The following is an extremely long review of the many "coaster" games I've played, as well as the recent discovery of the coolest coaster sim I've found to date:
Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated with roller coaster. They actually scared the crap out of me, and I didn't go on any looping ones, but they were fun to watch.
Now I'm older, and I love coasters...even looping ones
Some of my favorites I've been on are located at Six Flags Magic Mountain (otherwise known as Wally World from National Lampoon's Summer Vacation) in Southern California. I especially like Viper, Batman the Ride, and Riddler's Revenge. And who can forget the Revolution?
I've wantd to build my own coaster for some time. I've often thought about the tiny model kits you can buy to construct ehm, but I don't think it would be the same. What I really wanted to a realistic roller coaster simulation. I started my search and came up with a few games and software packages.
Last year I came across Hasbro's RollerCoaster Tycoon, and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It's more of a game, granted, but it still gave the ability to create roller coasters and watch them run their course. It was more of a game than a simulator really, and I found myself searching for cheat codes to unlock ALL of the rides. See, I wasn't really interested in playing the game itself, I was more interested in building coasters and playing with them instead.
Unfortunately the coaster building wasn't all that custom though. You could pick from a list of turns, drops, loops, and corkscrews, but you couldn't alter them in any way. It was more of a "cookie cutter" coaster. I wanted more control...I wanted to make BIGGER loops, tighter angled turns, and steeper drops. RollerCoaster Tycoon couldn't deliver that kind of intensity though. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I wasted many, MANY hours, but it just wasn't "ultimate" enough for me. And it lacked the one thing I really wanted; the ability to RIDE the coasters!
I would like to note that RollerCoaster Tycoon had a major strength too, which was its ability to create different TYPES of coasters. steel looping, classic woodies, suspended, and stand up coasters were just a few out of the many types you could create. That kept it very interesting!
Then came my next toy, brought to me from the makers of Sim City, The Sims, etc...it was titled Sim Theme Park. Like RollerCoaster Tycoon, it was a game, and I resorted to cheat codes once more to get right down to the coaster creation.
This one though, unlike RollerCoaster Tycoon, didn't have a cookie cutter menu, you could really customize the track to your like? You say you want to make that turn tighter? Well, now you can! Oh, and you'd like to add a smoother corkscrew? No problem! The coaster creation allows you to add points to the track, and rotate, turn, and angle each one. This allows you to create a point up high in the sky, and then another one straight ahead, but closer to the ground. By doing this you've created a drop! Add another point and take it off to the left side to make a left turn. It's all easy, and can be mastered fairly quickly.
But the clincher was the ability to RIDE the coasters that you built! You could even walk around the park and ride any other small rides as well! It was more of an interactive environment on a whole, which helped the illusion. Some of the graphics needed some work, but on a while it was really really cool.
It also introduced me to something I hadn't thought of, online amusement parks. You could ride other people's coasters and see how they built their park up. It was super cool! But not many people really utulized that featured, there were only two or three people in a park at a time. But it showed that there was hope, and better yet, some sort of interest in coaster simulation.
Last month I was at work, bored as all hell (was one of 5 people in the entire building that usually holds two thousand) so I went ahead and surfed around. That's when I came across Reactor Software's Ultra Coaster.
I played the demo that you download from their site, and then wound up purchasing the software within 20 minutes or so.
Reactor Software is a great company. I used to run their Ultra Fireworks screen saver after seeing it on 3DFiles.Com. And it looks like their legacy continued with Ultra Coaster!
This is no game, this is a true roller coaster simulator. There are no goal, no points, and no restrictions. It exists solely to assist you in creating coasters...you are limited by your imagination alone! The graphics are meant for 3D accelerated cards (I use the 32MB TNT2 Ultra, upgrading to the 64MB GeForce2 Ultra very soon), and it looks great! It's a little simple looking, but the coasters keep you so dang entertained that you really don't notice at all! And the editior that comes with it is great as well!
You can download a BUNCH of coasters from Ultra Coaster Central for HOURS of riding, and the program also doubles as a screen saver! So you can download, or create your own coasters, and then let them be your screen saver! You can also sit and wait the coaster, or you can sit ON the coaster and ride, in ANY seat on the caoster!
I found the holy grail this past weekend though! Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce No Limits by Ole Lange. This is it, it has almost EVERYTHING you could expect and WANT from a coaster simulator (minus network support to visit online coasters with everyone else). It's got beautiful graphics, multiple coaster types, and the editor will kick ass! I say it WILL kick ass because it's not yet available. But you can download a demo version from his site (it contains the Revolution from Magic Mountain, my first ever looping roller coaster experience!) and check it out. The lighting is beautiful and the sounds are great as well. Depending on the card you have you'll experience what a roller coaster simulator SHOULD look like.
I anxiously await the release of this software package, and cannot wait to see it! Unfortunately the system requirements are sort of high, so I'm not sure how many people will be utilizing this program.
This has EVERYTHING that Ultra Coaster has, but includes MORE features! You can change seats, cars, and even trains. You can run 3 cars on the track at a time, so if you can time it right you could build something resembling a single track version of Dueling Dragons, with its near collision loops.
Don't take my word for it though, download the demo and check out all of its great features!
