RCT Discussion / RCT History

this post turned out a lot longer than I anticipated

I've just read through the Station tribute pages on RCT2.com and it made me remember some of the moments I seem to have forgot about. This topic is kinda about two different things, the first is reflecting on the LL days, the second is reflecting on my RCT2 days and the dawn of my community life, and some of the funny moments or key moments in my community life. Im curious to see other peoples oppinions and what stories you have to tell.

Some of my early RCT memories are from the best RCT scenarios ever made, you know:
Evergreen gardens, Diamond Heights, Mels world, that one with 'the grapevine' in it, although that only came along with AA. Classics. I used to play Diamond Heights over and over again, I remember I always used to build a really high looping coaster starting on the lake and going round one half of the park, and I would always have an Invert built completely over the lake. Man that scenario owned so much.

So then came AA and later LL. My version of LL was on a blobby disk (pirate CD with loads of applications on them) so it ran without the CD, but meant I couldnt use any of the official patches, but the drexler worked which was all that mattered. Back in the day when LL was the hottest thing rolling off the shelves, we still had our old slug 56k modem, and that was only connected to my faja's PC, so any park I had downloaded, I had to transfer to my PC via floppy. I had to unzip the files on my dads PC too cos' mine didnt have win zip. I rememeber being amazed by some very old parks which were stored @ the station, they had a huge library of parks. The most impressive parks I saw were mostly by Mike Robbins, I think the best park was called "7 wonders", but there were also some other really good parks, one was like a huge zoo and had a massive B&M multi looper themed to a tiger. I also downloaded some really bizzare parks, like I remember one called Cartoon Network World. Station also had loads of workbenches, there was one work bench which had three hotels lineing the front of the park, I rememeber downloading one park which used this workbench and it had a huge Power Puff Girls splash drop ride and a very long twister called poision ivy.

In awe by the parks at the station, I decided to go looking for more parks. I searched loads of sites and came across some real gems, I downloaded my first version of the Dragon trainer at his site, where he was also advertising the 3D coaster programme he was making. I eventually stumbled across danimation, but I never found the spotlights, maybe they were in the forums or something, I didnt know what forums were at the time. I did find a few parks from RCTPro and a few other sites though, they were the best I ever downloaded. One was called the blue dolphin resort and I think it had a gigantic steel twister called chimera. I also downloaded this 'surf' coaster where I first saw the merge between an invert and a steel twister.

Eventually my PC packed in and I had to get a new one, with it came XP and from that, my blobby disk version of LL didnt work anymore, so I was restricted back to AA, which of course nobody built in anymore. It was about a year later (during world cup 2002) that I saw the first screen shots of RCT2. I immedietly decided I was going to buy it, afterall it was my only chance to play 'propper' RCT again, I mean theres no point playing RCT with out LL. Anyways around october that year, I bought RCT2 the day it came out. I played each of the scenarios for 1 minuite, they were so shit I just immedietly gave up on them, a big let down from the classics such as diamond heights.

It was around 1month after having the game that I got the internet on my PC, with it came the return of me downloading parks, and so forth came me joining the RCTstation forums under the (sad) name of Filaldo. After about 2 weeks of being a member I had completed my first 256x256 park called Flixtons Haven, to be honest it didnt get more than 20 replies, but then again I was a nobody at the time, plus people were in love with this park by [sub][hum][ans] (is that his name?) and that park sfgadv02 was working on before EE.

So by now I was both playing RCT2 religiously and checking the station around 40 times a day. During the run upto christmas that year I was invited into RCTI, and I started talking to Adamrct, Metropole and some Dutch guy that was in RCTI, I forget his name. About a month after christmas I released voodoo mines, and I also changed my alias to voodoo, much to AP's confusion lol, this was followed by the release of Yanmirs Fury, my entry to RCTU, and my first few weeks at NE. At the time I was becoming more known at the station after about 3 parks that I started and never finished. One was called Phoenix Falls (but I spelt it wrong ), one called Diamond Heights (shoot me) and..... the very first version of URE which featured a groovy entrance and the first thing I got noticed for.... a simple entrance to my Bedrock area. Of course, at the time it was called universals studios europe, I later decided to change it to a 256x256 with three different areas, the studios, the resort, and the IOA substitute called Legends. Come to think about it that version of URE had some amazing things in it, such as my Manticore flying coaster which was something special, my Mummy adventure ride, my Jason and the Argonaughts river ride, my Legends castle, and the first hacked ride I was aware of in RCT2, Jurrasic park (but it was such a bad sight). Come to think about it, that was proberly the best set of rides I've ever put together, that was before I subconciously set my self all these stupid rules that I cant seem to break nowadays.

