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by Bullfrog
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST v0.4
Last Update: 23 November 1995
Maintained by:
David Leadbetter
Contributors:
Peter Elfers
(author of the Transport Tycoon FAQ),
Adam Williamson ,
(maintainer of the Wolf3D FAQ),
Howard Ship ,
Trevor Farrell ,
Ludvig Linton ,
Carsten Poulsen ,
Brian Taylor ,
Richard Develyn ,
Isaac Ashdown ,
plus many others
NOTE: Changes since the last version are indicated by a '!' in the
leftmost column.
Introduction:
------------
Welcome to a FAQ list for Themepark.
This file attempts to answer many frequently asked questions
relating to Themepark, concerned with game installation and
game play.
Please email any comments, suggestions or questions to the maintainer
at the address shown above.
Contents:
--------
0.0 Abbreviations
1.0 Installation FAQs
1.1 Versions
1.2 Hardware FAQs
1.3 Software FAQs
2.0 Gameplay FAQs
2.1 Game mechanics
2.2 Game simulation
3.0 Bugs
4.0 Play Reference
4.1 Renaming Attractions
4.2 Handymen Zoning
4.3 Signposts
! 4.4 The Stock Market
! 4.5 One of the little people has gotten stuck!
! 4.6 Miscellaneous
5.0 Play Strategies
6.0 Park Design
7.0 Utilities
! 7.1 Cheats
! 7.2 Patches (sorry, none here!)
! 7.3 Demo
! 7.4 Other
8.0 Tables
8.1 General Info
8.2 Price/Profit Ratios
! 9.0 Alternate Information Sources
-----------------
0.0 Abbreviations
-----------------
This section explains and abbreviations used throughout this file.
LMB - left mouse button
RMB - right mouse button
Each question in the FAQ sections is classified as follows:
Q: Question/Problem
A: Answer/Solution
R: Related Point
---------------------
1.0 Installation FAQs
---------------------
This section contains frequently asked questions related to installation
and configuration of Themepark.
1.1 Versions
------------
Versions of ThemePark exist for the PC, MAC, and Amiga (any others?).
This FAQ is aimed at the PC version only. However much of the
information it includes is applicable to the other versions. This
section on installation is applicable to the PC version ONLY!
Anyone wanting to write a version of the FAQ for the other platforms
is free to use the info in this FAQ (I'd appreciate being contacted
first though).
1.2 Hardware FAQs
-----------------
Q: My mouse doesn't work
A: Themepark has some serious problems with many mouse drivers.
(The general symptom is the mouse being restricted to the
top half of the screen)
The solution that seems to work for most people is to use
the MOUSE.COM that comes with Windows.
! Q: Sometimes the mouse jumps around the screen.
! A: If your mouse driver is loaded in Mouse Systems Mode, you
! should find that switching to Microsoft mode for playing
! ThemePark will correct this problem.
Q: Problems running intro.
A: A lot of people with CD-ROMs and/or sound cards have trouble
running the intro.
Try using the '-o' switch, or not run the intro at all (edit
the Themepark batch file).
Q: No mouse on the "Enter Nickname" screen
A: Some people with CD-ROMs and soundcards don't get the pointer
on the nickname screen. Apparently this is a memory problem,
and the only solution is to free up more memory (or buy some
more), or turn off sounds.
Q: I can't get sounds to work with my soundcard
A: To run low quality sounds you need to have 4M RAM
A: To run high quality sounds you need to have 8M RAM
NOTE: These are the minimum requirements. Even if you satisfy
these, you may not get sounds unless you are running a minimal
configuration.
Q: How do I get SVGA mode to work?
A: Themepark uses the VESA video standard to run in high-res mode.
If your video card doesn't have VESA support built in, you need
to run a VESA TSR (usually supplied with the video card, or
a 3rd party util like UNIVBE - see Section 7.4).
Q: How well does ThemePark run on a 386?
A: If you play all your other games on a 386, chances are you'll
find ThemePark fine to play on a 386. The game _does_ slow
down as you get more little people in the park. One tip though,
if you've only got a 386, DO NOT play in SVGA mode -- this is
_really_ slow!
1.3 Software FAQs
-----------------
Q: Are these any patches available for the game (PC version)?
A: I am not aware of any patches currently available or being
made :-(
Q: It just won't work after installing!
A: If you are running EMM386, try installing without EMM386 loaded.
Q: What's the difference between the floppy and CD-ROM versions?
A: Both version are the same, except that with the CD-ROM version
you get some bonus "cut scenes" of first person views of the
rides.
-----------------
2.0 Gameplay FAQs
-----------------
This section contains frequently asked questions related to game play.
2.1 Game Mechanics FAQs
-----------------------
This sections deals with questions to do with building your park.
Q: I am having trouble building loops.
A: Loops can only be placed on a flat, straight section of
horizontal track.
Q: I am having trouble building cork-screws.
A: Cork-screws can only be placed on a flat, straight section
of vertical track.
Q: I am having trouble getting loops to work.
A: Someone has suggested that roller coasters must be longer than
a certain length before loops work.
A: The coaster car may not be going fast enough to reach the top
of the loop -- modify the track to make the car faster.
Q: I am unable to turn on the coaster.
A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track
for the roller coaster to stop.
Q: The coaster never stops to let passengers on and off.
A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track
for the roller coaster to stop.
R: The coaster will stop _twice_ if the track passes right next to
the ride entrance on both sides.
Q: Piece placement.
A: The actual placement and apparent placement of some rides
(especially the track ride entrances) can be very confusing.
Often removing a few lengths of extra track at both ends
will provide enough space to replace the object.
Q: Rides not being used.
A: Make sure you have queue lanes and the exit joined up to the
path.
A: Swap the queue path and exit around (for track rides).
A: People can't seem to walk across bridges that are part of a path
intersection -- add in a section of path between the bridge and
the intersection.
Q: How do you use direction signs.
A: Click on the attraction you wish to point to with the sign tool,
then place the sign where you want it.
Rotate the sign (if necessary) by clicking the LMB on the sign with
the sign tool. (see section 4.3 for further info)
Q: I can't replace a ride.
A: You have to demolish the old ride first. To do this click on
the old ride with the RMB. However you have to click in a certain
spot. Change into "tiny" mode to see where to click.
Alternatively you can click on the ticket booth (for rides that
have one).
R: Demolishing the Roller Coaster or Big Dipper entry will also
demolish all connected track, so it's a good idea to break
the track manually first unless you like rebuilding the entire
track.
Q: Piece placement difficulties - trouble placing ride tracks,
rides, shops, etc...
A: Unfortunately this is one of the annoying bugs you will probably
come across eventually.
