RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
| RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Chris Sawyer Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Infogrames |
| Designer(s) | Chris Sawyer |
| Programmer(s) | Chris Sawyer |
| Artist(s) | Simon Foster |
| Composer(s) | Allister Brimble |
| Series | RollerCoaster Tycoon |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) |
CD-ROM
gog.com
Steam
|
| Genre(s) | Construction and management simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 , short: RCT2, is a construction and management simulation PC game that simulates amusement park management. Developed by Chris Sawyer and published by Infogrames, the game was released on October 15, 2002. It is the sequel to RollerCoaster Tycoon and is the second game in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. In 2004, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, was released. In spring 2014, RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile was released (not to be confused with RollerCoaster Tycoon World). In a 2016 interview, Sawyer has revealed that he is working with his developer team to convert the game for mobile platforms.[1]
Gameplay
The objective of the game is to successfully build and maintain amusement parks and complete scenarios. Players can choose between various attractions, including transport rides, gentle rides, thrill rides, roller coasters, water rides, and shops or stalls. The player can further modify the amusement park by changing the landscape and scenery. Players must satisfy the needs of the visitors by building food stalls, drink stands, bathrooms, and facilities such as: ATMs (or cash machines, as the game calls them), information kiosks, souvenir shops, and more. Players must balance their budget in their expenses and income.
One of the most notable differences from the original game is that RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 features a more robust system for building structures, in which one can lay each piece of wall and roof individually. Additionally, the game allows a piece of scenery to be locked in place and have its height adjusted, providing greater flexibility. The mechanics in the original game made custom building construction more difficult. Another departure from the original was allowing any ride or shop to be fixed at any elevation, including underground. Previously, only rides that had tracks could be built underground, since the player had to build the first piece above the ground, then extend the track below ground afterward.
Many of the rides from the original RollerCoaster Tycoon have been modified and/or renamed. For example, "Scrambled Eggs" has been renamed "Twist". Also, some old ride designs have been merged with others. For example, the "The Wooden Twister Coaster" is now included in the "The Wooden Roller Coaster".
One feature that proved to be quite popular was the official addition of a feature that allows players to import and use user-created scenery items. Another new feature was the ′bulldozer', which allows the player to remove multiple pieces of scenery instead of only one piece of scenery at a time. A major addition is the scenario editor, which is where players can select an objective with or without time restraints and select how much money the player starts with, decide what rides are available, and select which rides can be made available through research. Then, the player can edit land and add scenery. The Roller Coaster Designer, where players can make their own roller coasters to test and save them to be used in other levels, is also included. The game is also licensed by Six Flags to include scenarios based on five of their real Six Flags amusement parks (such as Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, and Over Texas. Also included were parks known today as Walibi Holland and Walibi Belgium that were known in the game as Six Flags Holland and Six Flags Belgium respectively because at the time the game was made they were part of the Six Flags group). Furthermore, many popular rides in Six Flags amusement parks can be used in RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, but not edited. The game also contains a variety of new themes and music for attractions. Players can also track and rename guests by clicking on them. Players can also view the status of an individual guest. The guest's AI was improved, allowing for the creation of paved areas, whereas previously any path wider than a single terrain square would cause it to become 'confused'.
Unlike the original RollerCoaster Tycoon where the player had to complete currently available scenarios to unlock new scenarios, all of the scenarios in RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 are available from the beginning. In this title, scenarios are divided into five folder tabs (Beginner Parks, Challenging Parks, Expert parks, "Real" parks, and Other Parks) according to their difficulty and content. The "Real" parks folder tab contains five real-life Six Flags parks with many attractions already constructed, and the "Other" folder with empty versions of each of the Six Flags parks. When creating a scenario, the player can save the scenario in any of the five folder categories.
As with the previous game, players could upload their saved track designs onto the "ride exchange." Track designs from RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 could later be imported into RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (where the game would render the tracks in 3D for the first time).
An Easter egg was included which allows a user to use up to two custom theme tracks in game. A guide was included and saved as a text file which instructed a user to create or convert a song to a 16-bit wave file at 22 kHz Stereo and place it in the data directory. These would appear in the game under the music selection for rides as Custom Music 1 and 2, respectively.
Like the original game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 uses an isometric perspective.
History
Development
Like its predecessor, RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was developed single-handed by Chris Sawyer who designed, coded, and created the game's artwork all himself. Chris Sawyer developed RCT2 on base[2] of the originally in 99% assembly written engine of RCT,[3] working on it since 1996.[4]
The game was published by Infogrames and released on October 15, 2002.
