From RollerCoaster Tycoon to Planet Zoo | The Death & Return of Park Builders

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Timestamps: Intro - 0:00 The Past: Theme Park - 2:33 The Past: RollerCoaster Tycoon - 4:47 The Past: Zoo Tycoon - 11:23 The Past: Operation Genesis - 13:28 The Dark Ages - 18:17 The Present: Planet Coaster - 22:29 The Present: Jurassic World Evolution - 29:09 The Present: Planet Zoo - 37:26 The Future - 42:38 Conclusion - 46:37

[@ianjedi1282]

Another amazing video! Thank you Mr. Davis.

[@Penguinmanereikel]

Personally, I was a little disappointed when you skipped the Thrillville games. I loved those games as a kid. It wasn’t an overview-style park builder, but rather, you play as a character and go around the park in person. There was a whole bunch of stuff you could do. You could actually chat and flirt with the park guests, for instance. And there were a LOT of mini games. Along with custom rollercoasters, you could build race tracks and then play that actual race track in a minigame! Same situation with minigolf courses; plop down a pre-set or build one yourself. You could even take control of your workers and do a minigame to train them. Although, it was a LOT more limited than other park builders in terms of customizability. Sure, there were all kinds of special parts you could use when building racetracks and golf courses, but the main thing was that you could only build things in designated sections next to the path called “build zones.” You could build whatever you wanted in them, if you had space and power for it, but you could only build inside these areas. There’s no option to organize these build zones in any way either. Like, you can’t set paths in them or anything. They’re just open spaces that have self-contained attractions inside of them (the queue is set to border the game or ride’s space). You don’t even have options for decorations. All decorations and theming is pre-set. In fact, some decorations will disappear if you build attractions that intersect them. Although, midway through the first game, you get the ability to customize the paint job on your rides and games, which is nice. The parks also each had their own missions and stories. But even though the park’s themes and attractions are prebuilt, you unlock new parks with their own themes as you go through the game. In the first game, you had to complete missions to unlock the next park. In the second, you unlock them by earning “thrill points” which you get from missions or side activities. The final park, if I recall correctly, is the closest thing to a sandbox. Yes, it’s obviously still pre-themed, but there are no rides, games, stalls, etc. inside the park when you start. Stories tended on the comedic side, with a crazy uncle making your the park manager and making crazy theme park tech and having to compete with a rival company using underhanded tricks ranging from bug-sized spy bots to food poisoning to throwing their flyers into your park. I could go on, but I think you should take a look at the game. There’s a lot of interesting things that they do to make this game console-focused and the deviations from genre-norms it had make, like the whole third-person-camera-over-an-avatar thing. It wouldn’t hurt taking the time to check out all that game had to offer. Oh, and the tutorial is only at the very beginning of them game and it teaches you all the basics in all of the game’s mission types (building, games, guests, business, and park upkeep)

[@alternatehistorysports]

Have you tried the Theme Park game in Roblox? Pretty good

[@KynsonMitchell]

I'm surprised you didn't talk about Cities: Skylines at all. Since you talked about sim city, I thought it would come up

[@Punggles]

The crowd sound effects from Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 are still seared into my brain.

[@mokajones74]

Bumper cars!

[@BrotherNick1984]

The child shouting, what sounds like, "Coca-Cola!" will never be forgotten with me!

[@johnkimble2949]

I have the sound of the merry go round still ringing in my ears

[@Bacony_Cakes]

I have the RCT3 ones stuck in my skull.

[@scopicaplays]

@@Bacony_Cakes "YAY" "YEEHAW" "BLEEEEGH" "AAAAAAAAAAH"

[@kazaamjt1901]

Zoo tycoon 2 had what you were looking for, it has freeform parks were you can build whatever without set goals, but it scaled on how well regarded your park was. So as you got more stars you unlocked more ocntent.

