10 Year Anniversary / History of New Element - 2003

10 Days, 10 Years

- 2003 -
The Rise of RCT2

By Posix & Liampie

The year 2003 brought considerable change to NE as RCT2 had been released in late 2002, and of course everyone in the community was excited to try out the sequel of the game they had been playing all along.

The year kicked off by reintroducing a feature that so far had never seriously been incorporated into the site: "Weekly Designs". Big coasters and their theming had always been seen as the highlight of people's parks, and so even during Danimation days there was a feature called "Dassle Designs", which originally had been real life coasters recreated in RCT but later also included original creations. Similarly, rollercoasterpro.com had a format called "Pro Designs" and so NE, too, had adopted it with the label "Weekly Designs". Indeed, these were expected to be so frequent that iris had intended to post them on a weekly basis. It would soon become clear though that this wasn't the case, so after having dropped the feature from the site, they were now revived, just semi-elegantly dropping the word "weekly" and instead calling them "NEDesign". Ever since, this accolade type has existed "officially" and never lost its popularity throughout the years.

The year thus started off with a couple of Design releases, for the first time handing out an accolade not only to RCT1 but RCT2 as well, with Corkscrewed's Coyote Runner and RRP's Vesuvius Stampede. Especially RRP's design received positive comments. Thanks to the new game, there was a sentiment of new possibilities and a re-opened horizon in the community. Soon there was what felt like an unspoken race to be the first to shock people with an RCT2 release. Still, the majority of the site's early RCT2 releases feel a bit like RCT1 in RCT2, as players naturally continued to employ their so far RCT1-trained building skills. This didn't change until a couple of months later. The attention RCT2 was receiving overshadowed mantis' WildSurf a little bit, although it was a nice and solid Design that showed a player who had taken a lot of influence from 2002's LL spotlights, and from then on was on his way to do great things with LL.
 

RRP's Vesuvius Stampede, with LL influences

Only a week later, iris posted "I guess it's time RCT2 made it's way into New Element", announcing the "NextElement Challenge", NE's first ever RCT2 contest. It was a spontaneously organised "anything goes" contest, initially even without a deadline. The only two requirements were that entries had to be previously unreleased and RCT2. They weren't released until May however, and as the interjacent months saw RCT2 developing high-speed, we shall first look at this time in more detail before reviewing the contest's results.

Meanwhile another LL spotlight was posted: Harakiri's Islands of Adventure. Harakiri (now bokti) was notorious for building a series of solos close to winning spotlight but never quite enough, and with this park he could finally win the desired accolade. Given the increased interest in RCT2 the park received less attention than it deserved. Harakiri was special in that he never followed any buildings style trends but always had a clear direction of his own. The park showed the highest development of his game he then never reached again, despite his Pro Tour entry in 2004. The topic for the park is also notorious as it contains one of Stupid Git's (then JFK) famous posts, the "Maybe I'm just bitter" rant.


In March 2002, NE launched the second season of its popular H2H contest. With the NextElement Challenge still lingering in the air, H2H2 was NE's second contest to include RCT2, and the first to really identify the up and coming RCT2 talent at the site. After a couple of ordinary LL matches, things got things got more interesting with "Purple Pill Heights", an RCT2 park by Toon and The Judge in the third week of matches. It was the first park that truly departed from the RCT1 logic and aesthetics, and instead explored more of RCT2’s own potential. It also used Toon's roof objects and 1/4 base blocks, which should become extremly popular in RCT2 parks on NE for years.
 

Purple Pill Heights, by Toon and The Judge.

Despite the declining interest in LL, there were still new RCT1 talents developing at the site, namely mantis and Coaster Ed. They had been members at NE from the start yet had only now improved their game sufficiently to attract significant attention with their releases, even if they were RCT1. They came together during H2H2 to create "Erwindale Forest", a park that was more dominantly created by Coaster Ed, and which was maybe the beginning of his in-depth relationship with RCTLL. Arguably no one put so much thought and concept into his parks. All of his releases from then on would be overloaded with ideas, both narratively and aesthetically. He also used noticeably more hacking than other players and went to great length to achieve object stacking in LL using the Beast Trainer, as the Codex Trainer wasn't to be released until a couple of years later.