Anyways, the next 3 versions of URE failed too LOL as well as my Eden park, which had the two dueling dragon coasters with really bad theming, and also my project voo2. I had also been invted too and dropped out of the Hi Rollers contest with two different entries which I had half finished, one called Mesoamerica and one called Babylon. NWA, the first RCTU RCT2 project was also in full swing at this time (being released soon), and I think somewhere amoungst all that Survivor was being finished at NE after the station (my former home) had closed down, my entry did ok, it was called chivalry. I also seemed to be building more in other peoples parks than my own at this point, with work going into alot of RCTU parks and many others such as alot of work in BGSA and some in adam's univ send off IOA.

Eventually I found myself 'on the radar', but that never really went anywhere because I couldnt seem to get any one of my parks more than 1/4 completed. I qualified for the PT with my faviorate piece of work to date, and then completed my entry after 2 months, although it was visibly rushed in parts. And then one night I got drunk, said a few regretfull things, and left the community in a cloud of embarrasment. BUT, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me, during my haitus from the community I had several what you would call 'epiphanies' (correct my spelling plz) and I ended up cancelling my URE project and starting Diego point, which was set out to be my own personal park, seems as at the time I wasnt expecting anybody else to be seeing it.

My old friend metro (who I hadnt spoken to for about a year) asked me if I would build him a 4D for his sc park, I was hounred and gladly accepted. BTW, this park is jaw dropping! Prolly some of the best shit I've ever seen. Its so complex. After metro asked me to build this I reconsidered my position in the community and decided to stick to RCTU, because I was ready to leave after adam retired and I fucked up @ NE. So I advertised my park @ the HQ for a while and I got a few good comments, then after the PT Iris welcomed me back, which im greatful for, and that leaves us here.

*phew*

The other part of my 'history' is from my first few months at NE. At the time fatha' was god, and his rants were a main feature, pyro and corky had their disney parks goin, Git made the most memerable post ever where he told brent to kill himself as an act of love. But also some of the funny stuff that happened at the Station like the Xcite thing where he blatently copied Flames work, and that lil fling turtlebob and swimfan had. I also like reading about things which happened before I was around, Im really curious bout some of the danimation stuff too actuali. So post your history too, its an interesting read. More so from the Thrill Network or Danimation guys.

I for one am glad to have you back, voodoo. NE can always use some more experienced parkmakers.

We all say things we eventually regret when we are drunk, but isn't alcohol great anyways?

Welcome back, mate.

It's good to have yet another alcoholic brit at NE.

*gasp!* voodoo is back.....whatever happen to those parks we planned?

Ok....

In 1999 I got RCT1 for x-mas, after a few months I got a coaster to past its raeting, about 30 of the worst parks in history where then made....

Around mid 2000 my buddys in the neighborhood starting going to some sites, one went to Danamation, I don't know what his name was tho, anyways I thought I should do a "good" park and submit it, so I did, but I have no idea what people thought of it coz I never went to forums back then.

Now I stoped playing for a long time and then started back up around the summer of 02, and I was soon dieing to get my hands on RCT2, in october of 02 (the time when RCT2 was released) I was in college up in gainesville FL, I started checking the Tycoon Planet forums to see if any copys were getting out befor the release date, they were. I was one of the lucky ones to get it befor the release date, and if you ever heard a rumor that target had errors that said you had to be 99 years old to buy RCT2 thats true, they let me have it anyways. I cut my first class to see if they had it then got back to school to get to my second class, but I was kinda mixed up and walked into the wrong one

After all my time playing LL coasters were EZ as hell, I can make them do almost whatever I want so I sent in a bunch to the offical ride exchange under the name Kumba28, some still hold reconds today altho its all huge ties. By now i was posting at the Tycoon Planet forums and had sent a park into Josh' RCT page, soon Josh IM'ed me say that he really liked it, we became friends and still are today, I also was givein a staff parkmaker spot at his site, also by this time I had found RCT Station and knew what a "good" park was, so I tried my best to do one and I made "DC vs Marvel" I released it here as a n00b with about 7 posts worth of crap to my name and got like 2 replys only after bumping it.....