[@aubreyh1930]

I honestly don’t think he played it recently if at all. There’s things he complimented in other games that were in zt2 but he didn’t mention it during the 2 seconds total that he talked about it. Zero footage from the game either

[@kazaamjt1901]

@@aubreyh1930 yeah. Damn shame, that game could've done with some more polish but it was pretty good none the less

[@fatnakedjimmyneutron]

Zoo Tycoon 2 isn't actually a very good game. In terms of a zoo builder it's super limited unless you download mods. The campaign is alright but in terms of management the first game is much better. Planet Zoo takes literally everything that was good about Zoo tycoon 1 and 2 and dials the creativity up to 11. It's an almost perfect game

[@samrexso5228]

@@fatnakedjimmyneutron I agree but u can't play it unless u have a powerful pc with a dedicated graphics card

[@DarkosaDarkRave]

@@samrexso5228 My pc is pretty mid and I can run it on highest graphics with 40-70 fps (mostly rain drops my fps which sometimes is annoying

[@eddiesantiago7971]

You should’ve covered ZT2 more. It was the definitive zoo game for such a long time!

[@zoenik4202]

Was thinking that too

[@gabbyb9418]

Everyone always skips ZT2. Everyone 😂 I spent hundreds if not like 1000 hours in that game as a kid. I still love it as it's own thing. I remember the absolute wonder playing it. I went to the OKC zoo almost every day when I was really young & the zoo was always a place we prioritized to when we travelled because I fucking love zoos lol. I still love the zoo. Go to oktoberfest, Halloween, Christmas lights, like any excuse to drink beer at the zoo with friends 😂 I've sank a ton of time into planet zoo now. When planet coaster came out I remember hoping, PRAYING, that they'd move on to a zoo tycoon spiritual successor and they did a fantastic job. There are some bugs (omfg just feed the damn animals keepers) and i still regularly forget animals just fuck their families so easily lmao. Im still so used to ZT2 where animals would be unhappy and would complain about not having mates, but they wouldn't go full incest mode 😂

[@eddiesantiago7971]

@@gabbyb9418 haha! Loved ZT2 my childhood favorite. Planet zoo is dope but I feel like the dlcs won’t live up to the huge expansions we used to get

[@zoenik4202]

@@gabbyb9418 omg same, I spend hundreds of hours in that game and it's still one of my favourite ones

[@tunod-]

Yoo thrillville was lit. All the minigames, being able to walk around your park, ride the coasters you built, the story mode, it was amazing

[@tacoman6697]

The Thrillville series is really underrated honestly, especially Thrillville: Off The Rails. The gameplay is quite different from the more beloved games in the genre, but Thrillville is still quite fun.

[@realsadegg7246]

I love Off the Rails! I really appreciate how immersive the gameplay is. :)

[@killerkitten7534]

Thrillville was my shit. One of the best PS2 games ever

[@Sims_it]

I also love Thrillville, but it's more of a collection of mini-games than it is an actual theme park builder. It's still loads of fun but I can't really put it in the same category as RCT

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

And when the world needed him most, he returned

[@jhill1776]

Did you get enough thumbs up/ attention?

[@sunnohh]

No, I think more random people need to call out how awesome their comment is. It’s truly one of the greatest comments of all time and I distrust your envy.

[@hanjizoe2648]

@@sunnohh Its a good Comment yes, but really? Calling it "the greatest comment ever". C'mon man. That line is used more then what the Avatar Movie did to represent the original show.

[@missitheachievementhuntres560]

What you maybe will like in Parkitect is that you’re supposed to hide all the maintainence. Visitors don’t want to see people who carrying boxes, that would break the immersion. So you build tunnels for your staff members.

[@OxtonSWA]

I love Parkitect for that very reason. I find it adds an extra layer to the game play

[@zacdavid184]

This is true in Planet Zoo, too, it's just missing haulers. Guests still don't like seeing infrastructure buildings.

[@benl2140]

Ahh, Zoo Tycoon 2. I remember getting dinosaurs, then deleting the fences and watching them devour the guests. Good times.

