" animation would be no more work than a "drowning" animation. He likely decided that drag/drop "guest removal" was a useful function.
I remember I would often “trap” the inspector in a pit I made in RCT3 to avoid him causing any problems in my parks 😂
Remember he created this game in Assembly Language. I have some experience with the programming language, and what Chris did was amazing. Its a difficult language to understand when your projects start to become more complex.
To make sawyers rollercoaster tycoon even more impressive, he wrote pretty much the entire thing in 32-bit assembly.. now THATS impressive, id guess not even 1% of programmers can write a simple program in assembly but this guy made a whole game by himself as a hobby project in assembly..
it was normal back then, wasn't Pokemon built in assembly?
@@hellowill even when... Pokemon had an entire team and Nintendo behind it. RCT was 1 person only.
@@hellowill This was a good while after that. 1999 had Windows 98 and 2000, XP coming soon, C++ being used for most stuff, .NET framework on the verge of existence, javascript and internet explorer everywhere, etc.
@@hellowilli mean look at gen 1, the thing has more bugs than timon and pumba's diet. just shows how remarkable it is to code in assembly
By 1999? No, making games in assembly was not normal, especially on PC. On consoles, assembly remained relevant for a while but the N64 devkit could work with C as well. Likely for performance reasons. For example, DOOM was made in ANSI C and came out in 1993.
OpenRCT2 is all we need
I recentlly started with OpenRCT2 for the first time and it's the best Roller Coaster Tycoon experience you can get.
That's basically what the 1+2 version on steam is.
this works on my MacBook Pro M2, so fun!
i always get intimidated by rollercoaster tycoon 1 and 2, i always stick with 3, is openrct2 beginner friendly?
@@rabbitt7516 depends on what you were missing in the original games. OpenRCT2 mostly got QoL improvements and improvements for running on modern systems with high resolutions
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 where so popular that it basically created a decade long trend of business sims and city builders slapping "Tycoon" at the end even if it didn't make sense, like with Moon Tycoon or School Tycoon.
lol I remember school Tycoon. Somehow you were building a college but also had detention (read: literal prison).
School Tycoon is hilarious 😂
The "nurse's office" didn't even have a nurse! 😳
Railroad Tycoon, for some reason I was obsessed with it.
I think there was a prison tycoon game as well
It's a shame you didn't mention OpenRCT2 nor Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic. Both are basically RCT2 with OpenRCT2 adding more rides, cheats, fixing some bugs and adding multiplayer, and Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic porting RCT2 to mobile and tablet devices and later the PC. I would definitely say that RCT as a franchise hasn't died but is being caried by these two games.
YES YES YES, you understand (:
Yeah but OpenRCT2 is a fan project isn't it? RCT Classic (or even OpenRCT2 for that matter) aren't nearly as famous as the originals, Atari blew it on terrible projects
@@unocualqu1era OpenRCT2 is indeed a fan project. While it might be less famous than the originals, I think the community is large enough that it should be mentioned in a video about the game, and why it died. RCT Classic is also an official release, and probably larger in users than a lot of the spin-offs mentioned in the video. It seems really weird to leave these out of the conversation. Especially since the scene starting at 2.57 is using OpenRCT2.
@@Duvelthehobbit He also blatantly ignored the community for RCT3, while going as far as trashing the game without even mentioning the Soaked and Wild expansion packs.
Like with RCT2, RCT3's modding community completely transformed that game and what was possible to build.
@Duvelthehobbit i played RCT when it was released. I was a pretty big pcgamer back then but loved RCT. Since I was a kid, i didnt end up buy RCT2 until much later. After I built my first PC (p4 era) i got RCT3 and I remember being excited to finally get to ride my coasters but there were definitly issues which made it less creative and I barely played it. I cant remember how many hundreds of hours I played RCT, i do know a got into modding a little with it but not as much as other games.
Jump to a few weeks ago and I decided I didnt want my 7 year old to just know minecraft on xbox and tablet games. I set up an old school "family PC" in a corner. (It is actually a monitor K and M connected to a dock, which connects to a laptop, not a true PC atm) I didnt know about open RCT but picked up RCT classic and it seems at a good level for the kiddo. It simplifies some stuff and updated the gui to be a good transition for him. I also installed warcraft 2 and age of empires 2 HD. Need to get him hooked on the strategy bug. He has loved RCT classic so its a win in my book.