Soon the site I was work with josh at (RCT Central) shut down, it was around this time I thought I should Join a club. To be honest I thought RCTI was the coolest but RCTM the best, so I talked to Kai but did not get in, so then thx to DC vs Marvel, my pics of my next solo (Miami Amusements), and a lot of pleading I got in RCTI and on the day I got in me and Titan released "Tiumba Islands"

After 3 weeks of work I sent Dimensions in for spotlight, needless to say I did not get it (Arnos did) but I was suprised to see it made runner up, I was very happy with that and soon got started on Nirvana, Tiumba:TLI, and Iron Wood Valley, all would also become NE runner up parks.

Soon I got into the NE pro tour, my first entry came in second to Voodoo, then in only 4 days I did "X Gon' Give it to Ya" and that came in second to Six Frags, then one of my worst recent parks came in second to ride6 only weeks after the first two. I had then noticed I was really gona need to take my time and do something awsome if I wanted to make it, and 2 weeks later I made it with "The Zodiac". So then I knew id needed to pull out all the stops to make a high placeing PT final entry, so I put my spirt limit mega park "BP" on hold and worked for a few soild months on what would be "Darwood Grove". Around this time people were quiting left and right, and it forced iris to do a re-draft for H2H3, and to my suprise iris IM'ed me (he never had befor) with a link to the sign ups, I asked about a captain spot half hartedly and he told me to ask for it in my sign up post and I did and enden up getting the spot. I really can't forget the draft, I had diarrhea at the time and has in and out of the bathroom trying to make my picks, I wish I had a laptop that would have helped.... My team was ok but I wanted to make a few deals, so I did 5 in all, some said I ended up with a "Powerhouse" of a team, and im very proud of that.

I think thats all for now.

My personal rct history started back in '99 when I spotted a double-pack containing RCT and Corkscrew Follies (the american AA). I bought it on the spot and spent the next 3 years playing sceanarios on and off. I burt through the entirity of the game before LL came out, then I picked away at that, eventully finishing it off about 2 months before RCT2 came out. Although there were those few classic parks that I replayed again and again, like Forest Frontiers and Evergreen Gardens and from CF; Three Monkeys Park. By this time I was a member at Thrill Network and I was keeping a close eye on RCT Station, downloading real park Rec.s for the most part. As a result I have some classics like Hersheypark and BGW by Greg Reese or IOA guys IOA Rec. Amazing stuff that really blew me away. I turned the forest frontirs sceanario into a pathetic Holiday World rec. based from the park map since I'd never been there (I still haven't ). I still didn't quite understand how to get parks on line, nor did I understand the purpose of parks that weren't recs or sceanarios. Then RCT2 came along...