It may be linked to a bad game state (e.g. rides exist that need
repair _really_ badly).
A: Sometimes it just requires a few persistent clicks to place
objects (sometimes a LOT of clicks!).
A: Sometimes attempting to place objects on long grass will leave
short grass that can cause placement difficulties.
Demolishing the short grass (i.e. click with RMB) may fix the
problem.
2.2 Game Simulation FAQs
------------------------
This section deals with questions to do with running your park.
Q: My game gets really slow.
A: The game slows down as the number of people in the park increases.
A: If you have a bad game state, the game might slow down
(e.g. rides exist that need repair _really_ badly)
A: Running in SVGA mode slows the game down.
A: Running at higher game speeds can slow down the game.
Choosing a slower game speed will increase the game response speed
(though game time will be slower of course).
Q: "Due to your bad park planning ... has gotten stuck".
A: The places people usually get stuck are in queue lines,
under attractions, and sometimes on the bus stop (!!)
Identify stuck people that are walking but stay in the same
place.
People stuck in queue lines can get freed by emptying the line
(e.g. turn the ride off)
People stuck under rides (because you built the ride on them)
can only be freed by destroying the ride.
[Anyone know how to help people that get stuck on the bus stop?]
A: If you can't find the stuck person (and it really bothers you),
empty the park of people by closing the park for a short while.
(see Section 4.5 for further info)
Q: Visitors get stuck in ride queues.
A: They should get unstuck when the queue moves, or when the queue
is emptied (do this by turning the ride off and on).
Q: My mechanics get stuck
A: Sometimes mechanics like to have lunch in comfortable places
they can't get out of. When they are called to repair a ride
they get stuck continually answering their radio.
Simply pick them up with your "tweezers" and put them somewhere
else.
Q: My handymen get stuck in "turbo mode".
A: Picking them up with your "tweezers" should also fix up this
problem.
Q: "Your XXX ride has gotten so old you should replace it".
A: Unless you want the ride to blow up (leaving unmovable debris),
you need to locate the old ride and replace it.
Q: Black arrows over handymen.
A: This means that the handyman has a route assigned.
Q: Visitors don't follow queues, paths, etc...
A: Naughty aren't they ;-)
Q: Bikers in the park.
A: Bikers are attracted by two things: litter and fast rides.
Q: Everyone left my park.
A: Chances are you accidentally pressed 'O' and closed the park.
Q: How do I make more money?
A: You major income comes from two sources:
- shops, and
- the stockmarket (in simulation mode)
So, make sure you're shops stay stocked, and it's worth spending
some time getting the prices just right (see the table below for
some indication of price/profit ratios).
Learn to wheel'n'deal on the stockmarket to make a packet!
(see section 5.0 for further info)
! Q: How can I make the little people happy?
! A: Ask them what they think (LMB on a person with the query tool),
! and fix up any common problems.
Q: How to get the satisfaction levels up.
A: Turn on the fireworks display.
A: Have a few entertainers at the entrance to hand out umbrellas,
so that the little people aren't effected by the weather.
A: Put in more exciting rides.
A: Lower the gate fee.
Q: Why are so many little people wandering around hungry and thirsty
when I have shops everywhere?
A: The little people may not be able to find your shops. Use
signposts to advertise their position.
A: Your prices may be way to high for the average little person.
A: Selling balloons, etc to the little people helps them forget
how hungry and thirsty they are.
Q: How do I know what prices to charge at my shops?
A: The best way to set the prices is to "ask" the little people.
Start by adjusting the prices in large steps, and watching what
the little people say as they go by. If they are hungry but it's
too expensive they'll say so, if not, they'll buy something.
Once you have the price roughly right, you can spend a bit more
time fine tuning the price if you really want too.
Q: I have completed all the research, but I missed out on some of
the objects.
A: This is probably a bug in the game?
Q: I have completed all technology research before researching all
the rides. Can you get updated versions of these rides?
A: Some sort of research strategy may be required here, so that
you can still research ride updates after you have finished
researching all rides?
--------
3.0 Bugs
--------
This section is intended to include a list of the bugs in Theme Park.
If you hit a problem, this is a useful place to check to see if you've
become a bug victim.
> Does anyone out there have a comprehensive list of bugs to add to these?
- Stats for your employees do not always reflect reality:
- The time working meter is often red (= 0% ?) for someone, even though
they are actually working at the time;
- Sometime the months employed field is not accurate.
- Demolishing some structures leaves the ground unusable (you have
to re-demolish each effected square to use it).
- Monorail cars can sometimes try to go in opposite directions around
the track (usually when the entrances have track on both sides).
- employees and little people can get stuck in silly places (employees
can get moved manually, sometimes nothing can unstick a little person!):
! - little people sometimes think they get stuck when standing in line;
! - little people can have rides/etc built on top of them, sometimes
! getting them stuck;
! - etc.
- plenty of mouse related glitches:
- path tool selected if path is under cursor when picking shops, rides,
scenery;
- placing signposts near rides often changes what the sign points
to rather than placing the sign;
- etc.
! - various screen display bugs:
! - any screen update when in "Tiny Mode" erases all litter/vomit from
! the screen (annoying when you want to scroll around the screen in
! tiny mode to find the vomit the little people are gacking at);
! - the ride speed indicator incorrectly displays the "redline" section
! in hi-res;
! - etc.
------------------
4.0 Play Reference
------------------
This section is meant to supplement the manual.
Any poorly described sections of the manual should be enhanced here.
4.1 Renaming Rides
------------------
Park Attractions can be renamed by the player.
This can be done as follows:
1. Select the attraction you want to rename and open it's info
screen;
2. Bring up the name editing box by LMB clicking on the attraction
name at the top of the info screen;
3. Edit the attractions name;
4. LMB Click the "tick" button to finish.
NOTE: The "cross" button in the editing box doesn't seem to work.
So to leave an attractions name unchanged simply change it to
what it was originally.
Nice as it is to be able to do this, this can make it harder
when it comes to finding your rides that need replacing:
- the Advisors warning uses the default name anyway;
- all rides of the same type are renamed, not just one ride.
4.2 Zoning Handymen
-------------------
Once you get a few things set up in your park and some little people
wandering around, you'll quickly find rubbish (and other things)
on the ground spoiling your park. You use handymen to clean the
mess up. However, handymen left on their own, will quickly disappear
to happily mow the lawns forever, while your park turns into a waste
refuge!
To keep each handyman on track, you can use the zoning functions to
assign them cleaning routes.