To claim that RCT3 is "uninteresting and bland" and that it was a failure is a massive oversimplification that stems from ignorance, especially when you leave out the following factors:
1)It was the first game to bring the management side of the coaster genre to 3D in a somewhat realistic style. (1999's Theme Park World/Sim Theme Park did it earlier, but that game had a more cartoon style.)
2)Frontier released two expansion packs to RCT3, Soaked and Wild, that massively expanded the game by adding functional waterparks and zoos to the coaster mix. This had never been done before, and until the announcement of Planet Coaster 2 just this past week it hasn't been attempted since.
3)During the franchise's hiatus, RCT3 (And also RCT2) experienced a renaissance due to the development of mods, which added brand new scenery, coasters, and flat rides. The modding community arguably saved the entire genre, and is the inspiration for Frontier's Thememaker Toolkit for Planet Coaster & Zoo.
4)The mixed reception ultimately comes down to everyone's personal preferences. Both 3D and 2D games had their strengths and weaknesses, with fans gravitating towards the game that best fit their style.
Exactly!
I loved rct3!
Totally agree. These factors among plenty of others is why I still play RTC3 to this day and it remains my all time favorite from the series.
@user-bt5qt9pp4x I understand your sentiment. A lot of it has to do with RCT3 being limited by the tech and game engine available at the time, and it gets even harder if you limit yourself to the officially released assets.
That's why the modding scene was such a huge boone for RCT3, because it completely changed how people played that game.
And even then, the 2D games just have a completely different feel to them, and the in-game objects of RCT1&2 are perfectly designed to fit within the limited zoomed-out perspective.
I think RCT3 is definitely not uninteresting. I think it's not bland either but something feels amiss. I think the theming and the them of the rides that's available may feel bland but the game is not bland at all. RCT3 has a big lack of themes in my opinion but at least each theme provides a lot of stuff compared to RCT2 with themes only having 10 or less, other having 20+ pieces. Continuing with themes or theming, the non-rollercoaster ride designs were really hit-or-miss for me. I loved the fact that it got rides according to the themes present in the game (western, space theme etc.) but I feel like some rides, even the "generic"-themed rides, are aesthetically hard to place. I think part of it is the game being 3D and it not aging well as I often had a hard time saying. "Yeah, this ride looks good enough".
When it comes to rollercoasters, being able to ride along is great! However, the theming with rollercoasters...it's inconsistently subpar for me due to
1) not being able to use tunnels unless you had the Wild! expansion
2) bizarrely enough, not being able to place walls on the same tile as a rollercoaster. In RCT 1 & 2, it was easily possible. With 3, it's not and if you place the walls on the tiles next to it and build a roof on top of a ride piece, it looks so off as the walls protrude. And of course, it also blocks off the usage of other elements requiring a full tile so for a 1 x 1 house with roof, you had to waste 2 tiles instead of 0.
RCT3 did a lot of good things, I especially love the ride-along cam for nearly all rides and the three-tier objective system. Granted, this gives you the weird deviation that you never have a fail state like in the previous games and thus it misses the urgency some scenarious required in previous titles but I'm okay enough with it.
Nowadays, I'm glad RCT3 + both expansions are dirt cheap because base RCT3 is not as striking as the RCT2 in my opinon, especially when there were no expansions back then. Now, however, with all the expansions and mods available, it's worth a try and loading times shouldn't be as bad as back then either.
I loved rct3 it was my childhood, i lovr the simplicity of it. Planet coaster is
so complicated, you have to spend hours to make your park look good.
Give parkitect a try, it’s essentially a modern RCT without getting complicated. You can make a beautiful and full park in a few hours rather than a few weeks.
@@keydenluster4501 Only thing holding me back with Parkitect is the cartoonish graphics which are a huge turn-off. But honestly RCT3 didn't even age that bad, especially the Complete Remastered Edition. That's why I disagree with this video because the graphics and micro-managements make the game play good. Also you can still grab peeps with the tweezer tool so idk what he's on about. Lol
That... is the point. Coaster games are management building games, people p lay them because the are complicated.
@@krabgrass I felt the same with Parkitect when it was released, I gave it a try a few weeks ago, aaaaand, I can't stop playing, it's different from RCT, but it also has all the things that made me love RCT while adding some depth of gameplay. And Honestly, you can make your parks look more "realistic" since you can recolor basically everything, now yeah the texture are still the same but you can get very creative it's actually quite insane!
