To me, there are certain games that evoke the same creative spirit of illustration in a nigh addictive way. Though games such as Minecraft are magical in their own right, they have been unable to captivate such a primal desire as well as Rollercoaster Tycoon. Plotting coasters, deleting them and trying again is like working with composition before you draw. Considering the thematic elements and color of a coaster and its surroundings are so much fun! The process of creation is so similar to my other favorite hobby Dungeons & Dragons, where I feel like God who creates worlds for small people to adventure through. Of course, I am not drawing or writing or prepping a D&D session, I am playing a video game! That is where the thrill - the addiction, some may refer to it as - ultimately comes from! This post is a small collection of my builds in RCT2 from the height of my addiction. I hope you enjoy them!
Garden Eleganza was a challenge issued in passing by my girlfriend to see if I could make a "garden" themed rollercoaster. Given the junior rollercoaster's cute ladybug themed cars, I felt it would be the perfect pick for this challenge. The coaster's layout was devised to be simplistic yet thrilling on account of my low funds and coaster limitations (as the Diamond Ride, which I built prior, had nearly bankrupted me). As I watched the cars soar at a rivetting 25mph through my track, I envisioned passengers taking the role of little grubs riding atop the spotted beasts. Akin to films like A Bug's Life, I wanted my riders to feel small, so I reached deep within the garden themeing pack and created the coaster you see before you. The carrot was originally a grain silo, when the scale of the ride was yet to be decided. I simply love the idea of going around a very tangible object while on a rollercoaster. I feel that many coasters I've ridden in real life avoid this design idea for the sake of safety. Bah! Let me feel like a surfer cresting his fingers across a crashing wake, you cowards! Since this is a video game, I've gone and implemented this in as many rides as I possibly could imagine (as you will see). Any-hoo, I feel like this build is fine for what it is. It's cute and quaint, but certainly reeks of "rollercoaster made for children". Perhaps in that, it is a perfect design, but I feel like I could have done more. I learned much during the process of building Garden Eleganza, including how the layout augments the decor you can place later; an underappreciated aspect of storytelling, as Disney imagineers call it. On to the next coaster!
Why is this ride called Blood Diamond? God knows! Perhaps it was in reference to the Kanye West song, Sierra Leone, but what does that have to do with the ride itself?! Sloppy theming Mister Higashikata, for shame! Moving on, this thrill ride was primarily built to test colour palletes and making something appealing to look at, thus alluring guests to ride it. Given its a preset thrill ride, I was able to focus on the design of the building and its surroundings as opposed to the wild and fluid structure of a rollercoaster. Though I do think the design is simple leaning into boring architecture wise, I love the beauty of the chosen pallete. During its creation, I had really considered how coloured attractions bleed into one another, creating a colour gradient across the entire park when seen from above. The idea inspired me greatly, and many of my parks follow this "gradient" ideal, to little avail. To my dismay, my foggy brain forgot that I was playing a scenario, and I had just sunk all my money into this ride who was certain to not make back its investment. A little bit of waiting and speeding up the game later, I was able to buy Garden Eleganza and continue the scenario. Check finances first before pursing a vanity project (or vanity experiment is a better term). Lesson learned!
Wet-N-Wild was my first attempt at making one of those iconic wooden logging buildings that houses a crazy water ride. Looking at it now, I think I did a pretty poor job, hahaha. The track as seen in the second figure has an incredibly lame track, basically blowing its load wayyy too early with a cool drop only to torture guests with features that only get them wet. Not to mention how the building itself is falling apart and just has pieces missing from it. Whirlpools, waterfalls and lift hills that would put someone to sleep, its a miracle that this ride survived long enough for me to get pictures of it. Should've just named this ride, "Wet", because I'm not getting much of a wild vibe from it. Ultimately the guests of Super Park never cared about these things - and it showed financially - but god this piece of work is an eye-sore I constantly think about while designing. I'm always thinking of hitboxes and how to cover tracks in a thematic, meaningful way so that I don't have another mistake on my hands. So for that, thank you Wet-N-Wild.
