RCT Discussion / RCT History

Don't back down to him! As far as I'm concerned, Enigmatic deserves as much respect as [insert clever thing to say]!

QFTB-X was fun, really my kind of contest to, I took down Fenix, Voodoo and X-Sector

LMAO I remember that!!

We never really got on until QFTB-X if I remember rightly. I remember when I got knocked out by your entry I thought to myself "This rivalry is stupid, what have I got to prove?", I actually think that was a very important day for me, I learnt a valuable lesson of life. Once you beat me I opened my eyes and stopped hating your work, I began to appreciate it rather than look for reasons as to why it wasnt as good as mine, its a much more rewarding way to set about things.

I cant believe this post has been dug up, it was almost two years ago since I made it, wow how time flies!! Seriously!

Since starting this topic my life outside of NE has changed beyond belife, its really weird having a memory to compare my life now to my life then with. I mean I drive, I can legally go out and drink, I have a credit card, I've had one serious relationship (and escaped it - if anybody wants my ass ), I've got a full time jobc..... jesus.

Anyway I guess on topic, since my original post my NE life has totally changed too.... I no longer make parks to impress people, rather to impress myself and satisfy my curiosity, like I always think to myself "Oh I wonder what it would look like If I did this instead of doing what people normally do".... Im sure thats evident in my last few releases too.

Id like to look at my time from then to now in bullets, if you've continued reading this far then Im impressed. Firstly, I didnt really do much after making that post. I continued building my secret solo park but never finished it. Instead I shared it with some close parkmakers, Im pretty sure it influenced them alot as most of the ideas/concepts from my park have been used almost carbon-copied in several recent spotlights. Eventually I got a girlfriend and obviously all of my time was now hers, so no RCT untill I split up with her, but whilst we were together I picked up RCT3 which leads me to:

- Nemesis Recreation (RCT3) was my first real effort in RCT3 and IMO it is an absolubtly awesome rec. I'd give more credit to the game developers than myself for making the rec look authentic and realistic. I really, really enjoyed making this design.

I didnt really get many responses as I dont think people had RCT3 at the time. The video got a few comments but thats about it. Anyway, I eventually split with my girlfriend which leads us to:

- The Journey was meant to be a Philosophical journey through life, I've never put so much deep thought into anything in my life before, I actually analysed my life and feelings and conveyed them in RCT. Technically this design is poor, little in the way of architecture and landscaping, but the coaster layout was good and the meaning behind it was as good as I've ever give - cant ask more than that.

I was a little disheartened at not qualifying, but I can perfectly understand why I didnt as the design was, as I said, technically poor. I'm not looking for excuses by saying I dont think people 'got' it as to be honest I dont think it would have got me through even if people did 'get' it. I moved back to RCT3 and dabbled around with some ideas, nothing really took off, so I decided to go back to RCT2 which resulted in:

- Cultures design started out as me thinking "hmmm I wonder what it would look like if I did this instead of that" and it resulted in my faviorate piece of work by far. Everything in this design was fantastic from the unique layout to the detaiiled and increadibly chaotic theming. I was supposed to develop this into a park, but....

I started downloading the old LL scenarios and I stumbled across the Three Monkies park, I decided to have a crack at building my own set of three way racers as I've never done it before, and then I though I'd up the game even more by trying quads. So this lead to:

- The Road to World Cup which started purely as a challenge to myself, I started by building the switch overs just before the brake run. Then I built forward from there, so I guess I started just before the end I was really surprised with the outcome, I didnt expect the coaster designs to duel so well, because I wanted each coaster to be individual as well as a be apart of a team. I know the general thought with this design is that the theming let it down but thats not the point, the point is I wanted to build four dueling woodies with completely different layouts, and I achieved that. The theming which was there is all either meant to be funny (as in the dig at Liam Gallagher getting battered by the German Mafia)... or taking German landmarks and areas.

Then I decided to switch to RCT3 and decided to build another one of my "I wonder what it would look like" designs. This is where I am at now, and I must say that RCT3 is an extremely powerful tool, and I hope that along with Meretrix, I can take the game to its limits - but again my effort will only be a design.

SO the trend for me at the moment is to build designs which are interesting. Look out for my Tropical themed RCT3 design coming soon.

Until March 2008, Adonis /out

I never knew this topic existed, but now i know here goes:

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I first picked up RCT2 for christmas in 2003. But didn't start playing it until February, i thought it was a great game and a lot of fun so i googled it and found rct-competition.com, a british rct site which has a ton of downloads for custom scenery, expanding my abilities in the game further. I then found out about RCT2.com and so joined that too, tried hard to win the VP with two attempts, and ended up getting a VP-runner up with my first ever park, the unique little Diablo Creek park was basically just me experimenting with this new custom scenery, back then my two favourite parks were Tiumba Islands by Kumba and Titan, and Shady Oasis by Tyandor. Back when i used to think Kumba was good...

My second park was still when i was a member of rct2.com, an entry for the May Road Rally event which, to my extreme surprise won! Pagoda Paradise came 1st to a cracking entry from Phatage, which caused a bit of controversy if i remember, which i dont. I then began work on my second solo, a whole park themed around the prehistoric era, Jurassica was one of them parks that probably took a week to make... Not my proudest park, no accolades to show for it, cos the park itself is pretty shit.

