Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

[Columbus coasternut]

I bought my copy on tuesday when it came out and let me tell you it's very addicitive and hard to walk away from.

[PKIDelirium]

How about an option for "I haven't gotten time to buy it yet"

[Tanner]

I bought my copy on tuesday when it came out and let me tell you it's very addicitive and hard to walk away from.

I'm sure it is addicting, considering they released in un-finished game. I'll be waiting until I hear it has been fixed before I go buy it.

[FamousLastWords]

What was unfinished about it? The only thing I thought was bad about it was the horrendous loading times. They can range from 20 seconds to 3 minutes.

[HabloRM]

I'm going to wait a little bit when the price drops down. I was at Best Buy the other day and it was 39.95! So I'm definitly waiting.

[Tanner]

What was unfinished about it? The only thing I thought was bad about it was the horrendous loading times. They can range from 20 seconds to 3 minutes.

Take a look at Coasterbuzz.

[FamousLastWords]

What I found on Coasterbuzz: A lot of people whining about the demo, for what reasons I cannot tell. Some people said it is worse that RCT2 and an embarrassment to the franchise. What are they smoking? How is this game bad? I think they are just having trouble getting used to all of the differences in style and gameplay. Overall, it's the same game, just with better detail, 10,000 more possible camera angles, the ability to ride what you make, more rides, more variety in the guests, the ability to make your own ride soundtracks, and one more type of park employee. I've had the game for a week now, and I am still finding more fun surprises every day. 10 out of 10 from me.

[Tanner]

Well now with the patch it is supposedly better. I've never seen a water ride not be slowed down by the water, make steel coaster sounds, and run like a roller coaster.

Update 1a BETA Contents:

UPDATE 1a BETA contains the following changes and improvements

NEW GUEST LIST (PEEP THOUGHTS) WINDOW - A Guest List (peeps’ thoughts) window is present in UPDATE 1a BETA and accessed by clicking on the ‘Guests’ button located at the bottom of the Park Management buttons. The window allows you to click on an icon to select either a view of all the individuals in the park or a summarized list. You may also display either peep status or thoughts, and control whether the information is presented in ascending or descending order. The window lists only thoughts that are relevant to game-play. Additionally, the appearance of the Attractions Management dialog box has been updated in UPDATE 1a BETA. In the retail release of the game, feedback on how various areas of your park are performing or being rated by the peeps is provided via the Attractions Management dialog box – use the icons at the top of the dialog box to switch between Rides, Shops and Facilities. Then, from the dropdown menu below the icons, you may select what information the list displays, such as Status, Popularity, Satisfaction, Weekly Profit, Queue Length, Queue Time, Reliability, Down-Time, Guest’s Favorite. You can use the small arrow at the top of the list to select whether the list is displayed in descending or ascending order.

QUEUE PATH ARRANGEMENT - In the retail release of the game, if there are two or more queues whose entrances connect to the same grid square, peeps will only go down the first queue they see, so only one of the rides connected to the grid square will get any traffic. In UPDATE 1a BETA this is fixed so if there are two or more queues whose entrances are connected to the same tile, people will make an informed decision as to which ride to queue for rather than going down the first queue they see.

PEEP AWARENESS AND MAPS - Depending on the layout of your park, peeps may not know your rides are there. By selling maps you can make all those peeps who buy maps aware of all the rides in the park. Otherwise, as in a real park, peeps will only know about the rides in their immediate vicinity. UPDATE 1a BETA increases the "awareness distance" over which peeps who don’t have maps will be aware of rides.

PEEPS AND RIDES - UPDATE 1a BETA permits peeps to revisit rides that they enjoyed before going on other rides, increases the chances individual guests are more likely to go on rides, and causes very-high-intensity rides to be less attractive to peeps.

BLOCK BRAKE IMPROVEMENTS - UPDATE 1a BETA changes the function of block brakes so that, in the case of a clear track ahead, the brakes section slows down the train to the specified speed and permits it continue.

COASTER RATING WILD FLUCTUATIONS - In the retail release of the game, coaster ratings can fluctuate wildly especially those with multiple trains. These problems are fixed in UPDATE 1a BETA.