[@mistermirror4213]

Still do this in jurassic world evolution

[@Bacony_Cakes]

Zoo Tycoon 2 aged well.

[@Squishy_yhsiuqS]

Do any of you remember the old Zoo Tycoon 2 movie-maker fan films about like, zombie uprisings and dumb horror stories? I remember when I was real small, I loved those. They bring back a little nostalgia today.

[@lightningpiratedraws]

@@Squishy_yhsiuqS yessss, i made up my own stories and pretended to record them as i walked around in guest mode. i did all kinds of stuff on that game, i was really looking forward to him talking about it on this video 😪

[@sephikong8323]

Never forget how I would turn the park itself into an enclosure (where the door is blocked) and I would release everything at once and just see them squirming. 6 year old me was kinda sadistic now that I think about it

[@noahbell9432]

RTC3 was actually pretty good IMO. It had the same relaxing feeling as the first two and had some nice extra features like riding rollercoasters and building full waterparks.

[@James-9999]

Honestly so happy they making a comeback zoo tycoon was one of my favorite games as a kid, hoping the trend sticks and we get to see a new gen age of mythology

[@ryanlunzen9794]

The Studio that Made the 3 definitive Editions of AoE said they are Planning something with AoM but not a remake. So I guess we could get a new one :)))

[@James-9999]

@@ryanlunzen9794 damn if not a remake then age of mythology 2? Oh shit that be so hype

[@ryanlunzen9794]

@@James-9999 www.google.de/amp/s/www.gamestar.de/artikel/age-of-mythology-keine-definitive-edition,3361373.amp It's German but they gave an Interview.

[@fallenmango8420]

CHRIS DAVIS PARK SIMULATOR VIDEO 1 is a really great value!

[@PartyPinda87]

I still got ZooTycoon with the Dinosaur Digs and Marine pack somewhere on a cd. Love that game!

[@awkwardbear2765]

Once you get over your distaste for the visuals of Parkitect you will love it. It is the true successor to the roller coaster tycoon franchise. You will feel at home, you won't be battling a complex building system but you will still find you can make insanely intricate things with it. Easily my favourite out of the new batch!

[@idiotcow3721]

while i think that it was done pretty well in RCT3, I still don’t think we’ve seen any game that has tapped into the full potential of a water park management game. id really love to see it done one day

[@hornynator]

to be honest the roller coaster games actually have the sandbox feature you were asking about: just go into the scenario editor and create yourself your own big flat map with all buildings unlucked.. you can even customize which buildings get unlucked after time and in which order, how much money the guests have in their pocket, how much money you yourself got, the winning conditions and much more

[@aubreyh1930]

Can’t believe you didn’t talk about guest mode from zoo tycoon 2... being able to do all the work yourself and actually getting to be IN your park was (and still is) so cool. YOU EVEN SAID YOU THOUGHT IT WAS COOL. Also had what you wanted in a sandbox. You did that game so dirty

[@lucnoei]

Gotta give Megaquarium a shout out. It's my new go-to to get that same chill play experience as Zoo Tycoon but focused on running an aquarium. It also features the kind of sandbox mode you're looking for with gradual unlocks, the difficulty and variety of which can be customised, in addition to the more common sandbox mode where everything is available.

[@night0wl213]

Megaquarium is indeed fun. I play on switch, so I unfortunately can't do mods. I'm hoping the freshwater dlc releases on console eventually.

[@HueghMungus]

Hey you mentioned Zoo FRIGGING Tycoon!! One of my childhood games, so cool as a child just messing around in the park, I remember having dinosaurs running loose 😂😂🤣🤘

[@landonconway79]

I played the game my whole life almost. Now playing PZ. Trust me, we never become dead. Just silent. All that time when Zoo Tycoon became less and less popular, we modding the game into something it never was meant to be originally. I'm not modding PZ.