A couple things to keep in mind with handymen zoning are:
- the route is a loop that passes through all control points
(reachable from the handyman's current position);
- the route can only follow the park paths and ride queues;
- any route that covers disjoint sections of path will only be
patrolled in the sections that the handyman can reach without
leaving the park paths (in fact when you are in the zone editing
mode, only those sections of the route "reachable" by the handyman
will be shown);
Handyman zones are assigned as follows:
1. Select the handyman whose zone you want to work on (place the
handyman on a path with the "tweezers" if necessary);
2. LMB click the zoning button.
This will toggle the handyman zoning mode. In this mode two
extra buttons are available:
- the "erase zone" button;
- the "add control point" button.
3. Select the "add control point" button;
4. LMB click on the path in the places you want the zone to pass
through. As new control points are added, the zone route (shown
with black shading) is extended to include the new control points.
Note: you can only have up to 8 control points in a zone.
5. LMB click on the zoning button when you have finished
assigning the zone to exit the handyman zoning mode.
Your handyman will now obediently patrol his zoned route picking up
the litter as he passes by.
4.3 Signposts
-------------
Signposts are useful things for guiding the little people around your
park. When the little people pass a signpost and see something they
like, they will walk in the direction the signpost points.
Each signpost can point to:
- 1 ride (white sign);
- 1 shop (red sign);
- the exit (blue sign).
Placing Signs:
1. Select the signpost tool;
2. Select the object to point to:
With the signpost tool:
- LMB click on a ride selects white sign pointing to that ride
- LMB click on a shop selects red sign pointing to that shop
- LMB click on the exit selects blue sign pointing to the exit
3. LMB click on the path to place the sign. When placing a new sign,
the sign will be placed so that it points "towards" the selected
object.
4. Adjust the sign (if necessary) by LMB clicking on the sign with
the signpost tool to rotate the sign.
Note: clicking on an existing signpost only rotates the sign whose
colour matches the current colour of the signpost tool.
Note: The little people trust that the direction the sign points actually
points to the attraction, so make sure you orient the sign (as described
in step 4 above) to point in the direction the little people should walk
to get there.
Caution: Close signposts should generally point away from each other.
Close signposts that point towards each other might trap little people
between them who are interested in the objects of both signposts.
i.e. Rather than using signposts like:
--------------
o=> <=o
-\\-------\\--
You should use the signposts like:
--------------
<=o o=>
---\\---\\----
! 4.4 The Stock Market
! --------------------
!
! Success in the stock market depends on having a fundamental knowledge
! of how it actually works. The goal is very simple: Buy low, Sell high;
! and you'll be making lots of money (not to mention all the dividends you
! get in between).
!
! In ThemePark, the main challenge for the stock market amateur is mainly
! how to buy any shares (that is, before you opponents do).
!
! You can count on unowned company shares being available at three times:
! 1. when the company is just started;
! 2. when the company is doing badly;
! 3. when the companies stock doubles.
!
! At any other time, you'll have to be lucky to get your hands on `good'
! shares. The above knowledge can be made use of in the following way:
!
! 1. Companies are added a few at a time for the first few years
! of the game. You can take this opportunity to acquire initial
! shares in the companies then;
!
! 2. Clearly, no-one wants to own bad shares, since as their value drops,
! you are losing money. However, they may not stay bad forever,
! and when they turn, you'll have an ideal opportunity to get some
! shares dirt cheap (provided you can beat you opponents to it). The
! hard part is knowing when they have hit rock bottom;
!
! 3. When stock obtains a high enough value, the existing shares are
! halved in value, and the number of shares is doubled. These extra
! shares are initially unowned, so when this happens, it provides
! a great opportunity for obtaining some good shares (if you can
! beat you opponents to it that is).
!
! ThemePark makes things even simpler, since the major financial changes
! are performed at the end of each month. So to `wheel and deal' on the
! stock market, you need only check the share prices once at the start of
! each month, and can spend the rest of your time running your park.
! 4.5 One of the little people has gotten stuck!
! ----------------------------------------------
!
! "Through your bad park planning one of the little people has
! got stuck, find out where and help them"
!
! When the advisor tells you this, you know you are in for a long game
! of hide and seek, which you may never win. However, the following
! method should improve your rate of success.
!
! The first thing to know is all the common places the little people do
! get stuck. So here's a few:
! - in ride queues;
! - under rides;
! - between the scenery;
! - amongst ride tracks.
!
! Next, we want to make sure that we do not spend numerous minutes searching
! the park for someone who simply freaked out when they found themself
! helplessly trapped in a ride queue, only to be freed moments later when
! the queue moved, so it doesn't hurt to wait for a few minutes to see if
! the advisor continues to insist that someone truly does need help.
!
! If it seems that someone actually did manage to get themself stuck, you
! need to make a careful sweep of the entire park in an attempt to find
! them.
!
! On the first sweep, switch to tiny mode, and look for people trapped
! under the park attractions. Unfortunately the only way to get these
! peeps unstuck is to destroy the ride, wait for them to walk clear, and
! rebuild the ride in it's original position. Most often people get
! stuck in this way when rides are carelessly placed on wandering peeps.
!
! If the first sweep does not produce the trapped person, be prepared to
! take a more careful sweep of all the rest of the park. Again, it is
! often best to use tiny mode, so that attractions do not obscure the
! poor little lost soul. Basically you just need to keep your eye open
! for a person that is walking quite frantically without going anywhere,
! and hope for the best.
!
! Once you find the trapped person attempt to rescue them. Depending on
! where they are stuck, you can try one or more of the following:
! - turn off the ride so the queue files out
! - remove the entrapping obstacles to let them get out.
! If you are _really_ unlucky, someone may get stuck where they cannot be
! freed from, such as getting stuck atop the bus stop!
!
! If at this stage you just cannot locate the unfortunate person, closing
! your park is one last desperate measure you can take to find them.
! Hopefully, once the crowd has thinned out enough, it should be a simple
! matter to locate the trapped person.
! 4.6 Miscellaneous
! -----------------
!
! Cleaning up after the little people:
! -----------------------------------
!
! One thing that is bound to make a lot of little people unhappy fast,
! is lots of litter lying about the park. For normal litter, just
! assign enough handymen to you park paths to keep things clean, and
! forget about it.
!
! However, the sound of little people puking (and the accompanying
! complaining) are an emergency that need immediate attention.
! Grab the nearest idle handyman (be careful not to mess up handymen
! with assigned routes), and clean up the mess before it spreads.
! The best way to find the mess is to switch into tiny mode, since
! all rubbish stays normal size. This should make the large vomit
! spots relatively easy to find.
!
! NOTE: due to the display update bug (see 3.0) that erases all rubbish
! in tiny mode, make sure you only scroll the view in normal mode.
! Quick Save/Load
! ---------------
!
! In addition to being used to save the current game stated when you exit
! the game, the `continue game' can also be used as a `Quick Save' game
! while you are playing.
