Chris Sawyer's programming skills was equal to that of John Carmack, it's insanity. That's not to mention how insanely optimized and timeless this game both in terms of running on pretty much any machine configuration and the communities it created that're still around today. It was also so universally available, you could get it in a cereal box back in the day. That's how I got my copy, and I still possess it to this day.
Lol I got it in a cereal box too, I remember making crappy parks where people would fly to their deaths or ram right into the people waiting in line to get on this one way roller coaster. Kinda fun thinking back at it.
@@Lybrel I also got my copy from a Scholastics Book Fair in Elementary School, I also got my copies of Zeus and Pharaoh there as well. God bless the human being who decided to market those there and set me on the path to experience Golden Age RTS gaming.
A verified channel actually posting a genuine comment and not a comment intended to drive traffic to their channel! Wow! Babe, wake up! I found that comment you wanted to see!
"Roller Coaster Tycoon was developed, almost entirely in assembly" Having delved into assembly once for a programming class, this sentence utterly amazes me lmao. Sawyer is a madman to make a game that good in _assembly._
I'd recommend checking out Exanima, it's another game mostly written in assembly (and object pascal), in an entirely custom engine. Because of this, It can run at 60+ fps at 4K *with* supersampling on a low end GPU, while looking (imo) better than something like Baldur's Gate 3.
Retro game programming is crazy. Retro Game Mechanics explained has a good video on how in order to draw graphics to the right place on the screen for the Atari 2600, they had to _count CPU cycles of each instruction_ so the graphics were drawn at the correct time based on the position of the scanning CRT electron beam.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 remains to this day (thanks to OpenRCT2) the best theme park simulator ever created. Planet Coaster may have better scenery options, but in my opinion RCT2 is still a better theme park simulator overall.
Hey man!! Big fan!! You encouraged me to start a Rollercoaster Tycoon playthrough on my channel!! Though I do prefer Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, I do agree that OpenRCT2 is a nice add on for it, and RCT2 is a lot of fun in it's own right! I can't wait to get to that part of the playthrough!!
I never get tired of watching videos about RCT and learning how brilliant Chris Sawyer is. The fact that me made $30M off RCT1 alone makes me happy. Well deserved.
It's pretty funny how RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was seen as "finally taking RCT into the modern age" when it first came out. But now, 20 years later, it's graphics and gameplay are old and dated. Meanwhile, 1 and 2 (especially 2, thanks to OpenRCT) look and play as great as ever, thanks to how timeless isometric games can be.
It's top shelf 2D vs bottom of the barrel 3D. Back then people thought that 3D is always better than 2D since it's more technologically advanced, but with time, people realised that both 2D and 3D are different artforms with different merits.
Well, it did. With its 3D graphics and ability to ride the ride. It was followed by a series of 3D theme park games with Planet Coaster as the latest and greatest rendition of the genre. Perhaps none of those games would exist today if RCT 3 didn't step up the game, however outdated it may look from today's point of view.
You don't talk about RCT3 that way! But in all seriousness it's still a solid game IMO. It's artistic design has aged the 3D element pretty well and it has a huge sandbox to build amazing parks with
"Realism" in old games really does not age well. One of my favorite examples is Okami on the PlayStation 2, the developers originally wanted the game to have a realistic (for the time) style, but the console wasn't powerful enough for what they wanted. Instead, they went for an eastern japanese art style, Sumi-ê, which made the graphics unique, charming, and absolutely timeless. The modern re-releases look just as great as the original does on the PS2, to this day.
Something I feel you should have addressed more is that RCT’s success as “a family game” was crucial. How many of you bought games as a kid and couldn’t play them because you only had your parent’s crummy desktop that they used to check email? I can remember getting flight simulator for Christmas and never played it after my first time because it ran like hot garbage on the gray Dell dinosaur everyone I knew owned. RCT never had those issues because it was so bare bones. RCT was magic on a CD and came to you in a cereal box or at the book fair. What parent looked at it and told you no? Your video is still excellent. This is why I throw you a dollar every month, knowing you’ll deliver.
A solid point. Our home PC was weak and outdated even at the time RCT came out. Even Jazz Jackrabbit 2 didn't run properly, but RCT? Smooth as butter. My hyper-protective parents wouldn't let me have Doom or Starcraft, but building a theme park? No problem! Years later, I still hear that carousel music and the simple loop of chattering crowds. It's a comforting feeling.
I was so excited to get RCT3, but on Christmas morning it wouldn't even boot. I didn't know what a graphics card was, but I knew I wouldn't actually get to play the game.
The other part of RCT being a family game was that at least in our family, all of us ended up playing it and loving it! I’ve never personally been a fan of roller coasters, but I asked for and got it as a Christmas gift. It was great, then my sister started and eventually my mom. It’s one of a very few games we as a family all got into, which speaks to how good and accessible the design is.
My dad regularly bought games home from the discount bin but they rarely worked on our hand me down PCs. As in they wouldn't even launch. He didn't know what a graphics card was. But I'm convinced RCT could run just fine on a cheese grater. Many hours spent on that game and I can't recall it ever slowing down.
Its crazy to think that in 2 decades bedroom coders still aren't completely dead Among us, balaatro, lethal company stardew valley, etc were all virtually made from 1-4 people and have found more success than some triple A games
Kind of mixed on this. Modern game engines do a lot nowadays that you had to do from scratch back then, which dilutes the technical credit away from a scrappy team to a different probably larger team, but also probably made it possible for those types of games to be made in the first place.
The fact that this was all done in assembly still amazes me. It's like building an entire car with only hand tools because you used to build horse-drawn carriages and "how different could that really be, right?" xD
this is the first assembly metaphor that actually clicks for a non-programmer (I only ever mess around with mapping and variable changes). He's like an old detroit car factory assembler who looks at power tools n goes "nah, see, once you switch to power tools you can't dial in how many rotations each screw gets. M80s get 57 rotations, N26s get 127 rotations..."
You have to understand how incredible it is that RollerCoaster Tycoon was written in Assembly. It is a single step above pure machine language, and anyone who wants to keep their sanity would write in C, which is substantially quicker and ultimately translates to the same Assembly Code. The only advantage is that in pure Assembly you can meticulously control where memory is stored, which is how games that would absolutely not be able to be run on the tiny amount of ram in a 90s PC by today’s standards were able to have so much going on and run so flawlessly. (AI people walking around, multiple rollercoasters moving to physics) For us Software Developers, Rollercoaster Tycoon is like putting a man on the moon in a tin box. It’s a modern marvel and one of the greatest achievements of gaming kind.
Its not that incredible. All games on pretty much every console up until n64 era were developed in assembly code for the given CPU they used with that system. The only difference here is that it was unusual to program in assembly for PCs as many higher level languages existed at the point of RCT1's development.
The main advantage over C was that he knew assembly better. To quote the man himself: "I’ve also always preferred low-level assembler programming and can write machine code faster and more reliably than any high level language"
That's actually super interesting. Very overlooked part of games but often very unique. I imagine there's more than enough out there to go through videos like this many times over
A wonderful tribute to my first ever PC game! I remember gleefully calling my mom into my room to show her my Rollercoaster, my laptop so big my tiny arms could barely handle it, so it always remained on a desk plugged up. I showed her the park, the people, everyone buying snacks and waving at the cute panda mascots walking around my park. Then I showed her my latest coaster, and we followed the cars as it turned and twisted, climbed and fell! The cheers of the people echoed by my mom's delight. Then the cars flew clear off the tracks, sailing high into the air, and CRASHED into a fireball of horrors! The screams of joy replaced by wails of agony and terror! And my mom Burst Out Laughing, and together we could barely speak as we laughed ourselves to tears! Me and her have always had a sick sense of humor! Thank you for all the memories Chris Sawyer!
There is something oddly satisfying about power-launching a max-length train at the highest possible speed through some high number (from your own view, at least) of loops and twists before it departs at the end of the track and arcs smoothly into a perfectly placed "lake" to explode into fireballs on the surface of the water.
The fact that OpenTTD and OpenRCT exists can describe how impactful this man was, a genius. I was surprised to see the old games were smooth, most of old PC games suck because they're a choppy mess.
