Why Roller Coaster Tycoon is a Game Development Masterpiece 

- makes 4 near technically perfect absolute bangers - quits - refuses to elaborate

Put it this way if you arent familiar with programming. This madman was making a working tesla car with stick, stones and ooga booga cavemen language.

I used to play this as a kid, and now I’m a rollercoaster engineer. You could say it had quite the effect on me

Over 20 years later and I'm still playing this game. It's one of the best casual games ever made.

This man is a legend. It was really hard to just make a basic calculator in assembly, i can’t imagine creating physics like that in asm. Creating games in Java or C++ doesn’t get anywhere near the complexity of what he did

Chris Sawyer wrote the whole game in Assembly?! That's hardcore

its hard to overstate what a positive influence this game had. as a kid i took it for granted but growing older i truly appreciate its magic

I already knew he coded it alone using assembly, but I didn't release he insisted on no microtransactions in the mobile port. He's a even bigger legend than I thought!

The level of detail in RCT is remarkable. I mean, even the weight of guests is taken into account for coasters. Love the mobile port - so nice to play RCT in the train.

I don´t think people understand how deep this game goes. He made somewhat realistic g-forces for roller coasters which gave you penalties if their lateral Gs, positive or negative vertical Gs are too high. For example if you build an unbanked turn following a big drop the game somehow knows that the lateral Gs are over 6 and you get a penalty which means people are less likely to ride it. If you do too much crazy stuff the guests will say "this ride looks to dangerous" and they wont use or pay for it.

I got this game in a cereal box at age 5, and still play it once in a while today at age 28. Thank you for 23 years of fun Chris

Remember: unoptimized software requires many updates, while perfect software requires no updates.

Damn so much respect for that guy, i have been studying assembly language currently in college and to think that RCT is built from asm still blows my mind wow

I literally still have a burned disc with "rollercoaster tycoon" written on it in the sloppy handwriting of someone i don't even know. a hand-me-down of a re-gift. One of my most treasured possessions.

Chris, If you ever read this. Just know that you had a tremendous impact on my life by creating RCT. My favorite game of all time. I still play it often. I can't even imagine the amount of work that you put into it. I never knew it was just one person who created such a masterpiece. That is really amazing. At some my lowest points in life, I fell back on RCT for comfort. It really helped me. Thanks.

I owe this man so flippin much. His creativity and vision in game design not only shaped my childhood but also inspired my journey in life, leaving an indelible mark on who I have become.

Chris Sawyer is a lot like Bill Watterson of 'Calvin and Hobbes' fame. Both created pieces of media that will be loved for generations to come, and both of them did so before vanishing into humble solitude.

I can still hear the guests voices in my head. This man's creation is a core memory of mine. What a legend.

I used to play Roller Coaster Tycoon, and now my life is a roller coaster.

This game was so fun. Me and my brothers would spend hours on it. I remember building so many dumb rollercoasters just to see how it would run. A lot of NPC died, but I was willing to make that sacrifice.

You mentioned RCT had one graphic designer and one composer. Their names are Simon Foster and Alistair Brimble. I believe Simon did the graphics and Alistair did the music, but I might have that backwards. I don't know that I would say the game was completely bug free, but I do recall it was extremely rare for me to encounter any bug. RCT2 did reuse the graphics from RCT, but it felt like a little bit more than just an expansion pack. RCT2 included many things that were wished for in the first game; like extra flat rides; new types of rollercoasters; the rollercoaster designer and scenario editor; and the ability to have sloped curves with banking. Of course, RCT2 itself did have two expansion packs, Corkscrew Follies and Loopy Landscapes. Later releases of RCT2 have the expansion pack stuff included.

TTD and RCT were hands down the most influential games for me. I can only speculate if they are one of the reasons for my deep interest in construction, city planning, transit, trains, planes, roller coasters and much more...

I've always wondered about the story behind this iconic game. I have an immense amount of respect for Chris now, so amazing what he accomplished.

Throughout 7 years of my childhood I have played Rollercoaster tycoon. Everything in it impressed me, from vomiting guests to breaking their balloons to their cute umbrellas. Everything about that game was soothing and calm for my childhood. Thank you sir. Thank you for making my childhood beautiful.

This man is such a legend. Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 and Transporter Tycoon are three of my absolute favourites from my childhood. They ran so smooth with my potato of a computer.

Assembly *is* human readable. That's the point. It's the human readable version of machine code. The opcode mnemonics and labels are there for our benefit, not the computer's.

