RCT Discussion / Programming a rct2 clone?

Hey, I've been programming a lot in C++ and I always dreamed of a more modern roller coaster tycoon:

- More colors (32 bit)
- Higher texture definition
- More roller coaster pieces (they seriously lack)
- Online cooperative mode (multiple people could work on the park at the same time)
- etc etc

I know it sounds big but this would be awesome. There are multiple problems I can think of, like the storage of the rides/textures in compressed files, the amount of frames to put for the coaster trains, etc... Possible or not? XD

I love the idea of a multi-builder option. I'd love to see it happen but I have no experience here so I can't determine if possible or not.

If you're going to talk about it, then go ahead and make it!

A guy is already working on this, I don't remember what it's called. If I find a link I'll bring it back here.

Please do! That sounds amazing. Very far down the road probably but still..

The two working on this could collaborate. Then it would go twice as fast!
Let's get crackin'.

Found the bastard.

He seems to have a good code base.

I've sent a message to the guy, for now I'll try to compile it for Windows 7 (shouldn't be too hard)...

EDIT- Actually I'm not even able to compile it since he used some UNIX only code...

How is ^^that any different from RCT now? Besides the fact he's making it open source with RCT graphics (which I believe is illegal anyway). I'm not sure if this project is still going on, but you might want to take a look here

Yeah, we need RCT reverse-engineered. That would prolong the life of the community and hopefully facilitate the building process.

My concern: don't create your own RCT. Instead, replicate the original and make it fully functional on modern systems without the notorious array of patches. Support widescreen resolutions, improve the engine to get rid of the lag.

Then add features like the ones you are thinking of. What I'd love to see is an "undo" button in RCT. If you messed up something it can take forever to fix it and it's terrible.

The games were never meant to be played the way we play them, so for us the playability is nothing short of disastrous if you think of it.

The games were never meant to be played the way we play them, so for us the playability is nothing short of disastrous if you think of it.

I think we are raping the game by now.

Being very cynical but am i the only one who thinks this is a giant waste of time?

Sure it'd be nice but to have co-op but do we really need it?
I think the games are fine atm...

IDK maybe its just me.

Being very cynical but am i the only one who thinks this is a giant waste of time?

Sure it'd be nice but to have co-op but do we really need it?
I think the games are fine atm...

IDK maybe its just me.

Well ,i gotta say ,getting rid of all the limitations would be awesome ,because it would create more possibilties and thus a better game.

Can you imagine building you're H2H park with the other 2 builders simultaneously, goliath? That would be a game changer(no pun intended). I think if we had a modified version, it stimulate the community, and more group projects would happen.

How is ^^that any different from RCT now? Besides the fact he's making it open source with RCT graphics (which I believe is illegal anyway). I'm not sure if this project is still going on, but you might want to take a look here

I'm not quite sure it is illegal since the code is made from scratch and you can actually name differently from roller coaster tycoon and thus it could be a completely different game. For example, I'm making a FPS and it looks a lot like Quake (Cube engine) and loads Quake maps but it's still not illegal. It would be if you actually take the same graphics as Roller Coaster Tycoon, the same files etc.

And I assume that 32bpp is still a lot better looking that 8bpp. Compare Sim City 3000 with Sim City 4.

But yeah, it's not going to be done tomorrow, roller coaster tycoon is indeed a very complex game I'm afraid.

It IS illegal to decompile the game. Straight from the readme/EULA, which I'm sure you've all read

OTHER RESTRICTIONS: You may not cause or permit the disclosure, copying, renting,
licensing, sublicensing, leasing, dissemination or other distribution of the Software
or the Documentation by any means or in any form, without the prior written consent of
Infogrames Interactive. You may not modify, enhance, supplement, create derivative work
from, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise reduce
the Software to human readable form.

Though I'm sure Chris Sawyer/Infogrames/Atari could care less unless you start making money off of it or causing them to lose money.

I've never heard of FreeRCT? Is there anybody here that could help them? (Does Levis still go on here?)

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I like where you're going with this. I think online cooperative play is huge, as well as removing object, custom music, and map size limits. Also, the excitement over RCT2 has long blown over, technically trainers enhance, modify, and supplement the game and I haven't seen anyone try to shut us down yet.

It says on Chris Sawyer's site that RCT was programmed completely in Assembly and Machine Code, so you'd definitely need to know those to be able to replicate and improve upon the original. If you've ever read about Hex editing in RCT you'll see why its important that the game was programmed in a low level language because its basically based upon moving specific values into memory slots, which is much harder to control in C/C++.

Also, I'm fairly certain you can't completely remove object, music, map size, etc limits because there always has to be a finite amount of memory allotted for specific uses. Of course you could make the limits more flexible, or just larger.