Looks like there may be a rollercoaster tycoon 4 after all.

Atari(:() has put something out about a 4th rollercoaster tycoon game.

http://forums.atari.com/showpost.php?p=130120&postcount=1

It ask's what you would like to see in the 4th game.

I need to head over and reply.

Make it way more like 2 and a lot less like 3.

And have Chris sawyer(sp) design it.

No kidding. Performance issues aside (which got better years later when computers were faster), the game sucked because they basically threw out a pretty well balanced rule engine from the original Chris Sawyer games.

I wonder what exactly this means though, and what the contract looks like with Sawyer. He couldn't have been happy with the game, but likely made an assload of cash anyway. That almost never happens anymore in the gaming industry, where one guy can clean up like that.

As far as RCT3 goes, I think they made a great tool (once computers caught up) for making a theme park on your computer.

But it sucked as a game.

I think it was still quite flawed for even that purpose compared to RCT2.

Lots of little things that don't seem like much (lining up a wall/fence on the edge of the same sqaure a path tile occupies comes to mind), but when added up made it inferior.

Perhaps it got better as time went on with updates and community-created stuff, but they lost me long before that.

I was apesh*t for RCT1 and 2, but got RCT3 as a Christmas present and never installed it. I read and saw enough that I didn't want the frustration. Every once and a while, I'll still load up RCT2 and try a scenario. It's still a fun game.

Gonch, the community has really taken the game over, and 'fixed' pretty much everything within reason, but it took, what, 5 or 6 years? Now there are custom rides and trains and even coasters with custom parts that weren't available. Some is crap, but a lot is good. But again, it took YEARS.

And all that the stupid fanboys on the board seem to be worried about is more theming and stupid stuff.

I would like to see them 'fix' it, and for the ones that are so bent on theming (and they do some amazing looking stuff), then allow the ability like RCT3 to import custom scenery.

I just recently got back into RCT3 myself, now that I have a computer that can run it well enough.

RCT 2 may have had the better platform, but version 3 really has some nice 'ooh-ah' add-ons that I wouldn't mind seeing kept in the next edition. Things like on-ride cameras, fireworks shows, stuff like that.

As much as the graphics engine didn't perform well, at the time, it was somewhat interesting. Like i said, I took the most issue with changes away from the rules that made it a balanced, fun and beatable game.

Once the Sandbox came along, I never left it again...

I still think the sandbox was pretty flawed...at least compared to how it worked in RCT2.

The 'oooh-ahh' stuff, unfortunately, seemed like the foucs of the game - which is fine. But it was a huge departure from RCT 1 & 2 which were ridiculous fun and fine as they were.

I've said it a million times, but all they had to do was convert RCT2 to a 3D environment and they'd have had a blockbuster on their hands. I think they listened to too many wishlists and lost sight of what made those first games 'work' - perhaps a RCT4 would finally hit the mark on all aspects?

See, folks, that's why I'm always telling people asking for new features here, "No!" :)

RCT 3 is what happens when a company designs a product by committee, which listened to the customer way too much, not the programmers and then couldn't decide which features to keep and which to toss so they kept them all-they cannot say no. There was also, most likely, an impossible deadline, little QA testing and a focus on stupid stuff rather than what was important, like performance. Make it pretty and shiny and people won't care how well it works. Kind of like a certain company designs its smartphones...form over function.

Have it be Compatible with No Limits.... That would make everyone happy

No, it wouldn't. That "game" is for a completely different audience. If you want to run No Limits coasters, use No Limits.

I don't even consider NL a 'game', I think it's a sim builder. It would be far to complicated to get the 2 together, and not worth it IMO.

I wish they would go back to RCT2 as far as gameplay goes. Make it a fun challenge.

As far as coasters and rides, they can always add more and I'll be happy.

Knowing it's coming from Atari doesn't give me much confidence in the game being any good. They never test their software very good; rushing most of their games to production and relying on patches to fix problems. They also rely on "gamers" to be buying their games; going for games that require expensive gaming rigs to play.

One of the best things about RCT2 other than the actual game play was that you could pretty much install it on any computer and you were good to go. It was a game that the masses could play and enjoy.

If I were to have a "wishlist" for this game, it would be the following:

• Bring back the game play of RCT2. If you can improve on it but keep the balance, do it, but start with the basic engine from RCT2 for game play.
• Redo the building engine for the game and make it more similar to the Sims. What I mean is, be able to build walls and such for buildings and to add features to those walls. The Sims does not render each individual wall block separately. The biggest problem with RCT3 was that it rendered each individual block separately, causing the graphics processor to work overtime. When you can render things like walls as one giant chunk that sames on some of the processing horsepower.
• Smooth out the turns on the coasters. Yeah, this isn't NoLimits, but when riding coasters in RCT3 it looked pretty painful with some transitions. Probably not practical while keeping it easy to build a coaster, but hey, it's a pipe dream.

I hope the new version will be a lot like rct2.

There were a few things that bugged me a little about RTC2.

1. Not enough flat rides. Not even a Tilt-a-whirl or a Wave swinger type of ride. I know, there may have been sites where you could down load them from users... but something like should be packaged with the game. Also, no "modern" gondola ferriswheel.

2. No kiddie rides

3. No generic shops... all had to have those goofy looking facades... Giant hot dog, a giant soda can, etc.

4. Peeps were still not that smart. Even though you could have double paths, they had a tendancy to stack up and get stuck at some points depending on the layout of the path.

5. All exits and entrances had to be a little building. Why not just a generic "open" square for the entrance.

Other than those things, I liked two much better than 3.