Roller Coaster (video game)
Encyclopedia
Roller Coaster is a platform-based
game which contains some strategy
and puzzle
elements. Uniquely it holds the claim of being the first video game to ever simulate amusement ride
s.
Roller Coaster was released in 1985
by British
video game developer Elite Systems
, to overwhelmingly positive reviews. It was, for a time, one of the most popular games for the ZX Spectrum
.
after closing-time.
The player takes control of a protagonist
who sneaks into the amusement park after both staff and customers have left. The goal is to collect money — in the form of little money bag
s — which have been dropped by excited and clumsy members of the public throughout the day. It appears that the protagonist is a trespasser
and a thief, although neither his identity nor his motives are elaborated on further.
The amusement park is not linear
or constructed at ground level, but instead built entirely on a towering vertical tiered structure. The smallest rides are located at ground level, and gradually get larger and larger and more complicated the higher the player gets. At the summit, towering over all other rides, sits a gigantic roller coaster, the namesake of the game. It will take a lot of time and effort to reach the summit of the amusement park and subsequently the eponymous roller coaster which sits atop it.
You will need to hitch a ride on many of the attractions to progress through the amusement park, and to collect misplaced money bags in order that you may complete your task. Some of these attractions include:
The selection of rides, and physical attributes of those rides, strongly suggest the influence of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which at the time featured almost all of the rides included in the game.
Some of these rides can be dangerous; for example the protagonist can be hit by moving carriages, or electrocuted by the rails. You may even have to perform stunts, such as jumping from a moving carriage to another to grab money bags left in between the tracks. In this effect the protagonist is also a daredevil stuntman.
The player must also navigate carefully through funhouse
s and motion platforms, which are treacherously going wild without operation, in your task to collect all the discarded money.
The player's information bar
is at the bottom of the screen. It reveals the player's score
, which is the same as the amount of money collected. Each money bag retrieved earns you £100; this is displayed as 100 points and not £100.
The information bar also reveals the previous high score for any other game played during the session (since the game was last loaded up, that is.) This is useful since you will likely die often and have to replay the game from the start; you may want to compare your present score to previous games you have played in order to determine your progress in comparison.
There is also a bar which indicates the health of the character, which informs the player if something is harming the protagonist. This may be caused by, for example, standing on an electric rail. When the character is perfectly healthy the bar is simply empty and black; however if the protagonist is being harmed, a tombstone with the word "RIP
" will begin to appear (accompanied by a high-pitch squeaking noise). Quick action by escaping the danger may result in a partial and incomplete tombstone, in which case the character will live. However once the tombstone is complete, the character's health is utterly depleted and the character dies.
Apart from having his health be depleted until death, the character can also be killed instantaneously by some dangers. This can be caused by numerous careless acts such as jumping from a great height, getting skewered by an erratic
turnstile
, or falling into water (despite his numerous athletic abilities, it appears the protagonist cannot swim and drowns when falling into water.) Falling a distance from a height will probably get you killed more often than any other danger.
The player has ten lives. Once the protagonist has died ten times, the player loses and the game is over.
What made the game more difficult was the lack of a scrolling screen; different screens are stationary and open up to the player as you enter them, unlike a side-scroller. In this way the player never knows what is around the corner until the last second. The game is made up of a total of sixty screens.
s and sweet
shops
with bright and differently coloured frontage are found in abundance, lining the streets of the amusement park in colourful little rows. Beauty features, such as artificial waterfalls and exotic |animals in zoo enclosures, also add to the colourful quality of the game. Palm trees and thatched beach huts are also found on almost every screen and perhaps indicate a tropical location of the park.
There is at least one part of the game which is based on a real amusement park: part of the Log Flume in this game is held up by a giant Gulliver statue, a reference to the similar statue which holds up part of the Monorail at Pleasure Beach Blackpool
.
(issue 66, page 43) which was published in July 1987. The review coincided with the Encore UK re-release of the game; however most reviews were positive in criticising the game and this particular review is an example of that. Note that the editors of the magazine seem to have developed a name and identity for the protagonist, as well as a motive for his trespassing and theft. It appears that he is, in fact, correcting an injustice through his actions. However this elaborated backstory has been lost to the mists of time, and the protagonist of Roller Coaster now seems set to remain anonymous once again.
Game Boy
as Dragon's Lair: The Legend, with the game's plot and graphics amended in order to closer resemble those of the original Dragon's Lair
coin-op. As less of the playing area was visible in the Game Boy port than in the Spectrum version, the display was effectively a window on each of the original version's screens, scrolling within each one and flicking to the next when the edge of the screen was reached.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
game which contains some strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
and puzzle
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
elements. Uniquely it holds the claim of being the first video game to ever simulate amusement ride
Amusement ride
Amusement rides are large mechanical devices that move people to create enjoyment. They are frequently found at amusement parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.-Notable types:*Afterburner*Ali Baba*Balloon Race*Booster...
s.