! Use the following keys:
! ALT-S to save the game
! ALT-L to load the last save point
!
! This may be useful for performing `experiments' with your park, without
! having to go through the slightly more tedious menu save and menu load
! process.
> What other bits do people think need explaining?
-------------------
5.0 Play Strategies
-------------------
This section contains a few game strategies.
If you are having trouble doing well in the game following one of these
strategies may prove beneficial.
NOTE: Some of these strategies are included WITHOUT permission of the
person who posted the strategy. Credit has been given wherever possible.
! Strategy 0: Quick Tips:
! -----------
! Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind. These are generally reflected
! by the strategies outlined below.
! 1. Listen to the advisor
! - the only things he tells you should be obvious things you either
! overlooked or forget!
! 2. Listen to the little people
! - spend some time surveying customers to fine tune your prices:
! - extra sales may provide more income than extra profit;
! - extra sales means faster usage of stocks (== more money);
! - keep the little people happier.
! 3. Keep your warehouse stocked
! a) Any time your warehouse runs out of stock you lose money!
! - do not over stress you stock capacity, only have as many
! shops as you can continuously supply (you'll hurt your ratings)
! - upgrade your warehouse ASAP so you can add more shops
! b) If you don't need to re-order the moment stock arrives, or
! Each order is not a full order, you don't have enough shops!
! 4. Prizes are valuable income (especially early on)
! - try to keep your ratings good
! - a single excellent rating is better money than all average ratings!
! Excellent = $10,000
! Good = $ 5,000
! Average,
! Poor, Bad = $ 0
! 5. Rides justify gate prices, shops and sideshows make extra money
! - make sure you maintain a profitable ratio of rides:shops:sideshows
! One drink; food; sideshow per ride is quite reasonable;
! - each time you add an extra ride, your admission price can be
! increased.
! 6. Park employees get paid whether they work or not, so only hire
! handymen, mechanics and guards as they are needed, and keep shifting
! your entertainers to where they are needed (so they earn their pay,
! and make the little people happy).
Strategy 1: Beginners Tips
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Mike Wallis
1. Make sure you listen to your advisor -- especially when he talks
about the admission prices.
2. When just starting out, don't open your park until you've laid out a
few rides, bathrooms, food and drink stands, and merchandise shops.
You don't want your first guests to enter a park that has been poorly
laid out, because they'll be dissatisfied and word of mouth will hurt
future attendance levels.
3. Research the following first:
1) ride upgrades;
2) ride technology;
3) shops/attractions/games.
1) The ride upgrades will allow higher guest capacities, as well as
more reliability.
2) The ride technology will, obviously, give you access to better and
more exciting rides.
3) The shops/games will give you a wider selection of food/drink,
merchandise, and game units to place. These will generate profits
for you.
4. Don't pump too much money into research, as the research expenses are
incurred PER MONTH.
One important thing to note is that admission prices alone will not
provide enough revenue for your park to operate. That's where
food/merchandise/game units come into the picture. Combined with front
gate admission prices, the revenue that food/merchandise/game units
generate should bring your park into the black...
Strategy 2: General Method
-----------
This general strategy was described by:
Edward Kenworthy
I've had no problems - I've never had to take out a loan even.
(This is playing in full sim, medium hard).
My strategy:
1) Build all the rides that are available ASAP.
(build good rides two times and really good rides three times if you
can afford it)
2) Build shops, but not too many if it's not a rich country.
3) ALWAYS increase the price of the things your shops sell by 20-50% of
the default.
4) Research the maximum possible, spread between all areas, but
particularly the new rides and better rides.
5) When you have enough money, buy all your own shares - and then as
many of the others as you can afford.
6) Hire a mechanic when you find rides breaking down - and no sooner -
and hire an extra one each time you find rides breaking down and all
the mechanics are busy.
7) Hire cleaners as soon as rubbish appears (and assign them cleaning
routes).
8) When you build toilets hire a cleaner just to clean them - nothing
clears the park quicker than chain vomiting ! (By the way the number
of people in the park bears little relation to the number of little
people running around it ! - you have to look at the graphs for the
true picture!)
9) Hire a *few* entertainers.
The general rule is, don't buy anything or hire anyone unless you need
them. And don't forget to keep the warehouse stocked.
Additions described by:
Brad Bishop
I have also found that if your workers strike (and, I don't particularly
care for unions, myself) you can click on the worker and then (for lack
of a better term) user the 'pinchers' to pick them up off the picket
like and set them back to work. Seems to work, they seem to happily go
about their chores. I don't know how this affects the rest of the game,
though.
One thing I would change from the recommendations above... Don't just
buy as much stock as you possibly can. You can build up quite a bit of
cash by buying low and selling high rather than just buying everything.
I have found that sometimes other parks stock will slip below 100/share
so that it costs you virtually nothing to buy all of their stock.
Usually, the next year that same stock is worth over 10,000/share so
that you make quite a nice little profit.
One other thing, make sure that your concessions are constantly stocked,
the majority of the cash you will make will not be from tickets but from
Ice Cream, Soda, Fries, Toys, Balloons, etc... This is where the cash
flow is for your park.
Once you have everything stabilized (at least for me) your park will make
you a little money but most of your cash will come from the stock market
(relatively speaking - what I mean is that your park will do fine on its
own once you really have it going, and will supply you with a nice income,
but there is a lot of money to be made with stocks).
Strategy 3: Satisfying The Masses
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Adam Williamson
1. First of all, hire mechanics.
When a ride breaks down, don't wait for a mechanic, TELL him to fix
it (you do this by questioning him, clicking the spanner, and clicking
on the ride you want him to fix).
2. Build LOADS of shops, and KEEP THEM STOCKED.
3. Put trees down next to every bit of path.
4. Have firework displays (press F).
5. Hire lots of entertainers.
6. Every time you build a ride, put your ticket prices up, because people
don't PAY to get on rides -- their only function is to make people pay
more to come in.
7. Buy yourself out on the stock market straight away - you don't want to
be taken over.
Strategy 4: The Tech Advantage
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Howard Ship
Build a park and develop it to death. Optimize for profit. Crowd
the rides in. Don't care about esthetics. Eventually, you will be
rolling in money (example: 500 people in park, gate fee of *zero*,
income around 90K a month). Build up 5 or 6 million this way, then
sell the park. By this time, you will be number 1 in 4 or 5 areas.
When you sell the park, it resets you and your competition. Use that
incredible cash to maximize your research. You will be able to
crank out and setup an amazing park well before the competition. On
your second park, layout things more carefully.
Strategy 5: Something different
-----------
This short strategy was described by:
Peter Elfers
As an alternative to developing your park year after year, a different
approach is to develop a park just to sell it (if you can) at the end
of the year. There is an auction where you can wait until the price
is very high, then use that money to build a new park (even in the
same country).
