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Comment by bbx | Hacker News Reader

For all RCT2 fans here: check out RCT Classic on iOS [1] and Android [2]. It's fantastic.

I thought the size of the device would be an issue, but I've been playing on an iPhone SE with surprisingly great ease! The tap zones are small but very well defined, so you almost never mis-tap. And the game is I believe bug-free because it has never crashed!

The only real tricky part is designing underground paths and building rides with an excitement rating above 6.0! But that's always been tricky…

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rollercoaster-tycoon-classic...

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.atari.mobi...

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This is the perfect example of IAP done right and wrong.

RCT classic. Full game for around £5. IAP options for the add-on packs £1.99-£5.99. No other IAP anywhere in the app. No adds. IAP done right.

RCT 4 mobile. Free to play. Ad's. IAP £0.61-£93.99. IAP done wrong.

Hell will freeze over before I play RCT 4 mobile. Seriously £93.99 on IAP. I haven't downloaded it, but I'm assuming this is the fairly standard "coin pack" sort of pattern where everything you do in game costs coins.

Problem is that RCT4 actually looks cool. I'd quite like to play it with the updated graphics and mobile friendly interface if the play mechanics were roughly similar to the original. They have just destroyed a once great game.

I also suspect that unfortunately, I bet RCT 4 is more profitable. So companies are going to continue to do it.

Also, the terrible reputation that IAP has means I regularly don't bother with apps because they say 'contains IAP' which makes it far harder for those who want to do it right as people will just immediately ignore the app because of the label. What we need is for the stores to have some way of indicating or listing the number and type of IAP options available before you buy the app.

RCT 4 Mobile is nothing like the original games. It's simply one of your standard current-day mobile games with the Roller Coaster Tycoon label slapped on it. Go with Classic.

Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic was developed by Chris Sawyer, who did the first two games, and then left the games industry for decades, partially because of a disgust with the shift towards violence[0][1]. So in a way, Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic is the first "canon" Roller Coaster Tycoon sequel after the first two games.

Also, the first game was almost completely written in assembly[2]. I don't think one can pull that off without having some really high coding standards, so I'm not surprised that the game runs really well!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RollerCoaster_Tycoon_Classic (note that it also has just been released on Microsoft Windows and macOS on September 28)

[1] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-03-a-big-interview...

[2] http://www.chrissawyergames.com/faq3.htm

I kindof wish he’d release the source code

I mean... given it's already assembly it should be easier than normal to reverse-engineer it, no? Or do you think there's lots of nasty low-level hacks in there that will be harder to decipher?

The assembly code might well have been created with lots of macros.

I've tried disassembling the version of RCT 1 that's on Steam, and the program starts by, IIRC, decrypting the other parts of the executable before jumping into it.

Steam uses DRM, does it not? So it could be that, and in that case, perhaps the GOG version gives better results, since they claim to be DRM free.

https://www.gog.com/game/rollercoaster_tycoon_deluxe

As far as I know, the version on Steam is the same as what came on the discs with the only modifications being some patches for compatibility. There were also no references to Steam's DRM anywhere

Hi, OpenRCT2 dev here.

FYI: OpenRCT2 has support to consume RCT Classic assets as its base. Also, RCT Classic is available on Steam too (Windows and macOS only, though).

RCT on Steam has mixed reviews, mostly related to not supporting better graphics. Interestingly, quite a few reviews on RCT on Steam point to OpenRCT2 as a better solution for your RCT fun!

Not having purchased the Steam version, I don't have an opinion on it personally.

I had RTC2: Triple Thrill Pack installed from GoG via Wine on Mac. Experience was mildly annoying mostly because of graphics. Now OpenRTC2 works wonderfully well. Thank you so much! I'll definitely recommend it.

I love the product you work on.

Partially hijacking your comment to say that an easy way to get the original assets in openrct 2 is to install the gog version through wine or play on Linux. Have played it a bit too much to say the least...

If you use gog, there's innoextract for that, so no need for wine or x86 at all.

That's just plain old awesome. Thanks for this!

Whenever I see IAP on paid apps I'm almost instantly turned off.

Do you know what sort of nature they are? Is the game complete without them? Do they nag about the IAP in game?

Looks like expansion packs. From the Google Play page: "PLEASE NOTE: Additional content for RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is available via In-App Purchase, specifically the three expansion packs: Wacky Worlds, Time Twister and Toolkit. The expansion packs are the ONLY content that require an In-App Purchase and In-App Purchases are not used anywhere else in the game."

Actually, the toolkit as an IAP really pissed me off. That's the best way to design coasters.

It's a shame because the game uses IAP for a good reason.

But I don't blame you for being reticent, I am too.

I didn’t realise there were any! I just checked: it’s 3 expansion packs with I assume more rides and campaigns.

The game already comes with 95 campaigns that you have to unlock gradually. They’re quite varied in terms of style and goals. I’ve completed 17 so far. I bought the game last December, so I still have lots of content to play with…

I have the game on both iOS and Android - and the only paid purchases in it are the expansion packs, the game never ever asks you to buy them, but if you do it unlocks the content of the expansion packs, so exactly like with the original game. They are the best IAP I have seen so far.

That's great thanks. I enjoyed replaying Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 on the ipad.

What I really want next is Pharoah.

Wow, Pharaoh. That’s a while ago. Pharaoh’s gameplay deserves a modern, deeper treatment. Badly. That pathing and routing mechanic was really fun to optimize and figure out, and jived oddly well with programming. I easily invested hundreds of hours into it, and really wished you could scale the cities up further.

The Westwood alumni showed up last time there was a thread about them so Impressions alumni, if you’re reading, thanks for a great series of games (Caesar too). Kickstarter!

I worked on Pharaoh and a few other games at Impressions, though I wasn’t one of the original Caesar I, II, and III team (or Lords of Magic, etc.). Nevertheless, we keep in touch though a Facebook group. Many remain in game development. My understanding is that the Pharaoh IP is in a quagmire. I think that’s part of the reason that Tilted Mill made Children of the Nile as a separate property. Children of the Nile really was the spiritual successor to Pharaoh. The chance of Impressions alumni resurrecting any games together is slim because of the different directions we’ve gone and the chain of IP ownership issues with Sierra, Vivendi, etc. I’d love to see Pharaoh and the Caesar games on mobile devices, though!

Children of the Nile on GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/children_of_the_nile_complete?pp=fe...

That's awesome. Pharaoh and Caesar III were some of my favourite games as a kid. Never thought I'd bump into someone who worked at Impression.

Ah wow, I just want to let you know Pharaoh is easily one of my favorite games of all time, it's a genre of games I love and a period of history i'm fascinated by, thank you for making it. I'd also sunk hundreds of hours in to it in my youth, would love to play it again!

I actually grabbed my old Pharao CD two weeks ago and installed it. It still works, and it's still fun!

Same! I went and got the updated version from GOG though, it does bigger screen resolutions and works well under WINE. Danger, though, three days disappeared in the blink of an eye!

I'm glad they finally delivered this. When they first announced RCT mobile everyone was hyped until it came out and was just another build and wait style game. Hoping simcity gets the same treatment (they had an old one but it doesn't really work on new devices and crashed a lot).

Well there are two RCT mobile games. This one, is fantastic. There is another one with more “modern” graphics that is a grinding piece of junk. It has tons of micro transactions and you have to wait forever on everything.

Yeah that's what I was referring to. Was really unfair to fans since their initial marketing made it look like a fresh new game. What a shame. Even the "coaster builder" is awful. Not even sure why they bothered.

And there went my night. Thanks! Better than I imagined this could be done.

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