What do you guys think is the best one? I see quite a few out there now. My girlfriend/fiancee picked up the Sim Themepark (without asking me about it) and it seems sucky and for kids.

Your best bet would be Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Agreed.

I love this game and have completed several of the parks.

But what I would really like to do is just design parks, with no game objective. Just sort of a creative exercise. So are there any codes, cheats or easter eggs you know of where I could turn off the time, money and visitor satisfaction aspects of the game?

Also, I think many theme parks are missing out on a great marketing opportunity here. I would love to be able to develop a park in Rollercoaster Tycoon with lands themed as they are in Disney parks or especially, the Busch Gardens parks. I would love to see a Busch Gardens-Williamsburg add-on package so I could have different sections of my park have national themes (England, Italy, Germany, France and now Ireland) and use some of their signature rides like the Loch Ness Monster and the Big Bad Wolf.

Theme park addict,
Darin

I vote for Rollercoaster tycoon

I never played Rollercoaster tycoon, but Theme Park, I think one the first games like this, is a lot of fun too.

I would also like to know if there is any way to just build parks without having to worry about objectives. I think alot of games would benifit from options like that. I bought Pharoah and there are several custom missions where you can do this. It's fun seeing you're city as large as space available and more people than you thought was possible. If a theme park game could do that I think I would be hooked.


ShadowHawk

For those who want a free mode. Trainers guys, trainers. Tryw http://www.danimation.com and look around in their forum for RCT. You'll find all you need to know about trainers.

RC Tycoon is great. It also doesn't run in 3D, so it can be played on "lesser" machines without everything moving sluggishly (thought I recommend at least 266+ with a decent card). The rollercoaster design system in RCT is also more complicated (if occasionally counter-intuitive), and thus more fulfilling than the simple "point & drag" system of Theme Park or even SimCoaster. When you create a working coaster in RCT, it feels more like a true accomplishment.

SimCoaster, if your machine can handle it (it's barely playable on my PII266) is pretty fun, and the first-person options are neat. I would suggest this instead of ThemePark if you're looking for a more graphically snazzy theme park sim with managerial/research/pricing options.

I do wish Tycoon had a "free design" stage... I always feel confined within the time limits of the scenarios (most of which I cannot pass! - I'm not too good at sims in general)

Steve

OK, check out:

www.avault.com

This link is directly to the Rollercoaster Tycoon cheat page. These codes only work for the unexpanded version of the game. There are pages on avault for both the Corkscrew Follies and Loopy Landscapes expansions.

Rollercoaster Tycoon has not been touched in the Theme Park game genre. For those interested in special parks/rides check out:

rollercoastertycoon.com

I think I downloaded a whole park based on some park in England, but I'm not sure. They have all kinds of rollercoasters that you can download though, and then you can add them in just like any other pre-built rollercoaster.

-CM-