Roller Coaster was released in 1985
1985 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* Brøderbund releases Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, the first game of the prolific Carmen Sandiego series* Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. on September 13, 1985, which eventually sells 40 million copies making it the best-selling video game of all time until 2008.*...
by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
video game developer Elite Systems
Elite Systems
Elite Systems is a UK video game developer and publisher established in 1984 as Richard Wilcox Software. They are best known for producing home computer conversions of popular arcade games...
, to overwhelmingly positive reviews. It was, for a time, one of the most popular games for the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
.
Plot
The game takes place in and around an amusement parkAmusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
after closing-time.
The player takes control of a protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
who sneaks into the amusement park after both staff and customers have left. The goal is to collect money — in the form of little money bag
Money bag
A money bag is a bag of money used to hold and transport coins and banknotes from/to a mint, bank, ATM, milled, business, or other institution...
s — which have been dropped by excited and clumsy members of the public throughout the day. It appears that the protagonist is a trespasser
Trespasser
In the law of tort, property, and criminal law a trespasser is a person who commits the act of trespassing on a property, that is, without the permission of the owner. Being present on land as a trespasser thereto creates liability in the trespasser, so long as the trespass is intentional...
and a thief, although neither his identity nor his motives are elaborated on further.
Amusement rides utilised in the game
Despite the fact that you are alone in the park, all is not quiet. The electricity is still up and running and the amusement rides have been left active overnight; they are in overdrive and erratic. This is simultaneously both a help to your task, and an obstacle. In order to reach some money bags that are placed in high positions or other awkward places you will need to utilise the rides. Some money bags, quite dangerously, have even been left in the centre of the moving rides.The amusement park is not linear
Linear
In mathematics, a linear map or function f is a function which satisfies the following two properties:* Additivity : f = f + f...
or constructed at ground level, but instead built entirely on a towering vertical tiered structure. The smallest rides are located at ground level, and gradually get larger and larger and more complicated the higher the player gets. At the summit, towering over all other rides, sits a gigantic roller coaster, the namesake of the game. It will take a lot of time and effort to reach the summit of the amusement park and subsequently the eponymous roller coaster which sits atop it.
You will need to hitch a ride on many of the attractions to progress through the amusement park, and to collect misplaced money bags in order that you may complete your task. Some of these attractions include:
- Big WheelFerris wheelA Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
, - cable carsAerial tramwayAn aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
, - ghost train,
- flying carpet1001 Nachts / Ali Baba / RainbowThe Ali Baba, is a type of amusement park ride that consists of a stationary horizontal gondola, with a 360 degree swinging pendulum.-Design:...
, - log flumeLog flume (attraction)Log flumes originally referred to a special construct used to transport lumber and logs down mountainous terrain to a sawmill by using flowing water. Today, however, the term is also used to refer to an amusement ride consisting of a water flume and artificial hollow logs or boats...
, - river cavesRiver CavesRiver Caves are a type of amusement ride involving a boat trip through "cave-like" tunnels, each incorporating a different theme. These rides are relatively rare these days and can be found in only a few locations, mainly in the UK and United States...
, - bumper cars,
- gravitronGravitronThe Gravitron is an amusement ride, most commonly found as a portable ride at fairs and carnivals. The Gravitron first appeared at Morey's Piers in 1983 and quickly became a fixture at amusement parks in many countries. It is a modification of an earlier ride called the Rotor...
, - black holeBlack hole (ride)The black hole is a common name for a ride that is a combination of two popular ride types, the roller coaster and the dark ride. The ride may take place either in pitch darkness or in near-darkness with ultraviolet or similar lighting effects...
, - carouselCarouselA carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
, - orbiterOrbiter (ride)The Orbiter is a fairground ride invented by Richard Woolls in 1976.It has a number of articulated arms radiating from a central rotating vertical axis. Each arm supports a cluster of cars, which are lifted through 90° into the horizontal position once the ride is spinning...
, - and of course, the roller coasterRoller coasterThe roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...
.
The selection of rides, and physical attributes of those rides, strongly suggest the influence of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which at the time featured almost all of the rides included in the game.
Some of these rides can be dangerous; for example the protagonist can be hit by moving carriages, or electrocuted by the rails. You may even have to perform stunts, such as jumping from a moving carriage to another to grab money bags left in between the tracks. In this effect the protagonist is also a daredevil stuntman.
The player must also navigate carefully through funhouse
Funhouse
A funhouse or fun house is an amusement facility found on amusement park and funfair midways in which patrons encounter and actively interact with various devices designed to surprise, challenge, and amuse the visitor. Unlike thrill rides, funhouses are participatory attractions, where visitors...
s and motion platforms, which are treacherously going wild without operation, in your task to collect all the discarded money.