Learning that Locomotion is one of Ahoy's favorite games brings me such joy! I played RCT2 and Locomotion when I was little and I cherish those memories. I feel like you would make a great video on Indie games as a whole, starting with Cave Story (or earlier depending on how you define an "indie" game) and ending at what we have nowadays. Great content as always!
The funny thing is how isometric games are back in vogue. We've stopped thinking of them as looking dated. And thus, a lot of the old classics have gone from "dated" to "aging beautifully."
Some people are getting tired of realistic visuals and the expensive and power hungry tech needed to achieve those visuals. Nostalgia is also a factor.
At the time, isometric graphics were a necessary result of hardware limitations. So as the limits went away, not moving to true 3D was seen in an unfavorable light. We see these graphics in a more positive light nowadays because we only see them as a deliberate choice, with none of the baggage of the time.
One thing to note about RCT is that, like Transport Tycoon, it's still an incredibly popular game to this day. It has its own open source version in OpenRCT2, which I would say is an even better recompiling than OpenTTD is. The new features and continued development of OpenRCT2 has made it still arguably the best amusement park builder game, alongside Frontier's Planet Coaster series and the independent Parkitect, a spiritual successor to RCT 1 and 2.
Yeah. Heck I have OpenRCT running on my PC right now and its crazy what the team behind it is doing with open support for custom content, UI improvements, glitch fixing, a massive number of cheat codes readily available for fun and mayhem, and even new gameplay elements like new types of rides, and new options for older rides! Not to mention ONLINE MULTIPLAYER!! It is frankly incredible.
Frontier's games suck, have since RCT3, they're more sandboxes where you can build whatever. They lack the crunchy challenge of RCT proper. Can't speak to parkitect.
@@doltBmB that’s definitely true. I have 1600 hours in Planet Coaster and only maybe 10 of those is outside of sandbox mode. As a sandbox park builder though, they can’t be beat with how much detail you can put in
The way this video ends with the games industry coming full-circle with the return of the "bedroom coder" (now colloquially referred to as the "indie developer") is such a nice touch.
That animated Microsoft MASM graphic is the most underrated part of this video. Such a pleasant throwback to those classic 90's Microsoft product logos and art.
I've been years wanting to get into Game Development, and only this year got into it. I finally had the courage to get into some Game Dev classes in my city. Seeing this video made me tear up because it's the motivation I needed to get myself straight and work on this. This video came out at just the right time for me.
You can do it. Don't forget to take some breaks. A simple coding tip : More often than not, explaining your issue out loud can help you solve it by yourself. Otherwise find anyone, even a pet is fine, and explain to them what you're trying to achieve. Works well to turn your brain around and point you in the right direction or find a flaw in the logic. X )
Here's a bit of advice: Don't be afraid to rewrite your code from time to time. The creator of Stardew Valley did this many times when he had no prior knowledge of computer programming. Code readability is most important, even if you're going solo on a project.
@@oxoboo yes. The best way of doing so is to break code into digestible black boxes as much as possible. Ah and don't be afraid of verbose function and variable names. Also, lots of comments to make it easier on your future self trying to understand old code.
Chris Sawyer is a story of someone who pretty much became a small time legend and retired before he had a chance to decline. three of his four "big" releases were all classics of legendary status in their fields. the only game he ever made that wasn't a smash hit was Locomotion. whatever you do with the rest of your time mr Sawyer, playing with toy trains, riding coasters, or staring into the abyss. Thanks for your contribution to so many people's childhood & adolesences.
The awesome thing about RCT is that there's no better way to play it than now, with OpenRCT2. It has tons of bugs fixed, mechanics improved, new coaster types, multiplayer, it's easier to use custom scenery... It's one of the best community game projects out there, and it's only getting better.
@JavierRo_100 No, it's a feature only in OpenRCT2. Even more recent coaster games don't have it. Being involved in the community as I am, something that people want to do someday is also competitive multiplayer, with two different parks on the same map, separate money and other info for each player, complex market interaction between the parks, etc - but sadly it will probably take a while, as it would require a lot of underlying changes. But the community is no stranger to big projects. In recent years a massive milestone was reached with creating the new save format, .park, which massively increases limits in the game - And right now work is being done on Open graphics and music, which will allow the game to be released for free once assets are replaced. The future looks bright for the project. 🙂
As always, an incredible video from Ahoy! Great to see Chris Sawyer get some much deserved recognition. Incidentally, I'm delighted to find I'm not the only person who adored Locomotion. It may essentially be Transport Tycoon updated to run in the Roller Coaster Tycoon engine, but that's enough to make it the ultimate isometric transport sim in my view. Simple graphics, same irksome interface as RCT, but a killer Allister Brimble soundtrack with loads of gameplay depth and atmosphere. I have fond memories of making long commutes by train back in the late 2000s whilst playing hours of Locomotion on a netbook, building my own rail empire!
If you haven't heard about it, there's an open source implementation of Locomotion called OpenLoco. It's a fun way to get it working on modern hardware with a lot of the rough edges polished up. They're working on replacing all of the assets, for copyright reasons, like what OpenTTD did a decade ago, so unfortunately the awesome OST won't be part of it forever, but as far as I know you'd still be able to play with it if you have the original game installed as well.
@@bagelmaster2 For the last part that's likely a yes - There'd be many angry people if you couldn't use the original assets if you owned the original game.
"Bad news, it seems Chris Sawyer has purchased one of our 8-bit machines." "Well gentlemen, it seems like we're doomed to obscurity. We tried our best."
15:23 I was getting ready to say something about modern solo game devs thinking of the success of Stardew Valley but you're already jumping onto Cave Story for me.
RollerCoaster Tycoon was the game that got me into and made me fall in love with PC gaming. Many a time I came home from school and spent a few hours building up my parks in RCT. I absolutely loved it and even today, I have phases where I play RCT (and Transport Tycoon) - I still maintain these games were among the best at the time. Loved this doc, keep it up!
Chris could have continued making games like this, in this style forever and I would have purchased every single one. As technological advances in gaming have slowed due to so many limitations and the scene stagnates, it makes you yearn more for a style than a major breakthrough. This was a style that I wouldn't tire of
I was so impressed when I learned that Rollercoaster Tycoon was coded in assembly. I work at IBM on the operating system, and we still program with Assembler (though 90% of the time we use plx, as it compiles down directly to Assembler, and the compiler is very efficient).
Fond memories of all the bonding time i had with my dad before he got sick. This game defined my early childhood. I've picked it up again from time to time. It's a true classic. The isometric graphics aged well, unlike early 3D. And massive props to Sawyer, takes a brave soul to program a whole game in assembly.
My favourite way to play Rollercoaster Tycoon was what I called Redneck Carnival mode. Basically it's sandbox mode and you try to earn as much profit as possible before being shut down. The catch is your profits are multiplied by your park's death toll and death toll takes priority in the event 2 players have tied profits on a leaderboard. So you need to balance profits and reputation, and making shoddy rides that kill people intentionally.
@@bricaaron3978 It's been a long time since I played it. I remember that dead patrons affects your reputation and if that gets too low you get shut down and you have to pay legal fees so it's about making enough rep and money to absorb the hit when you open The Widowmaker for a while. My favourite coaster was one where you launch the coaster along a rail up an incline and then it comes by gravity. However if you max the launch speed and intentionally have an incline that's too short, you can launch a full coaster of it like a missile into a high traffic pedestrian area like a food court during the lunch rush.
That sounds super fun! Reminds me of the self imposed challenges I made and the ways I used to play games with my brother. Rct is one of those games where you never run out of things to do, especially as a kid with a big imagination.
Thank you for making this video XboyAhoy. I've been a looooong time follower, and I never thought you would cover one of my other favorite things of all time. Not only that, but also as a Locomotion lover, I feel recognized.
This channel has some of the most entertaining and informative content on the internet. Even when it's about the most niche of subjects I find myself glued to the screen for the entire runtime. We don't deserve such immaculate quality, yet Stuart reliably delivers it (after two months in his cave) every time.