@jaeko Yea it was like that for me with Parkitect. I eventually got over the graphics and started playing more with steam workshop mods. One of my favorite things about Parkitect is how you can pick different styles for the queue line tiles and the underground chutes for moving around supplies and waste-
Roller coaster tycoon 3 was literally my childhood. I love that game so much, and since i started with the 3 it was very difficult to me like the 2D style in the RCT2 and RCT1
I have RCT3 completely different in my mind especially after the soaked add on. I was in love and have no idea how many hours I have spend playing that and then I found out about mods.... omg that made it all brand new again. Of course it worked not as smooth as today, but it was my first encounter with modding. I loved that game and I still do. I think 4 years ago I played with it for a few more days.
And then stuff happened in my life and wasn't able to get back to playing games, although I bought the best pc money could buy in 2020. That PC hasn't been switched on even for years. Planet Coaster 2 is now on my list to hopefully return to gaming later this year. Can't wait to fully update my office/game room.
rct3 was one of my most beloved game in my childhood. so much nostalgia
AND THEN YOU SHOW ZOO TYCOON OMG
Same thing happened to ZT. Both 1 and 2 where amazing, then Microsoft destroyed the fun with the 2012 one.
Hey, Frontier also has your back there with Planet Zoo! They recently released a barnyard pack and now my guests can get spit on by alpaca! @JTScottOfficial
It may have been, but it was still inferior to first two.
Just some feedback, I really don't like the one word animation popping up in the middle of the screen in rapid succession. It makes my eyes hurt honestly and serves very little purpose imo. I would rather just listen to your narration while seeing a still image or preferably gameplay footage.
I really dislike that in videos too but unfortunately it seems that's the new trendy editing style
agreed, not a fan
My thoughts exactly
Think it’s used cause a lot of platforms now auto play whilst scrolling so it acts as subtitles before you click on the video
Tik Tok influences coming to youtube rip
They lost their vision and milked the franchise dry.
At this point just play Planet Coaster, or if you're into the isometric perspective, Parkitect. Wonderful game that still capture that early RTC spirit.
PlanCo 2 will be announced soon (please Frontier)
Parkitect
Open RCT is fucking awesome, check it out!
Nothing has been "milked", in my view... That's not what you can apply to this franchise. There haven't been that many games and three of them were big hits. - What else is there?... That "World" one?... Who cares?... It's hardly "milking" it. - They actually didn't do ENOUGH with it, both in terms of releasing anything or at least in terms of quality.
And, if you want to play a game that's like RCT World but better, look no further than Park Beyond. It's arguably superior to RCT World thanks to the impossification feature.
I think you're too hard on RCT3, while it is indeed true it couldn't quite match the excellent coherent unified direction its predecessors had, it still stood on its own merits quite well and I have fond memories of it. The integration of both waterpark and zoo management stuff in the expansions was pretty great.
I was one of the beta testers for RTW. It was a joke from the start. They rarely listened to our complaints, advice, released updates which caused more problems, didn't agree with us on what was considered stupid or didn't work, and each time the developers changed, it got worse. The last one just wasn't capable at all. A lot of us got frustrated each time our feedback, submitted bug reports were just cast aside. They knew they'd messed up as right before launch we were all offered a chance to have our Steam usernames removed from the beta tester section in the game credits.
I was also a beta tester and I agree...including the offer to remove our Steam usernames from the credits!
@@wagiderbear Ah! I recognise your username :)
Bullfrog's 1994 Theme Park should have featured in the intro for historical context as well as Sawyer's first game Transport Tycoon.
I still love Transport Tycoon to this day. I played the crap out of it as a kid and it still holds up.
Came here to say the same thing. RCT just built upon the foundations layed by TP. IIRC, TT was the result of trying to make RCT originally. Or the other way around.
Totally agree. Some elements of that game are found in RCT, such as the alert that of "visits think your prices are cheap, perhaps you should raise prices".
@@Mambaru TT/TTD came first, then RCT. There was a sequel to TT, but I honestly prefer OpenTTD.
@@andywolan The sequel, Locomotion, was a lot of fun for me, and i played it a ton.
It felt a lot closer to RCT than the others did. I also prefer the visuals of it over the all the (Open)TT(D) versions.
It probably just came too late, it was already outdated by the time it was released.