EMPLOYEES NOW STAY IN ASSIGNED AREAS - In UPDATE 1a BETA, in most cases, employees stay in their assigned areas even if they have nothing to do.

POWERED LAUNCH - UPDATE 1a BETA adds powered launch modes to the following coaster types:

Compact Inverted Coaster

Inverted Vertical Shuttle

Lay Down Coaster

Inverted Shuttle

Floorless Coaster

Flying Coaster

Hyper Twister

Stand Up Twister

Vertical Drop Coaster

Inverted Coaster

Giga Coaster

Heartline Coaster

Inverted Hairpin Coaster

Wildmouse

Spinning Wildmouse

Inverted Wildmouse

Junior Coaster

Mini Coaster

Spiral Coaster

Mini Suspended Flying Coaster

Multi Dimensional Coaster

Suspended Swinging Coaster

Standup Coaster

Mine Train

Pipeline Coaster

FLICKERING LIGHTS - UPDATE 1a BETA reduces flickering lights by causing cars to switch off their lights when approaching a loading station, and adding lights to loading stations.

MAXIMUM HEIGHTS - In UPDATE 1a BETA, track rides’ maximum heights have been increased by 50% and coasters’ maximum heights have been increased by 20% (except Air Powered, Reverse Freefall, and Strata Coaster). In addition, a cheat is present in both the retail release of the game and UPDATE 1a BETA, whereby renaming any peep John Wardley removes all height restrictions.

FLIPPING CARS - In the retail release of the game, if a Floorless coaster is built with a particular track piece (flat diagonal chain) the car flips upside down; the offending piece has been fixed and is included in UPDATE 1a BETA.

GENTLE RIDES TICKET PRICES - In the retail release of the game, gentle rides had to have a low price set to get peeps on the rides making it difficult to earn a significant profit. In UPDATE 1a BETA these rides have been made more attractive to peeps so that the rides are more likely to generate good profits.

RIDES, SHOPS AND FACILITATES BREAKDOWN FREQUENCY - UPDATE 1a BETA contains code which greatly reduces the frequency of rides, shops and facilities breaking down compared to those of the retail release of the game. Note - The update does not affect saved games; items already placed in a level may need to break down once before the new rate takes effect.

NUMBER OF COASTER CARS - UPDATE 1a BETA ensures car trains are not allowed to be longer than a tilt section or thrill lift on the appropriate coaster, and removes the too-restrictive limit on the maximum number of cars per train for the following coaster cars:

Buffalo Stampede Coaster car

Floorless Coaster car

Giga Coaster car

Scarab car

Standup Twister car

Biplane Car

Bobsleigh Car

Bowie Knife Car

Bullet Coaster Car

Cannon Coaster Car

Flying Turns Bobsleigh Car

Ghoster Coaster Car

Inverse Impulse Car

Inverted Wild Mouse Car

Junior Ladybird Car

Junior Log Car

LIM Coaster Car

Looping Car

Looping Snake Coaster Car

Maggot Coaster Car

Min Coaster Rocket Car

Mini Coaster Toboggan Car

Retro Monorail Car

Shooting Star Car

Side Friction Car

Twister Coaster Car

Water Coaster Car

Wild Mine Mouse Car

Wild Mouse Car

Wooden Wild Mouse Car

REDUCED FREQUENCY OF PEEP COMPLAINTS FOR QUEUE TIMES - UPDATE 1a BETA contains code which increases the amount of time before peeps start complaining about queue times.

LITTER - In UPDATE 1a BETA, peeps drop litter less frequently compared to the retail release of the game.

WATER RIDES SOUND EFFECTS - In the retail release of the game, water rides have the sound effects for a steel coaster, with no water sounds. This has been fixed in UPDATE 1a BETA.

GO KARTS SOUND EFFECTS - In the retail release of game, the Go Karts sound very loud. This is fixed in UPDATE 1a BETA.

FREQUENCY OF MOST DISAPPOINTING PENALTY - In the retail release of the game, the “Most Disappointing” fine can appear frequently. The threshold at which this fine kicks in has been modified and the frequency of the fine has been reduced in UPDATE 1a BETA.