I am so glad you mentioned locomotion and it warms my heart that it’s one of your favorite games too. So under appreciated for what it is, much like your channel. Both are masterpieces
Pains me that the many QoL improvements that Locomotion had over TTD weren't brought over to OpenTTD. Locomotion is by far my favourite Chris Sawyer game.
I have fond memories of playing Locomotion. I spent countless hours on it, pretty much building as much transport as possible on the main maps till the last transport technologies unlocked. I also found a way to cheat the most aggressive AI competitors by building a small railway junction across their road based transport, deploying a train on it and then letting it sit there till they went bankrupt as their trucks always faced a red signal and closed crossing. Funtimes ! My favourite line from game is "Ski-resort : Needs passengers to produce Passengers" or something like that
Thank you for covering Chris Sawyer! TTD and Locomation are up there with the Civiization series as my favourite games of all time. I do love Roller Coaster Tycoon 1&2 as well - although roller coaters < trains.
To this day Roller Coaster Tycoon remains one of the greatest gaming accomplishments primarily made by a single man. Sawyer's programming prowess is legendary, and by building the entire thing in Assembly he was able to optimize the game to run on just about any PC. Even some 25 years later the game still looks good and plays amazingly well.
Casual amusement park nerd here; for whatever reason for the entirety of my childhood, preschool all the way through elementary, my biggest life passion was the biggest and coolest theme parks in the world, and their spectacular rides. Roller Coaster Tycoon was the perfect way for me to get into gaming. 110% content friendly for a very young kid, so parents didn't have to worry about a thing. The freedom to make my own crazy ass renditions of pre existing rides or completely original, insane contraptions. RCT3 was what really hit home with me thx to its First Person POV On Ride feature. I could get at least a small taste of what I regarded as holy lands right there at home. Obviously nothing compared to the real thing, but still something very special that I gladly poured hours and hours into. Since my teen years FPS has dominated my gaming taste, as well as VR games. But my respect for RCT has gone fkn NOWHERE. Far too good of something to just toss into the forgetful void. Who knows? I might even pick it up again sometime.. probably should :) 💜
I knew fleeting details about Chris Sawyer and RCT, but wow getting the full story makes me resepect the guy so much more. His attention to detail is something I aspire to achieve in my own work
Man, I used to play RollerCoaster Tycoon all the time when I was a kid back in the early 2000's. Because the schools couldn't afford the latest computers or software, the schools often resorted to using whatever old software they had lying around, and most of the tine they had games like this. It was a quintessential classic in the Book Fair catalogs and on-hand school software. I'm glad I got the game nowadays on Steam, and there's also the OpenRCT2 fan game that enhances the original two games with extra features, high resolution options, and actual widescreen support. The definitive way to play Classic RCT.
Damn Stuart, you always find a way to make me tear up at the narratives you build about PC gaming history. Also thank you for not regurgitating the narrative that "programed in assembly = fast" - it's a nuanced topic that I've learned a lot about following OpenRCT2's development. It is funny how RCT2 was one of the last primarily assembly games to hit sales charts, but it definitely was showing its age by the mid-2010's. All that x86 assembly kept this brilliant game locked onto Windows systems (and that one weird Xbox port Frontier made), which was a big reason OpenRCT2 took off. And Chris Sawyer himself noticed that gap, so he assembled a team at Origin8 to basically do the work that OpenRCT2 did of porting his assembly to C++ as well as design a new touch-friendly UI for mobile devices, and RCT Classic was born. Another studio under Atari (Graphite Lab) just ported that version of the game to Switch with controller support, so it's good to see that isometric style alive and well and entrancing new players.
Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon were some of my favorite games as a kid. As an adult now, working as a game designer for the last 14 years, I am in utter awe at what Chris Sawyer achieved with these games. Programming in assembly means that iteration would have been hard and time-consuming. Nowadays, during prototyping and pre-production we go over countless iterations, yet despite that, 99% of what we make isn't nearly as good as what one guy cranked out - on his own - with no "do-overs" - 30 years ago. It just blows my mind every time.
I got a copy of Locomotion in like 2007, fell in love with that game. Still play it on steam every so often, finally hit a 90% performance index last time
Yeah I thought he died young for a second which is why we never got another game like that and was going to be sad over another part of my childhood going away. Good thing I read it again lol.
Since you mentioned OpenTTD, there's also OpenRCT. That's the open source port of Rollercoaster Tycoon. You can do some insane stuff in there, like power-launching swan boats on a wooden coaster.
I almost got sad by the way it was ending - games programmed on the bedroom are dead, you need a hundred, even thousand people team to finish your game - but you managed to get it super positive at the end. Nice work as always, Stuart.
This isn't strictly true, there is a lively and vibrant indie seen. I won't lie and it is definitely struggling compared to half a decade ago but it's still there.
Ahoy likes locomotion? A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. Maybe we could perhaps get a video some day discussing the rise, fall and rebirth of the genre of transport games. I know I’d watch that.
Locomotion is kind of sad to me, because it feels a bit half arsed. Chris Sawyer seems to have really put his heart into the TT and RCT games, and it shows in how overall charming and approachable they are. Locomotion feels a bit short. The graphics feel like they're trying to recreate the charm of RCT, but end up a bit sterile and lifeless. The building system is just taken from RCT and feels horribly inefficient for a transport game. The pathfinding is far away from the brilliant simplicity and efficiency of TTD. The random map generator feels weak. I think it really shows that Chris was phoning it in, and not really passionate anymore, but i really respect him if he retired because he saw that - leaving his beautiful legacy unscathed and respected.
@@ChaplainDMK Locomotion as it stands on it's own isn't fantastic. But it's solid and has been elevated to new heights by modders and a thoroughly passionate community.
When that cover of Leventhal's Z80 book scrolled in, what a throwback.. I got the orange 6502 one on the shelf right now. RCT is an all-time favorite, thanks for covering.
This video was amazing. It has little to no music and still it captivated me in such a wonderful way. The way you talk and present information is amazing.
This video is very calming while yet telling good amount history you don’t see this much video most videos are always quick and also giving you dopamine, but I like these videos where it gives you small but good dopamine, nice video.
I like how everyone who grew up playing RCT has modern games they can pick up and play that scratch the itch. If you liked the gameplay and style of RCT3, you can pick up Planet Coaster, which ditches the restraints of a grid system largely snd lets you fine tune angles at pretty much every corner. If you liked the isometric style of RCT/RCT2, you can play Parkitect. It retains the charming simple design, while still adding new things to enhance the playability. What might also be worth bringing up is Zoo Tycoon, which was also an isometric park management game. I think people remember that one fondly, and as RCT3 included Zoos as one of its two expansion packs, (the other one being pools & waterparks) both of those concepts followed into the aforementioned Planet Coaster, and sister-game Planet Zoo. Meanwhile, the *actual* modern RCT game fell on its face and is a shell of its former self.
Always fun to see how a solo developer goes the extra mile to make something they are passionate about on a technology they love. I've been following a similar coding wizard named Kaze Emanuar here on TH-cam, who has spent years optimizing Super Mario 64's engine through low-level programming, both to run Super Mario 64 in vanilla mode as well as to make a couple fanmods for the game (both capable of being played on real N64 hardware), and it's pretty crazy how much additional technical power he could squeeze out of the N64 for a game that was one of the earliest on the system and didn't have access to optimization tools in its day. The great irony of all this is that with modern AI-assitive technology, it is possible for a single developer to build a large and complex video game today. Now we just need to wait and see if and when someone can pull that off.
Man 2024 has been a peak year for my youtube recommendations! glad to see a new upload from AHOY!! keep up the great work man see you in another 6 years!
People then didn't really know the true meaning of the word outdated, if anything, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2's graphics are "oldschool". Oldschool is something that might be old, but you can definitely come back to, sure the games of old were primitive and have unimpressive graphics by today's standards, but they still keep a charm about them that has you wanting to check them out. Outdated is something that you would prefer NOT coming back to, like those Tiger "electronic games" that were like a plague in the 90's American gaming market.