Brought up so many cool memories. Used to play RCT 1 for hours as a kid. The amount of customization offered on rides, paths, terrain, artifacts was just something that could keep a 10 years old engaged for months and years.

Not only did I play this nonstop when it came out, I revisit it every three or four years to beat through every scenario, because it is literally just that fun.

A big reason for performance difference at the time was that compilers weren't anywhere near as good at optimizations. Compilers these days are vastly improved, making it difficult, if not impossible in many cases to get any performance benefit from assembler unless you have an deep understanding of how CPUs work, and knowledge of the vast array of tricks compilers use. Generally the best you can hope for is equal performance to an optimized C or C++ program. Most all the tricks people use in ASM to get better performance are baked into compiler, and also many more that would be highly tedious for programmers to implement manually, delving deep into how they actually do math to take some very clever shortcuts, as well as being much easier to use advance features such as use of SSE and other CPU intrinsics. Compilers us them even in basic loops if it makes sense to do so. It is worth noting that the SNES supported use of C, but no one used it because compilers at the time were pretty terrible performance wise, making it realistically unfeasible.

RCT is one of the best games ever. I remember being sick one week and staying home from school and just grinding for hours and hours - Good times!

Chris Sawyer had such an immense impact on my childhood with first Transport Tycoon and then RCT. They're still my favorite games to this day (as OpenTTD and OpenRCT2). An absolute legend in the game industry, and a madman for doing it all in assembly all on his own.

I'm 22 and also played RCT 1 and 2 together with my older brother and sister. It's probably the first game I ever played as a little kid and still play it sometimes to this day. Really love this game until my death🙏🏻❤️

Chris Sawyer, the true artist and god! Seeing Transport Tycoon Deluxe at one of my father's friends birthday parties sitting behind a Pentium, trying to blow up trains LOL, then needed to have the game and got it on a floppy disc. I was hooked. RCT even worse, sooo much hours building. Like LEGO, like you said, but online. Thanks for this honorable summary!

There’s few games that had enough of an impact on me as a kid that I genuinely remember the name of their creator like RTC and Chris Sawyer. But what floored me even more is that I recently saw what genre of game this is considered, construction management simulator. What degree do I have? Construction management, what’s my job title? Construction manager, apparently this had a lot more effect on my life than I realized. Not even gonna touch on the assembly aspect because everyone else has, but I have programming experience and know how insane that is

i remember discovering rct1 in a game collection and playing it all night with my dad. its a core memory of my life and I still love the series. I always knew it was special but it was really intresting to learn about the coding aspect now! thank you for the vid!

Transport Tycoon is massively underrated, it's really one of the best games of all time.

I'm so happy he remade RCT classic for mobile. Every other roller coaster game on mobile is Farmville with micro transactions. I got to the point where I bought a windows tablet just so I can play RTC on the go.

Wow! Chris certainly deserves his success. What a brilliant mind. I didn’t know RCT and RCT2 were made by one person, and seeing this brief explanation of the coding language he used means it’s all the more impressive!

I really loved this game when I was a kid with a low end PC in early 2000s Brazil. And it was just a demo version. So nostalgic to see this video! I never thought about why the game was one of the few games my PC was capable of running smoothly. Thank you very much for the video!

I got this game the year it came out for christmas. Needless to say I didn't participate in christmas dinner, or new years eve, or basically even go outside for a few months. I'd get home from school and play until my parents had to pry me off the PC to go to bed, day in day out. The time just went by so fast while playing. Such a good game.

I spent so much time with this game when I was a child. Considering how old this is, it's remarkable how much you could do here. This is one of the few old games that truly holds up the test of time for me.

"RCT2 is too much the same as RCT1!" "RCT3 is too different than RCT1 and RCT2!" You can really never make people happy

Absolute topic on my level, thanks for this 🙌 RC Tycoon was a childhood passion. First timer to the channel, checking out the rest of the videos now 😊

It's amazing to know the amount of detail it has like people will be afraid of certain rides and bored of others even in case of custom designs. So basically a logic to evaluate this factor was also coded possibly in assembly.

This game was absolutely legendary! Every so often, I'll reinstall the game to play a few scenarios. It's still rather interesting to see how great of a game it was, especially compared to how it worked compared to other games out at the time. RCT and TS1 were some of my favorite games as a kid!

He also made Transport tycoon // Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and now we have OpenTTD from it. Love the game!