I had already joined NE by this time, but never really posted or showed off my work. I started to post on there a little more often, and got involved in the QFTBX tournament, of which i drew out first round Artist... Talk about bad luck lol. I gave it a good go, and managed to lose by the tight margin of 4-3, PyroTechniX was one of them really weird parks where not even the creater knows what the fuck its supposed to be. Cool though. The finals for the RCT2.com Road Rally were approaching, and i needed to get a decent entry in to withstand the tough opposition of phatage and sixfrags. Isles Of Liberty finished 2nd which was quite a result for me, considering i thought i was going to get totally mauled. The park is very stereotypical, mainly because most of the information that i used on USA was based from episodes of the Simpsons...

I started work on a new solo called 'Tranquil Bay', but the file got corrupted and i had to cease work on it. However i started a new, new solo called Leviticus for some reason. I thought i would try the runner-up/spotlight at NE, unfortunatly it was not accepted because it was too small, i dunno but i think 2, 100x100 maps is quite a lot of work! However i tried for VP and it won, with a fantastic walkthrough from JKay.
The well-dodgy RCT-olympics came along next, and i thought i would submit this cool concept of an evil circus who turns guests into evil creatures to display as freaks in the circus. Circus Of Lost Souls unfortunatly was disqualified from the rct-olympics because the rules stated it required four rides minimum, which caused a whole lot of controversy because mine actually had 5 ride in it.

Next was H2H3, part of the flying germans team that went on to take the H2H3 title! In round 2, me and Leighx paired up to take on Phatage and someone else, we entered with the extremely cool looking Xenon, which chalked up the Germans first win. Me and X-sector were paired for the final game in the H2H3 finals, X did not get round to working on it so i thought i would finish it myself, took a while with the architecture type, and in the end i had to rush it a little (didnt really matter, we won anyway). The park was called Voodoo Loas and was based on some sort of weird african, voodoo theme. Has a cool 'shrunken heads' shop though.

I then tried the fusion survivor contest at RCTFusion, got to the final and lost... lol, starting to get used to this now. I then worked on Fusion club parks such as Mythologix, IW, and Japan. And participated in the RCT2.com Happy Holidays contest, with a small entry called Snowdrop, which i believe got one of the runner-up spots available. Not bad since it only took 2 hours to build!

The PT2 now came around.... I felt like i needed to be part of this, the biggest RCT2 competition in the world, and the concept of winning $100 pleased me greatly! So i set out my first ever planned piece of work! (hurray). Angelus Medetrina scraped through the Water Coaster round with some extremely tough competition from egg_head, geoff and leighx. It was a pretty nifty piece of work in my opinion, a bit 'samey' and monotoned, but it built up quite a nice rich, Roman atmosphere.

I felt that out of all my parks, there was nothin major, or a 'signature' piece of work. So i set out to build the best park ever, it could have been better, but it certainly could not have been any bigger! The 180x180 giant that was The Masterpiece got SRU at NE, which i thought was fair, but did cause controversy and some nifty discussions in the topic about this 'imaginary line' that formed a barrier from the Spotlight. Whilst i was making this, i thought i would make a design based on some work that me and Leighx had done earlier, Kurakku was made in under three days, in the school holidays though. It did win the design, which was cool.

So then it was time for the Pro Tour 2 final entry, the first two weeks i was on holiday, and never gave it much thought. I was playing around with the pt2 bench and made some stuff in the futuristic area, which led me to think that i could make some sort of time machine! So I spent some time planning each area (apart from the roman one for some reason), and came up with an entry to be proud of. Every ounce of effort and every little idea and detail i had went into this park, i didn't know that it would be a hit-or-miss effort at the time. I made the park based on how a peep would view it through their eyes, which i think is a great idea for when you build anything in rct, puts things into perspective for you. The Time Machine got sixth place in the PT2, which i had mixed feelings about really, im glad to get this far, although i am a bit gutted since i thought i could have made it further. Still, i did the best i could in the time i had and i am proud of my entry, i keep going back to look at it which i suppose is a good sign.

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And that brings me to now... The future you can expect a big solo, bigger than masterpiece, which i want to take my time on, and, most of all, want to get finished. And many other group projects i'm involved in...

Its been fun so far, and i've still got plenty left in me so expect more in the future!

-X-

My second park was still when i was a member of rct2.com, an entry for the May Road Rally event which, to my extreme surprise won! Pagoda Paradise came 1st to a cracking entry from Phatage, which caused a bit of controversy if i remember,

I entered that contest too! I didn't even get 2nd runner up though... Meh... It wasn't my best work though, so not a big deal, and it did get some recognition later.

Anyways, I actually preferred yours over Phatage's at the time, because it did fit the general Asian theme better and was excellent work. However, I think the reason there may have been some controversy over it was because Phatage took an unusual idea (a coaster in a fairly barren excavation site) and made it work really well, while yours was more generic. After all this time, I think I might like Phatage's a little more, but that's only because it was more memorable and original, but regardless, holding your own against Phatage after you'd just gotten started certainly was an accomplishment. And yours certainly was good, and was probably closer to what the judges were looking for too. Heck, it was what I was looking for too. In short, Phatage's was just very unconventional, so that gave him an edge in some peoples eyes, and less of one in others.