OpenTTD has proven to be much more future proof though, thanks to a fantastic dedicated community.
You forgot about RCT Classic and Touch which Chris Sawyer did work on quite extensively. Classic was released the same year as World so he was working with Atari to develop the title.
I loved roller coaster tycoon. I played it so much back in the day. Built every type of roller coaster I could think of. However, most of the time my roller coasters were too hard-core for my riders lol
Stating that people thought that RCT3 looked "uninteresting and bland" is completely revisionist history. It was seen as a massive graphical achievement of the management sim genre. Most RCT fans liked it even if they continued to prefer the older games, and it had a massive online community at the time.
RCT3 was such a vibe. Waterpark & zoo upgrades, the ability to ride your creations, the themeing. Never played the original or RCT2 & I wouldn't want to honestly, I understand their charm & pixelated aura but that just wouldn't cut it for me.
I'd love to play Planet Coaster but my Macbook can't handle it so I guess it's RC3 until I upgrade & I'm good with that.
"This video from RoboKast is really good value"
Froniter now has announced a sequel of Planet Coaster 2 coming Fall 2024
From the ground up not just tweaks to the original code. I hope this fixes the lag issue caused by trying to render stuff you don't actually see.
you absolutely could move guests in RCT3 dude
Yeah him missing something like that confused me. How little of the game did he play if he couldn't find the claw button?
@@doctorsam9200 i find criticisms of RCT3 are often like this-ill-informed nonsense.
@@robotm99 This. It always bugs me when people complain about the game when they weren't even around to play it and be in the community. There was so much innovation with RCT3 and without it we would not see the park management sims we see today.
Yea he really should rework this video, huge L. Lol RCT3 is honestly the best out of all of them and in the remastered Complete Edition, the graphics look pretty good. The modding community is still active and alive even 20 years later!
@@krabgrass i mean the graphics are pretty bad objectively speaking for a 3d game (even for the time), but they are endearing, and style ends up being more important. it's like saying N64 games had trash graphics-like no shit. even still, that game had so much soul. i see people praising the RCT1/2 soundtracks as well, as if they're even in the same galaxy as 3s. it's so funny. I'd imagine most of the criticsm comes from people not being able to run the game well back in '04, and it's just carried that bad reputation ever since.
Stoked to watch this as a diehard fan of the originals. I hope Parkitect gets mentioned!
It's amazing and is the spiritual successor to the original RCT games. It also has multiplayer and is a ton of fun with friends.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is my most played RCT. Not because I like it the most, but because of the ability to ride my rides. My son LOVES to ride the coasters that I remake off of real life rides. Perhaps I could buy Planet Coaster?
Planet Coaster is mostly an improved version of RCT3. But if you wait just a bit longer, Planet Coaster 2 has been very recently announced, and it looks like it will be mostly the same (with just a few tweaks, mostly coming from their experience with Planet Zoo) and the addition of the one thing I really missed - a water park. It's supposed to come out in Fall this year.
That said, Planet Coaster goes on sale fairly frequently these days and it does have a relatively cheap subscription option that lets you check it out with all the DLC. If you don't care about the water park, I'd say this is a great option.
@@rodh1404 I think I'll wait. My son likes the water rides, too.
planet coaster is a great game but even as someone who loves rct3 its very complicated its completely offgrid and coasters are a lot harder to build (in my opinion at least) but still a great game jsut not the easiest to get into
Just one thing to note, Planet Coaster and (presumably) PC2 have a very different feel. They are designed with full creative freedom in mind meaning that, if you put the time in, the things you can make are absolutely incredible. The grid and small selection of track pieces are replaced by freeform modeling tools, smooth tracking, scenery objects that can be placed anywhere, rotated, and colored to your liking, and more that really makes it so the only limitation is your imagination.
However, this also means that it loses some of the charm and nostalgia of the old games, and it definitely seems more complicated upfront. It's still by far one of my favorite games, but I would highly recommend you watch some gameplay or ride videos from it just to see if it will scratch your itch.
All they gotta do is remaster RCT1 and RCT2 in the classic isometric view. That will revive the franchise.
"All they gotta do is remaster RCT1 and RCT2 in the classic isometric view. "
That's what OpenRCT2 does.
Watching this randomly and finding out that Planet Coaster 2 has been announced just an hour ago! Can't wait for another GREAT game in the original spirit of Rollercoaster Tycoon!
