I can think another reason it might've been ported is that, besides controller support, the port in itself would be very easy! Despite the engine being hand-coded for the PC and taking years to be re-programmed by fans, the Xbox had a Pentium III and DirectX -- very little would have to have been touched. So it wouldn't be a huge expense, the game itself was already considered a classic, and Frontier already had the license and code on hand while making RCT3. Why not port it? Anyways, great video!
Considering we can patch some games to run at 720P now I wonder if this one would work. I see no reason why it Shouldn't have been done by the developers but worth a try.
I would have thought this would have been ported to the Dreamcast instead. It had a first party keyboard and mouse. But I assume that by 2003 the Dreamcast was already dead.
i think the last big one i remember is actually another rct game, that being the 3rd one getting a switch port in like 2019/20, over a decade and a half after it first came out
oh, man this is a throwback, this was my introduction to the game when I was little, back when my cousin showed me how the triggers worked to select things, my mind was blown
Wow, didn't know they had RTC on original Xbox! Awesome that it runs pretty good too. I'm surprised it works so well on a controller. That magnifying tool is so cool, reminds me of the Windows one. Thanks for covering this Frame!
3:38 Hello to you too, mysterious voice! A quick reminder that the state of a park's grass makes literally no difference so unless you really want to have your grass look nice for your own pleasure you're better off leaving it be.
I actually grew up playing this version. Sure, I had the PC version, but after school I'd be stuck at my grandparents place for two to three hours while I waited for my father to pick me up after work. My grandmother was always playing WOW or some other MMO on her PC (she still does haha) so I had no choice but to play RCT on her Xbox. I had no clue how to play and would just dump down miniature railways in forest frontiers until one day, I beat the scenario and realized you unlocked more. By that point I had a laptop and started taking it with me during the summer and eventually beat the game. Great times, this version was also the defacto game I for some reason associate with family dinner spaghetti night as I played it a lot during them since I could easily eat and play. I just don't get the same feeling using OpenRCT2, it feels all zoomed out. Might be my early 2000s childhood playing in with nostalgia but I prefer the UI and overall feel of this version.
I know what you mean about OpenRCT2 feeling zoomed out, although I revisited it a while back and recall there being new additional zoom options. Makes it feel more comfy. =)
My biggest issue with this version was the limited save slots, I also wasn't a fan of how you paused the game as you couldn't do any management stuff. The controls are impressively good for using a controller, yes its it's not as good as keyboard and mouse, but how they manged to get it to work as well as it did is something to commend. Also I didn't realize that Frontier was involved, it makes sense why they worked on RCT3 and would go onto make Planet Coaster.
The better question is why wasn't the game ported to any other consoles - and the answer is probably that the whole game was written in x86 assembly and there wasn't an easy way to port it to MIPS or Power PC without rewriting everything.
I'm guessing this was released because 1) some parents don't want their kids messing with their computer, and 2) Infogrames loved releasing cheap shovelware, and you can't get much more "low effort, high reward" than a popular IP and a game that's easy to port to the Xbox.
Regarding why Xbox: It was trivially easy to port RCT to the Xbox, yet difficult and expensive on other consoles. Rollercoaster Tycoon was 99% coded in x86 Assembly, with 1% being C code to interface with DirectX and Windows (as per Chris Sawyer's blog). Not only would quite literally 100% of the game would need to be rewritten in another language for PS2 and GameCube (and expensive, possibly prohibitively so), over 99% of the code was compatible with the Xbox to begin with because it already uses an x86 processor (PS2 used RISC while GameCube used PowerPC). All they'd need to do to port game the game to Xbox was replace the Windows specific calls with the Xbox's, and optionally the QoL features.
Reminds me of how some Age of Empires got console ports despite those games really needing a mouse. I even remember playing a mobile port of AOE 3 that was somehow functional on a phone keypad, although it was reduced to just a campaign made up of preset short missions.
