Why Rollercoaster Tycoon Died 

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OpenRCT2 is all we need

To make sawyers rollercoaster tycoon even more impressive, he wrote pretty much the entire thing in 32-bit assembly.. now THATS impressive, id guess not even 1% of programmers can write a simple program in assembly but this guy made a whole game by himself as a hobby project in assembly..

It's a shame you didn't mention OpenRCT2 nor Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic. Both are basically RCT2 with OpenRCT2 adding more rides, cheats, fixing some bugs and adding multiplayer, and Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic porting RCT2 to mobile and tablet devices and later the PC. I would definitely say that RCT as a franchise hasn't died but is being caried by these two games.

You could move around guests in RCT3, you just couldn't kill them anymore. Also, the reason why guests drowned in RCT and RCT2 was because Chris Sawyer didn't want to have to make an animation for the guests to swim.

They lost their vision and milked the franchise dry. At this point just play Planet Coaster, or if you're into the isometric perspective, Parkitect. Wonderful game that still capture that early RTC spirit.

I loved rct3 it was my childhood, i lovr the simplicity of it. Planet coaster is so complicated, you have to spend hours to make your park look good.

Every single "video game history" video ends up coming down to corporate greed and poor treatment of game developers/artists... Makes you think about our priorities as a society.

Just play Parkitect? At this point it’s the definitive edition of the old games with a new fresh lick of paint… But a fun fact that I didn’t realize myself? The studio/person who made the RCT3 soundtrack is the same that made the Rimworld ost

Bullfrog's 1994 Theme Park should have featured in the intro for historical context as well as Sawyer's first game Transport Tycoon.

you absolutely could move guests in RCT3 dude

rct3 was one of my most beloved game in my childhood. so much nostalgia AND THEN YOU SHOW ZOO TYCOON OMG

Just some feedback, I really don't like the one word animation popping up in the middle of the screen in rapid succession. It makes my eyes hurt honestly and serves very little purpose imo. I would rather just listen to your narration while seeing a still image or preferably gameplay footage.

Me as an 8 year old even found RCT3 to be bland. I went back to RCT2 a few months after my parents bought RCT3 for me.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 where so popular that it basically created a decade long trend of business sims and city builders slapping "Tycoon" at the end even if it didn't make sense, like with Moon Tycoon or School Tycoon.

I honestly forgot about Roller Coaster Tycoon when Planet Coaster was coming out, the only other real competitor that people were talking about was Parkitect

Releasing a worse version of a Rollercoaster Tycoon sequel a day before the superior version which is a spiritual successor rather than part of the mainline series? Real smart Atari. 😆 Reminds me of the Sim City 2013 disaster.

Stoked to watch this as a diehard fan of the originals. I hope Parkitect gets mentioned! It's amazing and is the spiritual successor to the original RCT games. It also has multiplayer and is a ton of fun with friends.

I wouldn't give Frontier too much credit. Corporate greed held back Planet Coaster's full potential. Denuvo and overpriced DLC (for which they then introduced a subscription service for, well after dropping support for the game) leave a bad taste in my mouth for what is otherwise a superb park building experience. I blame the suits for those boneheaded decisions. Planet Coaster feels like a passion project; RCT3 walked so PC could run, which only dials up the frustration. At least the OG games still hold up, especially combined with OpenRCT2.

RollerCoaster Tycoon never died. Both it and its sequel have continued to see fame and reverence across the globe, even to this day. Even Frontier Development's spin-off "RollerCoaster Tycoon 3" is well-loved. There are no other RollerCoaster Tycoon games outside those 3, and despite this, they each live on.

Rollercoaster Tycoon may have been the gold standard but all the management games you mentioned could be traced back to Sim City (1989) or theme park (1994) or the sid meiers franchise like railroad tycoon (1990). All of them successful in their own right Rollercoaster tycoon refined the genre and brought a lot of people to the genre but it was built on what came before

Infogrames traumatized a generation of children.