[@royvandermarel3953]

I feel that if you can look past the aesthetics, you would really enjoy Parkitect. It has taken RCT, improved the parts that could be improved (campaign, staff areas, stocking shops, scenery valuation by guests, coasterbuilding menu, etc) and took it to the next level. I was hesitant at first too. But maaaaan am I glad I gave it a try

[@sean-mriesterer3664]

Thrillville was soo good on the PlayStation 2 ! It was really cool how you could run around your park play all the mini games and design your own roller coasters.

[@xJuno]

i still fondly remember playing zoo tycoon after i got the disk for it from a magazine.. i spent hours playing that game even though disaster steuck often bc i didn't know what i was doing. i still have the disk around somewhere but i kinda doubt that it'll work that well on win10

[@1993JoshG]

haven't played rollercoaster tycoon in years. This is a hell of a trip down memory lane

[@veronicamendez1611]

Roller coaster tycoon 1 that gane is really good i love it and its so sad not be able to play it anymore because its a old game and cant find it now for new consoles

[@Icepick614]

I remember playing so much Operation Genesis. I would sometimes take a very successful park then delete the entrance and the fences and watch the dinos go crazy

[@playgenix1834]

I loved playing Skateboard Park Tycoon back when I was a kid. Building a skatepark and then getting to skate around the park was great. It felt like 2 games in 1.

[@kaleidoscopickait]

I’ve never played a park building/ tycoon game before, but I just wanted to say that I always enjoy your videos, and I’m so glad you’re still making them!

[@OfficerHHLI]

For the newer games I just really miss the old rtc style missions. Where they give you a park in varying sizes, mountains, vegetation and water with corresponding challenges. Where you have to unlock certain things during play (research) and not everything is always available. It's either full sandbox on a stretched plane; or place this or that ride/habitat over there.

[@fuzzbucket9440]

I had all of the Rollercoaster and Zoo Tycoon games back in the day. Loved them and now I’m currently playing Planet Zoo.

[@aspacelex]

When you got videos like Chris Davis in them, you can't lose!

[@optimusprime-i5h]

zoo tycoon 1 will always have a place in my heart and i will always return to it

[@Foojaleeckalikeelamaka]

I know it's not really the topic of your video but thank you SO MUCH for mentioning Little Big Adventure. My father bought it for me in France for the PS1 when I was real young so the whole game was in French, I had no clue what to do. Lost the game shortly afterwards as well so this game has been in the back of my mind for literally decades, occasionally surfacing at 3am when I should be sleeping to say "Hey, I wonder what that game was called and what it was about". Thank you for giving me the opportunity to actually find out!

[@jeroenvanodijk5243]

Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo have such a dedicated and talented community which are still very active.

[@paleo-bites-podcast]

The Jurassic World Evolution bit drove me crazy as you kept saying you wanted a sandbox mode that let you unlock things as you went along that's a intermediary between sandbox and the campaign, and you didn't seem to realize that it has that! It's called challenge mode, and it's the reason why I have over 2,000 hours clocked on that game, haha. Loved the rest of the video, though.

[@jase_allen]

I think Theme Park was great for it's time. It's biggest limitation was the technology available when it was written. It lacked customization, yeah. But it also ran on a DOS based 386 PC with all of 2 MB of RAM. We see RTC 1 as so much better because the technology had advanced so much since Theme Park was written.

[@lynareantoinette]

I am new to Planet Coaster and loving it! It has taken me about 100 hours of gameplay and countless KZbin time to learn beautiful park building. I didn’t think I would ever get it!

[@benhogan7036]

Wow, Sim Theme Park!! I forgot about that one. Spent nearly every day playing it after school. I fondly remember that ant or whatever it was.

[@nicklager1666]

I agree wholeheartedly on that vomit sound effect i had it with me for some time aswell.

[@JCdragon7]

I loved Zoo Tycoon! I had both of the expansion packs as well, and me and my sister would spend hours playing and occasionally setting the dinos on guests. Planet Zoo looks pretty great, and Prehistoric Kingdom won me over as soon as I heard Nigel Marvin in the trailer. Great video!