---------------
6.0 Park Design
---------------
This section is intended to provide some opinions on useful park designs.
Your themepark can be designed with a number of factors in mind.
Things you may want to consider in designing the park layout:
- park aesthetics (i.e. making it nice to look at - both for the
player and the little people)
- clutter control (i.e. keeping the rides nicely spaced out)
- crowd control (i.e. getting the little people distributed around the
park)
- facility layout (i.e. what facilities work best grouped together)
- host climate (i.e. the conditions: climatic and financial, of the
country your park is in
6.1 Park Aesthetics
------------------
In the PC version you can use the nickname "DEMO" when starting Theme Park
! to check out a demo park. The demo park is built into the game, so to
! see it, choose "Continue Park" after you enter the nickname "DEMO".
!
! Here are a few simple things you usually want to do in order to make your
! park more aesthetically pleasing to the little people:
! - place trees/fences along the path ways;
! - keep the litter levels low.
6.2 Clutter Control
-------------------
! For non-experts, you may want to keep you park fairly spaced out.
! Keeping plenty of space around your attractions will provide many
! benefits, including the following:
! - extra space for reorganizing attractions without rebuilding the
! entire park (especially when you want to fit in a new ride after
! one blows up!);
! - extra space for doing minor modifications such as:
! - adding in extra path between attractions;
! - rearranging (or extending) you ride queues;
! - extra space for laying down non-elevated ride tracks that zig-zag
! about the park;
! - ample clearance for placing and adjusting signposts, so that nearby
! rides do not interfere with the process.
6.3 Crowd Control
-----------------
Here are a few ideas for spreading out the crowd in the park:
- use arrows on the path to lead the crowd to the inner park
(where the better rides are -- right?)
! - position the ride entrances and exits (where possible) to
! channel the crowd about the park. In general at least place the
! entrance and exit on different sides of the ride
- use a wide entrance area to avoid congestion at the park entrance
6.4 Facility Layout
-------------------
! As a general rule, mixing the rides, shops, and sideshows all together
! is a much better practise than grouping these things together.
! Here are some more specific (yet obvious) suggestions for grouping
! facilities:
! - place a food stall with a beverage stall (and vice versa).
! If you use appropriate combinations, you can use one to boost sales
! at the other (for example, selling _salty_ fries right next to a
! cola stand);
! - place the more expensive shops near the more exciting attractions.
! When the excited little people leave the ride, they are more likely
! to pay a higher price.
6.5 Host Climate
----------------
6.6 Interesting Things To Try
-----------------------------
Here's some interesting ideas to try that you may not have considered
before:
RIDE CHAINS:
- build a roller coaster "chain":
i.e. an entrance ... some track ... another entrance ... more track ...
... more track ... the first entrance.
- do the same with the bumper cars, or the tube ride (the mono rail's
not the only way to get around the park ;-) ).
STREET FAIR:
- Use the grassy area out the front of your ThemePark to create a
street fair! Sure, it's only 3 squares wide, but you have a decent
selection of shops and scenery that will fit in that, and if you're
tricky, you can even manage to fit in some of the track rides!
(see the table on space requirements for clues on what things you
can use in your "street fair").
-------------
7.0 Utilities
-------------
This section covers any utilities for use with Themepark.
It includes cheats, patches, and demos.
7.1 Theme Park Cheats
---------------------
BuiltIn Cheats:
ThemePark has a built in cheat player that you can use to try out
all the ride, shops, and scenery. To access this cheat player,
choose to start a new Themepark, and use the nickname "HORZA".
(Make sure you have "First game" set to "NO".)
While you are making your park, the following cheat keys are
available:
C - gives you $50,000
ALT-Z - gives you ALL rides
CTRL-Z - gives you ALL shops
LSHIFT-Z - gives you ALL scenery
! NOTE: Once enabled the cheat mode cannot be disabled, so to get
! the above cheat functions in your own parks, simply start or continue
! a park as HORZA, exit to the main menu screen, start a new park,
! changing the nickname to your own nickname, then load the game you want,
! and presto, cheat keys are enabled in your park! :-)
Third Party Cheats:
! A money cheat for ThemePark can be found at the following site:
!
!
!
! The cheat is quite small (only an 8Kb ZIP file) and can be applied
! to any of the ThemePark save games to boost the available cash to
! $500 million!
7.2 Patches
-----------
! Sadly, there is currently no patch for ThemePark, despite how badly it
! it needed to fix up the numerous bugs. Worse still, it has been said
! that there is no plan, nor intent, to ever make a patch.
!
! There _is_ a ThemePark archive in the patches section of the Games Domain
! WWW site, however, it contains only files that are identical to the
! original ThemePark files.
!
! Anyone wanting to check this out for themselves can find this file at:
!
!
7.3 Theme Park Demo
-------------------
Builtin Demo:
-------------
ThemePark has a built in DEMO player. Use the nickname `DEMO' and
continue the game to see the builtin demo park in the PC version.
! Playable Demo:
! --------------
!
! A playable demo of Theme Park does exist. Links to a number of sites the
! demo can be downloaded from are on:
!
!
!
! The demo is a 1.31Mb ZIP file.
!
! Here's a brief overview of what you can do with the demo:
! - 3 year playing time (after which you get dropped to DOS);
! - brief introductory tutorial from the advisor (which MUST be done,
! since you cannot scroll the screen until you finish it);
! - Sandbox play mode only: the research, stock and shares screens
! aren't implemented;
! - SoundBlaster FM music support only;
! - No digital sound support;
! - The following `cheat' keys are available in the demo:
! C - add $50,000
! T - cycle through weather conditions
! Y - perform end of year evaluation (and give out awards)
! - The following usual keys are also available: (this is not exhaustive)
! F - toggle the fireworks display
! R - toggle between hi-res and lo-res modes (hi-res requires VESA)
! O - open/close the park
! - limited set of attractions provided
! - rides:
! - Bouncy Castle
! - Tree House
! - Merry-Go-Round
! - Ghost House
! - shops:
! - Mr Whippy Ices
! - Balloon World
! + Big Time Fries
! - scenery
! - Apple Tree
! - Rose Bush
! - Outhouse
! - Lake
!
! Note: Additional attractions made available through research during the
! allowed playing period may vary. I've only seen Big Time Fries researched
! though, and invoking the other cheat functions to enable all rides, shops,
! and scenery causes the game to crash when the selection screen/window
! for these are opened.
7.4 Other
---------
VESA TSRs:
----------
If you don't have a VESA TSR for your video card there are plenty
available by ftp. SciTech Software's UNIVBE is an outstanding VESA TSR
product available as unimpaired shareware. Not only does it support
the majority of video cards, but it often offers speed increases over
the manufacturers VESA support (including built in VESA support)!