As a CS major, Assembly language is the closest you can get to coding in 1s and 0s. Madness

I didn’t realize just how special this game was and couldn’t really understand as a kid why it was the only game that could run well on my old PCs. Truly the 🐐

As a testament to the game, the game still plays on Windows 10 with a Intel i7, 24 gigs of ram and a GTX 1650 with 4 gigs of Vram... It's crazy to think that a game that was desinged to run on a low amount of ram will still work and operate w/out any hitches, glitches, or crashes... This game is AMAZING and I still spend time playing it even to this day!! Chris Swayer = Indie Legend!!

I hold this man in the same regards as the Beatles, Chris Sawyer created a masterpiece that impacted my childhood as much as many other things. I thank him for his dedication and for my love of gaming.

The fact that it all was created in Assembly is just beyond me

Wow, sounds like he does deserve this brief moment in the spot light. He sounds like an awesome guy. I hope he got compensated adequately for his work.

For me it is the perfect game, a perfect mix of management and creativity. None of other management games came close to RCT.

Amazing documentary. And just... WOW, Chris Sawyer, what a legend. RCT is definitely one of the best games ever, and being #1 and #2 in such a competitive market, in which game sales were driven mostly by the real quality of the game (especially but not exclusively game design) and not because of big budget marketing, endless sequels or use of IPs is crazy.

Can’t agree more. This is brilliant to see him recognised and remembered.

Nice and deserved tribute to Chris Sawyer. Thanks again to him bettering my life when it was really needed. love

I never played RCT that much, but TTD is still one of my favourite games ever. Just incredible games

This game still holds up over 20 years later and I think it'll hold up for years and years to come. I can really respect him for setting out to make what he envisioned to make and then move on, but I can't say it doesn't hurt me that he didn't bless us with more games lol

my pc is really really REALLY old. and there are not that many games I can play on it. RCT has been here for me since forever. no lags ever. always a nice few hours of gaming without any issues. Chris is my hero. and so are the team of OpenRCT2 with all the updates. the community built around this game is just amazing.

Working in the field a of gaming as I do now, to hear the words “bug free game” or “zero bugs” is mind blowing. And to do everything by himself. Geez, I’m at a loss for words. And I played the hell out of this game too! I still have it, and I still boot it up from time to time.

I grew up playing this game along with Transport Tycoon, really loved that one. I even have Open TTD on my phone but is not that great to play on mobile. It's really quite remarkable how complete RCT is.

I did't know this game was coded entirly on aseemby, just thinking about it sends a shiver down to my spine. I rember programming microcontrollers on assemby during college and it was a pain in the ass, it made me appreciate C more back in the day, now with C# or any other high level lenguage even going back to C feels daunting, let alone assemby. He is trully a legend

Made me cry man 😢 good stuff! Keep going on these and shouts out the Goat!

Thanks for enlightening me on how far ahead this game of my childhood was, pretty cool!

I was born in 2006 and I grew up with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Around age 9 or 10 I played RCT 2 for the first time and after a while I got used to that game as well. I still suck at making coasters.

I'm Brazilian and this was an extremely success early's 2000... I also love Locomotion game. This guy is a genius. Totally deserved

shoutout for bro. i absolutely lovedddd this game as a kid.

I was fully obsessed with RCT when it was released (and after). A work of art, to be sure.

I spent so many hours playing Transport Tycoon. I admired how complex and performant that game was, without having any idea it was developed in ASM and by a sole developer. It also had a great MIDI soundtrack. Thanks for making the video!

My dad introduced me to some of his games when i was around 5; RCT1 and 2 and Locomotion. I never really got to play TTD but I heard that it is basically the exact same as Locomotion. Regardless, i still come back to those games today and i can proudly say they will always be some of my favourites

Amazing video, brought back memories, great info, perfectly well put in description and order, good looking out 👍

So grateful for the time spent with Chris and the badminton club as a kid. What a legend

I was playing this game 7 years ago when I was 13 even kids these days can still come up playing this masterpiece if it is introduced by a parent.

Chris Sawyer is an unsung legend of the industry.

I know this video is old I just came across it. I love it. I’m 35 years old. I’ve been playing roller coaster tycoon almost every day and then I discovered RCT open and now I’m even more addicted. Thanks for the vid man.

I played TT, RC1, RC2 and Locomotion as a kid. But boy i tell you RC and RC2 is something that lives within me and will probably never cease to keep my heart warm. I have such gratitude towards this man and the childhood he gave me. I vividly remember Christmas times, snowing outside, colorful Christmas tree and beautiful peace, playing RCT2... I'll never forget it. Thank you Chris.