This game never fell off or died. I still have it on my laptop and I sometimes play it during lecture or when I have free time at school. Not sure where you’re getting this info from.
RollerCoaster Tycoon never died. Both it and its sequel have continued to see fame and reverence across the globe, even to this day. Even Frontier Development's spin-off "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3" is well-loved.
There are no other RollerCoaster Tycoon games outside those 3, and despite this, they each live on.
I loved playing rct 3 when I was a kid
First game i palyed form this series was RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 ! It was so amazing me and my brother have played over 400 hours of this game each , we loved it .
Parkitect is like Roller Coaster Tycoon but with modern graphics
Thats been on my wishlist for a while, is it any good?
not great artstyle tbh
@@Radioactive-ju9rb it is decent, it’s got a similar coaster builder to the original rct, taste of adventure DLC I recommend, gives you a new campaign and gives you track pieces for some coasters like switch tracks and drop tracks, there are mods, they are just on the steam workshop, and the devs host challenges every month so they still care about this game, it just got a small update with new entertainers and some scenery pieces, it also has a 5th anniversary scenario.
It does have good coaster types, highly recommend silvarret’s video on how to build a coaster in parkitect, you’ll be able to build some decent coasters from that tutorial.
@@Radioactive-ju9rb Yeah. It's really good! If you love RC you will love Parkitect
It's a great game that feels a lot like rct2 just with better graphics and management features.
Just play Parkitect? At this point it’s the definitive edition of the old games with a new fresh lick of paint…
But a fun fact that I didn’t realize myself? The studio/person who made the RCT3 soundtrack is the same that made the Rimworld ost
Parkitect is a great game.
Instructions unclear, mechanoids invaded theme park, harvested organs from parkgoers.
Dude right, Parkitect is GOATED
Parkitect has a lot of charm for sure. Love the decoration mechanics in that and how you gotta keep the immersion up for the guests. My only gripe with it is the lack of more advanced stuff like different launch modes for coasters that RCT had.
Oh wow I didn't know about the Rimworld OST. 2k+ hours in that game (rookie numbers :P ) and never even thought about turning off the music, it's so good! :)
Every single "video game history" video ends up coming down to corporate greed and poor treatment of game developers/artists...
Makes you think about our priorities as a society.
greed ,
greed never changes
well they aren't exactly getting away with it.
their game and profits are a complete failure.
Frontier Planet Coaster is the complete opposite story.
Also it's on developers and artists to push back. I'm a developer myself, and we are definitely part of the problem.
@@hellowill what do you think the publishers are gonna do if the devs and artists try to push back
@@hellowill I mean, if pushing back mean getting hate by my dev teammate, PO, PM, designers, I would definitely shut up once they don't see the obvious problem
Parkitect is more of a real spiritual sequel to RCT than Planet Coaster, even if it didn't get as many sales.
I played this game and the water-park version for hours on end as a kid.
Atari's intentions with releasing it one day before Planet Coaster was desperation and competition. They knew the state of their game in comparison to Planet Coaster, and they knew they can't compete. Releasing it before Planet Coaster was an attempt to force people to decide what game they want to spend their money on. If they bought their game, then people were less likely to then buy Planet Coaster. But they also knew that if they released it before Planet coaster, they might actually make some money than if they released it after. They knew their product sucked, and they knew that they loose any chance to make any money from it after Planet Coaster was released.
RCT hasn'd died.. OpenRCT2 is the endgame. It's multiplayer also. And very much alive
The IP is dead now!
Damn seeing the Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 ability to grab people brought back memories lol, fantastic game!
It kinda peaked at RCT2.
Although RCT3's ride along camera was a golden nugget.
Releasing a worse version of a Rollercoaster Tycoon sequel a day before the superior version which is a spiritual successor rather than part of the mainline series? Real smart Atari. 😆
Reminds me of the Sim City 2013 disaster.
And how Cities Skylines took over from a big company that tried to monetize too hard, except that the grid-based greatness of SimCity 4 is so much better any CS.
It didnt die. There is a core community dedicated to open rct2.
@MarcelVos ^^ this ^^
I think you skipped over the real reason behind 1 and 2 feeling special. Sawyer was a brilliant programmer, and wrote an extremely efficient game, and he did all of this by himself in assembly language. Not C++ or any other normal game language. Just to be closer to the machine and make it perfect. The result of that is a game that feels snappy, optimized and effective. Add to that the soul and obvious care that went into the development and you have a hit.