I tried playing this game using a steam controller and it is easier to move the mouse around then an Xbox controller would have been but you have to set up all your own hotkeys which I'm not good at doing.
similar weird computer games on consoles: Sim City and populous on the news and SNES, but I'm not sure how much they count, since at least in the new years there wasn't much of a split between console and computer. So fast forward to the 32/64 but era: Command and Conquer on the psx is just too easy to bring up, so how about on the N64? THAT was weird (I had it on both consoles, and didn't have a computer lol) But the really odd ones? Civilization 2 on the psx and AoE2 on the PS2. THAT is some weird porting logic
I heard about the XBox port, and I had just assumed that because it used an x86 CPU like the typical PC of the era, it would have been a quick way for Infogrammes to crank out an easy port using the existing assembly code and make a few extra bucks without much effort
Bro, I remember spending hours playing RCT on PC when I was really young, this game had me hooked, even if I wasn't terribly good at it. I do remember using the right-click trick to remove weeds manually, though most of the time, I'd leave one Handyman with the task of cutting grass as his entire career, letting the others maintain the park. I'd also ensure that every roller coaster only had one car operating, due to being traumatized by some preset coasters crashing into other cars at the station (I'm looking at you, "The Storm" from Katie's World...). The cheat codes for the game were pretty fun, like naming guests specific names would get them to perform certain actions more than the average guest. RCT2 I also sunk some time into, but on the contrary, I actually felt spoiled by how all the scenarios were unlocked from the get-go. I felt pretty spoiled having everything unlocked, I suppose I felt it left me nothing to look forward to. And then I got RCT3 which felt really intimidating and confusing for my child brain, but it did have some charm to it that makes me wish I had time to revisit. Cool music, too.
Even today, being jumpscared by a rollercoaster exploding out of nowhere is pretty unnerving. It happened to "Agoraphobia" five minutes after I loaded the Diamond Heights map, but unfortunately I wasn't recording at the time. Dang station brakes failure.
2:52 Removing weed does not change the park rating, so it was left in the game. It wasn't intended nor was it unintended, i think. 3:00 was only added in OpenRCT2.
as much as the port seems a little redundant, I used to play this a lot as a kid. I had an original Xbox round my grandparents' house and it was one of the few games I had on it. Certainly has a special place in my heart.
I'm really glad you covered this. I actually prefer it to the PC game. The controls are just so good. It's hard to understand until you've tried it. Thanks!
I never knew that there was a port of Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 and the expansion pack Loopy Landscapes and Corkscrew Follies on the original Xbox. Interesting, I have Roller Coaster Tycoon for the PC but can't run it cause it requires Windows 95 or 98 which I don't have. I am going to go buy it. Great video.
The thing is that the original 2 RCT games were made with x86 assembly code, this means that they could work just on Intel and AMD cpus, since the og xbox uses a cut down windows os and a pentium 3 cpu, it was probably the only platforma on wich porting the game to made sense, on other consoles it would have required a complete rewrite of the game, on the xbox instead it was just a more straight forward porting process.
RollerCoaster Tycoon and RCT2 were coded in x86 assembly, so a PS2 version would've been out of the question at the time! =P By now RCT2 was ported to C (both officially to Android, and unofficially to... everything), though! =)
I like this game and would like to revisit it on pc. The problem is that while I do own, rct 1 2 and 3, my computer does not have a disc drive so I don't have it installed. The plan was to install it onto a USB somehow but I'm not sure if that will work and my discs have small cracks on them since they're very old, so sometimes they just wouldn't install. I was thinking of sending phot proof to the open rct devs to see if they'd send me the game but I'm not even sure they are allowed, so I just stopped playing the game, ever since my old laptop broke (which did have a disc drive)
Impressive, just for the fact that this game was made using the hardest programming language, Assembly, which is also used by operating systems such as Windows.
If I never received the xbox port I would of spent weeks not being able to play. Laptops back then were much more to buy and less practical. My xbox I could pack up and take wherever a tv was for hundreds less. In my mind it's like having the full game on your phone today.