Two Time and Gold Rush Racers was one of the first sets of rides that I developed alongside eachother to see if I could create an environment I would enjoy viewing from either ride's point of view. Two Time is a small, incredibly simple mine train coaster that runs for two laps; a feature that exists from oversight and not intentional design. Gold Rush Racers, as it sounds by its title, is a themed Go-Kart race through the small wild-west-ish place that exists in a pocket of the Super Park theming gamut. I imagined that these karts would be painted with the coats of different horse breeds, and given names derived from aforementioned horse breeds; Clyde and Dale (Clydesdale), Luciano (Lusitano), Morgan (Morgan) and the like. The ultimate purpose of this area is to engage with it in different points of view. GRR allows you to gallop under the belly of Two Time and really get a feel for the structure, unimpeded by park pathing. Two Time allows you to whip around the area, really feeling like you're a great eagle soaring above the town while a duel breaks out. Without one another, they almost cannot function - the magic is lost without proper scale.
To break up the coasters and park design, these are two small decorations I really enjoy. The first is a bathroom, modelled after a bathroom I saw on a date in Pebble Beach. Ironic that I would find inspiration for a bathroom instead of a Mini Golf course in Pebble Beach, right? I found it sitting alone by the shore, just up the sandy crag that seperated the tide from the course. It had such an alluring shape and beaten colour that I needed to recreate it in one of my parks. The recreation features two seperate bathrooms which mechanically does nothing since A. pawns will wayfind to the closest bathroom and B. they're genderless creatures so setting up signs to dennote gender is an affront to their species. However, I like the illusion of choice that occurs; if you and a friend both need to go to the bathroom and there are two gender neutral bathrooms, which do you choose? Do you base it on their decision or is it your will that dictates their decision? Is there really a difference in making a choice and do you feel better for making a choice at all? These questions and the storylines I create in my head (like what is a "Eugene" doing in the women's bathroom? Perhaps its just what makes them feel correct.) are what drives my creation process.
This lighthouse was another result of my brainless need for decorum, no matter if it makes sense or not. Why does a lake need a lighthouse? There aren't even boats large enough that would benefit from such a structure. Is it even a lighthouse if it has no central light at its peak? Who cares? I cast these questions aside while creating this lake side area. I just wanted something picture-esque to live inbetween the forest and desert areas. Naturally, I pulled from a recent trip to Half Moon Bay, and modelled the houses off of the local architecture. I find theme park areas that possess natural beauty (even if constructed by a designer's hand) to be an underrated part of the experience. Pocket dimensions of reality - or a simulacra of reality - are striking as "natural" images. Of course they often do not compare to the "real", but images or conjurations often fail to capture true uniqueness. These pockets are like impressionist paintings, embodying what the artist felt about the subject. In this framework, the shore is defined by the town that surrounds it, therefore I built a lighthouse. The lighthouse and body of water cannot exist without eachother in my mind.
Twisted Timbers is one of the few rollercoasters that I am really proud of. From the theming to the layout itself to its place in the park, I really enjoy this coaster. Discussing Garden Eleganza, I made it aware my love for coasters that wrap around objects; Twisted Timbers really exemplifies this. Cars wrap around silos, shift through wooden buildings and snake through previously ridden track. I very much enjoy the track layout and the intimacy of the environment provides for the rider; imaging the first car experience of Twisted Timbers makes me wish I were a real coaster designer! From the initial climb up the lift hill, passengers see the coaster ahead of them in addition to the longest stretch of Mount Doom and the grand lake that sits at the center of Super Park. At the top of the lift hill, I left a little space for the coaster to wheel forward before falling, really allowing passengers to soak in those last few seconds of "Wow I'm pretty high up" before dropping into the ride. This feature somewhat repeats at the halfway point, the secondary lift hill grants riders the best place to watch Mount Doom's loop (which I fantasized about happening at sunset, so that the cars would only be a silhouette to viewers). I really did enjoy making this coaster and its decorum as a lover of dark, woody browns and lush greens. I am most proud of the queue and station for this ride, really taking the "abandoned sawmill" idea from Wet-N-Wild and polishing it into the somewhat believable territory. My only regret for this ride is that I didn't add more red flowers!