[@tovbyte]

God, I was worried after your last video. But I’m glad that you’re back!

[@Ikcatcher]

You can literally talk about the history of bread and I would listen

[@MinnieMansonDIY]

You’ve reminded me to play Zoo Tycoon as a break from playing The Sims 4. Thank you 🙏🏻

[@Krutamuzyka]

I really loved Jurassic World Evolution lol I spent *a lot* of time playing while furloughed last year!

[@fireball111121]

The amount of time I spent in Zoo Tycoon 2 was insane! I'm so happy for Planet Zoo and just how insane you can get with the detail

[@melindaroos968]

I played RCT for the first time in 2005 and I still love it to this day! Never completed more than three of the missions and always built my own park on the first map. It's still fun to this day. Planet coaster is a bit too complex for me, I like Planet Zoo way more because I think its easier to get started. Planet coaster is very unforgiving with money, I'm always bankrupt when I play

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

You didn't mention Parkitect, which is really a continuation of the gameplay from the first two Rollercoaster Tycoon games. Planet Coaster is more different. Parkitect is still 3D and has many new features just like Planet Coaster, but it's more tiled like RCT. Which might seem limiting, but it's mostly a return to familiarity, and that's a good thing.

[@Jojo.F87]

So I've played every RCT game that's come out, and had all the ZT games and their expansions when they came out. I may or may not be a bit of a fanatic. Just to add some (late) information regarding the games you stated you did not play yourself: RCT3 was pretty great for its time. I still have it and play it regularly, and one of my favorite things about the game was the amount of creativity you could indulge in. Create your own peep groups. Build your own rides, of course, but now you can ride them yourself. You can enhance them with fireworks shows and insane scenery and a boatload of other amazing things to truly build the park of your dreams. I absolutely adore this game. I've also picked up RCT Classic in my desire to relive the old days, and oh gosh. It really is great. Still runs well, feels very much the same as the original game with an updated HUD. There's a scenario editor and a ride builder where you can just go nuts. I've been putting a lot of hours into it lately and I'm about halfway done with the scenarios. Time-consuming is a very apt description of this game lol, but my job is extremely boring and I can afford to switch my attention between two computers throughout the day :)

[@Mokkatomic]

Transport Tycoon was my jam. Still have that soundtrack imprinted on my brain. OpenTTD launched on Steam recently, played a bit of it and tried figuring out the train signals I couldn't understand as a kid

[@zoenik4202]

I'm a bit sad that you didn't touch on zoo tycoon 2, because this game is nothing like the first one and that I mean in a good way. It's so good, that it has a moder community from which people made extinct animal models that where shown in museums (speaking of Hendrix)

[@zoenik4202]

Also the game wildlifepark 2

[@julienmoisy5203]

I started playing pc game in 87, and i really like your dive into the history of pc gaming. I don't think anybody is doing that, and even if i have somewhat of an extensive culture, you manage to make me discover olds games that i didn't know about. So thank you for your work

[@riotbreaker3506]

There's nothing like a childhood growing up with park builders, all the Zoo Tycoon games, JPOG, JWE, they all itch a very specific scratch, now I'm just waiting for PK

[@cdherrington]

what is PK? Edit: Nevermind. Just heard him say Prehistoric Kingdom in the video.

[@riotbreaker3506]

@@cdherrington Prehistoric Kingdom, akin to Planet Zoo with dinosaurs

[@XavierGrim]

Sim Cities was a great game for me to never understand. I don't think I ever even knew that water and electricity were things I needed to manage. Oh the halcyon days of my dumb, dumb youth.

[@matthewbeale5098]

ZT1 was my childhood, having that and the DLC's on disk it was what I always used to play and it still holds up so well today.

