83: Theme Park

Number 83
(72.4 points)
Theme Park
1995: 48 (42.4)
1996: 71 (30.0)

Before Rollercoaster Tycoon made a big deal of designing your own crazy rides, Theme Park was doing the exact same thing, but with a fair dose of humour.

At a time when other games had you managing cities, transport networks or playing as a god, Theme Park puts you in charge of exactly that: a theme park, with rides, attractions, entertainers, cafés and so on. There are a wide selection of rides to add to your park, and investing in research provides you with more, but arguably the most interesting element is the ability to design your own rollercoaster. You have to micromanage every aspect of the park, however, from the salt on your French fries to the price of your tickets. Should your park be successful, you can buy land in other countries and expand around the world, so there is longevity for the dedicated player.

I was able to get this loaded on an OCS machine, but there were graphical glitches that weren't present on an ECS machine. Of course, you'd be better off playing the AGA version, as in addition to the intro, it features much more graphical and sound effects, and perhaps a better variety of items to use in your park (I haven't played both versions enough to know). As for the actual game, I played it on PC quite a bit back in the day, but it's one of those simulations where the novelty wears off for me very quickly. There's just too much going on and not enough variety to keep me interested. It was very popular at the time, though, so maybe you could get more out of it.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(M4)(Disk 1 of 2)
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(M4)(Disk 2 of 2)[bootable]
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 1 of 4)[cr PDX]
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 2 of 4)[cr PDX]
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 3 of 4)[cr PDX][bootable]
Theme Park (1994)(Electronic Arts)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 4 of 4)[cr PDX][bootable]
Theme Park (1995)(Mindscape)[!] (CD32)