You're looking at it from modern perspective though. Back then it was outdated - the equivalent of a new game having graphics akin to a 2015 game. They've aged well and have effectively become timeless, but back then it certainly was outdated.
@@CurvinProductions well… every time a new GPU comes, it was better at a similar price. Now? Same shit recycled and blender'd at a high cost, performance is not more the key, but the shareholder value, and currently the AI bubble.
@@CurvinProductions Nowadays, it has things like "Diversity", "Inclusion", and "Equity". Those things drove out the "innovation" in favour of "quotas".
One of my favorite games of all time covered by one of my favorite channels. It's a good day. RCT's merry-go-round music makes me emotional to this day. Thank you Ahoy!!
I was about to get really mad that you didn't address chris sawyers locomotion (my favorite game ever from my childhood) like how everyone else forgets, but not only did you talk about it but you said you liked it because it is, in fact, super underrated.
Well his games have definitely reached beyond his time creating those masterpieces, Planet Coaster and Transport Fever have been my other favs of the genre because it reminded me so much of those early games (unfortunately haven't played locomotion but I wish they ported it over to steam) with sequels which feels more and more fun with each game. Transport Fever 2 and Planet Coaster 2 are the newest. Def recommend for you to check them out. They are worth it!
@@RetroCharged Just some life advice, you should not insert yourself into a conversation just because you want to feel superior over someone! 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ Now bud out of this comment and touch grass!
@@chloeholmes4641 TH-cam replies are a public forum, not a one to one private conversation. You seem angry, hopefully all is well with you. I was just stating it's a strange thing to get "really mad" about.
Assembly became extremely rare and suitable only for certain small niches, for example video processing libraries. No one is writing ordinary programs with assembly, it's just too difficult for speed improvement 99% of people won't even notice.
@@Fisteshak this isn't true. Any data oriented programmer worth their salt is using both C++ and assembly. The compiler writes great code, but its pretty mediocre at math and data. With a bit of practice, even an amateur can use C++ assembly intrinsics for massive gains. You usually only need to convert a few lines too. Not using assembly is like passing up a free car because you can't be arsed to do a couple pages of paperwork
@Selsato yeah, of course it's faster. And how often do you really need that speed? In operating systems, databases, various libraries that require speed - yes. In 90% of business tasks it will significantly slow development for speed improvement that is not needed. 40 years ago assembly was needed for you application to just work properly or run with more that 5 fps. Now computers are 5000 times faster (maybe more, I am not sure), and assembly may be used as improvemen.in most critical parts, not necessary at all.
I'm a software engineer for a living, and I loved Roller Coaster Tycoon as a kid. I played it obsessively. I'm genuinely stunned that was all done in assembly. To anyone who's not an insufferable nerd like me, that's like making a lasagne purely from your own farm's output. The fact Chris was doing that at the turn of the century (third generation languages were common by then) is wild. Hats off. I think I love that game even more now.
RollerCoaster Tycoon was the definitive game of my childhood. I played all sorts of games in the 90s, but this game was by far my favorite and most memorable. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. At the time I was too young to really appreciate the journey that it took to get to the games I loved, so this channel has been a true delight.
is it year of Ahoy? I LOVE IT! Thanks for providing original, quality, well crafted content. Been watching you since 2014. You're one of the best Ahoy.
The AI upskilled b roll at 7:20 was so distracting to me, I jumped back just to have another look at it to make sure I wasn't going crazy. It's noticeably bad in an otherwise excellent video!
where at? there's a world of difference between AI-poweree upscaling filters and AI image generation, but i didn't notice the latter. didn't look very closely
I've been a giant fan of the RCT franchise and I still play RCT3 to this day. Fun fact; RCT3 actually has an isometric mode that feels and plays almost identical to RCT1 and 2 :)
Chris Sawyer's programming skills was equal to that of John Carmack, it's insanity. That's not to mention how insanely optimized and timeless this game both in terms of running on pretty much any machine configuration and the communities it created that're still around today. It was also so universally available, you could get it in a cereal box back in the day. That's how I got my copy, and I still possess it to this day.
Got mine in the Scholastic Book Club. Lucky to have parents who found it more educational than Garfield "books"
@@Lybrel That is one way to say you had badass parents, lol
Lol I got it in a cereal box too, I remember making crappy parks where people would fly to their deaths or ram right into the people waiting in line to get on this one way roller coaster.
Kinda fun thinking back at it.
@@Lybrel I also got my copy from a Scholastics Book Fair in Elementary School, I also got my copies of Zeus and Pharaoh there as well. God bless the human being who decided to market those there and set me on the path to experience Golden Age RTS gaming.
A verified channel actually posting a genuine comment and not a comment intended to drive traffic to their channel! Wow! Babe, wake up! I found that comment you wanted to see!
"Roller Coaster Tycoon was developed, almost entirely in assembly"
Having delved into assembly once for a programming class, this sentence utterly amazes me lmao. Sawyer is a madman to make a game that good in _assembly._
For real. Sawyer was right up there with John Carmack with DOOM.
RCT can run on almost any modern day PC because it talks to the hardware directly.
I'd recommend checking out Exanima, it's another game mostly written in assembly (and object pascal), in an entirely custom engine.
Because of this, It can run at 60+ fps at 4K *with* supersampling on a low end GPU, while looking (imo) better than something like Baldur's Gate 3.
Retro game programming is crazy. Retro Game Mechanics explained has a good video on how in order to draw graphics to the right place on the screen for the Atari 2600, they had to _count CPU cycles of each instruction_ so the graphics were drawn at the correct time based on the position of the scanning CRT electron beam.
>delved
@@ZRovas117being a fan of Carmacks skills like I am, I have to say Sawyer is a bit more up there than him.
“Babe, wake up! Ahoy remembered his password!”
😂
It's been barely three months. Your comment makes zero sense.
Hahaha
👍
Hmm TH-cam recommending me his videos a day before he posts? Coincidence? I think not!
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 remains to this day (thanks to OpenRCT2) the best theme park simulator ever created. Planet Coaster may have better scenery options, but in my opinion RCT2 is still a better theme park simulator overall.
Hahaha, Marcel Vos the monster of RCT guest-torture emerges to witness the origins.
this comment is too close to water for me.
Hey man!! Big fan!! You encouraged me to start a Rollercoaster Tycoon playthrough on my channel!! Though I do prefer Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, I do agree that OpenRCT2 is a nice add on for it, and RCT2 is a lot of fun in it's own right! I can't wait to get to that part of the playthrough!!
Graphics can get people in the door, but they may not wake their minds.
I heard your theme music in this video and I knew it was a matter of time until I found a comment from you :)
I never get tired of watching videos about RCT and learning how brilliant Chris Sawyer is.
The fact that me made $30M off RCT1 alone makes me happy. Well deserved.
It's 56 in today's currency :D
It's pretty funny how RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was seen as "finally taking RCT into the modern age" when it first came out. But now, 20 years later, it's graphics and gameplay are old and dated. Meanwhile, 1 and 2 (especially 2, thanks to OpenRCT) look and play as great as ever, thanks to how timeless isometric games can be.
100%
It's top shelf 2D vs bottom of the barrel 3D. Back then people thought that 3D is always better than 2D since it's more technologically advanced, but with time, people realised that both 2D and 3D are different artforms with different merits.
Well, it did. With its 3D graphics and ability to ride the ride. It was followed by a series of 3D theme park games with Planet Coaster as the latest and greatest rendition of the genre. Perhaps none of those games would exist today if RCT 3 didn't step up the game, however outdated it may look from today's point of view.
You don't talk about RCT3 that way!
But in all seriousness it's still a solid game IMO. It's artistic design has aged the 3D element pretty well and it has a huge sandbox to build amazing parks with
"Realism" in old games really does not age well.
One of my favorite examples is Okami on the PlayStation 2, the developers originally wanted the game to have a realistic (for the time) style, but the console wasn't powerful enough for what they wanted. Instead, they went for an eastern japanese art style, Sumi-ê, which made the graphics unique, charming, and absolutely timeless. The modern re-releases look just as great as the original does on the PS2, to this day.