Despite living near Six Flags Magic Mountain, I still have not claimed by credit for Goliath. The namesake originates purely from my desire to use the sign somewhere in the design, because if you have eyes, the "Goliath" really is not that large. I find the track layout of Goliath to be somewhat confusing now. I chose the suspended swinging coaster because I wanted a somewhat "Harry Potter on a Broomstick" sort of feel, but I feel the amount of turns without any straight-aways really just turns this thing into a migraine machine. I enjoy the swinging by castle towers and the finale where you enter the castle and slam down the final turns, but I cannot stop thinking about how badly I'd probably gray-out on it. I accept that Goliath is not a perfect build, I really like the bones of what remains, the dual castles raised on terrain is really interesting. If I were to remake this, I would probably making it a duelling coaster, where riders take the role of knights representing each castle before engaging in a rivetting clash of swords! Given the current name it would be easy to name these sections "David" and "Goliath" but I will dig deeper for something more original... Twisty Towers as you might have guessed is the father of Twisted Timbers. I really wanted to accentuate the towers riders would wrap around. There ultimately is not much for me to talk about in regards to Twisty Towers, its just a more boring, less thematic version of its successor. It does not even contribute to a larger image such as how Two Time and Gold Rush Racers interlock with one another. It is a ride for the sake of a ride, to which is its biggest sin. Coasters are more than just something fun, they serve dual purpose, and by restricting it to only half of its being, it becomes nothing as a result; a soulless husk.
Taiga Flyer and Coldwind Calamity were both experiments to try and build roller coasters I would enjoy for their "natural" aspect, similar to Tatsu at Magic Mountain and how its less of a roller coaster and more of a flying experience through nature. Taiga Flyer is a pretty simple floorless roller coaster with an LEM launch, similar to Invertigo at King's Island, down to the pretzel loop. What I really wanted out of this ride however were sensations that you may not get on other coasters. I wanted the sensation of water droplets hitting my shoes as you rip across the small lake. I wanted upside down angles of the park you could only get from a specific coaster. I wanted just a tinge of cold alpine air that cuts when you soar. I wanted a fucked up pretzel loop that people would talk about way after getting off the ride. Taiga Flyer is less about flying like a bird and more as if we were given the superhuman ability to fly. I hope that my design choices somewhat reflect this. The theming is a little weak, but for a simple coaster like this, I don't think it needs much, just enough nature to satisfy the aforementioned sensations. The town that comes with Taiga Flyer is a very compacted idea of cold, Scandinavian alpine towns. Despite snow being limited in the area, the town is fitted with funnel cake and hot cocoa, tenets of cold environments. I wanted this place to be somewhat homey in the travelling sense; like a town that while you visit it for the first time, you imagine yourself living amongst the people. You find a lot just between two buildings that screams, "You could put your house right here." The nearby observation tower was meant to serve the human desire to see the bigger picture. I imagine going up the observation tower at night when the village's lights are all lit up and people enjoy a day-ending firework show from the hills as Taiga Flyer gets its last guests of the night through. These moments of surreal, non-reality are what I love most in designing these parks. Images that inspire me to close my eyes, imagine and smile.
On the other hand, Coldwind Calamity is just a good fucking wooden coaster. Hell yeah brother! We are riding through NATURE, bitch! I am a Maverick who Lassos Horses and eats Offal! Coldwind Calamity was just an experiment to see if I could create a naturalist environment with the pieces I had at my disposal, to which I think I did a damn good job! I love the look of the coaster and the track layout I'm pretty sure is a pre-set that comes with RCT2 so no complaints there. I think I would compare this coaster to the Beast at King's Island. Just a wooden coaster in nature that feels right. No other notes to give.
You all knew that I had to save the neck-breaking, pussy-poppin' Mount Doom as my final entry. Why is it called Mount Doom? Because Hill Hurt or Mound Ouch was not as cool, okay? Mount Doom is an absolute nightmare coaster that gets get little riders purely due to its intensity; which to be fair, I probably would be a little apprehensive to ride it too. Watching it run and hit speeds of 90mph on straight-aways is one of the greatest joys in this life. It does things that a coaster should not do, yet it does, unimpeded by any natural law or regulatory coaster body. I feel that Mount Doom is exactly what a coaster should be, frightening yet utterly invigorating. The few park guests that decide to ride Mount Doom almost always say its their favorite ride. It is not for the weak, but the brave hearted thoosies that don't mind a little brain damage. The straight away where it soars across the lake and wraps through forest is possibly one of my favorite parts of the design. It harkens back to Millenium Force and Orion, with their grandiose scale and unparalleled speed and height. The loop is just the cherry on top because at this speed, what more could you possibly want? I love Mount Doom, and you need to love it for it to love you back. The hill that you walk up to reach the station is a necessary labor, paying with your body in addition to price of admission. With a medical center situated right outside the exist, Mount Doom is tough love embodied as a steel titan. Envelope yourself in its chaos and you will walk away with a piece of it forever inside you.
Thanks for reading my blog post about roller coasters, I hope it provided you some insight or knowledge you'll carry with you in your next endevour. Until next time! Live and drink.