Gameplay
In order to complete the game, the player must collect every money bag which is strewn around the city-sized amusement park; even the money bags placed on precarious perches and in the middle of rides. In order to do this, gambles and risks will have to be taken. When riding an attraction, timing your jumps carefully is essential to survival and completing the game.The player's information bar
HUD (computer gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
is at the bottom of the screen. It reveals the player's score
Score (gaming)
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...
, which is the same as the amount of money collected. Each money bag retrieved earns you £100; this is displayed as 100 points and not £100.
The information bar also reveals the previous high score for any other game played during the session (since the game was last loaded up, that is.) This is useful since you will likely die often and have to replay the game from the start; you may want to compare your present score to previous games you have played in order to determine your progress in comparison.
There is also a bar which indicates the health of the character, which informs the player if something is harming the protagonist. This may be caused by, for example, standing on an electric rail. When the character is perfectly healthy the bar is simply empty and black; however if the protagonist is being harmed, a tombstone with the word "RIP
Rest in peace
"Rest in peace" is a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal rest and peace to someone who has died. The expression typically appears on headstones, often abbreviated as "RIP"...
" will begin to appear (accompanied by a high-pitch squeaking noise). Quick action by escaping the danger may result in a partial and incomplete tombstone, in which case the character will live. However once the tombstone is complete, the character's health is utterly depleted and the character dies.
Apart from having his health be depleted until death, the character can also be killed instantaneously by some dangers. This can be caused by numerous careless acts such as jumping from a great height, getting skewered by an erratic
Erratic
Erratic can refer to:* Erratic, a project of music artist Jan Robbe* Glacial erratic, is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests* Erratic ant, a species...
turnstile
Turnstile
A turnstile, also called a baffle gate, is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. It can also be made so as to enforce one-way traffic of people, and in addition, it can restrict passage only to people who insert a coin, a ticket, a pass, or similar...
, or falling into water (despite his numerous athletic abilities, it appears the protagonist cannot swim and drowns when falling into water.) Falling a distance from a height will probably get you killed more often than any other danger.
The player has ten lives. Once the protagonist has died ten times, the player loses and the game is over.
What made the game more difficult was the lack of a scrolling screen; different screens are stationary and open up to the player as you enter them, unlike a side-scroller. In this way the player never knows what is around the corner until the last second. The game is made up of a total of sixty screens.
Features
The game was noted for its imaginative use of colour and eye-pleasing novelties. Small caféCafé
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
s and sweet
Confectionery
Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...
shops
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
with bright and differently coloured frontage are found in abundance, lining the streets of the amusement park in colourful little rows. Beauty features, such as artificial waterfalls and exotic |animals in zoo enclosures, also add to the colourful quality of the game. Palm trees and thatched beach huts are also found on almost every screen and perhaps indicate a tropical location of the park.
There is at least one part of the game which is based on a real amusement park: part of the Log Flume in this game is held up by a giant Gulliver statue, a reference to the similar statue which holds up part of the Monorail at Pleasure Beach Blackpool
Pleasure Beach Blackpool
Pleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park and resort situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited amusement park in the United Kingdom, and one of the top twenty most-visited amusement parks in the world with an estimate of 5.5 million visitors in...
.
Critical response
The following excerpt is taken from the ZX Spectrum magazine CRASHCRASH (magazine)
Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...
(issue 66, page 43) which was published in July 1987. The review coincided with the Encore UK re-release of the game; however most reviews were positive in criticising the game and this particular review is an example of that. Note that the editors of the magazine seem to have developed a name and identity for the protagonist, as well as a motive for his trespassing and theft. It appears that he is, in fact, correcting an injustice through his actions. However this elaborated backstory has been lost to the mists of time, and the protagonist of Roller Coaster now seems set to remain anonymous once again.
'A crash smash!' Encore inform us. And indeed it was, at 94% no less. But remember that it was Christmas 1986 when we said that. So have times changed? Not that much because Colonel G Bogey is still hunting around his 60-screen funfair for bags of dosh pinched by a pilfering employee. You zoom around the well-animated and highly colourful screens riding the ghost train, log flume, and finally after many more rides embark on the roller coaster. The emphasis in Roller Coaster is to have vast amounts of fun, and, boy, do you! Each screen is deviously devised, but not difficult to master once you get to grips with the gameplay. And the gameplay - it's so addictive! Don't hesitate to buy Roller Coaster!
Dragon's Lair: The Legend
In 1990, Roller Coaster was ported to the NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
as Dragon's Lair: The Legend, with the game's plot and graphics amended in order to closer resemble those of the original Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
coin-op. As less of the playing area was visible in the Game Boy port than in the Spectrum version, the display was effectively a window on each of the original version's screens, scrolling within each one and flicking to the next when the edge of the screen was reached.