Something I feel you should have addressed more is that RCT’s success as “a family game” was crucial. How many of you bought games as a kid and couldn’t play them because you only had your parent’s crummy desktop that they used to check email? I can remember getting flight simulator for Christmas and never played it after my first time because it ran like hot garbage on the gray Dell dinosaur everyone I knew owned. RCT never had those issues because it was so bare bones. RCT was magic on a CD and came to you in a cereal box or at the book fair. What parent looked at it and told you no?
Your video is still excellent. This is why I throw you a dollar every month, knowing you’ll deliver.
A solid point. Our home PC was weak and outdated even at the time RCT came out. Even Jazz Jackrabbit 2 didn't run properly, but RCT? Smooth as butter. My hyper-protective parents wouldn't let me have Doom or Starcraft, but building a theme park? No problem! Years later, I still hear that carousel music and the simple loop of chattering crowds. It's a comforting feeling.
I was so excited to get RCT3, but on Christmas morning it wouldn't even boot. I didn't know what a graphics card was, but I knew I wouldn't actually get to play the game.
The other part of RCT being a family game was that at least in our family, all of us ended up playing it and loving it! I’ve never personally been a fan of roller coasters, but I asked for and got it as a Christmas gift. It was great, then my sister started and eventually my mom. It’s one of a very few games we as a family all got into, which speaks to how good and accessible the design is.
@@kunairuto Seriously. I bought RCT3 in 2004 but didn't even have a PC that could run it until 2011...
My dad regularly bought games home from the discount bin but they rarely worked on our hand me down PCs. As in they wouldn't even launch. He didn't know what a graphics card was.
But I'm convinced RCT could run just fine on a cheese grater. Many hours spent on that game and I can't recall it ever slowing down.
Its crazy to think that in 2 decades bedroom coders still aren't completely dead Among us, balaatro, lethal company stardew valley, etc were all virtually made from 1-4 people and have found more success than some triple A games
The existence of off-the-shelf rendering engines that require no programming knowledge beyond basic scripting helps a lot. Some of them are even free!
Just finished lethal company with some friends. Insanely high quality game for such a small team
Don't forget Cave Story and Touhou
Kind of mixed on this. Modern game engines do a lot nowadays that you had to do from scratch back then, which dilutes the technical credit away from a scrappy team to a different probably larger team, but also probably made it possible for those types of games to be made in the first place.
Manor Lords
The fact that this was all done in assembly still amazes me. It's like building an entire car with only hand tools because you used to build horse-drawn carriages and "how different could that really be, right?" xD
this is the first assembly metaphor that actually clicks for a non-programmer (I only ever mess around with mapping and variable changes).
He's like an old detroit car factory assembler who looks at power tools n goes "nah, see, once you switch to power tools you can't dial in how many rotations each screw gets. M80s get 57 rotations, N26s get 127 rotations..."
You have to understand how incredible it is that RollerCoaster Tycoon was written in Assembly. It is a single step above pure machine language, and anyone who wants to keep their sanity would write in C, which is substantially quicker and ultimately translates to the same Assembly Code. The only advantage is that in pure Assembly you can meticulously control where memory is stored, which is how games that would absolutely not be able to be run on the tiny amount of ram in a 90s PC by today’s standards were able to have so much going on and run so flawlessly. (AI people walking around, multiple rollercoasters moving to physics) For us Software Developers, Rollercoaster Tycoon is like putting a man on the moon in a tin box. It’s a modern marvel and one of the greatest achievements of gaming kind.
I could not agree more
Its not that incredible. All games on pretty much every console up until n64 era were developed in assembly code for the given CPU they used with that system. The only difference here is that it was unusual to program in assembly for PCs as many higher level languages existed at the point of RCT1's development.
@caldera11 yes but it was a complex game developed by largely a single person, console games have teams behind them
What I'm hearing is Chris Sawyer could have landed man on the moon in 1930's had he put himself to that back then.
The main advantage over C was that he knew assembly better. To quote the man himself: "I’ve also always preferred low-level assembler programming and can write machine code faster and more reliably than any high level language"
Could we please get a history on the pause menu? I feel like there is a lot of untold fascinating stuff there
That's actually super interesting. Very overlooked part of games but often very unique. I imagine there's more than enough out there to go through videos like this many times over
Oh, this a good one
+1
Thousand
Good idea
Bump
Pause menu music! Animations! colors!
A wonderful tribute to my first ever PC game! I remember gleefully calling my mom into my room to show her my Rollercoaster, my laptop so big my tiny arms could barely handle it, so it always remained on a desk plugged up. I showed her the park, the people, everyone buying snacks and waving at the cute panda mascots walking around my park. Then I showed her my latest coaster, and we followed the cars as it turned and twisted, climbed and fell! The cheers of the people echoed by my mom's delight. Then the cars flew clear off the tracks, sailing high into the air, and CRASHED into a fireball of horrors! The screams of joy replaced by wails of agony and terror! And my mom Burst Out Laughing, and together we could barely speak as we laughed ourselves to tears! Me and her have always had a sick sense of humor!
Thank you for all the memories Chris Sawyer!
Thats a nice story :)
That's such a sweet story, thank you for sharing it!
My first gaming memory is charging for the toilets and deleting them while they were inside.
There is something oddly satisfying about power-launching a max-length train at the highest possible speed through some high number (from your own view, at least) of loops and twists before it departs at the end of the track and arcs smoothly into a perfectly placed "lake" to explode into fireballs on the surface of the water.
Ah yes, family bonding over virtual tragedies.
The fact that OpenTTD and OpenRCT exists can describe how impactful this man was, a genius. I was surprised to see the old games were smooth, most of old PC games suck because they're a choppy mess.
Even OpenLoco exists, although the project isn't quite as far along in development as the other two. Still fun though!
Chris needs a Noble Prize for his works
OpenTTD is free on steam btw, really recommend it
OpenTTD is free on steam btw, really recommend it
Open TTD is still one of my favorite strategy sims out there, so much fun from something so simple looking
Learning that Locomotion is one of Ahoy's favorite games brings me such joy! I played RCT2 and Locomotion when I was little and I cherish those memories.
I feel like you would make a great video on Indie games as a whole, starting with Cave Story (or earlier depending on how you define an "indie" game) and ending at what we have nowadays.
Great content as always!
The funny thing is how isometric games are back in vogue. We've stopped thinking of them as looking dated. And thus, a lot of the old classics have gone from "dated" to "aging beautifully."
Indeed isometric games are quite popular! Heck they dont even need to have tiled movement; such as Dead Estate or Project Zomboid.
Some people are getting tired of realistic visuals and the expensive and power hungry tech needed to achieve those visuals. Nostalgia is also a factor.
@@CyanRooperit's almost as if visuals aren't the only thing that makes a game a game
At the time, isometric graphics were a necessary result of hardware limitations. So as the limits went away, not moving to true 3D was seen in an unfavorable light. We see these graphics in a more positive light nowadays because we only see them as a deliberate choice, with none of the baggage of the time.
One thing to note about RCT is that, like Transport Tycoon, it's still an incredibly popular game to this day. It has its own open source version in OpenRCT2, which I would say is an even better recompiling than OpenTTD is. The new features and continued development of OpenRCT2 has made it still arguably the best amusement park builder game, alongside Frontier's Planet Coaster series and the independent Parkitect, a spiritual successor to RCT 1 and 2.
Yeah. Heck I have OpenRCT running on my PC right now and its crazy what the team behind it is doing with open support for custom content, UI improvements, glitch fixing, a massive number of cheat codes readily available for fun and mayhem, and even new gameplay elements like new types of rides, and new options for older rides! Not to mention ONLINE MULTIPLAYER!! It is frankly incredible.
They just released a Switch port as well
Frontier's games suck, have since RCT3, they're more sandboxes where you can build whatever. They lack the crunchy challenge of RCT proper. Can't speak to parkitect.
@@doltBmB that’s definitely true. I have 1600 hours in Planet Coaster and only maybe 10 of those is outside of sandbox mode. As a sandbox park builder though, they can’t be beat with how much detail you can put in
@@doltBmB Frontier also slaps draconian DRM on their titles and tries to prevent people from modding and enjoying it their way.
