RollerCoaster Tycoon was a 1990s game created by Chris Sawyer, a Scottish computer game developer who also designed the RCT sequels and Transport Tycoon.
My first exposure to the business world came on a cold winter night as I perched at my old, snail-paced Gateway computer with a cup of hot cocoa. I had wandered into a gig as an amusement park owner, architect and bookkeeper for the new and improved “Essnerland.” I was trying to be someone with both the effortless juvenile essence of Walt Disney and the selling savvy of Steve Jobs. This was work, and I had a very important job to do.
RollerCoaster Tycoon came into my life during a pivotal period. I was 9 or 10 years old and smitten with the endless wonders computer games seemed to provide. But after a frustrating breakup with Backyard Football — I was winning the championship every season with ease, so I made the executive call to ax it from my lexicon of digital hobbies for a while — the growing pains seemed to suggest it might have been time to move on to something more representative of my age.
Luckily, reconciliation came quickly. With RollerCoaster Tycoon, I felt as though I was channeling the spirit of my younger self through a stronger, more seasoned intellectual filter. I could build a towering thrill ride, splatter it with the most abstract paint combination I could possibly concoct and name it something outlandish like “Yum! Fruity Loops” because I wanted it to be as whimsical and weird as I was.
But I also was in charge of paving footpaths and building information kiosks and hiring handymen to clean up the post-coaster vomit that covered all of the walkways. Somewhere, submerged in the pit of my wacky, creative self, was a stern businessman, sweating out bank loans and asking tactful questions like, “Why hasn’t this coaster been fixed yet?” or “Why aren’t we charging 20 cents for people to use the bathroom?”
My hunger for such control has since dissolved; I’d probably care little for the financial side of the game if I were given the chance to play it now. But on that seminal night, clicking away at my old PC to put the finishing touches on a haunted house, I was a fearless fun-mason. I spawned fun. It was my job.
