User Guide

The Scenarios
As soon as you click the Start New Game button, you’re on your way–but you’re not inside the
park yet. RollerCoaster Tycoon includes quite a number of park scenarios. What you see is the
Scenario Selection window.
The name of each available scenario is listed in black letters.
(Those you cannot yet reach are greyed out.) Take a look at the
list, and pass the mouse pointer over each name, pausing long
enough for the Tips box to pop up. This gives you some
information about the situation in the park. When you know
which scenario you want to enter, just click on the name. (If
you change your mind and want to go back to the four buttons,
use the Close Window button in the upper right corner.)
When you have completed a scenario, your success and your score are noted along with the
name in the selection window. After you have succeeded at a few of the early scenarios, you can
move on to attempt more advanced (and more difficult) scenarios.
THE RIDES
It goes without saying that the main attractions in any park are the rides themselves. Scenery
and gardens, shops and stalls, and everything else are necessary to keep guests happy while
they’re in the park, but the rides are the reason they come. Variety is the keyword in building
rides in your park. After all, would you visit a park that had fifteen Merry-Go-Rounds and nothing
else? Probably not.
The entire procedure for constructing a new ride is covered in great detail in the tutorial. Briefly,
let’s review the necessary steps:
Click the New Ride
button to open the
Ride Selection window.
• Using the tabs, choose a type of ride.
• Select the specific ride by clicking the picture, then click the Build This button.
• Determine the location and direction of the ride, then build it. (For some rides, this is a very
simple process; for others, like custom designed roller coasters, it can take some time.)
• Place the Entrance and Exit for the ride.
• Create a queuing line to attach the Entrance to a path, and make sure that the Exit is
connected to a path.
• Test the ride, set an admission price, give the ride a name, and determine its colours and
other operating characteristics.
• Open the ride.
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Removing Rides
After you’ve built an attraction, you can choose to demolish it (using the Construction button
in the Ride window). When you do so with a newly built ride or shop, you normally get a full
refund of the cost of building.
However, once you’ve opened the ride (or shop) and your guests have begun patronising it,
you can no longer recoup your entire investment. If you demolish a “used” attraction, your
refund is considerably less.
The rides are organised into several types, and each type includes many different rides. (Some
of these are not available for construction until your research staff have come up with a safe
design.) Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, and each appeals to a certain type of park
guest–its specific target audience. What draws a person to a ride depends on the proclivities of
that person. Some guests want an intense, thrilling, gut-wrenching experience, while others want
to relax and watch the scenery go by. Often, the decisions whether to visit a ride is driven by
price considerations. Even the distance between rides can matter; a guest who is tired from
walking is less likely to want to do anything, but if your rides are too close together, the park
might seem crowded. There are many things to think about when deciding what type of ride to
build.
Transport Rides
These are the mildest of the mild. (In fact, in some people’s eyes, they’re
not rides at all.) Transport rides carry guests along a fixed track through
scenic areas, and they provide a low-thrill experience suitable for even the
most squeamish guests. They also act as an alternative to walking. Any
transport ride can have multiple stations, and guests use the ride to travel
from one station to the other–and from one area of the park to another.
When you build a transport ride, it’s always a custom design. (Please refer to the Building a
Custom Ride section for the details on constructing one of these.) Make sure to read the
specifications of the ride in the Ride Selection window before you begin construction. For
example, some transport rides (like trains) run in only one direction and must travel a circuit,
while others (like a monorail) can move back and forth on a single line of track.
Design Tips
• A transport ride is a great way to ferry guests to and from a newly opened area of the park
to which you want to draw interest. As an added benefit, you can charge them to get there!
• Don’t be too ambitious too soon. A giant transport network connecting the entire park will
be expensive to build. Build it in sections, and let the completed sections run while you
save up funds to build the next one and, eventually, connect them all.
• Transport rides with covered cars are popular when it’s raining.
Mild Rides
Low-thrill attractions are the bread and butter
of travelling carnivals, but in a park like yours,
they often play second fiddle to the giant roller
coasters. That doesn’t mean you won’t see a
profit from these. Many guests have little
tolerance for intense rides, and prefer
something more calm.
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