Expansions and additional content
Two official expansion packs were released for RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. The first, Wacky Worlds, is a world-themed expansion. All seven continents of the world are featured; each has a unique park entrance, large scenery group, and several attractions themed to it. The second expansion pack, Time Twister, is based on a time theme. It is somewhat similar to Wacky Worlds in that the new scenarios are presented as additions to the existing RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 ones, and that there are several major new themes, each with plenty of new rides, scenery, and a park entrance. Both of these expansion packs are now available in the Triple Thrill Pack with RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.
Legacy
Fan-made content exists on the Internet in the form of custom rides, scenery, scenarios, and other additions, all of which can be downloaded and used in the game.
In 2011 RCT2 was re-released into digital distribution on gog.com and in 2014 on Steam.
In an interview with Eurogamer on March 2016, Chris Sawyer revealed that he is working on a mobile port of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.[5]
Reception
IGN gave Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 an 8.4/10[6] and GameSpot gave it a 7.0/10,[7] scoring somewhat lower than the original which got an 8.5[8] and 8.6[9] respectively.
Initially, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was not entirely popular with some fans of the first game, as the game engine and interface were almost the same as RollerCoaster Tycoon, with minor improvements in graphics (e.g. more images for coaster cars, allowing for smoother animations). Nevertheless, the game proved successful and attracted more people to the series, revitalizing the existing fan base. RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 was the most successful game in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series by around 2006.[10]
OpenRCT2
After the end of official support by the developer and publisher, a fan-made project to reverse engineer Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 into platform independent C source code was started in April 2014.[11] The goal is to run RCT2 on modern operating systems, fix bugs and to add additional features like translations,support for OS X and Linux, support for higher resolutions, the ability to increase simulation speed, and online multiplayer functionality. The project is hosted as GPLv3 licensed open-source software on GitHub and requires the original game files for the in-game graphics and sound assets.[12] As of May 2016, the project has not fully reached the goal of substituting 100% of the originals binary's functionality, but OpenRCT2 is currently in playable form, though it requires either an installation of the original game or the RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 TTP Demo.
References
- ↑ "A big interview with Chris Sawyer, the creator of RollerCoaster Tycoon". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
- ↑ Chris Sawyer und Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 on PC Games "Sawyer: "Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 basiert nahezu komplett auf dem Code des original Rollercoaster Tycoon." (german)
- ↑ What language was RollerCoaster Tycoon programmed in? on chrissawyergames.com "It's 99% written in x86 assembler/machine code (yes, really!), with a small amount of C code used to interface to MS Windows and DirectX."
- ↑ Gamespot Staff (April 2, 2004). "RollerCoaster Tycoon designer offers first details on new title - Chris Sawyer reveals what's behind Locomotion. He speaks with GameSpot--and shows the first screens ever--in this exclusive interview.". Gamespot. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
Ever since the original, I've wanted to create a new version of Transport Tycoon. In fact, I've been working on new versions on and off since 1996. However, these projects were either abandoned or postponed while I concentrated on RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. In fact, both [of these games] grew out of code written specifically for a new version of Transport Tycoon.
- ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (3 March 2016). "A big interview with Chris Sawyer, the creator of RollerCoaster Tycoon". Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ↑ "Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 - IGN". Pc.ign.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
- ↑ RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Review "Newcomers will likely find RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 enjoyable, but if you were a fan of the original, you'll probably have a hard time believing that you waited so long for what the sequel has to offer." by Brett Todd on October 14, 2002
- ↑ RollerCoaster Tycoon at IGN
- ↑ RollerCoaster Tycoon at GameSpot
- ↑ GameSpot Review
- ↑ "OpenRCT2 project - Open-Source adaption of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, gets a beta release". indieretronews.com. 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
I'm sure many of you remember the awesome game that is RollerCoaster Tycoon 2; a game by Chris Sawyer and published by Infograms in which you manage your very own theme park, with all it's rides, shops, guests and economic fortune. Well that same game is now being given a much needed adjustment with the latest release of OpenRCT2 Project. An open source development which improves the game even further with new features, original bug fixes, raised game limits and much more! [...] Development started on April 2nd 2014 by Ted 'IntelOrca' John and thanks to numerous contributions from others
- ↑ "OpenRCT2". GitHub. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
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