[@howlzuzuglanz5460]

I wish they would sell zoo tycoon again. I cant seem to find it for under $100

[@Draconicrose]

One thing I loved in RC was that you go online and download pre-made coasters that other people built!

[@shaunflaherty1985]

You can actually view as a guest in viewing galleries in jurassic world evolution. They patched that in years ago

[@plok742]

One of the better tycoon game analysis videos, hopefully the algorithm picks it up a bit better, deserves more attention

[@MrMagdalore]

Do you think the rise of games like Farmville or Simpson TappedOut could have been the 'Diablo' of Theme Park Builders?

[@bigboybastard7162]

Nah those were more sim city than theme park sim.

[@eddas5175]

Parkitect sandbox mode you can choose what kind of unlocks you get from the start, and you can generate the map they way you like before starting the park itself. Highly recommended, thank you for the video!

[@DieterPrivate]

I loved building coasters in Rollercoaster Tycoon! What a time. I also would still play these on PC, but have to get one now. Moved to consoles.

[@BlueMagicite]

Jesus, thanks for making a vid at least linking crpgs and theme park sims together in terms of how they would trend and decline. Was always a weird but fun thing to string the two genres together when I was younger.

[@badtriceratops1867]

For using advance moving, press “m” to put it back to normal movement, also the habitat wouldn’t place because it’s on a path. An easier pathing method is “align to grid”

[@mugiwaramatt]

Great video as always! I'm downloading Planet Coaster off of Game Pass right now, loved Roller Coaster Tycoon as a kid and I never even knew we had a full blown spiritual successor.

[@pottertheavenger1363]

I got my hands on Planet Zoo and it was so overwhelming at first, specially coming out from ZT2, but after a few tutorials and 2 or 3 exhibits I got the hang of it. One thing I'd like is having a streamlined mode, like even something as simple as having the fencing automatically snap to a certain distance to the paths, or even sculping the path's corners like in ZT2, would be a relief for more casual players. Both Planets are not super intuitive when it comes to paths and object placement.

[@WaddleDee105]

Great video, Chris. Theme park builders are a genre I've always been interested in but never took the chance on. I played the game @4:40 when I was 10 and remember having fun until I'd inevitably go into bankruptcy at the start of the 3rd park. I should really give Planet Coaster a shot, even if it looks insanely intimidating. I find real life theme parks to be fascinating due to the strong theming and simple yet intricate layouts.

[@KirasNote22]

One you missed: I highly recommend trying Megaquarium. It has a sandbox mode that allows you to select what level of things you want unlocked from the start, difficulty, etc.

[@MattInmanReviews]

Recently started messing around with Planet Coaster on my PS4 and man have I missed out on a trove of games that would’ve been right up my alley. Can’t wait to get my hands on Planet Zoo as well.

[@zacharybecker8228]

for planet zoo i wish that u could have an option to have everything grid based like how zoo tycoon 2 was

[@aaronpaine1053]

Zoo Tycoon 2 had what it called 'challenge mode'. This was basically everything in the game unlocked to the player, but hidden behind zoo rating. The zoo rating was a system the game used to measure a park's success. Animal variety, guest enjoyment, theme design, and many more factors were taken into this calculation, and the player given a .5 - 5 star zoo, in half star increments. Each half star would unlock more buildings, equipment, and animal species, the most iconic (think T Rex or pandas) are 5 star animals. The challenge mode also allowed you to set an amount of money to start with. As a younger child, I would set it insanely high, so I didn't have to worry about money, just fame. Now, I like to play with less money at the start to make it more difficult. In these ways, Zoo Tycoon 2 does an excellent job creating a 'sandbox' experience that gears the player towards goals and giving rewards without keeping everything behind campaign locks.

