RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

Developers
	Frontier Developments
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Complete Edition	QLOC
Publishers
Original	Atari
Windows, Complete Edition	Frontier Foundry
OS X	Aspyr Media
Engines
	Cobra
Release dates
Windows	November 2, 2004
macOS (OS X)	November 25, 2005
Reception
Metacritic	81
OpenCritic	75
IGDB	84
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, First-person
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Amusement park
Series	RollerCoaster Tycoon

RollerCoaster Tycoon
RollerCoaster Tycoon	1999
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2	2002
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3	2004
OpenRCT2 (Engine fanport)	2015
RollerCoaster Tycoon World	2016
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic	2017
RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures	2019

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is a 3D amusement park building game by Frontier Developments. Aside from freely controlled view, the game introduces first-person view on rides, deeper staff management, a proper sandbox mode, customizable guests and a fireworks editor.

The game was released in November 2004, but in a rather unstable state. Aside from patches which introduced bug fixes and improved construction controls, the game received two expansion packs - Soaked! in June 2005 which introduced pools and water park attractions, and Wild! in October 2005 which introduced animal enclosures akin to those in the Zoo Tycoon series (which the developers would later create a game in). These expansions gradually stabilized the codebase as well. The Platinum! release (released in retail in Europe as the Deluxe Edition) included the base game and both expansion packs, and was the first release of the game on major digital stores like Steam and GOG.com. The Platinum! version was removed from digital sales in May 2018 due to a legal dispute between Atari and Frontier Developments over unpaid royalties.

Frontier Developments and QLOC re-released the game in 2020 under the name RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition and was published by Frontier Foundry. This version differs from the original Platinum! release in that it has a larger range of resolutions available in the menu (up to 1080p), certain copyrighted branding (i.e. Hershey's and mainly Atari) has been removed, and the red cross on the first aid room is now green. However, the technical side is untouched and saves from Platinum! are compatible with the Complete Edition. The Windows version of the game was not automatically granted to previous RCT3 owners. This excludes the Mac App Store version, which Aspyr released as a free update to the version they already published.

The Mac App Store and the Steam Complete Edition version received an update on September 13, 2022 to add native ARM support to fix issues users could possibly encounter on Apple ARM hardware. On Steam, this update got released only for Complete Edition owners and not for Platinum! edition users.

All versions of the game struggle with handling large amounts of objects on the map simultaneously, as highly-populated parks need a lot of time to load and can even crash the game past a certain threshold. Bloom is poorly implemented and causes a significant performance decrease regardless of the system configuration.

General information

RollerCoaster Tycoon Wiki - A wiki dedicated to everything RollerCoaster Tycoon related

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions Original

Steam Community Discussions Complete Edition

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Original version. Base game: SecuROM 5 DRM. Expansions and re-releases: SecuROM 7 DRM
Amazon.com		RollerCoaster Tycoon Mega Pack
Amazon.com		Platinum Edition.
GamersGate		Platinum Edition.
		Platinum Edition.
		RollerCoaster Tycoon Mega Pack
Mac App Store		Was updated to the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition
Epic Games Store		Complete Edition
GamersGate		Complete Edition. Sold by Frontier Developments.
GamersGate		Complete Edition. Sold by Aspyr Media.
		Complete Edition
Green Man Gaming		Complete Edition
Humble Store		Complete Edition
Steam		Complete Edition
GOG.com (unavailable)		Platinum Edition.
Steam (unavailable)		Platinum Edition. Does not require the Steam client to run.

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Version differences

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Gold! includes the base game and the Soaked! expansion pack fully patched.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Gold Edition, despite the name, includes the base game and the Wild! expansion pack, but not the Soaked! expansion.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum! (known also as the Deluxe Edition in Europe) includes the base game and both expansion packs fully patched. Steam macOS version did not receive an update that added ARM support.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition includes everything from the Platinum! edition and additionally includes support for selectable 1080p resolution, removed copyrighted branding (i.e. Hershey's and mainly Atari), red cross on first aid room is now green and its Steam macOS version received an update that added ARM support.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion packs include new scenarios, scenery, rides, mechanics and quality-of-life improvements.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Soaked!
Wild!	Not available for PowerPC OS X versions.

Essential improvements

Patches (original version)

Installing patches for mismatched editions causes problems, be sure to get the correct update.

Platinum! and Complete Edition releases come fully pre-patched.

Full information on patches is available on the Frontier Developments forum.

• Base game: The latest is Update 3 for US and Update 2 for the European release. The European release can be patched to Update 3 using this method.

• "Soaked!" expansion: There is only one patch for this expansion pack: US and EU. Those who own the Scholastic version of the game should pick up this patch instead.