BENCHES - UPDATE 1a BETA contains code which reduces the frequency of wooden benches being vandalized compared to that of the retail release of the game, and increases the rate at which guests regain energy after having sat on benches.

SCENERY VISIBILITY TOGGLE CAUSES SOME GRAPHICS TO SHIFT - In the retail release of the game, if you use the Scenery Visibility toggle, trees and rides can be seen shifting all over the screen. This was a bug due to graphical matrix palettes not being set correctly in some circumstances. UPDATE 1a BETA fixes this problem.

COMPATIBILITY - UPDATE 1a BETA addresses a number of compatibility issues which could cause instability in the retail release of the game on some systems . Ensure you have up-to-date device drivers that are known to be good and update the game. (See the FAQ section "Why does my game suffer from frame-rate slowdown / lags, graphical glitches, crashes?" for a complete discussion on the topic of known-good drivers on http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/rct3/faq.html)

COASTER CAR STALLS - UPDATE 1a BETA fixes splashboats car rolling back at top of lift hill and log flume stopping on some flat track pieces. Additionally it contains a new ‘cheat’ – renaming any peep "Andrew Thomas" decreases track friction, which can help when importing some RCT1 or 2 coasters into RCT3.

QUEUE LINE MALFUNCTIONS AFTER TERRAIN EDITING - In UPDATE 1a BETA editing the terrain occupied by queues is no longer allowed.

FIREWORKS TUTORIAL - In UPDATE 1a BETA, while playing the tutorial, if you double click on firework markers, the colors modifier window no longer appears.

MAPS - UPDATE 1a BETA ensures that all scenery items are colored correctly on maps.

TERRAIN RESIZIING - UPDATE 1a BETA fixes a bug in the retail release of the game which can cause corruption when terrain is re-sized.

FRONT SCREEN MENU - UPDATE 1a BETA fixes front screen menu glitch in the retail game which occurs after a change of screen resolution.

PEEP VIEWPORT - In UPDATE 1a BETA, intermittent bright lines from the peep viewport are eliminated.

RIDE MUSIC - in UPDATE 1a BETA ride music is synchronised when rides share the same track.

PINCERS - In UPDATE 1a BETA the peep pincer grips staff in the correct place.

COASTERCAM - UPDATE 1a BETA fixes a graphical glitch that occurs in the retail version when you pause the game and then enter CoasterCam.

WINDOWS ME - UPDATE 1a BETA contains a bug-fix for a misaligned mouse cursor in WindowsME after a screen settings change.

ATTRACTION NAMING - In UPDATE 1a BETA, new attractions are named in sequence from "Attraction 1" instead of "Attraction 01"

CLOSING TIME - UPDATE 1a BETA allows park closing time to be set to 24:00.

SAVED GAMES - In UPDATE 1a BETA the day-of-month is stored and displayed in saved games, and the game doesn’t reset vendor uniform colours when loading levels.

PARK INSPECTOR - In UPDATE 1a BETA the Park Inspector no longer has a number after his name.

RIDE OPERATION PANEL - In UPDATE 1a BETA the Ride Operation Panel has been re-arranged to ensure the speed spinner doesn't overlap

WATER FLOW VISUALS - In UPDATE 1a BETA water flow visuals on coasters have been improved.

REVOLUTION - In UPDATE 1a BETA the animation loop on Revolution ride has been fixed.

UNICODE - In UPDATE 1a BETA Avatar families names can contain UNICODE characters.

OPTIMIZATION - UPDATE 1a BETA contains improved performance while rendering some fences.

AUTO-CONFIG - In UPDATE 1a BETA an auto-config button has been added to the graphics settings panel (to allow a ‘reset to factory values’ of graphical parameters), and the auto-config function chooses 1024x768 instead of 800x600 for High Quality.

LOCALIZATION - UPDATE 1a BETA allows for localized names for carried items, ride cars and has improved localized date-time formatting.

STAFF QUIT MESSAGE - UPDATE 1a BETA adds a message that is displayed when a staff member quits.

HAPPINIESS - In UPDATE 1a BETA, guests become unhappy when they feel sick, and staff become unhappy when they are bored.