Oh man, I remember spending hours in the early 2000s.
Rollercoaster Tycoon may have been the gold standard but all the management games you mentioned could be traced back to Sim City (1989) or theme park (1994) or the sid meiers franchise like railroad tycoon (1990). All of them successful in their own right
Rollercoaster tycoon refined the genre and brought a lot of people to the genre but it was built on what came before
Do you have a video like this on how SimCity was surpassed by Cities Skylines?
11:42
A move like realising a game so close to a competitor that is looking to do far better saleswise, is likely a strategy to mask culpability.
This way, they can simply blame their competitor, rather than having higher management and investors breathing down their necks.
Surprised you didnt mention parkitect at all. Incredible game for anyone looking for a modified RCT1 and 2 that works on current machines
Calling Roller Coaster Tycoon the starter for management game popularity is absolute BS.
Theme Park came out in '94. Sim City in '89.
WTF Robo?
This video has some pretty obvious personal biases slipped in there. I love RCT to death, but yeah, that was a very silly statement. Man also talks about rct3 like it wasn't a smash hit with fans and critics alike
LOVED Theme Park on the 3DO, so many great memories!
@@AVdE10000Yeah, RCT3 was pretty damn good. After all, Frontier, the company _that would later make Planet Coaster & Planet Zoo_ made it!
Hi I’m 32 years old and roller coaster tycoon 3 was my favorite childhood game, it blew my mind and was amazing, I loved getting to ride my coasters in pov and I loved the 3d coaster design. Also because of this I have played probably hundreds of hours of this game and I remember being able to grab customers as employees and move them around the park.
I wouldn't give Frontier too much credit. Corporate greed held back Planet Coaster's full potential. Denuvo and overpriced DLC (for which they then introduced a subscription service for, well after dropping support for the game) leave a bad taste in my mouth for what is otherwise a superb park building experience. I blame the suits for those boneheaded decisions. Planet Coaster feels like a passion project; RCT3 walked so PC could run, which only dials up the frustration. At least the OG games still hold up, especially combined with OpenRCT2.
Disagree. I agree that Denuvo is a POS, but that's the way non indie games seem to be going.
That being said, I agree that RCT3 walked so that Planet Coaster 1 & 2 could run.
Welp, at least were getting Planet Coaster 2 in fall.
I don't know what planet the announcer lives in but the RTC 3 ATARI back in the early 2000's version was awesome alone with the additions etc. I loved it! He is extremely negative.
The sequel to planet coaster has been announced and looks extremely promising
I hope Chris Sawyer comes back with another Tycoon game. Its only him that can make this kind of awsome games.
With OpenRCT2, Rollercoaster Tycoon is more alive then ever before!
I never played the original titles. I did play Sim Theme Park, and that was fun as a kid. As an adult, I did try Rollercoaster Tycoon World, but I was really disappointed to find that almost everything was put behind paywalls. If you wanted ANYTHING other than the very basics of basics, you had to pay extra. Because of that, I was hesitant to play Planet Coaster, but eventually, it was on sale, and it was a million times better than Tycoon World.
I still have Rollercoaster Tycoon 3!! It is still a fun PC game and creating dynamic coasters.
Yeah, RCT3 wasn't awful. The RCT mobile games and World were bad though.
There is one reoccurring pattern of when a brand goes downhill badly. It's always the company (or at least the people making the decisions) not understanding its own product.
@16:40 posted a couple weeks too soon. Frontier just announced Planet Coaster 2.
I remember spending hours playing roller coaster tycoon 2 and it's extra packs. I'd always wondered what had happened to the game
My first ever disappointment when buying a game was Roller Coaster Tycoon for the 3DS
the first rollercoaster tycoon game was part of my childhood growing up. I absoultey loved that game. It felt so good managing and building a successful amusement park
Video Title is answered at 12:27
RCT2 was peak for this franchise for sure. But yea, Planet Coaster does feel like the real worthy successor to those games.
It's a shame Sawyer dipped out when offered a bag. I recall a few years ago the rights were extended another decade to Atari from him, even though he himself is completely uninvolved.
On the other hand Sawyer can now enjoy his best life without having to worry about anything
Given the bullshit that Atari got up to, that was probably the right choice, to be honest. If he'd stayed involved, then the only thing that would've resulted in is him burning out due to having to deal with Atari's ridiculous demands and ideas.