During H2H2, many more RCT2 versus LL matches followed of which most were won by the LL parks, probably due to the fact that people were still getting used to RCT2. Meanwhile, x-sector won his second spotlight with Universal’s Outrage, an LL park that introduced his late-career LL game notorious for being maybe the modern version "NE Style", as x-sector was the last remaining player from this era still active.
 

Universal's Outrage by x-sector.

In early May, RCT2 answered, as the results of the NextElement Challenge were posted. Out of five entries, RRP became both fourth and fifth with Rampage! and respectively Sepsis; two decent coasters. Natelox, LL player at heart, surprisingly participated in an RCT2 competition and came in third, with Lost Beasts of Maharajah, which looked exactly like his LL work. Butterfinger won the silver medal with Comstock Dash, a chaotic and more experimental entry. However, none of these were a contest foor Toon’s Gila. A giant wooden coaster with an excellent layout, excellent landscaping and good theming. Nowadays the architecture may look a tad boring, but when you compare it to other RCT2 parks from this era it is clear that Toon did a great job here. What most distincts Gila from the other contestants is the use of custom scenery, which he made by himself of course. Gila is the first park to really rely on custom scenery instead of only using it sparsely for added detail and accents. By now it was evident that Toon was the ultimate “RCT2 pusher”, showing great talent for the game and was simulatenously skilled as an object creation, leaving the strongest mark in CSO to this day.
 

Toon's Gila, notable for its use of quarterblocks.

As H2H2 continued, more groudnbreaking RCT2 parks were released. Ville des Lumières by Corkscrewed and Foozycoaster beat "Anuradhapura", a good LL park by posix. A few days later, the first RCT2 spotlight hit the frontpage, Aero’s Wormwood by aero21. Runner-up (now Silver Accolade) to this park was Fantastic Wonders by Timothy Cross (now FantastiCo). aero21's style had always been very hit of miss with the community since his LL parks, and this was no exception. Although a very large solo making good use of RCT2's new features, the park was liked but later little regarded. Fantastic Wonders was a park that is maybe even more remembered as one of the most important early RCT2 releases. It was the biggest park the community had seen to this point.
 

Aero's Wormwood, the first RCT2 spotlight

On May 31st, as if intimidated by all this RCT2 goodness, iris released Chateau Lake Amusement Park, an LL group park that had been sitting finished but unreleased for a year. Luckily for the LL fans, June was a good LL month again. Roomie got his second spotlight with Arnos Springs Resort, Evil WME’s Glyphindel Oasis Dunes won (as we would call it today) Gold, and Coaster Ed once agained pushed the boundaries in LL with Battlefield RCT during H2H2, arguably one of the most memorable and unique RCTLL parks ever. Coaster Ed's highly artistic style and intense narrative in his LL works was something that clearly no other player would ever reach. His thoughtful and sophisticated approach to the game that he illustrated also verbally in his posts during those days soon after earned him the title "RCT Philosopher".
 

Battlefield RCT by Coaster Ed and Scarface

2003 was starting to look like a zebra, with periods of either RCT2 or LL dominating. July started as a month being dominated by RCT2. Butterfinger’s Euroscape became the second RCT2 spotlight, with Myths, Legends and Folklore by Mike Robbins and MickMaximus being its Super-Runner-Up (Gold) and several other RCT2 parks being Runner-Up. Euroscape is still the biggest RCT2 spotlight today, featuring two maps filled with Butterfinger's trademark clutter style architecture and foliage. His style had always been hit or miss. For those on the hit site, it was a pretty shocking release. Also for iris, who immediately put the park as #1 on his list.

Later that month, RRP got his second spotlight, the fantastic Sea World Atlanta which is considered one of the best LL parks ever by many. The park had been in the making for over a year, and as ever so typical, RRP at some point lost interest and didn't continue working on the project. As it contained some of his best ever LL work however, he was hesitant to just release it unfinished. Instead x-sector, like on RRP's previous spotlight Busch Gardens Lichfield, stepped in and finished over a third of the park that was left to do before it could shine in all its glory. Shortly after, Posix won his first and only solo RCTLL spotlight with Raindrop Riviera. While RCT2 and LL were both dueling for dominance and therefore innovating rapidly, Raindrop Riviera was an attempt to call attention for the more classic LL style. Posix did a good job, except for that he forgot to put any rides in the Arabian Market Square which is a prime-example of a good idea gone TERRIBLY wrong. The basics are good, but it was huge and empty. Posix was lucky that the other areas were strong enough to still get him that Spotlight. The third LL spotlight in a row was Natelox’ Disney’s Forgotten Kingdom, his fourth Spotlight. It saw Natelox stick to his roots of creating Disney parks in LL, yet with a slightly more developed style that he would develop more in his later years where he dropped park chains and ventured into ever more original park concepts.
 