[@Varraz]

Great Documentary, you earned yourself a new subscriber! You should really try out Parkitect, i also didn't like the visual style but now it is my favorite game of all time :)

[@MalonzeProductionsGaming]

i closed off my park in zoo tycoon 2 and turned it into a wildlife sacutary. letting them run all over in a wild jungle i made lol. and in zoo tycoon 1 ultimate, i would wait till i had a ton of people. close off the exit and let the T rex out lol

[@felixcatnapping]

the tycoon game 1&2 aged like a fine wine

[@1911odisea]

The Dinosaur expansion for Zoo Tycoon 1 is great! It blew my 8 year old mind.

[@oliviertilanus]

Fantastic video. I knew a bit about Tycoon drama and lore and was afraid that this would be just the same info I already knew, that wasn't the case. This video excellened at every topic.

[@Ksweetpea]

Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2 are my jam! I have the CD's kicking around. Dad still plays Rollercoaster tycoon on the regular

[@SupaWaluigi]

Great video, incredibly informative, wonderfully put together. I too have a nostalgic view of Rollercoaster Tycoon mostly, and still play it today, to the extent that now I do have Planet Coaster sitting in my game library, but it's incredibly daunting knowing how much customisation is possible, and how much learning is needed to make anything remotely good!

[@megazenn22]

"I want to see the angry youtube videos people would inevitably make, just because the wrong type of grass was used or something" Uh, actually grass and non-avian dinosaurs never co-existed! ... oh, im the angry youtuber 😹

[@nordichistorian6719]

Uh, actually, recent research indicate that grass may have evolved a few million years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, meaning there is an overlap. But you're right for the most part: Grass did not exist during the majority of the Mesozoic era - it bugged me as well :) *Angry noises*

[@megazenn22]

@@nordichistorian6719 haha, rad! :)

[@RJA]

I never played RCT3 either even though I owned it as a kid... All because the family computers graphics weren't good enough to run the game at all.

[@DeluxeDeath]

Same ! own physical copies of all 3 but the blocky groups of families was more than jarring

[@robstevens4296]

Zoo Tycoon is the greatest game of all time

[@NeverduskX]

Thrillville Off the Rails was my first (and only) park builder until I tried Planet Coaster. While it wasn't a perfect game, Thrillville did a lot of cool things. Being able to run around my park, play minigames, and socialize with park guests really made that game special to me, and I still revisit it sometimes years later. While Planet Coaster is a great successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon, I'd really like it if Frontier returned to the more grounded and personal Thrillville experience one day, even if they have to create a new IP to do it.

[@Invincibility87]

God I spent so many hours with RCT. Such a amazing childhood memory!

[@sladebeefknuckle8615]

You were right about the learning curve in Planet Zoo. The tutorials left me more confused, if anything.

[@the_elder_gamer]

I like the change of pace. Watching this made me think of a much more ambitious series for you though, Total War. I'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts as you play through the entire series chronologically, especially if you don't have much/any experience with them. Regardless, I appreciate your efforts here and look forward to whatever you tackle next.

[@connerslone1450]

I played the original Thrillville a lot growing up (and a bit of the 2nd) and it was pretty fun. A lot of it was mini game based and wasn’t really a park building sim. Still enjoyable to my young brain lol

[@duckysyn]

I'm so happy I came across this video because I remember playing operation genesis as a kid and I played it all the time. I forgot what it was called but the game used to scare me whenever it started raining

[@NavnikBHSilver]

Planet Coaster is amazing, but to me it feels cumbersome, where I find myself spending hours just making a small food plaza to look appealing to any degree. I prefer the more arcady approach of RCT2. Even Parkitect which I feel is the best reimagining of RCT 1 and 2 somehow feels... urging you to carefully design things for rating and appearance.