Great retrospective. I think this is the perfect example of "Names don't matter in gaming". I don't think Frontier "beat the odds against them". they slanted the odds in there favor by, well, making a good game. When the rollercoster tycoon game was failing. This should be a lesson to any CEO in the gaming industry that fans can (and will) make better alternatives if the current games aren't great, and everyone will move the the better alternative

It's a shame Sawyer dipped out when offered a bag. I recall a few years ago the rights were extended another decade to Atari from him, even though he himself is completely uninvolved.

Parkitect is like Roller Coaster Tycoon but with modern graphics

Honestly huge respect to Sawyer for working hard to create the masterpiece, then immediately retiring when it made him rich. Pretty much the dream.

Damn seeing the Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 ability to grab people brought back memories lol, fantastic game!

You forgot about RCT Classic and Touch which Chris Sawyer did work on quite extensively. Classic was released the same year as World so he was working with Atari to develop the title.

the emphasis of “you either die as a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain”.

Rollercoaster tycoon World was the first game I ever asked a refund for on Steam

First game i palyed form this series was RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 ! It was so amazing me and my brother have played over 400 hours of this game each , we loved it .

"Planet Coaster is the spiritual successor to RCT" Well this is terrible news for Parkitech.

It didnt die. There is a core community dedicated to open rct2.

1999 RollerCoaster Tycoon 25 years

TheoTown will be the only memory we have of the good old RCT days.

My first ever disappointment when buying a game was Roller Coaster Tycoon for the 3DS

With OpenRCT2, Rollercoaster Tycoon is more alive then ever before!

It didn't unless you only count official releases

Here before the bot wave

Why does no one talk about Parkitect? Its such a great game and is identical to rollercoaster tycoon.

OpenRCT 2 is still hugely populair. And a lot of people stay this genius game (RTC2). After that, only Planet Coaster came close to the succes/greatness of this game.

Real ones got this shit in the cereal box

I did not even know there was a roller coaster tycoon game after 3 lol. I figured everyone just plays 2 for a reason and I guess that's why

Rollercoaster tycoon 2 is what made me love video games. When i was a kid i remember staying up all night playing after i was done being grounded because i was always playing it lol

Parkitect is more of a real spiritual sequel to RCT than Planet Coaster, even if it didn't get as many sales.

I was 10 years old and this and flight simulator kept me company as an only child. I am so thankful for this games and LOVED THEM 🙏🏾 forever !!!

I played the beta for RCT World and I never looked back. Now I play OpenRCT.

You should mention how important Tycoon was to assembly language and also its implementation of realistic physics and use in educational classrooms!

Anyone that is a fan of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon needs to play the new spiritual successor to that game, Parkitect. It is absolutely brilliant and I was immediately brought back to my childhood. It is a masterpiece.

so how does thrillville fit into this?

roller coaster tycoon 3 has to be my favorite and i still play it to this day

You can move people around with the tweezers in RCT3 too

Big respect for Sawyer.

I played the original Roller Coaster Tycoon for years growing up. I also remember watching my stepdad play it for ages. He was way better at it than I ever was lol Great deep dive, but the camera flashes and noises are very distracting

Remember the original was coded entirely in basic… that’s an accomplishment.

I remember picking up Rollercoaster Tycoon in 99/00 in CompUSA with my dad, i was 10/11. I played RCT a TON. I still pick it up on occasion. Everything after RCT2 is a disaster. I also played Simcity a ton back in the day...after Simcity 4 it went downhill. I played the last Simcity a bit...but it was mehhhhh. I ended up playing Cities Skylines a lot and loved it but didn't have enough time to really delve into it.

Calling Roller Coaster Tycoon the starter for management game popularity is absolute BS. Theme Park came out in '94. Sim City in '89. WTF Robo?

I just love how the first two games look, it has a charm and life that 3d graphics cant match.