With RCT2 I played through the sceanarios and kept close watch over the official rct2 website to grab new versions of the old classics, like good ol' Evergreen Gardens or Forest Frontiers. I kept to myself and stayed out of all the community stuff, although I was still downloading from the Station (I never registered) and I was posting around TN alot. For some odd reason I stumbled into a park that was crammed with coasters and shitty theming by SFGadvking but it was his first park (for the internet). I was impressed enough to start making parks for the internet (the small cult following at TN, really) at that point, starting a park called Jouney Through the Ages which I re-realised another version a couple weeks later with some small updates. The park did show hope in some area's but for the most part was as bad, if not worse than it's inspiration. Towards the end of Jouney the Station started off the Pinnicle Parks contest thingy and the first was Mike Robbins Virgina Creek Theme Park. To be honest this was the first time that I fell in love with an rct park. I would look at the park for hours, exploring all the little details, and to this day I don't think the atmosphere of that place can be topped. The parking lot looks like something right from PKD in Richmond and the park just felt like a total meshing of BGW, PKD, and any small classic park. It was amazing and remains very lovable. As a result my 2nd park was a sad attempt at copying it; Virgina Lake Park was smaller than VCTP by a massive amount but displayed my best architecture, theming and landscaping skills. Honestly I can't say I'm proud of this park either, it was quite horrid, dispite a couple good coasters. Then came Copper Point, a mini that was swamped by water, and crammed with 3 coasters, a dinky hotel, parking lot, and water park. All of this was done in a week end, literaly. The park has a plestent atmosphere but is otherwise quite bad. Finally I reached a point that I realized that I would need to slow down in order to create parks of any quality, Pacifica Beach Park & Hotel resulted. I used a gental, creamy and pretty combination of colors and carefully constructed coasters. A couple of the area's clashed but the park gained a sort of cult following and was soon released on CoasterBuzz as well as TN. At CoasterBuzz it climed the charts into the top 10 parks there and stayed for about 3 weeks before being crushed by larger parks. My first real full scale project followed. Using a similar formula to Pacifica, Busch Gardens Aquardica pulled together 5 decent coasters, including my best B&M twister, then or now in Posiden- Lord of the Seas, this park really was a sort of changing point. Towards the end of construction Euroscape premired. I was completly blown away, nothing, not even my beloved Virgina Creek Theme Park, could compare. I joined NE well before this point, but this is when I realized just the kind of skill that came out of here. I realised two mini parks, Adobe Creek, built on the hi rollers workbench and Mythical Gardens which deputed together both here and at TN without much praise or attention. By now I was tracking down the RoB threads and amazing myself with the examination of the screens. Around this same time Intamin101 was grinding away on his Disney Sea Paris park which, from the screens still looks great, however the park has gone on unfinished much to my disapointment. I was happily ploting away on Sunburst Shores by now, going through the spazztasticly colored enterence area and strange italian-like zone near by. During this same time the PT qualifyers started. I began a hotel that I soon canceled before any real work got done and spent the next 2 & 1/2 weeks building the week 4 winner, Indiana Jones and the Fortress of Peril. Not a great ride by any means, but back then i was sure that it was amazing. Sunburst Shores was rapidly and sloppily finished about a month later but had to wait untill after RoB to debut. This was the point where I gained exceptance in the community here and NE and around the same time TN parkmaking had colapsed. I transfered over here for the most part and began working on the leftover park that was originally started by Intamin101 and Reble2000 as the answer to NE's Sitewars. Unfortionently I lost interest in the project and got the patch for LL (Windows XP was killing me) from Coaster Ed. From that point forward I've been playing both games. Releasing the reasonable park Waters Of Civilazation, my first real attempt at LL with Rocky Hills, which was followed by the opening island to Urban Midnight. Poplar Grove, my PT entry, was an overushed park that I started with good intentions but let it roll downhill, changing the style of the architecture about a 1/2 dozen times. Sadly, my history ends at a low point there, but I'm working on bouncing back. Global Assult Labs in Urban Midnight boosted my reputation in LL and International Odyssey seems to be a relitivily popular RCT2 park, so I'm still here and coming on strong. Believe me, if there comes another PT, I'll be in it, and I'll do better (on my park, not nessisarily in the contest).

ride6

My Story:

I don't know when I first got RCT. It was definetly the first year it was released and I guess some friend who knew about my affection for thrill machines suggested it to me. When I first got it I fell in love with it. Six hours straight with no sense of the time that was flying by me on my first day. I finnished all the scenarios without losing once! Then I did some research on the internet and found "The Lawson's" site, "Extreme RCT". They had this really cool park, "Worlds Of Adventure" or something like that, with seven themed lands and such. I never got into the trainer thing, so I tried to create a very similar park, without trainers. I actually did it, but it looked like crap. AA and LL came out with me playing more and more RCT. Actually, the "Worlds Of Adventure" might have been with LL, I'm not sure. Anyways, I later found Danimation, and the current spotlight was "Rich Uncle Pennybag's Estate". I was amazed at the quality and I never thought of making a park like that before. So, I downloaded all the other spotlights and went on making my own parks. "Tamland" was my first park, the name coming from "Tamerindo", a small town in Costa Rica. I submitted it for spotlight with no success. My second park was "The Northside", which to this day I still find entertaing. Because I loved Corkscrewed's RUPE so much, I emailed him, asking if he wouldn't mind giving his opinion on my second park. He responded and said it showed some skill! He gave me suggestions aswell! It was very promising and just increased my love for this game. All the while I kept my eyes on the Danimation forums. When I finally found the courage to join, to my great dissapointment, I found my hotmail email address could not be accepted! So I went on to find another roller coaster site, Thrill Network. Here I met such players as Elrocko, Butterfinger, Andy Hogson, and Kraken. I grew a lot at Thrill Network, and entered their montly contests which required a full, 126x126 park with a prize of a ticket to your home themepark. Thanks to my incredibly fast pace, I finnished three parks in three months and won each time, and evetually convinced the organizer of the contest to send me $60 so I could go buy a season's pass for my local amusment park. I became really close with Elrocko, good friends. He had emails addresses comming out the whazoo, so he signed me up at Danimation. Here I got better still, and found my way to a few forum spotlight wins. I was most proud of the first forum-voted spotlight win, in which Buster and vTd had submited parks against my "River of Need". When the votes were talied, I finnished second, behind Busters FFF (lost by four votes), and I beat vTd by five votes. I also beat Aero21 and his "Six Flags High Adventure Fright Fest", Mr. RCT, Testudo and five other parkmakers. Erocko later said I could have won had he voted with all his different Danimation memberships. While I was here I created what I still think is my best park to date, "The Westcoast", which Iris wrote an unreleased walk-through for. It was this type of act of kindness (and his list, of course) that gained him tons of respect and a large following. But I was only at Danimation for a little while before I began to fall apart. Soon after I found myself at New Element with Iris, Adix, Nevis and the rest of them. I have since won five spotlights, one competion, gained a #1 list postion and I have participated in every offical contest NE has held since. I have also participated in many group parks, all seasons of H2H and Parkwars with Iris. There are only three things I haven't done and those are: made a design, participated in Survivor (which I didn't want to do) and win or donate money. My goals have been to help my Thrillnetwork parkmakers into the limelight, as it were, here at NE. I've showed work from Elrocko, Butterfinger, Ride6, Andy Hogson and Kraken to Iris. Two of those have become parkmakers, one has retired, and the other two are on their way up. My other goal here at NE is to now build for me, and have fun at what I do. If I don't have fun and concentrate too much on winning, I may end up retired. And I don't ever want that to happen.