I remember the day a friend of mine ran in to school with the latest "PC Gamer" magazine and it had Rollercoaster Tycoon advertised as coming out soon. The excitement was real and both RCT and RCT 2 did not disappoint.
tbh I didn't actually mind RCT3 too much, although it definitely felt very different to the previous too (not surprisingly). I still found myself spending a good few hours on it. Anything on from then it was game over. Planet Coaster took over my life and now we await Planco 2.
Great retrospective. I think this is the perfect example of "Names don't matter in gaming". I don't think Frontier "beat the odds against them". they slanted the odds in there favor by, well, making a good game. When the rollercoster tycoon game was failing. This should be a lesson to any CEO in the gaming industry that fans can (and will) make better alternatives if the current games aren't great, and everyone will move the the better alternative
Wrong
I play RCT 1 up to this day. It is Just so awesome. It really made my childhood better
Frontier got done dirty. First of all, because of putting those Roller Coaster Tycoon World complaints over footage of Planet Coaster. Second, lumping RCT3 in with the dredge that followed. I loved RCT1 and 2, but it was clear they had just about maximized on iso builders (which is why Open and Parkitekt are so similar). A lot of desired features required 3D, which was more difficult and graphics-intensive (cue simpler human designs). Frontier did great for the time, and most nitpicks were just that. What we wanted was further development of what was achieved in 3, both new capabilities plus the return of some from 2. We wanted a proper 4. We finally got that with Planet Coaster thanks to Frontier. 3 was great and a good step forward.
@robokast Anything beyond Open RCT and RCT2 is been declared as non-cannon by the community. Open RCT is now the quintessential RCT game.
I actually liked RCT 3. World and all of the mobile spinoffs, on the other hand, don't exist, I agree.
I'm sorry this franchise died after the third one. Real fans are still playing number two with open rct2. Like stop.
I agree, but a lot of people do like RCTC3.
@@robokast I doubt it
I have heard some people like the riding coaster feature, I imagine the fans of it probably are just really into riding rollercoasters irl and it gives them a way to do that at home. I even remember a story from someone online who bought a knockoff of rct for that feature alone (and was greatly disappointed lol)
@@donaldpetersen2382 I absolutely loved rct3 just because you didn't like doesn't mean others didn't
"LiKe StOp" it's a history lesson, not a critique piece, calm your balls
If passion is not part of the process, it gonna fail sooner or later... Can you hear me EA?
What on gods green earth is at 17:14
Answer, the spinoffs and everything after RCT3 had nothing to do with the original creator Chris Sawyer. Even for RCT3 he only acted in an advisory role. Chris Sawyer is a programming LEGEND and he is who created RCT 1 RCT 2 and RCT Classic.
Eff all CEO's & Publishers honestly.
They do *NOTHING* but ruin shit.
Sorry to burst you bubble, but Rollecoaster Tycoon, while being a great game, wasn"t as influential as you might think. It in no way 'kickstarted' the rise of simulation games and on PC even came very late to the party within the genre while PC games in general already were very popular. What it was, was a very good continuations and evolution of the genre. It basically was a spiritual successor to the game 'theme park' from 1994, which had a sequel in 1999 that was poorly received and thus Rollecoaster Tycoon took over the lead in the theme park simulation genre. Other popular Tycoon games I played before RCT were plenty, like Theme Hospital, Sim City, Pizza Tycoon, Transport Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon. Also Cities Skylines is clearly inspired by Sim City, not Rollercoaster tycoon. i still love RCT though, but get your facts strait.
Anyone that is a fan of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon needs to play the new spiritual successor to that game, Parkitect. It is absolutely brilliant and I was immediately brought back to my childhood. It is a masterpiece.
Parkitect is a much better sim game compared to Planet Coaster. Not sure how the video's creator overlooked it entirely.
@@publicacct5626 agreed
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and 3 were the ones I spent the most time on. They are easily some of my favorite games of all time. Planet Coaster basically took over the reigns of the series after 3.
I think the guy is in touch but doesn't care his opinion is all that matters 😂😂
I always wondered why I didn't like rct3! Makes sense now!! 😮
Remember the original was coded entirely in basic… that’s an accomplishment.
Assembly is certainly a thing to code in.