I started work on a new solo called 'Tranquil Bay', but the file got corrupted and i had to cease work on it. However i started a new, new solo called Leviticus  for some reason. I thought i would try the runner-up/spotlight at NE, unfortunatly it was not accepted because it was too small, i dunno but i think 2, 100x100 maps is quite a lot of work! However i tried for VP and it won, with a fantastic walkthrough from JKay.

What? It wasn't accepted even as a runner up? I suppose it was a little small, too small for spotlight I guess, but it seemed like the quality was more than enough for runner up. I always thought you'd just sent it to VP because you were more involved with Rct2.com at the time. Anyways, I was a judge for that park, so I got to know it pretty well (which affected my expectations for your PT2 entry, which I'll get to later).

I'm surprised you've actually been doing this for such a short time. You've definitely come a long way. In fact, in recent news, now you're a parkmaker, and after your fantastic work, you definitely deserve it. Congrats!

I'm working on my post for this topic at the moment.

mmm. My story is highly long and may take me a while to gather it but will do. It has a lot of ups and downs and what has bought me to what I am today. Some people will know what I mean.

LMAO I remember that!!

We never really got on until QFTB-X if I remember rightly. I remember when I got knocked out by your entry I thought to myself "This rivalry is stupid, what have I got to prove?", I actually think that was a very important day for me, I learnt a valuable lesson of life. Once you beat me I opened my eyes and stopped hating your work, I began to appreciate it rather than look for reasons as to why it wasnt as good as mine, its a much more rewarding way to set about things.

Glad I could knock some sense out of you

I have also really enjoyed your park, I loved your PT finals park and thought it was ranked to low. Looking foward to seeing more work from you.

Here we go... (prepare yourself)[oh not as big as I thought]

Okay my story starts way back further than some of you may even realise. It obviously starts in the year 1999, when I first got the game but that's not much since nothing apart from playing it on and off happened up until the year 2003. I joined my first site in 2003 which was rct compo. I registered on 29-October 03. Not much really happened the next day I registered at rct2.com then the day after again I registered at rct depot. Once again not much really happened for the next year or so, I would visit once a month and not much would happen, I wouldn't post or anything just read other peoples post. It wasn't until January 05 that I actually started posted in the community first post at rct2.com it was a poll asking favourite language, not very interesting but from that time on I would start visiting rct2.com once a week and maybe post. I soon became active in the forum games over there and other places. I was a good boy back here and there. I obviously rediscovered depot some time around then and started posting for a while. MightyMom was the one who greeted and answered all my questions, it felt so good to be there. I then recovered compo again in February of 2005, 23rd to be exact(joined NE day after) - I didn't like NE then because I thought it was too harsh and there was too much bad language. I started to become active there too aswell. Well life goes on as it does. As far as I can remember March was your average month not much really happened. Well along came April and this is what bought me to NE again with the april fools trick. I was totally convinced never having done it before and tried to crusade and defend the world of NE. That day I was running round my house like a loser screaming to my parents that I am trying to stop a hacker but thats just stupidity with my little knowledge. I had made a number of friends in the rct world at this time. trav had PM'd me at compo about the hack and told me that the person doing the 'hack' was Adix well since I had no idea who he was at the time I decided that I would try and stop it. I feel really stupid now. Well after that was all over and recovered I had moved on and on the 8th of April decided to do an interforum racing challenge of which the old topic is here. It really went all out of the window. Well if I remember correctly it was around this time or maybe later that you all started hating me for my shitty posts in the shit pile and so on. Just like you used to with MachChunk done that with me and I know why, although can't check back up on it to be sure since that forum has gone. My friend list had grown a bit. Around april I also had Wildmans my site(but that don't matter, since it soon went down)

BTW I HATE PARAGRAPHS/CAN'T BE ARSED

I am really sure there is loads I have missed out. But oh well. Around May time late May, I started playing around helping riven3d with a few things, talking to him and such yeah... (just trying to rejog memory) Custom Scenery in rct3 around beginning of April which was good for me well nm that.

It was nearing the end of March and it was my half term , before that I had been banned at depot for being an ass... But that's different. Also one day sometime around this I was having a conversation on MSN with RCTCheater, trav and mintliquer doubt you know them except the middle guy, we were like all pissed at depot for various reasons, so I suggested(jokingly to try and hack them) We didn't really go anywhere at all with it, but while we were at school RCTCheater 'apparently sent a virus to them at depot' when actually all he had done was just go there and spam and leet. This is while we were all at school. trav had handed the conversation over to X250 who handed it into the staff room at the depot, got in not much but it was weird. And then there was Rohn's rant about them at that place on the 31st and I had to join in it was a boost for me and it made me feel really good for a number of days during my half term(btw i had worked on loads of parks then given up all the time but none actually really stand out at all) I was like staff at rctrevalutions at this time I think not sure. Oh I remember exactly why I completly fucked up at the depot forums now with saying hawk is gay and all that, it was because of the rct olympics something that he had done then had really ticked me off so I felt like doing that sort of thing. I also remember this ->>http://rctresource.c...topic=110&st=10

that also happened and got me banned from rctrevalutions! Umm what else, sorry about this not got a great memory, would be surprised if you have remembered all this/read it all Well I think not much happened in the later months that I can really remember if you know tell me, well in August time went on Holiday got back and lost interest in RCT alltogether and played sims2+sim city. I also remember getting banned from rct compo at one time and then made a petition and they let me back. X250 was sad to see me banned and that was when i first started talking to the cool dude, can't remember when this was though. Well after not playing for a long time I came back as a different me, and the first thing I decided to do was go by a new name as I was tired of joshiejack as it sounds like a two year old so I went and tried to get my name changed to blah188 wherever I could. I tried to do so at rct2.com ( I saw from what someone else had done) so I registered a new name and then asked openly if they could remove my old account but they said no and gave me a warning on the joshiejack account so I just said screw it and then said [insert whatever it was here, devised by trav] I also tried the same thing at rctmart and they were polite about it there and explained why so I decided to stick with it. so much so little time. Woah been typing for 1 and a half hours now!
There's other sites and things that have happened but not really that big. I also joined a site called UTZ around one time can't remember still active their now.