Sea World Atlanta by RRP

Raindrop Riviera by Posix

Disney's Forgotten Kingdom by Natelox

September started with two new spotlights, one RCT2 and one LL: Disney’s Tilted Acres by Meretrix and Cataclysm by Coaster Ed and Blind Guardian. Note that Tilted Acres has an extremely tiny logo and uses Wacky Worlds, the highly disappointing expansion pack. It therefore received less attention than it deserved as it offered a new way of interpreting Disney in RCT, and not in RCTLL but RCT2. As the park was so exceptional, people later set out to convert Wacky Worlds scenery to regular RCT2 objects, allowing the park to open for people without the expansion, which were the vast majority. Cataclysm, was a very original park as well. It had been in the making for years, and as Blind Guardian was a player from Danimation days, it featured a mixture of classical RCTLL style parkmaking and Blind Guardian's preference for dark colours and atmospheres. He couldn't finish the park for months before Coaster Ed saw it and praised it for its unconventional style. As he was on a high with the game, he finished it off by adding a wonderful water ride and adventure ride.


While H2H2 was running, iris had announced another solo contest inbetween, the Hi-Rollers Contest. Both RCT1 and RCT2 were eligible games and no clear objective was given, other than a bit more than a coaster design was expected as the contest introduced money rewards for winners. The first place was to receive $50 and second place $25 after Raven-sDI volunteered to fund the contest. iris had been increasingly unhappy with solo contest turnouts, and mentioned that unless this contest would live up to his expectations this would be the last NE contest. The results were released before the finals of H2H2. Mala came out on top with his "Escalante River Falls" entry, a surprise performance by the old legendary RCT1 player. It it's LL competitor "Crepe Myrtle Islands" by x-sector, who continued his newly inspired style he had found while making Universal's Outrage. Some controversy existed over the third place pick, OZONE's "Lumbini Point", as people became more and more inclined to see RCT2 work over LL. OZONE had joined the community with his friend Aviator about a year earlier. The two had played the game together and thus had extremly similar styles, pretty much copying 2002 NE Style inspired by PyroPenguin's releases. OZONE was the one who took RCT1 further than Aviator and reached his first high by the end of 2003 before leaving the community after winning spotlight with his "DreamWorks Great Australia" park in late October. OZONE wasn't to return to RCT until several years later.
 

Hi-Roller's winning entry, Escalante River Falls by Mala

As H2H2 returned with its final matches, more RCTLL vs RCT2 clashes continued. Corkscrewed's Myttica resort was seen as another step forward in RCT2, beating Toon's and posix' "Spirits Bay", an LL park where surprisingly Toon showed he was still very able to do great things with the "old" game, despite being seen as in his "RCT2 prime". After a forfeit round leaving only Fatha' and Natelox "Sicily", the contest ended with two good matches between four LL parks. Even a solo performance by Fatha' with his "Miami 2040" could not beat mantis and Ablaze's (then Mortician) "Atomkrafwerk", providing further proof that mantis had been steadily developing his LL game, working secretly on his later much remembered "Walkman of My Brain" Spotlight park. The final match of the season saw another astonishing park by Coaster Ed as "Blood Island" went up against the chanceless "Kauri Cliffs" by Butterfinger and Themeparkmaster. Again, Ed demonstrated the same conceptual depth his previous parks Erwindale Forest and BattlefieldRCT had already become known for. The amount of dedication and effort put into an LL park was hardly ever seconded in the years to come.
 