A note: I may have forgotten or left out some things. Please let me know if I have forgotten!

My History is a little drab, compared to others anyways...

I started playing RCT the summer of...what was it...2001? Yes that was it, I was a lurker at RCT Station off and on for about a year then, mostly just playing scenerios and what not. I finally joined the Statoin in July of 2002, and quickly became addicted to the forums. Within five months, I had become a moderator at the Station, started a club, rctX, and released two mega parks.

Most people did not like my work at the time, even compared to the credit i get now...moreso I think because my style varies compared to others. I dont' go for the typical styel of parkmaking, but I also dont have an elaborate difference....which just makes me random. Big City, my second mega park (though started first), was/is my favorite park to this day.

Anyways, after a few months being a mod at the Station, Red informed the staff that the future of the site wasn't good, so I stepped down. It wasn't long before the Station, infact did close and we had to wonder elsewhere.

I found NE, well I had already been a member, but I spent more time here than i had previously done. I actually got alot of good tips here, and my parks got better. Atlantis: Catastrophe was another 'decent' megapark, I never liked it, simply because I tried to hard to make it look like everyone else's architecture....

Later I entered NE's Hi-Rollers contest, I finished last with my rushed, yet filled Nightmare Lake. Again, I think some of my architecture was to 'style-less' for some people, yet my favorite part of that park was my devil sculpture in the middle of the park. After that, I released one more mini-park, Rebellion Frost, which really showcased my architecture, yet failed to get any reconition from the community.

Finally, after a long hiatus from RCT, I came back to try out for the Pro Tour, and failed miserabally, and actually, surprisingly. I thought I would win the hotel round with my hotel Paradise Lost, and to this day think I should have taken it... Oh well.

In anycase, here I am today, having released nothing since that entry...though I have entered a contest at RCTHQ with my favorite mini-park ever, and I have also 'started' an entry for the QFTBX...though its kindy stupid now.

Anyways. Yay.

The Way it Started:


I downloaded the RCT demo about two months before the game came out. I played that damn demo endlessly, not the actual scenarios (which I think were Diamond Heights and/or Forest Frontiers) but just building coasters. I spent MANY hours a day trying to recreate the Revolution...not realising that you could "show height marks on ride tracks", and so my trains would invariably collide....

Cut to: March 1999...Chris (my better half) surprised me with the game when I got home from work one day. We installed it, and then I disappeared into the office until about 4am. This happened nightly for about the first six weeks. After getting all the way to the Thunder Rocks scenario (and not beating it yet), I discovered Danimation, and their "Park Repository"... I wanted to look at those damn parks so badly, but couldn't yet because I didn't have access to the Mega Park. So, after two or three tries, I was finally able to enter the "world of the Mega Park"...My first parks got very high ratings in the repositories. Then that section of the site went away. I created one more park while at Danimation...Adventure World (or something like that, I can never remember the damn title), anyway, it wound up as one of the "hidden parks" at Danimation.