Infact I was banned again from rct compo for a while so when i came back I re-registered as blah188 and they were okay with that. I don't think much happened over the next few months in terms of special points but then there was that one day that really hit me and that was 10 Dec 2005. This was the day that I took the risk and decided to join http://www.rctmiracles.net little did I know that it would become my alltime favourite site, not because of the great parks like NE but just the whole atmosphere of it and how welcome I feel and for little reason feel special at still now. I was the first english guy to brave that foreign site and since then it has been amazing they had an international forum and also added an english general area later. I have been trying to get other english people to join me there but it has really been difficult as they are scared off by the larger in number dutch forums. The fact is in my experience dutch people are the nicest people to talk to online, they are always cheery and nice(except the odd few) It has been a fun experience there I also advertised a park I wasn't gonna show anywhere else till January 06 there but that never really happened since I really gave up on the rct scene the game to play bored me, but to see other peoples work was something I enjoyed more so.

Around late December/early January discovered the game city life, but that doesn't matter this is RCT! RCT world really ended around mid February where all interest in playing rct3 was lost and I started playing sim city 4 again and am still doing that now. Also just over/under two weeks ago something terrible happened in our family(not wasting time talking about it[if wanna here PM me]) Also I had to reformat and stuff. And am moving next week.

I know it's been a boring story and I will be shocked if anyone even reads this post so I can just say I wasted an hour and 3/4 but it has not just been a journey but an emotional one there has been so many ups and downs and there is so much I have missed out/can't remember. But if i was able to remember/type it alI would have wasted about 24 hours of my life and 10 of yours. SO that's it. I really feel crap cos there is something vital I forgot.

oh and miracles got me posting the fastest I had ever posted and I recommend you guys all join, as it gets lonely when talking to yourself in the english forum MIRACLES

Edited by blah188, 04 March 2006 - 09:10 PM.

I'm pretty sure I've posted something like this before, but that was a long time ago. As you'll see later, this post has been a long time coming. And it's just long in general. I'll forgive you if you don't read all of it. But only if you have a good excuse ... . If you want the simplified version, you can just skim over the timeline on my site. Also, keep in mind that I've gotten most of the dates and times from the RCT/CF/LL years mixed up, so a lot of stuff might be out of order on this.

A Prologue
For as long as I can remember, I've really enjoyed theme parks. Some of my earliest memories are from going to Disneyland and going on the People Mover over and over again. I remember I would even draw all of Disneyland's layout on a bunch of paper when I got back home. I'd also go to Knott's and Castle Park quite a bit, so I have a lot of early memories from those places too. Poor Wacky Soapbox Racers... At home, I'd even to try and make monorails out of Legos and waterslides out of... I don't really remember, but I tried to make them out of something. But anyways, you get the picture. I liked theme parks a lot. Though I was still pretty scared of roller coasters up until around 7th grade.

The Beginning - Rct/CF
It was sometime in 1999 that I got RollerCoaster Tycoon from a book order. I'd seen some reviews for it in various computer gaming magazines, and aside from the fact that I enjoyed stategy games, something about it called to me. And not just a unhealthy desire to make rides crash, as with most people. But anyways, I got it, immediately installed it on my computer, and low and behold, it actually worked! Unlike the polar opposite Rct3, Rct was still simple enough that it worked on my long outdated computer (of course, now I have a much better computer for Rct3, but it just barely runs). A month or two later, after much coaster building and scenario making, I got the expansion pack, Corkscrew Follies, for Christmas. I think in the long run, that may have been one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten, because it really got me to keep playing RCT. Anyways, I don't remember exactly how things happened around this time, but I assume at some point I found Danimation, and I do remember that the first skilled Rct park I saw was Faultline. I was so amazed with the concept, and that such a fantastic park could've been built with what I'd previously been using just to beat scenarios. However, like I said, I don't remember much about this period, but I assume I didn't do a whole lot about it, and I eventually lost some interest in RollerCoaster Tycoon for a few months. I think this was also because around this time I got a new computer, and I had let someone borrow my Rct1 disk, then they moved away and I never got it back, so I couldn't install it on the new computer. However, it's possible I may have actually gotten more into Rct before this happened, but I'm not certain. I think I was still mostly just going through scenarios. Also, as a side note, it was RollerCoaster Tycoon that also got me interested in roller coasters, as I had to do a project for my 8th grade English class, and I chose roller coasters, largely because of the game and a growing interest in coasters.