Used to play this when I was 6 and would just make guests sick

I want a new game with the old look

RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 was my favorite game until 2 came out which was my favorite game until I discovered Diablo 2 which led me down the Blizzard path. I put countless hours into the two first games, and I didn't realize the first was made by such a small team. I really liked the RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Six Flags maps, those were really fun. Especially when you started a fresh park in the same location so you could make it completely different if you wanted to. The first 2 games were my favorite Sim games for a really long time.

I think the guy is in touch but doesn't care his opinion is all that matters 😂😂

You were able to talk to Titov!?! Thats crazy 👏

Apparently Atari recently bought the rights to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 from Frontier for $7.7 million. Despite Chris Sawyer's disappointment with Atari's efforts (and his suing them) he appears to be cozy enough with them to work out an arrangement where he's hand-signed commemorative swag they will of course be selling for a premium I'm sure. Like the old saying goes-money makes the (rollercoaster) world go 'round.

RCT2 is a work of art, done by a passionate individual. now, thankfully OpenRCT2 reigns supreme.

Now I need to buy Rollercoaster Tycoon and play it myself.

Just imagine if Chris had stayed on board. 😮🤯 I get where he's coming from, but I don't understand why someone who garners that much success would just decide to drop it and walk away. But I will say the downfall of the franchise was entirely on Atari. I also don't understand why people didn't like RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. That game defined my childhood more than RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. I really didn't understand why people didn't like the coaster cam feature where you can ride the rides. That's what made that version so innovative and great. But I can see why all the 90s kids didn't like it. It's just a damn shame because I have never played or bought RollerCoaster Tycoon World because of how bad I've heard it is. But the good news is, someone can still bring back a better RollerCoaster Tycoon game, hopefully in the future, and restore this beloved franchise to its former glory. ❤

i can say i loved RCT 1-3 in my childhood and now i'm still enjoing playing it or OpenRCT2 as well as Planet Coaster and Parkitect

Bro went from rags to riches, depressive hiatus, and is now venting by talking about dead games. Can't wait for the circle to complete

The Atari CEO made the mistake of dipping his fingers on more things than he should, spread the money too thin.

Roller coaster tycoon world was my first and only pre order it made me big sad growing up w the trad RCT

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="702">11:42</a> A move like realising a game so close to a competitor that is looking to do far better saleswise, is likely a strategy to mask culpability. This way, they can simply blame their competitor, rather than having higher management and investors breathing down their necks.

It's weird hearings about Fdev in a context not related to Elite Dangerous.

Sadly greed/big business killed everything like always. Atari was basically EA. And RTC World was SimCity2013. It's so sad :( Do hope the ones that made World will get punished harsly!

Frontier also sued Atari, and Frontier also won. Then they sold Tycoon to Atari 🙄

It's not like RCT died, it's more like Atari died.

it's baffling how someone can take such a great franchise and screw it up so hard, it would have been so easy to succeed, yet they failed so hard, pure incompetence.

Whilst I enjoyed Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2, I LOVED Transport Tycoon. Such a shame what happened to it in the end. Though still glad OTTD still exists to continue the legacy.

RCT4 was actually okay for what it was: a mobile game. I played it for awhile but reached a point where I had to wait 24 plus hrs to just to play 30 seconds of refreshing rides. People overhate these types of games as money grabs but usually you don't need to spend any money and they're a great way to kill a few minutes. Unfortunately in this case the game lacked a good endgame that the good ones have (Simpsons Tapped Out was good).

Only player RCT 3 only CPU game ever got. Loved it.

there was a ps2 version of this game that i loved playing as a kid

Why it died? Wtf man... You are talking about the most alive game from the zeroes that there is

This is what has always been wrong with these games: The expectation is you'll make elaborate and unique coasters and reap rewards based on that. The reality is people making queues that customers pay 100 bucks to walk around in a circle in and game the system.

I don't think Planet Coaster should have a sequel. They should just continue to refine what they currently have.