Then I discovered Skeg's RCT.....and followed the trend at the time of starting a "Coaster Park" company...mine was GemParks, Inc. and all the parks I made had some gem reference...Ruby Resevoir, Amethyst Hills, Jasper Lakes, Azure City, ....you get the idea.....All of those parks and files got hosed when my computer crashed. It sucked because creatively those were some of my strongest work....Soon after that, I started doing Six Flags, partly because I thought I could create better parks than they did, and wanted to show them up (not sure how that's even possible), and partly because I started to get into the "real park" vibe. I was also getting too lazy to think up names for my rides.

Then.....RCT2 came out! I got it the weekend BEFORE it was to be released....like a lot of people here. At that time, I was a regular over at Fluxd (D-Net)...So I started work on my first RCT2 creation. I didn't even play the scenarios once (still haven't to this day)...Seeing as how my eyes are always larger than my stomach, I took on the daunting task of doing a 255x255 park. After completing it in about 6 months, I started to get burned out. It takes a lot more out of you to build in RCT2....just because you have SO many more options. I had started to look at the parks here, and was wowed beyond belief. I also lurked around the forums as a guest for about 3 months (started even before I finished Six Flags Adventure Island)....After seeing the way that "bad parks" were torn apart, their creators left flailing in their own waste, in the Ad District, I wasn't sure that I would ever post anything here.
Then I got the Disney itch......After arming myself with hundreds of photos, I decided to start Tilted Acres. I still remember the verbal bitch slapping I got when I made the decision to post pics here....good times.....The rest...well you all know the rest.....

The Way it is Now:

I have tried to send Iris Phantasia about 10 times. To date, he has not received it. I have removed all the objects (excpet for the original ones from the game) from my hard drive...again....and assuming that Iris has now in fact received Phantasia (I just tried to send it again), I will be uninstalling RCT2 from my computer. IF it's able to be released, you will see why I am now finished with RCT2. I don't think it's actually possible for me to do better than this. I have hit my "RCT2 Creative Pinnacle" and I believe it's best to go out while you are still a welcome guest at the party...if you catch my drift.

I am still planning on hanging out here, anticipating RCT3, and hopefully getting creative feedback from some very talented people about my newest vice....creating animated short films using FLASH. But as for RCT2...I feel like I can put it to bed.....Besides, very soon, I am planning on mapping out my first RCT3 park....."Walt Disney's PhantaSEA Kingdom"...That's part of the reason I scrapped it in RCT2, as it wouldn't have been finished before part 3 came out.

Whew, that was long.....thanks for reading. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

I have a very long RCT history...

Not. So I won't bore you.

And to Nate- funny you still consider Westcoast your best park. I really looked up to the park back then- especially the area around the invert- beautiful landscaping and such. I still look at the park occasionally for inspiration... I always hung around at TN in the background... I didn't figure out how to WinZip until TXCoasterGuy1 told me how, but by then the NE revolution had begun and I never had a chance to download all those Danimation spotlights/TNPPs that I'd always looked at screens and logos.

TXCoasterGuy made kick ass parks.

What happened to him?

i got rct when it first came out well around there. i wasnt into computers till my brother got this game. while i stay home and he go to his friend's house i go play rct all day but i was uBah n00bie. till i saw some other sites and i was like holly zhit! i wanna be uber like them i said to myself. well im not yet its to damn hard seeing all the xperts make hot parks while i try to make 1 just like theres. I always fail though. When i saw Rct2, i got hooked on computer day and night. never got up.

TXCoasterGuy made kick ass parks.

What happened to him?

IDK, but i have an 'unread' pm from him from feb of 2003.

The most impressive parks I saw were mostly by Mike Robbins, I think the best park was called "7 wonders", but there were also some other really good parks, one was like a huge zoo and had a massive B&M multi looper themed to a tiger.

Seven Wonders of the World 2002 was the one you're talking about. That second park was Emerald Point, the coaster Nairobi Tiger was also my park.

Towards the end of Jouney the Station started off the Pinnicle Parks contest thingy and the first was Mike Robbins Virgina Creek Theme Park. To be honest this was the first time that I fell in love with an rct park. I would look at the park for hours, exploring all the little details, and to this day I don't think the atmosphere of that place can be topped. The parking lot looks like something right from PKD in Richmond and the park just felt like a total meshing of BGW, PKD, and any small classic park. It was amazing and remains very lovable.

I'm very glad you liked this park so much. It is still cool to know I inspired so many long ago, even though I build pure crap now!

Also, I found the original board Fic by Kulras from the Station forums as a review / comedy thread to Seven Wonders. It is funny reading for those of you interested and it has a few old names from the past. Email or PM me if you want it since I can't attach word documents here.....