The Resurgence - LL Years
Sometime in 2000, I believe, I started hearing about the new expansion pack, Loopy
Landscapes, and how it was going to be filled with new features, like waterfalls. Anyways, I found out that it wasn't that amazing, but I was still excited and I went out and bought it, along with a new copy of Rct (oh, how I suffered for my art!). It may have been before this, but I think it was around this time that I really started getting into parkmaking (if I still had that Rct disk I might be able to find out for sure). But anyways, I hunted down Danimation again, and joined there, though I doubt anyone remembers me, because I didn't post that often, and I didn't release much of anything. I first started some kind of megapark with most of the typical areas, such as a space, jungle, and boardwalk area. It wasn't very good, and I kept restarting, so I eventually mostly gave up on it. I also started work on a Six Flags: Hawaiian Paradise. I think it was also around this time that I started XI's: Barrett Gardens (or it may have just been Barrett Gardens) and it was themed to areas in my neighborhood. Zoinks tested SF: Hawaiian Paradise for me and gave me a lot of helpful suggestions. I ended up rebuilding most of it later, and it was eventually rebranded XI's: Hawaiian Paradise. I think I originally came up with the Xcoaster International: Parks and Design chain because I think I saw other park chains on D-net and I was trying to emulate them. At some point I also sent in an entry to that "Balls to the Wall" wooden coaster contest at D-net (The one where Buster got first AND second place. Grrrr.). I made "The Excavator," which I was really, really proud of, but it didn't get any attention when I released it, so I assume it wasn't that great. I remember it did have a second lift hill, so that probably detracted from it a bit. Around spring of 2000 I started work on XI's: Odyssey Experience, which later became one of the only LL parks I didn't abandon or restart. Meanwhile, I was still working on Barrett Gardens off and on and I eventually created a small Arthur C. Clarke section of the park. I realized I still had a lot of ideas for it, so I started the Arthur C. Clarke themed XI's: Millennium Adventure.
So you can see why I never got much of anything released in my LL years, except for maybe some early versions of XI's: Hawaiian Paradise.

The Later LL Years
Around the second or third rebuild of XI's: Hawaiian Paradise, midway through XI's:
Millennium Adventure, and near the beginning of XI's: Odyssey Experience (which I started work on really slowly, so I only had a few of the entrance areas done at this point), I started to get decent at LL. I slowly got even better, and eventually grew to really dislike most of what I'd gotten done of XI's: Millennium Adventure, though I continued working on it anyway. I believe it was around this time that D-net started going through it's long, slow death, everyone left for here, and no one really told me what was going on, so I stuck around for the finale. In December 2001 I started work on XI's: Santa's Playground for the Dnet Christmas spotlight but I only got about two sections done before the deadline, so I vowed I would finish it and submit it the following year. It was probably the first park I'd started that was of higher quality from start to finish. In 2002 I finished up XI': Odyssey Experience after beginning work on it again after a long hiatus. I'd planned on submitting it to D-net's Spotlight v.2, which was now voted upon by members of the site. The parks were still decent, so D-net was still a ways away from death, but it was going downhill. Anyways, for some reason or another it never got submitted, though I did submit one of the later versions of XI's: Hawaiian Paradise, but it didn't do so well. Honestly, it still wasn't that good; I was relying on XI:OE for my big entrance. Anyways, I assume the reason I never submitted XI:OE was either that they stopped the user voting version of the Spotlight, or Rct2 came out. Either way, at this point D-net was essentially on it's last legs. However, I must admit that my LL skills just before Rct2 came out were pretty good. I was really happy with how the second map of XI:OE turned out, as it was supposed to be the entrance plaza and parking lot for the park, which I hadn't made room for originally. I felt it was easily my best work in LL. By the way, sometime after this, I must have let someone borrow my Rct disk, and it became lost again. Later, I needed to reinstall it, since it stopped working on the only computer it was installed on, but alas, no disk, no install. If I ever see it for five dollars maybe I'll pick it up... again...

D-Net's Deathbed
Now Rct2 was out, and it was when I first started getting noticed. D-net was moving onto it's third version of the spotlight, which was basically where they had some kind of goal that you were supposed to design a park for in a month or so. The first one was for a Halloween themed park for October, but for some reason I didn't enter. The second one,in November, was for an Asian themed park. For this I created XI's: Asian Excursion, and I spent just over a week on it. I didn't win, and there were about 9 entries, several of which were pretty good, for the time. However, this is where I started to get really fed up with D-net. You see, out of these nine or so entries, there were probably about 5 that I would consider pretty good quality for the time. However, the park that won was not one of those five. It seemed like the person judging the contest couldn't decide between the decent entries and instead just went with one of the mediocre ones as the winner. Anyways, most of the people commented on this and said that they really much preferred my entry, so even though I didn't win, I felt like the unofficial winner. So that was encouraging. The next month it was December again, and I was ready to finish up XI's: Santa's Playground for that month's competition. However, unlike the previous Christmas competition, they had a workbench, so my park would be disqualified. I finished up a converted Rct2 version of it and sent it in, and of course it was disqualified, but it got some very nice comments, so I was pleased. I think it was also around this time that I made "Time's Arrow," a 4D design for the official multidimension coaster contest being held by Hasbro Interactive. I got a RollerCoaster Tycoon board game for that. Anyways,by spring of 2003 they had another competition, just an open ended one to create a park in a certain amount of time. I decided to try make a restarted Rct2 version of XI's: Hawaiian Paradise, but I only finished about half of it for the competition, so I entered it sort of as a preview thing. It didn't win, which I guess was fair since it was unfinished, but at this point I started to lose interest in the site. Unlike the previous v.3 spotlight contests, this one only had about 3 entrants, and interest in Rct was waning. I think I mostly just worked on XI:HP for the next few months, D-net eventually became FluxD, and around October of 2003 I noticed that Rct2.com was holding an scary movie park competition. I'd been planning on leaving D-net for for New Element for a while, but I figured this would be a good stepping stone. Plus, I had a lengthy introduction detailing my Rct history (much like this!) that still needed to be completed before I felt I could be accepted here. So that began my exodus to Rct2.com, finally leaving behind the now dead-and-buried remains of D-net.