Atari's intentions with releasing it one day before Planet Coaster was desperation and competition. They knew the state of their game in comparison to Planet Coaster, and they knew they can't compete. Releasing it before Planet Coaster was an attempt to force people to decide what game they want to spend their money on. If they bought their game, then people were less likely to then buy Planet Coaster. But they also knew that if they released it before Planet coaster, they might actually make some money than if they released it after. They knew their product sucked, and they knew that they loose any chance to make any money from it after Planet Coaster was released.

So theme park tycoon 2 on roblox is just this but 3d and interactive

Even though I loved RCT and RCT 2, I never ever started the following games, just by looking at footage of it. Nowadays, I love playing Parkitect. Planet Coaster is good as well, but to big and time consuming for me. And I am a bit sad, that you do not mention Parkitect in your video.

Hey! How can you say this series quote unquote "died"? It makes no sense.

RCT2 has stood the test of time! The iOS version (RCT Classic) is brilliant. It’s a shame that the original franchise fell into the wrong hands. That’s being said, planet coaster is incredible and has opened up the rollercoaster franchise to new kinds of players.

I thought RCT3 was pretty good, but I never played the first 2.

OpenRCT2 helped revive the classic RCT series.

"The third entry was developed by Frontier" Oh... oh no... you mean the Elite Dangerous people who still cannot make up their minds on how to balance a game and havne't fulfilled all Kickstarter goals a decade later? Oh... that explains a lot.

RCT was a huge part of my childhood - RCT2 was peak. 3 was still decent, but directionless? RCT World - Ive never refunded something so quick in my life.

No mention of the RTC classic mobile game?

Eff all CEO's & Publishers honestly. They do *NOTHING* but ruin shit.

the fact this video is sponsored by a shitty mobile app makes it infinitely funnier

Chris Sawyer was involved with Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic...It's basicly Rollercoaster Tycoon 1&2 with all of the extra DLC's. This wasn't a bad attempt to bring the old games back. Of course now we also have OpenRCT2 and this works with RCT Classic. Perhaps you missed this in your review. I still have the original RCT1 & 2 with all of the expansions, but RCT1 didn't worked anymore because the disc was too old and scatched, so I used RCT2's original discs in combination with OpenRCT2 and bought RCT1 with all it's DLC included on Steam so I could still play around with the game were it all started with, only now I play it together with OpenRCT2 together...This means I don't need Classic. Indeed, all you need now is OpenRCT2 with a classic version or the first and second game (because you need the original games to play OpenRCT2...With this way I could still play the beloved franchise with new extra;s and I love it just as much as the first game when it was released in 1999. I also play RCT3 occaisonnaly (with itr's expansions) and it has it's own charm...but my heart still belong to the two original tiltles, but this time updated with OpenRCT2. I never followed or played the releases that came after RCT3 just by looking to youtube and read reviews...It was a complete disaster. I still have hope that someone, somebody creates a worthy follow-up to the original RCT, but I guess that will never come...But thst ids just MHO

Frontier got done dirty. First of all, because of putting those Roller Coaster Tycoon World complaints over footage of Planet Coaster. Second, lumping RCT3 in with the dredge that followed. I loved RCT1 and 2, but it was clear they had just about maximized on iso builders (which is why Open and Parkitekt are so similar). A lot of desired features required 3D, which was more difficult and graphics-intensive (cue simpler human designs). Frontier did great for the time, and most nitpicks were just that. What we wanted was further development of what was achieved in 3, both new capabilities plus the return of some from 2. We wanted a proper 4. We finally got that with Planet Coaster thanks to Frontier. 3 was great and a good step forward.

Excuse me, but there was a _third_ and even *fourth* game? I feel like I've been told before but it's always like I'm hearing it for the first time every time. I did play zoo tycoon2, though, which i did really like, but then when i tried planet zoo i realized there would be no more of those games the way i loved them

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="57">0:57</a> lol I literally bought and played all 6 of those on that list.most on that magical disc called CD.