So to pass the time lately I've been playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. I didn't play 2, and I had the very original when it came out. Regardless I do say its an addicting game.

Since I'm a realism freak, I first started comparing coasters to real life coasters. Surprisingly, the game can mimic a lot of real life coasters. I created a freefall coaster like Superman Escape at six flags magic mountain. I set the distance, height, and take off speed to the real coaster (http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/SupermanTheEscape.aspx) and it surprising mimic'd the coaster. I then created a reverse chain lift coaster that mimic'd Boomerang at Knotts Berry farm. Though the limitations of the game wouldn't let me do it exact, it came out pretty close. (http://www.coastergrotto.com/coaster.jsp?argId=103).

The difference. The difference is the rider's reaction. The game rates your coasters, among other things,on a 0-10 scale of excitement, intensity, and nuasea. Creating real life coasters will get up to 8 excitement rating. To get above that you must go beyond the reality of what is possible in real life. Some of my coasters I have to tune down to keep them realistic. This means removing 80 mph loops, 150 mph turns, and prolonged high G forces. Adding in breaks and block breaks where appropriate makes the ride funner, more realistic, but worse in game stats.

One of the problems I encountered building in-game coasters is realistic speeds seem slow and G forces are hard to keep realistic. The traditional standards for G forces is that you can not exceed 6g for more than 1 second. So I am able to keep true to these rules, but it is more challengling then just completing the game scenerios.

In conclusion the challenge for me in the game is not getting an excitement rating in the 9s, but creating realistic rides that would be fun and safe to ride in real life.

I have started to fraps some of my coasters and uploaded my first youtube video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3zXTDaCbHE&feature=PlayList&p=C07FE3750C...

Let me know if link doesn't work.