I still have it and thought it was great, I had RCT2 on PC too but we had a shared family PC at the time and my Xbox was in my room so I had much more play time on Xbox
Nowadays there's no reason to pick up either the Xbox version nor the original version. For some years we have had OpenRCT2, which gives you a bunch of improvements over the original RCT1 and 2. Also, if you buy both RCT 1 and 2 on Steam and download this free mod, you can play all scenarios of both games. Some quality of life improvements include time lapse, early scenario completion, autosave feature and automatic random staff placement. Not to mention HD graphics, multiplayer and more sensible value calculations.
Made sense why they made an Xbox Version because computers at that time weren't really suitable for younger children. Even though I still enjoy RCT 1 to this day.
Here’s a technical answer to your “why Xbox?” The Xbox runs a stripped down x86 OS similar to the NT kernel. Porting to the Xbox would take much less time than a PS2.
I only see a few of these on ebay! Pretty expensive some and some cds don't look that good! Wish they made roller coaster tycoon 2 for xbox and made roller coaster tycoon 1 and 2 for PlayStation 2!
Thrillville for PS2 and other platforms I guess is the balance. I remember it being a fair port I think (when owned an OG Xbox unlike now). (Still own the PC version of 1 all expansions/not the deluxe though & 2 only Wack World and only I think 3 Classic maybe some expansions of the water and such ones I forget didn't like 3 much). Many PC to console ports for Xbox of strategy games and tycoons made sense to be only on Xbox easy to convert due to tools offered so why wouldn't companies do that less work then converting to PS2/GameCube. Then Zoo Tycoon Xbox One happened as a Kinetic (I don't hate Kinetic I just think this game suffered and Screamride is 'unique' but not a Tycoon game a vehicle destruction game') game and ruined the depth while Zoo Tycoon DS or Theme Park DS is alright. Or Theme Park Jaguar. Theme Park World on PS1 not tried on PC and Theme Hospital PS1 surprised me the controls are eh and the game is missing some scenes of transition per hospital that the PC had sigh. Not played Thrillville I might have to check it out I always see the name every so often but surprised it on many consoles.
Reviews seem odd. I mean sure an old computer can run it but if people wanted a console version and only had a console why wouldn't they get it it's a fair port some reviews are weird from the 2000s era. Otherwise I mean sure they could run it on a Pocket PC maybe to be a handheld title as we (not as a Pocket PC/Nokia phone ports like their 32X Darxide game was to be Darxide EMP but still a Windows on the go with some RCT makes sense). It's interesting seeing Frontier as not a theme park Sim/Tycoon management game company prior to RCT Xbox as it kind of set them on that path with this Xbox port.
Interesting to see such a faithful port of a PC Game to a home console 🎮 A similar situation with a completely opposite outcome is Zoo Tycoon. The first game got ported to DS (coincidentally just after the sequel came out too, just like RCT), and it’s as bare bones as anything I’ve ever seen 💀 Not that the DS would have been powerful enough for an entirely faithful port, but it’s legitimately terrible and feels like a beta release. It’s also incredibly buggy and half the time things just mess up for no apparent reason. Animals will escape without any broken fences (although then again I don’t think they even coded that into the port), guests will get stuck behind objects and the map will turn black and glitch out if you scroll too fast. I decided to pick up and play it again a few days ago. My polar bears suddenly decided they HATED ice and salt water and wanted lots of savannah grass instead, at which point I turned the game off 🫠
@@FrameRater You really should, it’s an awesome game 😊 There’s also a modding scene for that game and its sequel if that kind of thing interests you. It isn’t as big as it used to be (especially for the first game), but there are some interesting fan made animals, buildings and objects out there ^^
Daily reminder: don't set park entrance fees, then round the ride's excitement rating down to the nearest dime and set that as the entry price for the ride. Enjoy having effectively unlimited money and beating every RCT1 scenario easily.
@@TheOriginalJphyper it's true - the guests are willing to spend way more on rides if they didn't pay to get in. Rule of thumb is that you can set the ride price to be about equal to the excitement rating.