This really was the sickest game ever, I remember getting it in a cereal box.

What an absolute unit. I love assembly. It really teaches you a lot. I wonder if the C compiler would get better performance. Maybe not at the time, but today they probably would.

The effect on Sawyer's life of underlying changes in computing are fascinating, and i never knew that this was.a.factor in the success ofnthe series. Thanks for the insight!

The actual amount of detail in Rtc was just so ahead of its time. Down to the contents of guests pockets. I've spent 1000s of hours building parks...

My favorite type of assembly is 6502 (or 65c02, they're practically the same) Some things listed involving many lines of assembly for one line of C annoyed me because, for example, a loop needs a condition which needs to be determined every iteration, you need to store the index, and you need to repeat. Or a function. All it does it push some data to the stack to remember what it was doing before the function, and then it runs the function, and then it pops the data. It's helpful because you know exactly what you are telling the machine to do. No strings attached.

My grandma got me my demo disk or RCT from a cereal box. Legit hits of nostalgia just thinking of it.

This was a wonderful tribute to this game and its developer.

I used to play and love this game as a kid and only realized how it was made as an adult. It's seriously mind blowing.

Makes me a little sad in a good way to know he wanted to keep pricing as it was when I was young. I have slowly fallen out of gaming over the past decade. But recently I was looking for something simple I could pick up and put down when ever. Found this RCT Classic on the app store. Then looking at a few tips and tricks on youtube I saw a short about this guy, Chris Sawyer, probably your short. And that made me watch this vid, because of the YT SHORT intro. I get sad thinking of the benefits of the past. Games had cheats and exploits. You could play for years and get better with weapons, really learn the game. Unlike warzone, they keep switching stats. I personally feel it's messed up, constantly tweakinga game for profit like warzone. But if you grew up in that world of the games constantly being altered, would you also develop better adaptability skills? Anyone born past 2010 have any thoughts on this? Would anyone that age even be watching a video like this. I'm interested in young culture and their world view. Just like how I wonder how older people view me in society. Are we really having the same experience as they did. And if not, how has this affected me differently.

I had the shittiest computer growing up….but god damn I was playin RCT. The Goat

It's really cool that i was playing RCT last week and it really holds up today like a classic game, it's quite fun too, one for the ages.

@9:15 dear god, what and absolute legend. played the crap out of rct as a kid(after also getting it in a cereal box) and still go back every now again gain and binge the crap out of it. thanks for this awesome look at not only one of the best games ever, but its creator. i learned a lot.

One great thing about RCT that set it apart from other themepark games is that all the ride were based on real world rides that you can find all over the world (yes people the Steeple Chase is a real coaster, it's at Black Pool Pleasure Beach in the UK)

As you said, this game is a masterpiece. I didn't know that TTD and RCT were made in ASM and by a single guy. Currently I'm work as a ASM Programmer (Z Architecture) and even though I can't imagine how he managed to did it alone.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe was a huge part of my childhood, never played his other games but his name is imprinted on my memory forever for having played TTD so much. Didn't know the madman was coding alone with assembly, I thought he was a game designer like Molyneux. Thanks for the story!

He is the reason i spend most of my childhood with tycoons. Transport Tycoon, and Roller Coaster Tycoon will always be an extremely good memory for me.

I just want to add, that assembly is rarely faster than compiled C/C++/Rust code today. A lot has happened since the 90s and compilers are usually able to produce better machine code than humans.

Younger than 30? I'm 26 and rollercoaster tycoon has ruined my school career.

Mad respect for Sawyer, I sadly grew up loving RCT3 and it's expansions cause I was too young but I will give the previous iterations a lengthy playthrough now to see it for myself.

What a legend of a man. Driven by making a game to his vision with little to no interest in the money he could make. Even in an era driven by Microtransactions he stays true to himself and the community and just wants the game to be a fair price. I don't think I have played any game longer than Rollercoaster Tycoon and i have so many good memories and nostalgia linked to it. from the bottom of my heart I am so thankful for joy Chris Sawyer has given my life thanks to his game :)

I recently got it on IPAD, and was thinking about it being programmed in assembly, like how would be the process of it being ported to Ipad Os. It works great.

I wished they would make Transport tycoon/OpenTTD port for an RP2040.

Nice narrative, a great storyline, and interesting subject matter. All in all, a good video! I'm subscribing for more.

Transport tycoon deluxe and RCT2 are my childhood. This man is a legend.