Rct2.com Years
Now I started spending more and more of my time at Rct2.com. I built Xcoaster Int's/Price Amusements: House on Haunted Hill (no, it wasn't a collabo) for the October contest, and it didn't place, but it was great to at least have some excellent parks kicking my butt now. Also, this was the time that I started my freewebs website, so that's how I started getting a better record of exactly when I started different parks. In November Rct2.com started the Road Rally competitions, with the first to be set in Britain. The only difference from now was that we had a choice of sizes in workbenches, eith 50x50, 75x75, or 100x100. Being the over-achiever that I am, I started building XI's: Britainia on the 100x100 bench. However, though I got a fair amount done, and built my first good, full sized hyper coaster, I didn't finish the map in time, presumably for the same reason no one else did, because the map I'd chosen was just too big to finish in time. So the first Road Rally competition went down in history as having no winners. However, in January they had the second one, this time limited to a 50x50 map and with the theme region being Scandinavia. I entered XI's: Scandinavian Journey, I won, and I was really happy to finally officially win something. I'd been registered here for a while before that, but that was the first park I released here that I got some comments for (I think I'd also released XI/PA:HoHH here, but I didn't get much feedback). Of course, a majority of the comments were debating whether or not it was okay to have snow in a Scandinavian park. I agree that my view of Scandinavia was a bit flawed, especially in some of the archy, but I still don't think the snow was such a problem. Anyways, that park was what finally started to establish me in the community. It was also around the time I was building XI:SJ that I was invited to join the Recreation Expansion Set (RES), and I happily accepted. I started work on a Disney's California Adventure recreation, and had plans to also make Knott's Berry Farm, and some rides and scenery. I got some great work done on DCA, mainly around the entrance and the very beginning of Condor Flats, but due to some disputes between the people running the project, the RES was cancelled. I haven't worked on my DCA recreation since, but I may consider taking it up again, since the work in it is still of high enough quality that it blends with my current style. In April 2004 I visited Europe for the first time since I was around seven, and that was inspiring, especially my visit to Europa Park, whose stylings I would emulate in parts of my next two parks. Anyways, in May 2004 I made XI's: Legacies of India for the May Road Rally. I was a little disappointed that I didn't place at all, but it wasn't my best work, so I didn't hold any hard feelings over it. Ruin Raiders was largly inspired by some twisted combination of Eurosat, Euro Mir, and Poseidon, along with an inversion. After that I began to restart XI's: Millennium Adventure, now with the intent of making it on two maps, as two sister parks, one of which would be named XI's: Eon Odysseys. The Rendezvous with Rama ride was also inspired largely by Euro Mir. I eventually lost interest in trying to make two maps, so I decided I'd just try and put all the best ideas into one map. I've been working on this park off and on since then, and I recently resized the map and decided to make it less sprawling, so that I might have a chance at finishing it. I think it was also around this time that I started to feel accepted here, and slowly began to start coming here more often. In July 2004 I entered in the Taj Mahal building from XI's:LOI for the 2004 Rct2.com Structures Convention Structures Challenge in the Famous Landmarks category, and it won, thus making the park capable of winning something. However, all evidence that I won was lost, since the park underwent one of it's poop-outs around then, and the page was lost. In August I finally released XI's Odyssey Experience, though I no longer have any way of viewing it. In August I also started constructing The Hammer of God for a Rct2.com hyper coaster contest. It was a coaster that was going to be in XI:EO, but I figured it could work as a preview of the park. It won runner up in the competition.

Rct3 and Beyond
Around the time Rct3 was released in October 2004 I had already had much of a new "weird" park planned out, and I started working on it in Rct3. However, it just took forever to get nowhere, and though Rct3 would've been good for all the darkrides, it was really hard to build it, so I went back to Rct2 and restarted the park in there. Also, around Christmas 2004 I started planning out a new park, originally without intentions to actually build it, but the more I thought about it the more excited I got about it and one night I started to build it. However, I quickly lost interest, but the idea remained with me. In January 2005 for the Spanish Road Rally, I made XI's: Espanola (Espana would have made more sense, I know, I know), and it was really rushed near the end, but it got 1st runner up. Phatage gave me a lot of support on it, though I didn't really mind that it didn't win.