I probably have the longest public history here. I got the game when it was released in March / April 1999 like a lot of people. My girlfriend and I saw it at Wal-Mart for $19.99. Since I am cheap and never buy anything for myself, I didn't want to buy it, but my girlfriend made me buy it!

Shortly after I came across the AOL RCT message board. It was here that I knew Cav, Steve Franks, and Red Phoenix. This message board didn't have forums or anything, but you could post a question and people would answer it. Typically it was a technical question board. The four of us would be the main posters along with some guy named Metro (this guy named Tony in New York that operated the subways).

My first forum was at Danimation where I was JeriandMike (I didn't know about custom names.... I added that as a user name because that was my email address I shared with my girlfriend, now my wife). At about the same time, Cav asked me if I wanted to help out at his new site, Cav's RCT Depot. "Sure" I said, not knowing it would suck up a lot of my free time! I was the one who took screenshots, resized them, made thumbnails, etc. I did descriptions, ran contests, and showed one of my new parks to Cav. This park was the original Seven Wonders of the World. Cav said it was amazing and he wanted to post it. I didn't think anyone would be interested so I said "why not."

When Seven Wonders of the World was released, it instantly got about 2,000 downloads in the first week. By about two months, 10,000 downloads! I was amazed that this many people looked at what I created. After that, I released two earlier parks called Jeri Gardens and Everglade Park.

After working for a while at Cav's, I was modded at Danimation and changed my name to Mike Robbins. Working at two popular sites made me one of the largest figures in the game right up there with Cav, Dan (from Danimation) and a handful of other park makers.

After a long stint, Cav closed its doors. Steve Franks had his first track packs hosted there as well and we were both without a host for our stuff. Almost instantly, Red Phoenix asked me if he can host my parks (along with Steve's track packs) at his new site to get it going. RCT Station was born.

Me and Steve had a new home. While he worked hard to get new tracks up, I released park after park, each one more popular than the last. Along with PhilRCT, the four of us were the first real figures at the Station. In the first weeks, Madman and Water Monkey became members and are credited with getting the forums going. They would discuss non-stop and soon more and more members joined.

RCT Station was in full swing, danimation was going well, and I was at my peak when I released what was to be a giant at the time, my follow up to Seven Wonders, Seven Wonders of the World 2002. It had much of the same themes as the originl, but somehow seemed larger than life. There was even a 2003 bonus map.

Soon after Danimation wen't through it's little Civil War (original NEers know this story well, since it formed NE soon after) and just seemed to change for the worse. Dan said he would close it for good. So with that in mind, I asked member Termite if, and I said if Danimation did close, would he take his popular Guess the Coaster to the Station and be a staff member there (to help me with Guess the Ride). Well, he tattled to Alex (Alexandria at Danimation), Alex said I was plotting to steal staff from Danimation (paranoid? Yes), and I was fired from Danimation. Needless to say, Danimation was never the same after the new site NE was formed and Danimation went through changes.

To this day, Termite is still a little bitch I'm sure and Alex is a bitch. Period.

So I stuck to the Station, hosting many contests, Survivors, and being the head mod and released Virginia Creek. Busy, busy. As we know, RCT Station closed, twice. At the time before the Station closed, I joined RCT Masters too.

I continue to support NE and RCT2.com now. My Magnolia Gardens was the first RCT2 park at NE (like Iris said, something I can claim forever!!!) and Myths, Legends, & Folklore barely lost and got runner-up (RCTM Park).

Now, I'm no longer a premier park builder and my work is average at best, not great, but not too bad. I'm not really into solo parks anymore, focusing mostly on RCTM projects. I still might make another solo recreation, a follow up to my multi mapper Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

I can honestly say that I'm probably the second most downloaded RCT builder in history, next to Steve Franks (his track packs got huge download numbers). I'm also glad that I inspired so many.

Here is my park list, each park being a popular download (from first to last):

1. Jeri Gardens - Named after my wife and based on the Geoffrey Gardens scenario.

2. Everglade Park - Themed after the State I was living in at the time - Florida.

3. Seven Wonders of the World – This was my first park on the World Wide Web. It got 10,000 downloads in its first three months.

4. Beachfront Amusement Park - Idea came from what Cav (Cav's RCT Depot) told me where he took his kids to the Carousel on the Pacific Ocean.

5. Riverfront Amusement Park - This was the workbench I used as I hosted Cav's first contest. Jared Misner got first place and I released my version on Cav's a few days later.