Assembly, not Basic :)
@@crytocc I appreciate the correction
between the ages of 10 and 21, i loved building sims. I played the hell out of RTC 1 & 2, I even enjoyed RTC3 and Sim city societies. When city skyline came, I tried it and even played it for like 80 hours, love the mod support but games like these, never felt the same as they did when i was young. skylines or even planet coaster for that matter, was the game, that I wish i had, when i was 16, I had time an passion to play these games, spend 600+ hours on perfecting a city or a park. nowadays, that feels like a monumental task that I dont have the time, patience or motivation for. adulthood kills a lot of things..
STORY TIME! I worked at infograms in tech support back in the day before that CEO took over. I loved my job. More than any job I have ever had in my life. About a month after he took over one day we had a company wide meeting. As you entered the big room, someone with a clipboard would direct you to the right or left side of chairs. After all the praise of the new ceo and how well games are going they said "But unfortunately if you are on the left side of the room this will be your last day here" that is how they laid us off
*LOL*
The part where you mention Infogrames is a little confusing. While yes, they technically rebranded, Infogrames actually acquired Atari as a whole in 2003, but Atari still existed before then. Just the wording I found a little off.
Real ones got this shit in the cereal box
I still play RCT 2 with Wacky Worlds. After a hard day of work. I get home and build a close it can be coasters. 😊
Who is excited for Planet Coaster 2?
rct3 was EVERYTHING. the ones that get it, get it. it might be different to the first two but it's DEFINITELY loved by the fans and still has gameplay value to this day. planet coaster was frontier's opportunity to show what rct3 paved the way for.
Here before the bot wave
I'd have probably mentioned Parkitect. It's closer to the Rollercoaster Tycoon style. I've not played Planet Coaster, but Parkitect is really good fun.
Honestly huge respect to Sawyer for working hard to create the masterpiece, then immediately retiring when it made him rich. Pretty much the dream.
He didn't "retire when it made him rich". He had fullfilled his vision and didn't want to work further on the project based on someone else's vision. He simply let it go to follow other passions of his (like making Locomotion), which in my book commands much more respect.
Chris Sawyer had a association with David Braben/Frontier going back to the early 90s. He was responsible for porting Frontier: Elite 2 from Amiga/Atari ST to PC, and assisted Braben in coding the PC-Only sequel, Frontier: First Encounters - that's why they were selected to make the RCT games when Sawyer stepped back. So, yes... Planet Coaster really is the spiritual sequel, if anything is.
I loveeeed RCT 3 so much
its on steam and consoles as RCT3 Complete Edition or somethin like that :3
The reason 1 and 2 were so good, was that chris sawyer is a programming god. I mean the guy programmed it in assembly, basically direct machine instructions.
3 was not a bad game imho, with all the expansions - which aren't expensive, you can get everything for 10€ - you get a lot of content. I must've put several hundrets of hours into RCT3
Me as an 8 year old even found RCT3 to be bland. I went back to RCT2 a few months after my parents bought RCT3 for me.
I've always found the hate for RCT3 to be unjustified. To me, I think it is a great sandbox game much like the same for RCT1 and 2, and probably the best in terms of just building a sandbox. Obviously, OpenRCT2 makes a game like that unviable in terms of updates, but the hate because it was "different" to the other games whenever the complaint that RCT2 was "the same" as RCT1 is also used is so bizarre.
@@Theel25 Same. RCT3 was one of my favorite games at the time but RCT2 was close by. Though, I have spent more time in RCT3's sandbox, building my own parks, but I have beaten the campaign a few times.
BS
OpenRCT 2 is still hugely populair. And a lot of people stay this genius game (RTC2). After that, only Planet Coaster came close to the succes/greatness of this game.
Infogrames traumatized a generation of children.
*It's back*. 😂
Remember every game you have ever played. You played for the last time and never knew it was the last time. 😢😢😢 enjoy these works of art while you can.
Did Chess "die" because of bad sequels and spinoffs? Nope. Meaning: RCT LIVES!
As someone who beta-tested RCTWorld I can confirm that Atari and Nvizzio were given TON'S of feed-back as to what was wrong with the game, and TON'S of feed-back with suggestions as to how to fix it...almost all of which was ignored. Towards the end the relationship between the developers and the beta-testers was so toxic that Nvizzio basically told the beta team that their opinions were no longer desired as Nvizzio knew what it was doing, a sentiment Atari backed up, followed by Atari basically telling fans they didn't know what they were talking about.