New Element Designs Pro Tour 2
You know, I'd actually planned on entering a prelim entry for the first Pro Tour. Yeah, I was considering either using the 2001 ride idea from XIEO or making a Minority Report themed design. The thing was though, at the time I wasn't really involved at NE, I was just still trying to make the transition over. Anyways, back to the PT2. Once the Pro Tour 2 was announced, I almost immediately realized that I needed to get in so that I'd have the proper motivation to build the park I'd started planning around the previous Christmas. Plus, I figured if I got in, there would be enough pressure to finish a park that I'd actually manage to finish one, for once. So I started planning my Prelim entry. I had a few ideas, one of which I didn't use only because I realized it'd work much better in my PT2 park. I had also originally considered a "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" liquid coaster, a "Clockwork Orange" 4D, an inverted version of Fire Mountain, which I would've done, except for lack of time, an unusual bridge, and a few other things, some of which were based on themes I'm using in other projects, or I might use for designs. I ended up making Fire Mountain, and winning the Steel Coaster Prelim, though it was a somewhat controversial win. Since then, I've spent all my Rct time since the PT2 bench has been released working on my entry. Now we're just waiting to see where it'll place.

The Future
I still plan on finally making a version of XI's: Eon Odysseys that I'm happy with. I'd also like to finish that "weird" park I was working on, but I'm having a little trouble really picturing exactly what I want. I probably just need to do more research and concept sketches for it first. I may restart XI's: Hawaiian Adventure after I go back to Hawaii this summer. Hopefully that one won't take so long, since it'd be largely landscaping, and landscaping usually doesn't take me a whole lot of time. I also have a few other projects that I've been thinking about, but I should probably try to keep them on paper for now, since I already have so many other projects I'd like to do. Oh, I'd also like to whip out a few designs, since I've yet to release much specifically for NE, as opposed to Rct2.com, where I've participated in several of their contests.

That was only about 5 pages in Word, single spaced. Heh. Heh… That's like two essays.

>=( at Fire Mountain.

just kidding! i probably wouldn't have finished an entry for pt anyway. neat write up though.

It's funny reading all the old posts, especially mine from the first page almost two years ago! Sadly, there's nothing new to add to my history......yet. One of the projects I listed is still alive, three years in the making!

Mike! Snibbor Ekim!

Yea its cazy man. Back in the old days huh.

I started playing a while ago. I slowly built a lot of hype around me until I was one of the top 10 pure LLers who played. I have work (uncredited) in a runner-up, and have collabbed with 3 or 4 parkmakers at one time or another. I also had (at the time), one of the most anticipated projects existing (each screen created multiple pages of replies), and was part of the club that built a lot of controversy as a so called Dynasty.

...until I disappeared for no reason. And I'm back.





If you know who I am... keep it to just you.

Edited by Trajan, 27 July 2006 - 10:03 PM.

Wow this is a great thread.

I won't write huge paragraphs, just some bullets.

-Got RCT. Downloaded the official site competition entries...got the benches and started making my own. Had highest excitement rating contests with my friend on those benches.

-RCT Station. Entered January 02 contest...got 2nd. Lost to Mantis! Entered more contests. Became a mod. Good times.

-Getting my shit wrecked when I saw UIX. I had never seen hacking, and for someone to just suddenly see that park blew my mind.

-Started RCTUltimate, scoured the forums. Themeparkmaster, AdamRCT(scarface), CoasterWizard, Kiddo,Drew some of the original members. CoasterRCTNick applied like each week, and sucked, but kept improving. He then got in, got amazing, and went on to become morticiian/ablaze.

-Made Paradise Falls with AdamRCT. Fun. Some more RCTU parks.

-RCTU expands into RCT2. Voodoo and Dave (Vicenzia Hills...never finished but the first great RCT2 park I'd seen). We get Thorpedo, Aeroglobe breif participation from Prince Ashitaka and Butterfinger. Also I think either John or Slob or both were in? Of course also Leighx, Artist, and Turtle.

-At some point, I got lovelife advice from ToonTowner. I still have the pm's. Lol reading them now. Thx Toon.

-Also at random points, I would become overly competitve with my club. I would get in trouble with just about every other club for 'stealing' members. I also butted heads with Iris for I can't forget why? Something about Titan and how Iris wasn't going to make him a parkmaker for some reason or another and how Iris was going to be biased against RCTU and not let our parks get spotlight or something like that. Lol.

-Went to college, lost interest in parkmaking. Decided to merge with RCTI coz I liked AustinPowers and we could share the administrative load. A lot of my RCT1 parkmakers were becoming innactive, so it was a good move and RCTFusion was born. I left RCTF in late Spring 05, looks like AP and his mom Becky have been keeping things going though. Thanks!

Edited by gymkid dude, 28 July 2006 - 02:21 PM.

wow!
how come i missed this topic back then?

iris, that was a great post. very interesting and full of insights for someone who never was at danimation.
natelox, too, just wow.

i might try myself at a huge post too.

Ed, i wanna see yours!

side note, i feel like deleting all of that enigamtic crap. just doesn't belong in here.

Is there a reason for enigmatic's IP matching with Croky's?
Anyway I realise I never made known my appreciation for Iris' post (thanks to guljam's, uh, novel) so here it is: great post, Iris.
I'm not sure i'd be able to remember my whole RCT History. I wonder if I still have those mantis enterprises files lying around somewhere...