This has been a long winded review as reported by Joey6P!
Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated with roller coaster. They actually scared the crap out of me, and I didn't go on any looping ones, but they were fun to watch.
Now I'm older, and I love coasters...even looping ones
Some of my favorites I've been on are located at Six Flags Magic Mountain (otherwise known as Wally World from National Lampoon's Summer Vacation) in Southern California. I especially like Viper, Batman the Ride, and Riddler's Revenge. And who can forget the Revolution?I've wantd to build my own coaster for some time. I've often thought about the tiny model kits you can buy to construct ehm, but I don't think it would be the same. What I really wanted to a realistic roller coaster simulation. I started my search and came up with a few games and software packages.
Last year I came across Hasbro's RollerCoaster Tycoon, and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It's more of a game, granted, but it still gave the ability to create roller coasters and watch them run their course. It was more of a game than a simulator really, and I found myself searching for cheat codes to unlock ALL of the rides. See, I wasn't really interested in playing the game itself, I was more interested in building coasters and playing with them instead.
Unfortunately the coaster building wasn't all that custom though. You could pick from a list of turns, drops, loops, and corkscrews, but you couldn't alter them in any way. It was more of a "cookie cutter" coaster. I wanted more control...I wanted to make BIGGER loops, tighter angled turns, and steeper drops. RollerCoaster Tycoon couldn't deliver that kind of intensity though. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I wasted many, MANY hours, but it just wasn't "ultimate" enough for me. And it lacked the one thing I really wanted; the ability to RIDE the coasters!
I would like to note that RollerCoaster Tycoon had a major strength too, which was its ability to create different TYPES of coasters. steel looping, classic woodies, suspended, and stand up coasters were just a few out of the many types you could create. That kept it very interesting!
Then came my next toy, brought to me from the makers of Sim City, The Sims, etc...it was titled Sim Theme Park. Like RollerCoaster Tycoon, it was a game, and I resorted to cheat codes once more to get right down to the coaster creation.
This one though, unlike RollerCoaster Tycoon, didn't have a cookie cutter menu, you could really customize the track to your like? You say you want to make that turn tighter? Well, now you can! Oh, and you'd like to add a smoother corkscrew? No problem! The coaster creation allows you to add points to the track, and rotate, turn, and angle each one. This allows you to create a point up high in the sky, and then another one straight ahead, but closer to the ground. By doing this you've created a drop! Add another point and take it off to the left side to make a left turn. It's all easy, and can be mastered fairly quickly.
But the clincher was the ability to RIDE the coasters that you built! You could even walk around the park and ride any other small rides as well! It was more of an interactive environment on a whole, which helped the illusion. Some of the graphics needed some work, but on a while it was really really cool.
It also introduced me to something I hadn't thought of, online amusement parks. You could ride other people's coasters and see how they built their park up. It was super cool! But not many people really utulized that featured, there were only two or three people in a park at a time. But it showed that there was hope, and better yet, some sort of interest in coaster simulation.
Last month I was at work, bored as all hell (was one of 5 people in the entire building that usually holds two thousand) so I went ahead and surfed around. That's when I came across Reactor Software's Ultra Coaster.
I played the demo that you download from their site, and then wound up purchasing the software within 20 minutes or so.
Reactor Software is a great company. I used to run their Ultra Fireworks screen saver after seeing it on 3DFiles.Com. And it looks like their legacy continued with Ultra Coaster!
This is no game, this is a true roller coaster simulator. There are no goal, no points, and no restrictions. It exists solely to assist you in creating coasters...you are limited by your imagination alone! The graphics are meant for 3D accelerated cards (I use the 32MB TNT2 Ultra, upgrading to the 64MB GeForce2 Ultra very soon), and it looks great! It's a little simple looking, but the coasters keep you so dang entertained that you really don't notice at all! And the editior that comes with it is great as well!
You can download a BUNCH of coasters from Ultra Coaster Central for HOURS of riding, and the program also doubles as a screen saver! So you can download, or create your own coasters, and then let them be your screen saver! You can also sit and wait the coaster, or you can sit ON the coaster and ride, in ANY seat on the caoster!
I found the holy grail this past weekend though! Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce No Limits by Ole Lange. This is it, it has almost EVERYTHING you could expect and WANT from a coaster simulator (minus network support to visit online coasters with everyone else). It's got beautiful graphics, multiple coaster types, and the editor will kick ass! I say it WILL kick ass because it's not yet available. But you can download a demo version from his site (it contains the Revolution from Magic Mountain, my first ever looping roller coaster experience!) and check it out. The lighting is beautiful and the sounds are great as well. Depending on the card you have you'll experience what a roller coaster simulator SHOULD look like.
I anxiously await the release of this software package, and cannot wait to see it! Unfortunately the system requirements are sort of high, so I'm not sure how many people will be utilizing this program.
This has EVERYTHING that Ultra Coaster has, but includes MORE features! You can change seats, cars, and even trains. You can run 3 cars on the track at a time, so if you can time it right you could build something resembling a single track version of Dueling Dragons, with its near collision loops.
Don't take my word for it though, download the demo and check out all of its great features!
This has been a long winded review as reported by Joey6P!
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