THOUGHT ICONS – In UPDATE 1a BETA, clipping for peep thought icons is fixed.

RAINING - In UPDATE 1a BETA, some rides are flagged as under-cover so they can be used when raining, and a rain weather effect is added.

CAR CRASHES - In UPDATE 1a BETA, if a car crashes, the connected link cars also crash.

VERSION NUMBER - UPDATE 1a BETA displays the executable version number in the program info dialog

Now does that seem like a complete game to you?

[FamousLastWords]

So these were improvements to the prototype?

[BoddaH1994]

I doubt they'll ever release the "complete" game. Sounds like you're stuck buying the retail version and downloading the patches.

[Tanner]

These were not patches they fixed to the demo. These all needed to be released after the game was put on the shelves.

[HabloRM]

I just got my copy couple days ago and it's awesome!

[familyman]

Hopefully I will get a copy for Xmas. Are there any rides on the game that look like PKI rides?

[flightoffear1996]

THis game is over rated because you need a really powerfull computer to even get a big decent sized park. Atari really messed this one up and my copy will be getting list on ebay very soon.

[fyrfyter]

THis game is over rated because you need a really powerfull computer to even get a big decent sized park. Atari really messed this one up and my copy will be getting list on ebay very soon.

Actually, thats not quite right. If you really know your way around a computer and adjust the program accroding to your computer, it will run just fine on any machine, including a laptop with say 32 megs of video ram.

[flightoffear1996]

Acually I have the game on the lowest settings. I don't know but it just doesn't appeal to me. Im listing it on ebay BIN for 35 free shipping 20 with 5 shipping.

[BoddaH1994]

Mine won't play because I don't have a video card. Any way around that?

[PKI Punk]

I have the same problem, it keeps telling to run a debug. But then it will not let me. Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks.

[flightoffear1996]

I have the same problem, it keeps telling to run a debug.  But then it will not let me.  Any help would be MUCH appreciated.  Thanks.

I give you some help. Sell it like me LOL This game is way to buggy to even begin. And I point the finger at Atari for pushing the developers to make the realease date.

Well if anyone wants to buy it under retail and new condtion here it is

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5735078630&rd=1

[familyman]

Thats too bad everyone is having problems with it. I was really looking forward to playing it.

[King Bowser]

Yeah I cant afford this right now with Christmas coming up but I am going to go with Zoo Tycoon 2 because I keep hearing bad things about RCT3!

[BoddaH1994]

Yeah I cant afford this right now with Christmas coming up but I am going to go with Zoo Tycoon 2 because I keep hearing bad things about RCT3!

Since RCT3 isn't working on my machine, I have rediscovered RCT2 instead. My thing to do is to create a thriving park and then shut down rides, raise prices to unbelievable leves and then cut paths at exits so it'll end up with two or three squares with 1000 people on them. If you build a guarenteed-to-fail raide (as in, a launched freefall that's too short) and put the entrance and make it wait for a load, it blows up with people on it. The funny part is, I cut the path to the exit to the park, so everyone is trapped in, but when the people get blown up, then number of patrons in the park remains the same. Kind of odd.

I had a park rating of zero after about an hour of running it into the ground. I was hoping that the safety commission would shut it down or something, but I suppose not.

[flightoffear1996]

LOL that is fuuny. I love the peep abuse in that game.

[The-Snapper]

I want to buy it. Is it better than RCT2?

[pkifreak]

I think RTC3 is great!!! The graphics are really good, and you can make familys, and make people walk in groups. All you can do with RTC2 is build it and watch them ride it. You also can personalize your own people.

[fyrfyter]

Make sure you get the most recent patches for the game from the website. I am running it on a Dell Latitude D600 with a 1.8 GHz centrino, and 32 Mb ATI Mobility 9000 Card. You could try reading through some of the fan sites for the game, and try doing a search on google. They helped me out, with dumping my prefs file for the game, so I could get it to make a few graphics related changes.

[Alien Seed]

The one thing about the game I don't like, at least, I experience this abnormality, is that when you build a certain amount of things in your park, if you zoom out everything disappears and becomes a shadow on the landscape. This is kind of a problem with the graphics me thinks.