[@mathiash.1379]

1) I started out with Theme Park aswell, way back in the early to mid 90's. Good times! 2) Wow, your summary of Operation Genesis sounds almost to the letter like how i feel about Jusrassic World Evolution

[@karilaksa]

i loved playing thrillville: off the rails on my ps2 and later the wii as a kid and went back and played it again as an adult and it's still fun, but definitely a game that was marketed/made for teenagers specifically as opposed to the other games on the list which imo hold strong appeal for people of any age group. still enjoy the original zoo tycoon now as much as i did then

[@alimatorstudios2692]

I played a lot of roller coaster tycoon 3 (my personal favorite of the franchise) and zoo tycoon 2 back in early 2000 but I’ve been playing the planet coaster and zoo and I’m loving them

[@carljim2274]

Oh I can talk a bit about thrillville off the rails. There is no free mode in terms of building a park. It's basically 6 or 7 theme parks with 3 unique zones within. You can only build in designated stall zones or coaster zones. you can change the colors or icons on the stalls but that's about it for those. The coaster builder is pretty great. The best part of it is definitely the character. There's an in universe radio station that plays music and adverts for the arcades you can place. The maps are actually very nicely designed and fun to look at. It's a great first builder game to then move onto roller coaster tycoon with.

[@Carbabydoll]

So glad Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Complete went to Switch.

[@jh8320]

Sim ant was the best!!!!!! Thank you! My friend and I made up our own board game using a chess set based on Sim Ant.

[@SPRidley]

The genre dissapeared after RCT3 in 2004, not RCT2 and Operation Genesis. RCT3 had a really healthy and big community, apart from being a huge multiple million seller and was the actual (with its 2 big ass expansions that prolongated its life) the last bastion of the genre, until Atari didnt want to pay Frontier more to continue making theme park games. I know you say in the video that even if it was popular you didnt play it for various reasons, but then your part about the death of the genre, the timeline is completely wrong becuase you personally never experienced it (I think most of the problem of your mind thinking the RCT series phase was in the late 90's, when the first game released in 2000, so as you can see, theres a well packed life from RCT1 to RTC2 to RCT3 and expansions of a few lively years there) Also Theme Park is a good game, you are just trying to equate it to a game released various years after that obviously would be a an upgrade of the original Bullfrog idea, thats why it reviewed well, because it WAS a good game. Good video otherwise.

[@michaelmfmills]

I completely forgot about Themepark World. This video just gave me sooo many flashbacks.

[@seedubhuntx]

I remember being hooked on a Nintendo DS park builder when I was younger

[@christianrashotte1605]

Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 and 2 were the only games I played as a kid. Those and Golf Resort Tycoon and Ski Resort Tycoon. Good times.

[@frtzkng]

A few notes on the early RCT games: a) RCT2 still has a large fanbase and an open-source reverse-engineered version called OpenRCT2, which not only integrates RCT1 maps and mechanics if you wish, but also recently got rid of hard-coded limits from the assembly language era. Mod support is also much easier now. People are continuing to work on OpenRCT2 and add new coasters, sometimes with official support from coaster manufacturers such as RMC for their hybrid and single-rail coasters that took off in the 2010s. However, Chris Sawyer doesn't seem to be too fond of OpenRCT2 and basically calls it a copyright violation. b) RCT3 also has a smaller but equally dedicated fanbase, mainly thanks to the game being very easy to mod. It also has a special niche with its fireworks display simulator, which was really advanced for its time (and still is). c) RCT1 hat a really well designed learning curve. The first few parks are simple and introduce new concepts step by step. Same with RCT3 (although RCT3's research mechanics _s u c k_ ). RCT2 has a very bumpy learning curve, because the scenarios are only categorized into 3 difficulties and then sorted alphabetically. Also many coasters in the RCT2 expansions were really only different trains but cluttered up the menu; something that's fortunately fixed in OpenRCT2. Meanwhile, PC and PZ do not have any concept of a learning curve: building coasters is somewhat intuitive, but working with the scenery assets is like being put in front of a brick wall, and then be told "here are some nails and wood, you'll eventually figure out how to make a ladder".

[@blackout295]

This is just about the last thing id've ever expected Chris to review

[@antshield]

I played Sim Ant as a Kid a lot. Yellow Ant is such a compelling character.

[@jaws8621]

This is great. Hope it gets the views it deserves