The way this video ends with the games industry coming full-circle with the return of the "bedroom coder" (now colloquially referred to as the "indie developer") is such a nice touch.
I suppose "Indie Developer" sounds a spot more Diverse than "Bedroom Coder" which evokes images of... nerds. How dare you like your job.
Time is a flat circle, history repeats itself.
@@KopperNeoman tbf modern western game developers all look like absolute charlatans like todd or a soyboy
The thing that's also coming back is the variety of genres they make. It seems all AAA studios want to make is third-person open worlds.
@@KopperNeoman Anyone that can code is a nerd.
That animated Microsoft MASM graphic is the most underrated part of this video. Such a pleasant throwback to those classic 90's Microsoft product logos and art.
Microsoft really was killing it with their box art in the 90s, they were vibrant and creative.
I've been years wanting to get into Game Development, and only this year got into it. I finally had the courage to get into some Game Dev classes in my city. Seeing this video made me tear up because it's the motivation I needed to get myself straight and work on this. This video came out at just the right time for me.
You can do it. Don't forget to take some breaks.
A simple coding tip : More often than not, explaining your issue out loud can help you solve it by yourself. Otherwise find anyone, even a pet is fine, and explain to them what you're trying to achieve. Works well to turn your brain around and point you in the right direction or find a flaw in the logic. X )
Here's a bit of advice: Don't be afraid to rewrite your code from time to time. The creator of Stardew Valley did this many times when he had no prior knowledge of computer programming. Code readability is most important, even if you're going solo on a project.
Good luck. You're gonna need it.
@@oxoboo yes. The best way of doing so is to break code into digestible black boxes as much as possible.
Ah and don't be afraid of verbose function and variable names. Also, lots of comments to make it easier on your future self trying to understand old code.
Chris Sawyer is a story of someone who pretty much became a small time legend and retired before he had a chance to decline.
three of his four "big" releases were all classics of legendary status in their fields. the only game he ever made that wasn't a smash hit was Locomotion.
whatever you do with the rest of your time mr Sawyer, playing with toy trains, riding coasters, or staring into the abyss. Thanks for your contribution to so many people's childhood & adolesences.
The awesome thing about RCT is that there's no better way to play it than now, with OpenRCT2. It has tons of bugs fixed, mechanics improved, new coaster types, multiplayer, it's easier to use custom scenery...
It's one of the best community game projects out there, and it's only getting better.
Multiplayer? I always thought it had that feature since i only heard of it from joel as a kid lol
@JavierRo_100 No, it's a feature only in OpenRCT2. Even more recent coaster games don't have it.
Being involved in the community as I am, something that people want to do someday is also competitive multiplayer, with two different parks on the same map, separate money and other info for each player, complex market interaction between the parks, etc - but sadly it will probably take a while, as it would require a lot of underlying changes.
But the community is no stranger to big projects. In recent years a massive milestone was reached with creating the new save format, .park, which massively increases limits in the game -
And right now work is being done on Open graphics and music, which will allow the game to be released for free once assets are replaced.
The future looks bright for the project. 🙂
@@WasatchWind Ooh nice, good news to hear.
Hope it stays on the same way!
I love how the game can scale up to absurd map size, it just optimized so well and path finding of vehicles in-game is also improving every year.
12:37 lol forgot to install brakes at the end of the ride
F
Rookie mistake
That part made me lol
No, there were definitely breaks - you could see the cars exploding as they broke. It was missing some brakes, though.
‘Forgot’ lol
As always, an incredible video from Ahoy! Great to see Chris Sawyer get some much deserved recognition.
Incidentally, I'm delighted to find I'm not the only person who adored Locomotion. It may essentially be Transport Tycoon updated to run in the Roller Coaster Tycoon engine, but that's enough to make it the ultimate isometric transport sim in my view. Simple graphics, same irksome interface as RCT, but a killer Allister Brimble soundtrack with loads of gameplay depth and atmosphere. I have fond memories of making long commutes by train back in the late 2000s whilst playing hours of Locomotion on a netbook, building my own rail empire!
Same was one of the few games my parents allowed us as kids. Locomotion is a gem. It’s even on steam these days. Though I still have my old disc copy.
If you haven't heard about it, there's an open source implementation of Locomotion called OpenLoco. It's a fun way to get it working on modern hardware with a lot of the rough edges polished up. They're working on replacing all of the assets, for copyright reasons, like what OpenTTD did a decade ago, so unfortunately the awesome OST won't be part of it forever, but as far as I know you'd still be able to play with it if you have the original game installed as well.
Allister Brimble dropped some absolute bangers back in the day.
Making trains on the train.
Nice.
@@bagelmaster2 For the last part that's likely a yes - There'd be many angry people if you couldn't use the original assets if you owned the original game.
"Bad news, it seems Chris Sawyer has purchased one of our 8-bit machines."
"Well gentlemen, it seems like we're doomed to obscurity. We tried our best."
lol
15:23 I was getting ready to say something about modern solo game devs thinking of the success of Stardew Valley but you're already jumping onto Cave Story for me.
RollerCoaster Tycoon was the game that got me into and made me fall in love with PC gaming. Many a time I came home from school and spent a few hours building up my parks in RCT. I absolutely loved it and even today, I have phases where I play RCT (and Transport Tycoon) - I still maintain these games were among the best at the time. Loved this doc, keep it up!
Absolutely loved it as a kid. Now, 20 years later - I still do. Truly a timeless classic.
I WANT OFF MR BONES' WILD RIDE!
THE RIDE NEVER ENDS!
@@nixel1324 At least not before the heat death of the universe.
@@TeraunceFoalokewrong, even as the last stars die out and the universe is nothing but a black void, THE RIDE NEVER ENDS.
Oh you'll be off alright. Off into the horizon, that is!
no succ
Chris could have continued making games like this, in this style forever and I would have purchased every single one. As technological advances in gaming have slowed due to so many limitations and the scene stagnates, it makes you yearn more for a style than a major breakthrough. This was a style that I wouldn't tire of
I was so impressed when I learned that Rollercoaster Tycoon was coded in assembly. I work at IBM on the operating system, and we still program with Assembler (though 90% of the time we use plx, as it compiles down directly to Assembler, and the compiler is very efficient).
Fond memories of all the bonding time i had with my dad before he got sick. This game defined my early childhood. I've picked it up again from time to time. It's a true classic. The isometric graphics aged well, unlike early 3D. And massive props to Sawyer, takes a brave soul to program a whole game in assembly.
My favourite way to play Rollercoaster Tycoon was what I called Redneck Carnival mode.
Basically it's sandbox mode and you try to earn as much profit as possible before being shut down.
The catch is your profits are multiplied by your park's death toll and death toll takes priority in the event 2 players have tied profits on a leaderboard.
So you need to balance profits and reputation, and making shoddy rides that kill people intentionally.
I'm sorry WTF
How many deaths are possible before a park gets shut down?
@@kupopuffs420 Come on down to Carnie Karl's Crazy Coasters, where the only thing higher than the fun you'll have is our health code violations.
@@bricaaron3978 It's been a long time since I played it. I remember that dead patrons affects your reputation and if that gets too low you get shut down and you have to pay legal fees so it's about making enough rep and money to absorb the hit when you open The Widowmaker for a while.
My favourite coaster was one where you launch the coaster along a rail up an incline and then it comes by gravity. However if you max the launch speed and intentionally have an incline that's too short, you can launch a full coaster of it like a missile into a high traffic pedestrian area like a food court during the lunch rush.
That sounds super fun! Reminds me of the self imposed challenges I made and the ways I used to play games with my brother. Rct is one of those games where you never run out of things to do, especially as a kid with a big imagination.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was the definitive game of my childhood. Loved it
Together with The Sims they really shaped the childhoods of many.
FInally someone who mentions Chris Locomotion Game. It is one of my favorite Tycoon game.
Thank you for making this video XboyAhoy. I've been a looooong time follower, and I never thought you would cover one of my other favorite things of all time. Not only that, but also as a Locomotion lover, I feel recognized.
