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Gaming in the days before Roller Coaster Tycoon

Dave

CF Legend
Ian this such a good thread and so in depth I love it! :D

Brings back good memories of playing it at home and at my cousins house, going into MS-DOS and entering the commands to open the game, awww.
 

Nic

Strata Poster
I loved the original Theme Park (I had it on PC). Mind you, pretty much all my favourite games were of a similar type (SimCity, SimTower etc etc). The subsequent games weren't as good as the original imo. They were less complex (no need to keep ordering ice creams!), and never mattered what machine I've played them on - crash ALL the time! (Theme Hospital also suffered this affliction).

But yes, the original Theme Park was awesome.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
I'm going to have a rant... Why not?

****ing arseing **** bollocks ****ing pants whomemongering Theme Park.

It was the first ever CD-ROM game I owned. I actually had to buy a CD-ROM drive to play it. It was so exciting. The game looked fantastic with the pre-rendered intro and "rides". So I went out and bought my CD-ROM drive (£120) and a copy of the game (£30). I then found out my sound card wasn't up to the job of dealing with a CD-ROM drive, another £50 there. Fortunately, my GFX card was powerful enough to run the game in SVGA (800x600 as opposed to the standard 640x480, which are both exceptionally superior to the TV def standards on the console versions :p ).

So, after two days and £200 I could finally play it. Superb game, absolutely cracking. Looked brilliant, so involved so... CRASH... Good job for save games... Right, where was I? looks good, involved... Yeah, the game has massive amounts of depth with all the micro management in the back ground while trying to get the layout in a way that appeased guests and in a typical... CRASH... Sorry, one second, I'll get back to reviewing the game. Now, looks, involved, depths, typical? Yeah, typical Bulldog fair where the game is constantly challenging you and pushing you with problems to solve, you're constantly on the go and when you finally... CRASH... Sorry, yeah, this is pretty frustrating. Every time you feel like you're starting to get anywhere and go with the flow, it just stops dead. Erm, finally, finally, finally... Finally get to build a coaster it's utterly ridiculous, but at the time I'd been on so few coasters (and most of them pretty old school let's face it) it was so exciting and you didn't care about the reali... CRASH... I give up. I've spent three weeks and £200 trying to play this game. I've researched every possible error. I've spent hours on the phone to Bulldog. I've run it in VGA mode rather than SVGA mode and I get an extra 15 minutes maybe before it crashes. Looks like it may be a conflict with the Audigy sound card I've bought, but Bulldog can't confirm.

So I've had three weeks of stuttering play on the game. Maybe half an hour at a time before having to reboot the PC. My conclusion? Should have bought Nintendo ;)

Glad to see Nic had a similar issue :lol:
 

Enicomb

Mega Poster
I loved this game; I had it on PC. Strangely I didn't really struggle with it crashing (though it most certainly did, not so often that I couldn't get any enjoyment from it).

I certainly never completed it, I don't think I ever moved on from the first level! I would just keep building in the first park! I'd lower all the prices, hire 100's of Handymen and Mechanics (using money cheats of course) and make the prizes have 95% probability of winning!
 

Richie

Hyper Poster
OMG i don't even know how, but i remember the intro Pierre posted! Aparently i was 3 years old when it came out... so we must have got it a bit later, but we definately had this game!

It's crazy how I actually remember the intro, it was my favourite game for a while! :D
 

Screaming Coasters

Strata Poster
I first got the original Theme Park on my Amiga. I preferred this to the PC version as Amiga's of the time were more powerful and had more colours, which made the game even better visually.

Side note for MAC USERS:

As well as RCT2 working amazingly well on my Mac, I also have the original Theme Park working amazing on my Mac. If any Mac users want it, just ask and I'll send the .dmg file to you. No need to install, just double-click and away you play. Oh and Theme Hospital at that rate too. :)
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Just remember if you're playing these games, there's a chance you may be breaking the law. Kickstart is NOT public domain, so any ISO that contains Kickstart to run a game is ILLEGAL. That means any Amiga games.

Grey areas include "re-written" Kickstart ROMs, owning an Amiga (so you potentially own a copy of Kickstart, but it still breaks the law by using it off an Amiga), owning the original disk but running a "backup" on a different platform.

The original Theme Park for PC is available as a download as freeware. However, you will need a PC that can boot into DOS (or software like DOSBox and a legal version of MS-DOS (or an alternative like Free-Dos)

CF does not condone software piracy.
 

Screaming Coasters

Strata Poster
Nope, its not even kickstart Phil. Don't forget, Apple is based on Amiga's and in Mac Format, it shows you how to legally cross Amiga games over to Mac. Theme Park has been converted to an actual .dmg file and it's freeware. I know you're jumping on the legal bandwagon, but do ask beforehand please :)
 

Screaming Coasters

Strata Poster
Download the OSX build of this:

http://winebottler.kronenberg.org

Then download a NoCD patch. (Link not provided, just type in Google)

Use your original and paid for PC RCT2 install disk.

Get those two things and have your CD ready then PM / Facebook me when you're on MSN and I'll walk you through it. :)

Edit- Addition just for clarification Erol ;) - furie
 

divvie_dave

Mega Poster
Theme Park was amazing. When it originally came out I had it on PC, but I was rubbish at it. Back then I had no idea about money management, what the handshake/biscuit thing was about, or even that you could run out of stock!!!

I re-visited it again a few years ago when I built an "old" PC to play all the DOS games without faffing with emulators and things, and It worked really well, and this time round I could understand all the management side of things.

Another old game, which I think may have come before NoLimits as opposed to RCT was Ultimate Ride, this was a Coaster Simulation game developed by Disney. I think the second game was properly branded a Disney product, and had Disney themeing you could place around your rides and things.

Here's a link to the second one via GameSpot: http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/puzzle/ultima ... index.html

I also remember having this really tacky POV Coaster Screensaver thing. It was always a random track, and it looks ****, but used to fascinate me!
 

kimahri

CF Legend
Since it's semi-related and furie mentioned Theme Park being Freeware.

An Open Source version of Theme Hospital is in Development and I think it's in Beta. Plod knows more about it. Ask him.
 
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