UNIVBE is available at you nearest SimTel mirror:
e.g.
----------
8.0 Tables
----------
This section includes some tables with various useful bits of info.
> Any suggestions on the contents of this sections are welcomed.
8.1 General Info
----------------
These tables list some basic (but useful) info on Rides, Shops, and
Scenery.
RIDES
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
| | | | | | Capa| | |
|Name | Area| Extra | Full| Type| city| Excitement| Reliability|
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
|Race Car Ride | 2x1 | Track | Y | GT | 25 | Very Good | Quite Good |
|Rubber Tubing | 2x1 | Track | Y | GT | 25 | Excellent | Quite Good |
|Big Dipper | 5x1 | Track | N | RT | 4 | Superb | Okay |
|Monorail | 5x2 | Track | N | RT | 2 | Bad | Top Notch |
|Roller Coaster | 5x2 | Track | N | RT | 4 | Top Notch | Okay |
|Loop The Loop | 5x1 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Top Notch | Okay |
|Water Splash | 5x1 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Superb | Okay |
|Cork Screw | 1x6 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Excellent | Okay |
|Big Wheel | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Good | Excellent |
|Bouncy Castle | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Okay | Very Bad |
|Flight Sim | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 5 | Superb | Poor |
|Ghost House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 5 | Okay | Very Good |
|Haunted House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 14 | Excellent | Very Good |
|Maze | 4x4 | Ent/ | Y | SR | 16 | Very Bad | Very Good |
| | | Exit (1) | | | | |
|Merry-Go-Round | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Bad | Poor |
|Observation Tower| 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 20 | Bad | Okay |
|Observatory | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 30 | Okay | Superb |
|Parasol Chairs | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Quite Good| Poor |
|Pirate Boat | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 8 | Excellent | Very Good |
|Plane Flyer | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Quite Good| Very Good |
|Planet Rocket | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 10 | Bad | Poor |
|Snakes & Ladders | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 1 | Poor | Very Bad |
|Space Shuttle | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Very Good | Very Good |
|Super Spinner | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 20 | Quite Good| Very Good |
|Tree House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 1 | Poor | Very Good |
|Clown Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Okay | Superb |
|Cowboy Acts | 6x5 | - }(2)| N | LS | 24 | Good | Superb |
|Dolphin Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Quite Good| Superb |
|Medieval Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Very Good | Superb |
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
SHOPS
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
|Name | Area| Full| Type | Addictiveness|
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
|Balloon World | 5x2 | N | Toy | - |
|Coffee Shop | 3x3 | Y | Drink | - |
|Coconut Shy | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Very Good |
|Duck Shoot | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Poor |
|Gunshoot | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Quite Good |
|Mr Whippy Ices | 3x2 | Y | Sweet | - |
|Novelty Shop | 3x2 | Y | Novelty | - |
|Saloon | 3x2 | Y | Drink | - |
|Tincan Alley | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Good |
|Arcade | 3x1 | Y | Sideshow | Top Notch |
|Big Time Fries | 3x1 | Y | Fast Food| - |
|Big Time Burger | 3x1 | Y | Fast Food| - |
|Gift Shop | 3x1 | Y | Gift | - |
|Pokey Cola | 3x1 | Y | Drink | - |
|Race Track | 3x1 | Y | Sideshow | Very Good |
|Steak Restaurant | 3x1 | Y | Savory | - |
|Toyland | 3x1 | Y | Toy | - |
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
SCENERY
+-----------------+-----+-----+
|Name | Area| Type|
+-----------------+-----+-----+
|Lamp Post | 1x1 | O |
|Tree Stump Fence | 1x1 | F |
|Birch Tree | 1x1 | P |
|White Fence | 1x1 | F |
|Castle Wall | 1x1 | F |
|Orange Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Apple Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Privet Hedge | 1x1 | F |
|Rose Bush | 1x1 | P |
|Tropical Bush | 1x1 | P |
|Weeping Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Palm Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Oak Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Spooky Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Outhouse | 1x1 | T |
|Boggy Crapper | 1x1 | T |
|Lake | 3x3 | W | (3)
|Super Toilet | 1x1 | T |
|Centre Fountain | 3x2 | W |
+-----------------+-----+-----+
Table Key:
Area - the minimum bounding area required to build the object
Extra - (Rides only) Addition Space outside the minimum bounding area
required for:
Track - the rides track
Ent - the rides entrance
Exit - the rides exit
Full - (Rides and Shops) indicates whether or not the minimum bounding
area is filled by the object.
Ride Type: (4)
RT - raised track (i.e. Paths can be placed underneath)
GT - ground track (i.e. Require dedicated space)
TE - track extras (i.e. require flat, straight track to go on)
LS - live show
SR - standard ride
Capacity - (Rides only) The ride capacity (or for raised track rides, the
capacity per car on the ride).
Excitement - (Rides only) The ride excitement level.
Reliability - (Rides only) The rides reliability.
Shop Type - (Shops only) (5)
For Refreshment shops - the food type sold
For Souvenir shops - the object sold
For Sideshows, the addictiveness is additionally recorded.
Addictiveness - (Sideshows only) How addictive the side show is.
Scenery Type:
P - plant/tree
F - fence
W - water feature
T - toilet/latrine
O - other
Notes:
! (1) All of the live action shows (....) have restricted/fixed positions
! for the entrance booth and exit stairs. The placement positions
! of these are within the bounding area of the ride, the remainder of
! which is typically filled with ride queues.
! (2) Rides with totally fixed positions for the entrance and exit outside
! of the bounding area of the ride (i.e. Maze), will `reclaim' this
! space from various existing uses, such as pathways, etc, without
! requesting permission. This is useful to keep in mind to save some
! minor pain when placing these rides.
(3) A Lake piece must be placed in a 3x3 area, but can be reduced
to take up only a 2x2 area (and can of course be made much larger)
(4) All track ride entrances can be oriented in four ways:
facing down ("normal"),
facing up,
facing left, or
facing right.
The area required to place the ride entrance varies according to
the orientation of the entrance (raised track ride entrances are
manually oriented, ground track rides are automatically oriented).
(5) For shops, it is possible to reclaim the area under the shop for
other objects (except the square directly under the shop -- see
this in tiny mode).
You can reclaim this area by erasing the ground under the shop
(i.e. RMB click on the square).
This will change the grass from short "used" grass to normal
"usable" grass. You can also do the same to the square directly
under the shop (just click "No" when it prompts you to confirm the
delete operation), but the only thing you can put down is a path.