This channel has some of the most entertaining and informative content on the internet. Even when it's about the most niche of subjects I find myself glued to the screen for the entire runtime. We don't deserve such immaculate quality, yet Stuart reliably delivers it (after two months in his cave) every time.
He can talk about different types of feces and their smells for all I'm concerned, I'll watch it.
I am so glad you mentioned locomotion and it warms my heart that it’s one of your favorite games too. So under appreciated for what it is, much like your channel. Both are masterpieces
Pains me that the many QoL improvements that Locomotion had over TTD weren't brought over to OpenTTD. Locomotion is by far my favourite Chris Sawyer game.
Power launching swans off a drop ride is a childhood pastime
I have fond memories of playing Locomotion. I spent countless hours on it, pretty much building as much transport as possible on the main maps till the last transport technologies unlocked. I also found a way to cheat the most aggressive AI competitors by building a small railway junction across their road based transport, deploying a train on it and then letting it sit there till they went bankrupt as their trucks always faced a red signal and closed crossing. Funtimes ! My favourite line from game is "Ski-resort : Needs passengers to produce Passengers" or something like that
I really like all your retrospectives on the UK video game scene. Gives a fair bit of insight into a field I don't normally seek out information on.
The fact that Sawyer could make such a complex game run on meagre hardware using machine code was just incredible.
Thank you for covering Chris Sawyer! TTD and Locomation are up there with the Civiization series as my favourite games of all time. I do love Roller Coaster Tycoon 1&2 as well - although roller coaters < trains.
To this day Roller Coaster Tycoon remains one of the greatest gaming accomplishments primarily made by a single man. Sawyer's programming prowess is legendary, and by building the entire thing in Assembly he was able to optimize the game to run on just about any PC. Even some 25 years later the game still looks good and plays amazingly well.
Casual amusement park nerd here; for whatever reason for the entirety of my childhood, preschool all the way through elementary, my biggest life passion was the biggest and coolest theme parks in the world, and their spectacular rides. Roller Coaster Tycoon was the perfect way for me to get into gaming. 110% content friendly for a very young kid, so parents didn't have to worry about a thing. The freedom to make my own crazy ass renditions of pre existing rides or completely original, insane contraptions. RCT3 was what really hit home with me thx to its First Person POV On Ride feature. I could get at least a small taste of what I regarded as holy lands right there at home. Obviously nothing compared to the real thing, but still something very special that I gladly poured hours and hours into. Since my teen years FPS has dominated my gaming taste, as well as VR games. But my respect for RCT has gone fkn NOWHERE. Far too good of something to just toss into the forgetful void. Who knows? I might even pick it up again sometime.. probably should :) 💜
Give Parkitect a try. Fantastic game which takes influence from RCT and is updated regularly
I knew fleeting details about Chris Sawyer and RCT, but wow getting the full story makes me resepect the guy so much more. His attention to detail is something I aspire to achieve in my own work
The OG Rollercoaster Tycoon was Honestly amazing. Easy to use, hard to master, and using Assembly? Wow. That's OG. Thanks for the knowledge, Mr. Ahoy!
New Ahoy video on an old game? Looks like this will be a good day. We'll need a Zoo Tycoon video now btw
yes but like 2 hours long plsss
"*Ahoy* looks too intense for me!"
Ahoyyyy!
Man pre-ordered the video to watch it earlier
PLEASE, NEVER stop doing these!
Man, I used to play RollerCoaster Tycoon all the time when I was a kid back in the early 2000's. Because the schools couldn't afford the latest computers or software, the schools often resorted to using whatever old software they had lying around, and most of the tine they had games like this. It was a quintessential classic in the Book Fair catalogs and on-hand school software. I'm glad I got the game nowadays on Steam, and there's also the OpenRCT2 fan game that enhances the original two games with extra features, high resolution options, and actual widescreen support. The definitive way to play Classic RCT.
Thanks for this early christmas present Stuart! Happy holidays to you and the family! 🎉🎅
Glad a video was made on this, especially from Ahoy. Always enjoy your videos!
Damn Stuart, you always find a way to make me tear up at the narratives you build about PC gaming history.
Also thank you for not regurgitating the narrative that "programed in assembly = fast" - it's a nuanced topic that I've learned a lot about following OpenRCT2's development. It is funny how RCT2 was one of the last primarily assembly games to hit sales charts, but it definitely was showing its age by the mid-2010's. All that x86 assembly kept this brilliant game locked onto Windows systems (and that one weird Xbox port Frontier made), which was a big reason OpenRCT2 took off. And Chris Sawyer himself noticed that gap, so he assembled a team at Origin8 to basically do the work that OpenRCT2 did of porting his assembly to C++ as well as design a new touch-friendly UI for mobile devices, and RCT Classic was born. Another studio under Atari (Graphite Lab) just ported that version of the game to Switch with controller support, so it's good to see that isometric style alive and well and entrancing new players.
Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon were some of my favorite games as a kid. As an adult now, working as a game designer for the last 14 years, I am in utter awe at what Chris Sawyer achieved with these games. Programming in assembly means that iteration would have been hard and time-consuming. Nowadays, during prototyping and pre-production we go over countless iterations, yet despite that, 99% of what we make isn't nearly as good as what one guy cranked out - on his own - with no "do-overs" - 30 years ago. It just blows my mind every time.
I got a copy of Locomotion in like 2007, fell in love with that game. Still play it on steam every so often, finally hit a 90% performance index last time
The headline at 14:28 made me do a triple take lol
same bro
Yeah I thought he died young for a second which is why we never got another game like that and was going to be sad over another part of my childhood going away. Good thing I read it again lol.
Since you mentioned OpenTTD, there's also OpenRCT.
That's the open source port of Rollercoaster Tycoon.
You can do some insane stuff in there, like power-launching swan boats on a wooden coaster.
Also OpenLoco for locomotion
I almost got sad by the way it was ending - games programmed on the bedroom are dead, you need a hundred, even thousand people team to finish your game - but you managed to get it super positive at the end. Nice work as always, Stuart.
This isn't strictly true, there is a lively and vibrant indie seen. I won't lie and it is definitely struggling compared to half a decade ago but it's still there.
The best games I played are made by one guy dev.
Annti the developer of Road to Vostok will prove otherwise, but yeah. It is more expensive to develop game nowadays
Your videos are always a special treat! Awesome work, keep it up!
0:28 Hey hey people.
sseth here
What you want
Ahoy likes locomotion?
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one. Maybe we could perhaps get a video some day discussing the rise, fall and rebirth of the genre of transport games.
I know I’d watch that.
Locomotion is kind of sad to me, because it feels a bit half arsed. Chris Sawyer seems to have really put his heart into the TT and RCT games, and it shows in how overall charming and approachable they are. Locomotion feels a bit short. The graphics feel like they're trying to recreate the charm of RCT, but end up a bit sterile and lifeless. The building system is just taken from RCT and feels horribly inefficient for a transport game. The pathfinding is far away from the brilliant simplicity and efficiency of TTD. The random map generator feels weak. I think it really shows that Chris was phoning it in, and not really passionate anymore, but i really respect him if he retired because he saw that - leaving his beautiful legacy unscathed and respected.
@@ChaplainDMK
Locomotion as it stands on it's own isn't fantastic. But it's solid and has been elevated to new heights by modders and a thoroughly passionate community.
@@jacobmoss6830 I agree, but I also thing it's very very obviously not in the level of his other work
@@ChaplainDMK
You have a point there to be sure.
But if locomotion is him not trying, that has to count for something.
9:30 I can almost hear "code is code, and code breaks"
Love how you made your own music from around during your post-weapons guide era of Xbox Ahoy❤
Thanks!
When that cover of Leventhal's Z80 book scrolled in, what a throwback.. I got the orange 6502 one on the shelf right now. RCT is an all-time favorite, thanks for covering.
Stardew Valley is developed by one person! Graphics, music and all inclusive.
You are last of your kind ahoy. The content you make is heavenly
its so much different to normal content. his content is almost premium.
Better than TV
criminal he doesnt have more subs
This video was amazing. It has little to no music and still it captivated me in such a wonderful way. The way you talk and present information is amazing.
