RollerCoaster Tycoon was the last of its kind.

00:00 Introduction
01:04 Chris Sawyer's Early Career
03:56 Transition to the PC
06:16 Transport Tycoon
08:52 RollerCoaster Tycoon
13:24 Departure
14:26 Game Industry Changes
15:57 Valediction

[Fanaticalight]

Chris Sawyer's programming skills was equal to that of John Carmack, it's insanity. That's not to mention how insanely optimized and timeless this game both in terms of running on pretty much any machine configuration and the communities it created that're still around today. It was also so universally available, you could get it in a cereal box back in the day. That's how I got my copy, and I still possess it to this day.

[SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

"Roller Coaster Tycoon was developed, almost entirely in assembly"

Having delved into assembly once for a programming class, this sentence utterly amazes me lmao. Sawyer is a madman to make a game that good in _assembly._

[reversal]

“Babe, wake up! Ahoy remembered his password!”

[MarcelVos]

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 remains to this day (thanks to OpenRCT2) the best theme park simulator ever created. Planet Coaster may have better scenery options, but in my opinion RCT2 is still a better theme park simulator overall.

[rednwhitecooper]

I never get tired of watching videos about RCT and learning how brilliant Chris Sawyer is.

The fact that me made $30M off RCT1 alone makes me happy. Well deserved.

[NKP]

Something I feel you should have addressed more is that RCT’s success as “a family game” was crucial. How many of you bought games as a kid and couldn’t play them because you only had your parent’s crummy desktop that they used to check email? I can remember getting flight simulator for Christmas and never played it after my first time because it ran like hot garbage on the gray Dell dinosaur everyone I knew owned. RCT never had those issues because it was so bare bones. RCT was magic on a CD and came to you in a cereal box or at the book fair. What parent looked at it and told you no?

Your video is still excellent. This is why I throw you a dollar every month, knowing you’ll deliver.

[mallrat]

It's pretty funny how RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was seen as "finally taking RCT into the modern age" when it first came out. But now, 20 years later, it's graphics and gameplay are old and dated. Meanwhile, 1 and 2 (especially 2, thanks to OpenRCT) look and play as great as ever, thanks to how timeless isometric games can be.

[hazard]

Could we please get a history on the pause menu? I feel like there is a lot of untold fascinating stuff there

[LordHonkInc]

The fact that this was all done in assembly still amazes me. It's like building an entire car with only hand tools because you used to build horse-drawn carriages and "how different could that really be, right?" xD

[chriserony]

You have to understand how incredible it is that RollerCoaster Tycoon was written in Assembly. It is a single step above pure machine language, and anyone who wants to keep their sanity would write in C, which is substantially quicker and ultimately translates to the same Assembly Code. The only advantage is that in pure Assembly you can meticulously control where memory is stored, which is how games that would absolutely not be able to be run on the tiny amount of ram in a 90s PC by today’s standards were able to have so much going on and run so flawlessly. (AI people walking around, multiple rollercoasters moving to physics) For us Software Developers, Rollercoaster Tycoon is like putting a man on the moon in a tin box. It’s a modern marvel and one of the greatest achievements of gaming kind.

[AtroLine]

Its crazy to think that in 2 decades bedroom coders still aren't completely dead Among us, balaatro, lethal company stardew valley, etc were all virtually made from 1-4 people and have found more success than some triple A games

[BlankPicketSign]

A wonderful tribute to my first ever PC game! I remember gleefully calling my mom into my room to show her my Rollercoaster, my laptop so big my tiny arms could barely handle it, so it always remained on a desk plugged up. I showed her the park, the people, everyone buying snacks and waving at the cute panda mascots walking around my park. Then I showed her my latest coaster, and we followed the cars as it turned and twisted, climbed and fell! The cheers of the people echoed by my mom's delight. Then the cars flew clear off the tracks, sailing high into the air, and CRASHED into a fireball of horrors! The screams of joy replaced by wails of agony and terror! And my mom Burst Out Laughing, and together we could barely speak as we laughed ourselves to tears! Me and her have always had a sick sense of humor!

Thank you for all the memories Chris Sawyer!

[AtomiicCoasters]

One thing to note about RCT is that, like Transport Tycoon, it's still an incredibly popular game to this day. It has its own open source version in OpenRCT2, which I would say is an even better recompiling than OpenTTD is. The new features and continued development of OpenRCT2 has made it still arguably the best amusement park builder game, alongside Frontier's Planet Coaster series and the independent Parkitect, a spiritual successor to RCT 1 and 2.

[BNoakville]

Learning that Locomotion is one of Ahoy's favorite games brings me such joy! I played RCT2 and Locomotion when I was little and I cherish those memories.

I feel like you would make a great video on Indie games as a whole, starting with Cave Story (or earlier depending on how you define an "indie" game) and ending at what we have nowadays.

Great content as always!

[CarelessFoolFallsFlat]

I really like all your retrospectives on the UK video game scene. Gives a fair bit of insight into a field I don't normally seek out information on.

[GANONdork]

The way this video ends with the games industry coming full-circle with the return of the "bedroom coder" (now colloquially referred to as the "indie developer") is such a nice touch.

[lautaro]

The fact that OpenTTD and OpenRCT exists can describe how impactful this man was, a genius. I was surprised to see the old games were smooth, most of old PC games suck because they're a choppy mess.

[nERVEcenter]

That animated Microsoft MASM graphic is the most underrated part of this video. Such a pleasant throwback to those classic 90's Microsoft product logos and art.

[gman]

Holy crap I just rediscovered your channel. I remember watching your black ops 1 gun review videos like a 14 years ago as a kid.

[nosferadu]

Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon were some of my favorite games as a kid. As an adult now, working as a game designer for the last 14 years, I am in utter awe at what Chris Sawyer achieved with these games. Programming in assembly means that iteration would have been hard and time-consuming. Nowadays, during prototyping and pre-production we go over countless iterations, yet despite that, 99% of what we make isn't nearly as good as what one guy cranked out - on his own - with no "do-overs" - 30 years ago. It just blows my mind every time.