Real-world rollercoaster designers and the game’s creator, Chris Sawyer, reflect on the impact of the primitive-looking theme park sim that became a late 90s icon
‘An infinite toolbox of fun’ … RollerCoaster Tycoon.remember I would rush home from school just to play RollerCoaster Tycoon,” recalls John Burton, a senior creative lead at Merlin Entertainments and the man designing the forthcoming 236ft drop Hyperia rollercoaster at Thorpe Park. “I would then go to sleep dreaming I could become the next Walt Disney.”
“For years and years, I remember being the only woman working on rollercoaster projects,” says Candy Holland, executive creative director at Legoland resorts and an industry stalwart who helped design the world’s first vertical drop rollercoaster, Oblivion, at Alton Towers. “But when RollerCoaster Tycoon came out, we suddenly had a surge of young women applying for jobs.
From the tranquil Leafy Lake to the more exhilarating Haunted Harbour and Diamond Heights, each of the game’s 21 scenarios was about finding quick solutions to dilemmas and creating a theme park capable of giving pixelated punters the times of their lives. “The game’s success really kept the Atari business going,” admits Atari’s CEO, Wade Rosen.
‘One of very few games which is almost completely positive – you’re rewarded for good design rather than destroying things’ … Chris Sawyer.“From an early age I’ve always enjoyed building things with Lego, often trains or mechanical machines, but always with that freedom to do things your own way and to try things out to see what works.
Huge sales aside, Sawyer said he knew RollerCoaster Tycoon had made an impact on the world when he visited a theme park in the US in the early 2000s. “I remember seeing a whole series of food stalls in a small theme park which looked just like RollerCoaster Tycoon
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