Well i got RCT1 AA & LL for a christmas present, i was very young at the time. I had always been into rollercoasters and theme parks so i fell in love with the game straight away and made a shit load of crap parks but imo they were so great and i loved them (back then anyways ) i never really got into any sort of commuinity or anything. RCT1 and my love for it died after awhile then i started seeing previews for RCT2 and i suddenly got hooked again, i got RCT2 like the second day it came out. I played around with it for awhile and i was so happy it had the ability to build a real giga One day in the summer i think i was so bored and had nothing to do so i browsed the internet, came across www.rct2.com and www.rctcompetition.com instanly fell in love with the parks, custom scenery and the whole forum posting/advertising deal, i was addicted after that, i had a friend that also loved rct (LeighX) told him about forums and that, he also fell in love with them. We started playing together got a duo park going where we would both build architecture and try to build good coasters it was going great i remember the park it was named "demon park" lol and featured all different coasters named after demons. We both joined New Element at the same time his name being LeighX and mine Nemesis Chris, NE amazed us, the spotlights, designs, competitions and the advertising district as we were both very very new to rct a load of people inspired us. The main park i remember when coming here was Deanosrs' Dolphin Park. I saw everyone had signatures and i wanmted one Deano offered to make me one and he told me to use AIM and how to make signatures not long before that i was talking to a load of different people from NE. I soon got into graphics and started making signatures for myself and i was improving with rct2 ALOT, i started so many parks that never got finished including BGSA, Ports of Alas, Duo with Deano, Duo with leighx and some design. I started building more and got offered a place in the first Pro Tour, i was so happy and i completed my entry for it, i came like third to last but i was happy. Not soon after that did Gymkid ask me to join RCTU i was now SOOOOOOO happy, i was in a club haha at the time it felt great. I soon made friends with Voodoo after that, he really taught me how to play the game and develop my architecture, not long after that i would imatate his style because i loved it so much which of course was the wrong thing to do but i still did it. After that Voodoo left and i wanted alot from NE and i became a proper arsehole on the forums and soon was hated by the whole community esp by Jkay. About 10-11 months passed and i returned under a fake name "Fable" but that didnt last long so i returned as Nemesis Chris, told everyone i had two parks in the works but no one wanted to know, they were still very pissed with me, so i got on with the parks and really tried. I had grown up alot you see so i sorted all my shit i started with the random people that hated me and funny enough me and Jkay became very good friends, used to talk about music and what not for hours. Anyways i finally released my first solo Busch Gardens Europe and it recieved Super runner up. I was very happy now i had finnaly been accepted back into the community and it felt great. About a month or so later my second park that i had been working on got finished Ports of Magia and won spotlight and i got offered a parkmaker spot, now i was EXTREMELY happy i had always wanted a parkmaker spot and a spotlight and now i had grown up and really got into some rct i had recieved both. Not long after that another solo from me came out Islands of Enchantment which also won spotlight and i was very happy with it. After that i recieved a design and got offered a place in PT2 but after 3 solos and a design i felt i needed a short break from RCT but then my computer like exploded and life got very busy. I was cut off from the community for ages, but i got a new computer and here i am now. New solo on its way and H2h which by the way is the first time after about 4-5 years of being here im actually taking part in h2h and i love it.

Anyways im glad i found NE, definetly had given me something to do, taught me alot and i have made some great mates here. Never thought Rollercoaster Tycoon could have so much to it and be so fun.

Chris

-Started RCTUltimate, scoured the forums. Themeparkmaster, AdamRCT(scarface), CoasterWizard, Kiddo some of the original members. CoasterRCTNick applied like each week, and sucked, but kept improving. He then got in, got amazing, and went on to become morticiian/ablaze.

-RCTU expands into RCT2. Voodoo and Dave (Vicenzia Hills...never finished but the first great RCT2 park I'd seen). We get Thorpedo, Aeroglobe breif participation from Prince Ashitaka and Butterfinger. Also I think either John or Slob or both were in?

Those were the fuckin' good ol' days! Do you know by chance whatever happened to RCTLL Revival? I remember Nick posted the topic title as "RCTU Dismantles" and then announced the starting of the project and I think the RCTF merger inside it.

Edited by Trajan, 28 July 2006 - 12:18 PM.

Those were the fuckin' good ol' days! Do you know by chance whatever happened to RCTLL Revival? I remember Nick posted the topic title as "RCTU Dismantles" and then announced the starting of the project and I think the RCTF merger inside it.

I know who you are now.

Wow. There many many an episode revolving around you.

As for Revival, I have no clue.

Edit: LOL you guys remember RCTU:P? LOL how pompous was I to make a club to 'train people' until they were good enough for RCTU. Looking back the whole thing doesn't look like the best idea...

Edited by gymkid dude, 28 July 2006 - 02:17 PM.

Kiddo. I could have sworn he was a Parkmaker here at one time.

Edited by OLE, 28 July 2006 - 02:21 PM.

I know who you are now.

Wow. There many many an episode revolving around you.

As for Revival, I have no clue.

Edit: LOL you guys remember RCTU:P? LOL how pompous was I to make a club to 'train people' until they were good enough for RCTU. Looking back the whole thing doesn't look like the best idea...

Episodes... like what? If it was because I just sorta left off the face of the earth, then yeah, I fucked up big there.

Yes, I remember U:P. It took forever to advance out of that thing, and I started around 10 new projects trying to get out of that one (finally did it with Alpine Ridge). Maybe it was pompous or whatever, but I remember me and the people who were in it worked SO hard to get out and into RCTU, that it might've been a good move after all.

Hehe, I just thought of Xcite for the first time in a while, too.