6. Virginia Historic Park - Named after the State and its history that I grew up in. This was also my last Corkscrew Follies project.

7. Christmas Wonderland - My first Loopy Landscapes project that was actually an entry to an early RCT Station contest that never got off the ground before I became a staff member.

8. Emerald Point - My first good Loopy Landscapes project. It placed as a Bonus Spotlight at Danimation.

9. Castle Kingdom - Another workbench template I built on that I hosted for RCT Station. (Remember the 10 different coasters with medieval themed contest?)

10. Old Forest Lake Park - Started with Silver Knight on a Danimation Mod Park. The park was never released so I deleted the two other moderator’s sections and built from there since I liked my coaster so much.

11. Steve Franks Tribute Park - Map 1 and 2 - 20 of Steve's finest coaster recreations on two maps.

12. Seven Wonders of the World – 2002- 2003 - A follow up to the successful mega park originally released at Cav's RCT Depot.

13. Old West Mini Park – My first mini park.

14. Busch Gardens Williamsburg 2001 – 2002 – A double map park. This is my first recreation too.

15. Station Park 2002 – The first RCT Station mod park.

16. Hollywood Hills – Joint park with Kai Reichman and Mick Diebold. It was a hidden spotlight at New Element.

17. Chesapeake Bay Beach 1942 – 2002 – A historic amusement park throughout over 100 years of history.

18. Busch Gardens San Diego – A wide path park hacked to allow peeps to enter. This is my final RCT 1 project to be released.

19. Magnolia Gardens – This is my first RCT2 project. I basically used a lot of new themes and rides. This was a starter park to get used to the new features.

20. Pinnacle Valley – This is my first RCT Masters project that I worked on with The Judge.

21. Virginia Creek Theme Park – This is a remake of Virginia Historic Park from Corkscrew Follies and modeled after Paramount’s Kings Dominion’s design.

22. Myths, Legends, & Folklore – Second RCT Masters park with Mickbw51. Was Spotlight runner-up at New Element.

23. Asian Adventures – My first park with Wacky Worlds for RCT2. Also won “Vacation Park of the Month” at www.rct2.com on 20 December 2003.

24. Acorn Springs Resort – Third RCT Masters park with Mickbw51, Kai Bueno, rwadams, and Toon Towner. Was Spotlight runner-up at New Element.

25. Swiss Alpine Village Resort – Modeled after the Switzerland, Austria region. Ride names in German. (okay, so this wasn't so popular!)

26. Station Park 2003 - 2004 - The tribute to Station Park recently released at rct2.com.

27. Portmeirion Village - Modeled after the village in Wales under the same name. Coming soon to a VP near you.

Other projects:

- Involved in Masters Pallette and Masters Showcase.
- The double 256 x 256 mega parks, Universal's Hollywood Hills.

Possible solo:

- Busch Gardens Williamsburg 2004.

What I want to know, cos I remember diving into the rct community and seeing this before... is where is this park I downloaded ages ago, it had 3 or 4 sections (islands), and all I can remember is that one of the islands was a castle with 3-way dueling vekoma flyers in it. There was some kind of japanish area as well.... anyone know?

Oh, and mike, don't get raven started on the longest public history, he was around before the game was released I think.

I won't bore you with incessant ramblings, but I do remember visiting the station ages ago, having the highest excitement ride for a while at the rctuk ride exchange, and visiting a site called rctstuff that was pink and black. I didn't post on any forums though, tbh I wasn't aware that forums even existed...

Oh, and mike, don't get raven started on the longest public history, he was around before the game was released I think.

that's because raven is a nerd that would hang out on boards for games that haven't been released

Sort of like all those geeks that would flock to a Sammy Vs. Capcom board

*brought rct when it came out
*brought AA and then LL
*Never looked at any RCTsites then came along danimation.
*current spotlight was RUPE fell in love with it
* the the most shitty spotlight to my name with sunshine gardens
* made shit park after shit park
*danimation got boring and iris was looking for parkmakers for a new site so I applied
*got to be an NE parkmaker (best thing ever) also left danimation as it was a pile of shit
*been have the best time here at NE creating more shit parks after another
*And still I'm having fun creating parks and being a parkmaker and part of the NE community

Sorry theres not fuck loads of ramble but I'm sure your not that interested in reading the whole story.

I probably have the longest public history here. I got the game when it was released in March / April 1999 like a lot of people. My girlfriend and I saw it at Wal-Mart for $19.99.

That cracks me up!

^ You can see yourself out.