The Myttica Resort by Corkscrewed

Spirits Bay by Toon and Posix

BLOOD ISLAND Adventure by Coaster Ed

A week later, the site saw an epic moment as one of the most important parks in RCT history was released: "Rivers of Babylon" by sacoasterfreak. The legendary ex-champion of the game returned to leave his mark in the RCT2 world and created a park that was superior to what had previously been seen, but also to what was thereafter to be seen, in many ways. Most strikingly maybe was sacoasterfreak's theming. Himself an avid history student, it was easy for him to create convincing themes of old civilisations, a trademark of all his previous much celebrated RCT1 parks. An example of this skill was the park's old aqueduct that received much praise in the park's comments. Many people from then on would cite RoB as their favourite park ever, and many probably still do today, roughly 8 years later. The park is a standalone performance of one of the greatest RCT players the community has ever seen. Unlike previous famous spotlights, no one could imitate or copy elements of SA's style as he was clearly out of the league of everyone else.
 

Rivers of Babylon by sacoasterfreak.

Near the end of 2003, yet another contest started. Back then, it was a habit to launch one contest after another, as solo parks were still sufficiently rolling in despite becoming significantly fewer already. With the "NE Pro Tour", iris launched a new contest concept which was hoped to be the greatest contest of all times. The idea was that a place to participate had to be earned for those who were not already NE Parkmakers. For this, a lengthy preliminary round kicked off with weekly objectives such as "Best Hotel" or "Best Water Ride". By winning one of these rounds a place among the already qualified then 23 NE Parkmakers at the site could be earned.

Among the ProTour Preliminaries, two entries released just before christmas 2003 are noteworthy: Phatage's "Unfriendly Invador" and cbass' "Infestation at Outpost 23". The first was Phatage's first major release at NE and made a big impression on the community. The park has a very strong narrative made possible through intricate and clever hacks, and Phatage's ability to tell stories through RCT. Similarly, cbass' park was the beginning of a series of highly concept and story-based works by him, each always bringing something new and innovative to the game. In the case of this first NE release by him, it were black tiles, making possible not only a space "theme" but an actual space "setting". Maybe unknowingly, cbass also established a new trend in RCT2 where black tile were used to trim the map edge, which soon developed into a standard for new parks. It also stopped people from filling full maps though whenever they had run out of ideas, leading releases of decimated total size in RCT2 works from the on. Both Phatage and cbass from then on would become the new RCT2 top players at the site, as Toon was on his way to retirement and sacoasterfreak's Rivers of Babylon was a one time performance.
 

Infestation at Outpost 23 by cBass

Must-See Releases of 2003

Vesuvius Stampede by RRP Harakiri's Islands of Adventure by bokti Purple Pills Heights by Toon and The Judge Khalma Cove by RRP and NessyROS Universal's Outrage by x-sector Gila by Toon Aero's Wormwood by aero21 SeaWorld Atlanta by RRP and x-sector Raindrop Riviera by posix Disney's Forgotten Kingdom by Natelox Disney's Tilted Acres by Meretrix Cataclysm by BlindGuardian and Coaster Ed The Myttica Resort by Corkscrewed Erwindale Forest by Coaster Ed and mantis Battlefield RCT by Coaster Ed Escalante River Falls by mala Crepe Myrtle Islands by x-sector Miami 2040 by Fatha' Atomkraftwerk by mantis and Ablaze Blood Island Adventure by Coaster Ed Rivers of Babylon by sacoasterfreak Unfriendly Invador by Phatage Infestation at Outpost 23 by cbass

Another brilliant year, for LL and RCT2. So much greatness in these old releases!

wow.
Really cannot believe all these parks are from 2003. Feels like it's been yesterday.

Great read as always Interesting to see all the history.

Can't wait for the next year! As it was the year I discovered NE , didn't join until like a year later.

The writers of these histories are heroes. Once again very fascinating, especially how fast RCT2 became popular and evolved from some LL imitating to the versatile platform it is today, and how quickly the players back then innovated their game. And JFK's rant... wow.

Escalante...my love

I am bitter for the same reason as Git was, somebody give me LL.

Goddamn... 2003 on NE. I remember it like it was yesterday. The Ad District was humming and iconic parks were coming out left and right. It was almost impossible to NOT get sucked in. If you played this game at all, this was the place to play it!

Ride6

A lot of great parks and great memories!