• "Wild!" expansion: There are 3 patches: Update 1, Update 2, Update 3 (mirror).

• Gold!: One update (archive).
• macOS original port: Patch v1.2 Rev A is the latest patch for the OS X version.

Skip intro videos

Edit configuration file to skip intro videos
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open options.txt. Add the following line to the file: SkipBannerSequence 1 Save the file.

Experiencing issues on Apple ARM devices

When running the default variant of the game on Steam on Apple ARM hardware, users may encounter issues. Aspyr officially released a new version that added native Apple ARM support on September 13, 2022.

The Mac App Store version updates automatically to this new version when appropriate since update 3.3.5.

Steam: switch to Apple ARM branch

Old MacOS-port is still available as the default option on Steam, requiring Apple ARM users to switch to a Steam Beta branch to acquire the update. Steam-only: new update only available for Complete Edition owners, not Platinum! owners. In the Steam Library, right-click on RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition. Click on Properties Click on Beta. Type applesilicon into the beta access code field. Click on Check Code. Click on Opt-in. Wait for the app to update.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Atari\RCT3\ %APPDATA%\Frontier\RCT3
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.rct3.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum/AppData/
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1368820/pfx/

OS X location may vary depending on the version of the game you have.

Saved games produced with original version can be used with Complete Edition.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\RCT3\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.rct3.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum/
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1368820/pfx/

OS X location may vary depending on the version of the game you have.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			For unlisted resolutions see Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			For resolutions higher than 1080p, see Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		MSAA
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Limited to 100 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Edit file
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open options.txt. Edit Resolution XXXX YYYY line to your desired resolution. Save the file.

Input

Keyboard Remapping

Camera Controls

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Ride cam can be inverted
Touchscreen optimised		Right-click or keyboard is required to move the camera. Mousewheel or keyboard is required to zoom out. Many HUD and menu buttons are small and hard to press at 2560x1440.
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio and General Game Settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, GUI, and game volume controls.
Surround sound
Subtitles		No spoken dialogue.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX Advanced HD
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Korean				Local retail only.
Traditional Chinese				Local retail only.
Norwegian
Brazilian Portuguese				Local retail only.
Spanish
Swedish

Issues unresolved

Crashes caused by too many objects

All versions of the game struggle with handling large quantities of objects on the map. Loading save files with such parks takes a long time, and the game will reliably crash after enough objects are present at one time. This occurs regardless of the user's system configuration.

Bloom issues

Bloom is poorly implemented, and can significantly overbrighten parts of the terrain.

Might cause significant performance issues until disabled. Particularly noticeable around water surfaces, including pools in the Soaked! expansion pack.

Issues fixed

Crash on start

In Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may experience a crash while attempting to start the game for the first time.

Modify config file[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game> and open options.txt. Locate the line FirstRun 1, found under the TWEAKS section, and change it to FirstRun 0. Save the changes.

Generic crash issues

Some crashes can be caused by manually setting the resolution.

Modify config file[citation needed]

Go to %APPDATA%\Atari\rct\, and open options.txt. Find the following line (values may be different): Resolution 1600 1200 Replace the numerical values with the desired resolution. The first value is width, the second is height. Save and close the file. Notes It may be necessary to show hidden files in order to see the config file. Administrator privileges are recommended to ensure the fix is applied to all users.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
OpenGL		macOS only
Shader Model support	3

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)					Original macOS port: install the version 1.2 Rev A patch for Intel support. The Wild! expansion is only available in the Platinum edition of the game on OS X that was Intel-only. Updated version of port: support for 64-bit was added in August 2019. Native ARM support was added on September 13, 2022 only for the Mac App Store version and Steam Complete Edition version only.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Windows Media Foundation	Music only.

Import track designs from previous games

Track designs can be imported from RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.

Instructions for the Windows version

Copy all the desired files with either a .TD6 or .TD4 extension into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\RCT3\Coasters. Run the game and start a new game (sandbox or any scenario). Click on the button immediately below the rides button (it looks like a wrench and hammer). When you click the button, a list of all the .TD6 and .TD4 files currently in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\RCT3\Coasters will appear. Click on the desired track from the list to import it. Notes Due to differences in how RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 handle track designs, not all tracks will be compatible.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000	XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 733 MHz AMD Athlon 800 MHz	Intel Pentium 4 1.2 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1400+
System memory (RAM)	128 MB (256 MB for XP and higher)	256 MB (384 MB for XP and higher)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	600 MB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon Nvidia GeForce 2 32 MB of VRAM	ATI Radeon SDR Nvidia GeForce2 Pro 64 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.3.9
Processor (CPU)	G4 1 GHz	G4 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 9000 Nvidia GeForce FX5200 32 MB of VRAM