In this was you can pack MUCH more into your park if you really
want to (you effectively reduce the space requirements for each
shop to a single square!). It looks pretty messy however.
8.2 Price/Profit Ratios
-----------------------
These tables (provided by Trevor Farrell ),
are the results of an experiment that aim at determining the optimal
sales margin for various shops.
Tables are included only for "Big Time Fries" and "Balloon World".
(Tables for other shops will gladly be accepted from anyone wanting
to conduct their own experiments.)
Trevor explains:
The results were obtained by saving a setup, setting a price, running
the sim for a predetermined time and noting sales, reverting to the
saved setup, adjusting the prices, etc...
It is clear from the limited data so far that the margins are very
different for different products, but there was good correlation for
the results presented. They seem repeatable and consistent.
My conclusion is that the initial computer suggested mark ups are way
too low for most products.
+---------------------------------------------------+
| Big Time Fries: |
| |
| Buying at: 35 |
| Computer suggested mark up: 45 |
| |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| Price | Contribution | Margin | Sales | Profit |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| 45 | 10 | 29% | 36 | 360 |
| 50 | 15 | 43% | 30 | 450 |
| 52 | 17 | 49% | 25 | 425 |
| 54 | 19 | 54% | 20 | 380 |
| 55 | 20 | 57% | 28 | 560 |
| 56 | 21 | 60% | 20 | 420 |
| 58 | 23 | 66% | 19 | 437 |
| 60 | 25 | 71% | 10 | 250 |
| 65 | 30 | 86% | 10 | 300 |
| 75 | 40 | 114% | 4 | 160 |
| 85 | 50 | 143% | 0 | 0 |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
+---------------------------------------------------+
| Balloon World |
| |
| Buying at: 10 |
| Computer suggested mark up: 12 |
| |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| Price | Contribution | Margin | Sales | Profit |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| 10 | 0 | 0% | 29 | 0 |
| 12 | 2 | 20% | 26 | 52 |
| 14 | 4 | 40% | 27 | 108 |
| 16 | 6 | 60% | 23 | 138 |
| 18 | 8 | 80% | 24 | 192 |
| 20 | 10 | 100% | 21 | 210 |
| 22 | 12 | 120% | 21 | 252 |
| 30 | 20 | 200% | 0 | 0 |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
Unfortunately, the economic environmental conditions that were
used in this experiment are unknown, but may well be an influencing
factor.
Addition questions also remain:
- Does the optimal margin change during the life of the game?
- Is the optimal margin dependant on starting price?
! ---------------------------------
! 9.0 Alternate Information Sources
! ---------------------------------
!
! There are a number of WWW pages that have other information of interest
! for ThemePark players.
!
! The Games Domain WWW site contains the reviews of ThemePark from
! - Game Bytes
! (http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/GameBytes/issue21/greviews/themepark.html)
! - GD Review (of course)
! (http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/gdreview/pc/june/themep.html)
!
! Bullfrog provide some inside information into the game on their WWW site:
! - Some basic tips:
! (http://www.bullfrog.co.uk/hints/index.html)
! - "Alex Trowers Guide To ThemePark"
! (http://www.bullfrog.co.uk/hints/alex_html#themepark)
[THE END]
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST v0.4
Last Update: 23 November 1995
Maintained by:
David Leadbetter
Contributors:
Peter Elfers
(author of the Transport Tycoon FAQ),
Adam Williamson ,
(maintainer of the Wolf3D FAQ),
Howard Ship ,
Trevor Farrell ,
Ludvig Linton ,
Carsten Poulsen ,
Brian Taylor ,
Richard Develyn ,
Isaac Ashdown ,
plus many others
NOTE: Changes since the last version are indicated by a '!' in the
leftmost column.
Introduction:
------------
Welcome to a FAQ list for Themepark.
This file attempts to answer many frequently asked questions
relating to Themepark, concerned with game installation and
game play.
Please email any comments, suggestions or questions to the maintainer
at the address shown above.
Contents:
--------
0.0 Abbreviations
1.0 Installation FAQs
1.1 Versions
1.2 Hardware FAQs
1.3 Software FAQs
2.0 Gameplay FAQs
2.1 Game mechanics
2.2 Game simulation
3.0 Bugs
4.0 Play Reference
4.1 Renaming Attractions
4.2 Handymen Zoning
4.3 Signposts
! 4.4 The Stock Market
! 4.5 One of the little people has gotten stuck!
! 4.6 Miscellaneous
5.0 Play Strategies
6.0 Park Design
7.0 Utilities
! 7.1 Cheats
! 7.2 Patches (sorry, none here!)
! 7.3 Demo
! 7.4 Other
8.0 Tables
8.1 General Info
8.2 Price/Profit Ratios
! 9.0 Alternate Information Sources
-----------------
0.0 Abbreviations
-----------------
This section explains and abbreviations used throughout this file.
LMB - left mouse button
RMB - right mouse button
Each question in the FAQ sections is classified as follows:
Q: Question/Problem
A: Answer/Solution
R: Related Point
---------------------
1.0 Installation FAQs
---------------------
This section contains frequently asked questions related to installation
and configuration of Themepark.
1.1 Versions
------------
Versions of ThemePark exist for the PC, MAC, and Amiga (any others?).
This FAQ is aimed at the PC version only. However much of the
information it includes is applicable to the other versions. This
section on installation is applicable to the PC version ONLY!
Anyone wanting to write a version of the FAQ for the other platforms
is free to use the info in this FAQ (I'd appreciate being contacted
first though).
1.2 Hardware FAQs
-----------------
Q: My mouse doesn't work
A: Themepark has some serious problems with many mouse drivers.
(The general symptom is the mouse being restricted to the
top half of the screen)
The solution that seems to work for most people is to use
the MOUSE.COM that comes with Windows.
! Q: Sometimes the mouse jumps around the screen.
! A: If your mouse driver is loaded in Mouse Systems Mode, you
! should find that switching to Microsoft mode for playing
! ThemePark will correct this problem.
Q: Problems running intro.
A: A lot of people with CD-ROMs and/or sound cards have trouble
running the intro.
Try using the '-o' switch, or not run the intro at all (edit
the Themepark batch file).
Q: No mouse on the "Enter Nickname" screen
A: Some people with CD-ROMs and soundcards don't get the pointer
on the nickname screen. Apparently this is a memory problem,
and the only solution is to free up more memory (or buy some
more), or turn off sounds.
Q: I can't get sounds to work with my soundcard
A: To run low quality sounds you need to have 4M RAM
A: To run high quality sounds you need to have 8M RAM
NOTE: These are the minimum requirements. Even if you satisfy
these, you may not get sounds unless you are running a minimal
configuration.
Q: How do I get SVGA mode to work?
