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Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

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Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#21

Post by Lammy »

dwroberts wrote: post #20
Lammy wrote: post #18

> Written by Sawyer in pure, ultra-efficient Intel assembly language — an anomaly by that time Not mentioned in the article, but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003, long before the game's eventual remake as RCT Classic for ARM etc in 2017. Interesting that the XBOX port is RCT1+expansions even though it came out after RCT2 did on PC, maybe due to lesser requir…

> but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003 Not sure if the clock speed is just for reference or emphasis re: efficiency, but RCT1 will in fact happily run on a Pentium 90 (which is still mind blowing to me given the scope of the game)

Just for disambiguation to emphasize that I'm talking about the Intel-based console, because the naming scheme of the later Microsoft consoles makes it easy to confuse “Xbox One” with the OG one. I spent most of my time playing RCT 1 and 2 on a 400 MHz PⅡ, and their performance was indeed flawless :)

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#23

Post by LeftHandPath »

reactordev wrote: post #5

MicroProse games in the 90s were next level. So many milsim games where you got to experience a crude 90s graphics recreation of being a service member shooting bogies. I never could complete a mission of F-117A Steal Fighter on Mac System 9. However, RCT was a “Minecraft” of its day without the support of the community. It was huge. Everyone was playing it. I wish modding was a thing back then. We would have gone cr…

I really miss some of the companies from that era... Red Storm Entertainment, Tom Clancy's vision, comes to mind. The early Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games had a dedication to immersion that their modern counterparts totally lack.

Ghost Recon (2001) runs perfectly through proton on my linux desktop. I still fire it up from time to time.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#24

Post by lomlobon »

jvanderbot wrote: post #22

If you liked micro-prose, they are back in full form with Highfleet. Maybe not "back", but it's one of the most engaging engineering / action games I've played and it has a very microprose feel

Well, if it has a very microprose feel then it was by luck, because they picked it up late in development and it's a single russian guy's brainchild. He also made hammerfight, another excellent (if janky as hell) game.

Highfleet really is a great game though.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#25

Post by AceJohnny2 »

Lammy wrote: post #18

> Written by Sawyer in pure, ultra-efficient Intel assembly language — an anomaly by that time Not mentioned in the article, but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003, long before the game's eventual remake as RCT Classic for ARM etc in 2017. Interesting that the XBOX port is RCT1+expansions even though it came out after RCT2 did on PC, maybe due to lesser requir…

Obligatory link to creator Chris Sawyer's page about RCT fountain's cellular automaton:

https://www.chrissawyergames.com/feature4.htm

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#26

Post by pengaru »

dwroberts wrote: post #20
Lammy wrote: post #18

> Written by Sawyer in pure, ultra-efficient Intel assembly language — an anomaly by that time Not mentioned in the article, but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003, long before the game's eventual remake as RCT Classic for ARM etc in 2017. Interesting that the XBOX port is RCT1+expansions even though it came out after RCT2 did on PC, maybe due to lesser requir…

> but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003 Not sure if the clock speed is just for reference or emphasis re: efficiency, but RCT1 will in fact happily run on a Pentium 90 (which is still mind blowing to me given the scope of the game)

Having cut my teeth writing asm on 386/486 in ms-dos, these comments are kind of hilarious to me because Pentium is well into "you can write most of it in C" territory.

By the P2 era (97-98), especially as consoles show up, assembly's not desirable at all.

Pmode/w was released in 97 which speaks to the demand for a Watcom C/C++ protected mode extender at the time...

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#27

Post by felineflock »

Narishma wrote: post #17
felineflock wrote: post #3

Sid Meier founded MicroProse and started with the Tycoon genre with Railroad Tycoon having been inspired by SimCity and Empire.

Your comment makes it sound like he started the company to make Tycoon games, but those came like a decade later.

That is an uncharitable interpretation. None of that should be controversial.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#28

Post by jdlshore »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #9

The author wishes there was more of a storyline to the game. Which is absolutely fine as it’s their preference. But it made me think of how Minecraft has almost no story (well, something was added later but it’s optional to follow it) and perhaps that contributed to its major success. Decent sandbox games don’t need stories if the mechanics are satisfying enough and games like Sawyer’s Tycoons and Minecraft are evide…

I think his critique wasn’t that it didn’t offer a story, but that it didn’t offer a sandbox mode, only a campaign mode… and that the campaign wasn’t really a campaign.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#29

Post by gloomyday »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #9

The author wishes there was more of a storyline to the game. Which is absolutely fine as it’s their preference. But it made me think of how Minecraft has almost no story (well, something was added later but it’s optional to follow it) and perhaps that contributed to its major success. Decent sandbox games don’t need stories if the mechanics are satisfying enough and games like Sawyer’s Tycoons and Minecraft are evide…

Yes, there is a reason sandboxes are so popular among kids.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon (Or, MicroProse's Last Hurrah)

#30

Post by Lammy »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #25
Lammy wrote: post #18

> Written by Sawyer in pure, ultra-efficient Intel assembly language — an anomaly by that time Not mentioned in the article, but this did allow for a port of the game to the OG XBOX (733 MHz PentiumⅢ box) way back in 2003, long before the game's eventual remake as RCT Classic for ARM etc in 2017. Interesting that the XBOX port is RCT1+expansions even though it came out after RCT2 did on PC, maybe due to lesser requir…

Obligatory link to creator Chris Sawyer's page about RCT fountain's cellular automaton: https://www.chrissawyergames.com/feature4.htm

I love the disclaimer on the RCT2 Screenshots page: https://www.chrissawyergames.com/feature5.htm

> Click each thumbnail below to view the full 800x600 screenshot image

> (Warning: Each image is between 100KB and 250KB in size and may take a minute or two to download)

Like when screenshot-heavy forum threads would have title suffixes like [56K NO!!]

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