This video is very calming while yet telling good amount history you don’t see this much video most videos are always quick and also giving you dopamine, but I like these videos where it gives you small but good dopamine, nice video.
I like how everyone who grew up playing RCT has modern games they can pick up and play that scratch the itch.
If you liked the gameplay and style of RCT3, you can pick up Planet Coaster, which ditches the restraints of a grid system largely snd lets you fine tune angles at pretty much every corner.
If you liked the isometric style of RCT/RCT2, you can play Parkitect. It retains the charming simple design, while still adding new things to enhance the playability.
What might also be worth bringing up is Zoo Tycoon, which was also an isometric park management game. I think people remember that one fondly, and as RCT3 included Zoos as one of its two expansion packs, (the other one being pools & waterparks) both of those concepts followed into the aforementioned Planet Coaster, and sister-game Planet Zoo.
Meanwhile, the *actual* modern RCT game fell on its face and is a shell of its former self.
You can also check out OpenRCT2, which boosts the original games to awesome new heights!
pony pfp chad
There's also OpenRCT2 if you just want RCT2 but better, and NoLimits if you want to just build roller coasters.
"Everyone, wake up Ahoy is cooking something good"
Always fun to see how a solo developer goes the extra mile to make something they are passionate about on a technology they love. I've been following a similar coding wizard named Kaze Emanuar here on TH-cam, who has spent years optimizing Super Mario 64's engine through low-level programming, both to run Super Mario 64 in vanilla mode as well as to make a couple fanmods for the game (both capable of being played on real N64 hardware), and it's pretty crazy how much additional technical power he could squeeze out of the N64 for a game that was one of the earliest on the system and didn't have access to optimization tools in its day.
The great irony of all this is that with modern AI-assitive technology, it is possible for a single developer to build a large and complex video game today. Now we just need to wait and see if and when someone can pull that off.
Will never get over how they forgot to turn on -O2 lol. What a dumb mistake
Absolutely wonderful piece. Been a fan for a LONG while now. Love waiting to see what's next.
Man 2024 has been a peak year for my youtube recommendations! glad to see a new upload from AHOY!! keep up the great work man see you in another 6 years!
Ahoy you are the best youtuber, no doubt in my mind
People then didn't really know the true meaning of the word outdated, if anything, Roller Coaster Tycoon 2's graphics are "oldschool".
Oldschool is something that might be old, but you can definitely come back to, sure the games of old were primitive and have unimpressive graphics by today's standards, but they still keep a charm about them that has you wanting to check them out.
Outdated is something that you would prefer NOT coming back to, like those Tiger "electronic games" that were like a plague in the 90's American gaming market.
You're looking at it from modern perspective though. Back then it was outdated - the equivalent of a new game having graphics akin to a 2015 game.
They've aged well and have effectively become timeless, but back then it certainly was outdated.
@@drunkenhobo8020 You're absolutely right actually, just a decade ago the gaming industry had a thing called "Innovation", but not anymore now
@@CurvinProductions well… every time a new GPU comes, it was better at a similar price. Now? Same shit recycled and blender'd at a high cost, performance is not more the key, but the shareholder value, and currently the AI bubble.
@@CurvinProductions Nowadays, it has things like "Diversity", "Inclusion", and "Equity". Those things drove out the "innovation" in favour of "quotas".
An Ahoy video about one of my all time favorites!? I'm in for a treat!
A new Ahoy video is like a rare treat. Really excellent video, too, and I loved how it went full circle at the end.
One of my favorite games of all time covered by one of my favorite channels. It's a good day. RCT's merry-go-round music makes me emotional to this day. Thank you Ahoy!!
I was about to get really mad that you didn't address chris sawyers locomotion (my favorite game ever from my childhood) like how everyone else forgets, but not only did you talk about it but you said you liked it because it is, in fact, super underrated.
Well his games have definitely reached beyond his time creating those masterpieces, Planet Coaster and Transport Fever have been my other favs of the genre because it reminded me so much of those early games (unfortunately haven't played locomotion but I wish they ported it over to steam) with sequels which feels more and more fun with each game.
Transport Fever 2 and Planet Coaster 2 are the newest. Def recommend for you to check them out. They are worth it!
Just some life advice, you shouldn't get "really mad" at silly things like that
@@RetroCharged Just some life advice, you should not insert yourself into a conversation just because you want to feel superior over someone! 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Now bud out of this comment and touch grass!
@@chloeholmes4641 just some life advice, TH-cam comments are not a 1 to 1 private conversation. Anyone can reply to any comment
@@chloeholmes4641 TH-cam replies are a public forum, not a one to one private conversation. You seem angry, hopefully all is well with you. I was just stating it's a strange thing to get "really mad" about.
lunchtime with an ahoy video
Mr Sawyer is a god among programmers
Love your coverage of classic games (and computing history)
The production value is once again off the charts. Truly an enjoyable viewing experience, well done!
10:18 - assembly never lost it's speed advantage. Even today.
FFMPEG presentation in 2024 proves it.
Assembly became extremely rare and suitable only for certain small niches, for example video processing libraries. No one is writing ordinary programs with assembly, it's just too difficult for speed improvement 99% of people won't even notice.
@@Fisteshak this isn't true. Any data oriented programmer worth their salt is using both C++ and assembly. The compiler writes great code, but its pretty mediocre at math and data.
With a bit of practice, even an amateur can use C++ assembly intrinsics for massive gains. You usually only need to convert a few lines too. Not using assembly is like passing up a free car because you can't be arsed to do a couple pages of paperwork
@Selsato yeah, of course it's faster. And how often do you really need that speed? In operating systems, databases, various libraries that require speed - yes. In 90% of business tasks it will significantly slow development for speed improvement that is not needed.
40 years ago assembly was needed for you application to just work properly or run with more that 5 fps. Now computers are 5000 times faster (maybe more, I am not sure), and assembly may be used as improvemen.in most critical parts, not necessary at all.
I'm a software engineer for a living, and I loved Roller Coaster Tycoon as a kid. I played it obsessively. I'm genuinely stunned that was all done in assembly. To anyone who's not an insufferable nerd like me, that's like making a lasagne purely from your own farm's output. The fact Chris was doing that at the turn of the century (third generation languages were common by then) is wild. Hats off. I think I love that game even more now.
10:32 theres no way that track wasn't intentional lol
Beautiful video! That callback to the paper route line at the end was brilliant. Super cool.
OMG!! You are still around and creating videos!! this makes me so happy!!!
2:12 That one looks more like a Galaga clone than a Space Invaders one.
Looks like galaxian to me, name fit better too.
6:50 why are you taking coal to a steel mill 😭
Steel mills require coal to produce steel.
Talking from my own gameplay on TTD, as well as basic understanding of how steel is made.
RollerCoaster Tycoon was the definitive game of my childhood. I played all sorts of games in the 90s, but this game was by far my favorite and most memorable. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. At the time I was too young to really appreciate the journey that it took to get to the games I loved, so this channel has been a true delight.
is it year of Ahoy? I LOVE IT! Thanks for providing original, quality, well crafted content. Been watching you since 2014. You're one of the best Ahoy.
Another year, another Ahoy banger
The AI upskilled b roll at 7:20 was so distracting to me, I jumped back just to have another look at it to make sure I wasn't going crazy. It's noticeably bad in an otherwise excellent video!
AHOY does a Rollercoaster Tycoon vid? Yes please!
Is the 486 animated promo video upscaled with AI here? 7:12
Lots of AI use in the video :/
where at? there's a world of difference between AI-poweree upscaling filters and AI image generation, but i didn't notice the latter. didn't look very closely
I've been a giant fan of the RCT franchise and I still play RCT3 to this day. Fun fact; RCT3 actually has an isometric mode that feels and plays almost identical to RCT1 and 2 :)
I was rewatching Ahoy's old video, and then I was greeted with another a new video from ahoy....Thank you sir.
15:24 not mentioning stardew valley here is a crime considering Eric barone made the Soundtrack, Design and coding all by himself.
Same goes for Touhou series(atleast on successful single dev game series goes)