A: Themepark uses the VESA video standard to run in high-res mode.
If your video card doesn't have VESA support built in, you need
to run a VESA TSR (usually supplied with the video card, or
a 3rd party util like UNIVBE - see Section 7.4).
Q: How well does ThemePark run on a 386?
A: If you play all your other games on a 386, chances are you'll
find ThemePark fine to play on a 386. The game _does_ slow
down as you get more little people in the park. One tip though,
if you've only got a 386, DO NOT play in SVGA mode -- this is
_really_ slow!
1.3 Software FAQs
-----------------
Q: Are these any patches available for the game (PC version)?
A: I am not aware of any patches currently available or being
made :-(
Q: It just won't work after installing!
A: If you are running EMM386, try installing without EMM386 loaded.
Q: What's the difference between the floppy and CD-ROM versions?
A: Both version are the same, except that with the CD-ROM version
you get some bonus "cut scenes" of first person views of the
rides.
-----------------
2.0 Gameplay FAQs
-----------------
This section contains frequently asked questions related to game play.
2.1 Game Mechanics FAQs
-----------------------
This sections deals with questions to do with building your park.
Q: I am having trouble building loops.
A: Loops can only be placed on a flat, straight section of
horizontal track.
Q: I am having trouble building cork-screws.
A: Cork-screws can only be placed on a flat, straight section
of vertical track.
Q: I am having trouble getting loops to work.
A: Someone has suggested that roller coasters must be longer than
a certain length before loops work.
A: The coaster car may not be going fast enough to reach the top
of the loop -- modify the track to make the car faster.
Q: I am unable to turn on the coaster.
A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track
for the roller coaster to stop.
Q: The coaster never stops to let passengers on and off.
A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track
for the roller coaster to stop.
R: The coaster will stop _twice_ if the track passes right next to
the ride entrance on both sides.
Q: Piece placement.
A: The actual placement and apparent placement of some rides
(especially the track ride entrances) can be very confusing.
Often removing a few lengths of extra track at both ends
will provide enough space to replace the object.
Q: Rides not being used.
A: Make sure you have queue lanes and the exit joined up to the
path.
A: Swap the queue path and exit around (for track rides).
A: People can't seem to walk across bridges that are part of a path
intersection -- add in a section of path between the bridge and
the intersection.
Q: How do you use direction signs.
A: Click on the attraction you wish to point to with the sign tool,
then place the sign where you want it.
Rotate the sign (if necessary) by clicking the LMB on the sign with
the sign tool. (see section 4.3 for further info)
Q: I can't replace a ride.
A: You have to demolish the old ride first. To do this click on
the old ride with the RMB. However you have to click in a certain
spot. Change into "tiny" mode to see where to click.
Alternatively you can click on the ticket booth (for rides that
have one).
R: Demolishing the Roller Coaster or Big Dipper entry will also
demolish all connected track, so it's a good idea to break
the track manually first unless you like rebuilding the entire
track.
Q: Piece placement difficulties - trouble placing ride tracks,
rides, shops, etc...
A: Unfortunately this is one of the annoying bugs you will probably
come across eventually.
It may be linked to a bad game state (e.g. rides exist that need
repair _really_ badly).
A: Sometimes it just requires a few persistent clicks to place
objects (sometimes a LOT of clicks!).
A: Sometimes attempting to place objects on long grass will leave
short grass that can cause placement difficulties.
Demolishing the short grass (i.e. click with RMB) may fix the
problem.
2.2 Game Simulation FAQs
------------------------
This section deals with questions to do with running your park.
Q: My game gets really slow.
A: The game slows down as the number of people in the park increases.
A: If you have a bad game state, the game might slow down
(e.g. rides exist that need repair _really_ badly)
A: Running in SVGA mode slows the game down.
A: Running at higher game speeds can slow down the game.
Choosing a slower game speed will increase the game response speed
(though game time will be slower of course).
Q: "Due to your bad park planning ... has gotten stuck".
A: The places people usually get stuck are in queue lines,
under attractions, and sometimes on the bus stop (!!)
Identify stuck people that are walking but stay in the same
place.
People stuck in queue lines can get freed by emptying the line
(e.g. turn the ride off)
People stuck under rides (because you built the ride on them)
can only be freed by destroying the ride.
[Anyone know how to help people that get stuck on the bus stop?]
A: If you can't find the stuck person (and it really bothers you),
empty the park of people by closing the park for a short while.
(see Section 4.5 for further info)
Q: Visitors get stuck in ride queues.
A: They should get unstuck when the queue moves, or when the queue
is emptied (do this by turning the ride off and on).
Q: My mechanics get stuck
A: Sometimes mechanics like to have lunch in comfortable places
they can't get out of. When they are called to repair a ride
they get stuck continually answering their radio.
Simply pick them up with your "tweezers" and put them somewhere
else.
Q: My handymen get stuck in "turbo mode".
A: Picking them up with your "tweezers" should also fix up this
problem.
Q: "Your XXX ride has gotten so old you should replace it".
A: Unless you want the ride to blow up (leaving unmovable debris),
you need to locate the old ride and replace it.
Q: Black arrows over handymen.
A: This means that the handyman has a route assigned.
Q: Visitors don't follow queues, paths, etc...
A: Naughty aren't they ;-)
Q: Bikers in the park.
A: Bikers are attracted by two things: litter and fast rides.
Q: Everyone left my park.
A: Chances are you accidentally pressed 'O' and closed the park.
Q: How do I make more money?
A: You major income comes from two sources:
- shops, and
- the stockmarket (in simulation mode)
So, make sure you're shops stay stocked, and it's worth spending
some time getting the prices just right (see the table below for
some indication of price/profit ratios).
Learn to wheel'n'deal on the stockmarket to make a packet!
(see section 5.0 for further info)
! Q: How can I make the little people happy?
! A: Ask them what they think (LMB on a person with the query tool),
! and fix up any common problems.
Q: How to get the satisfaction levels up.
A: Turn on the fireworks display.
A: Have a few entertainers at the entrance to hand out umbrellas,
so that the little people aren't effected by the weather.
A: Put in more exciting rides.
A: Lower the gate fee.
Q: Why are so many little people wandering around hungry and thirsty
when I have shops everywhere?
A: The little people may not be able to find your shops. Use
signposts to advertise their position.
A: Your prices may be way to high for the average little person.
A: Selling balloons, etc to the little people helps them forget
how hungry and thirsty they are.
Q: How do I know what prices to charge at my shops?
A: The best way to set the prices is to "ask" the little people.
Start by adjusting the prices in large steps, and watching what
the little people say as they go by. If they are hungry but it's
too expensive they'll say so, if not, they'll buy something.
Once you have the price roughly right, you can spend a bit more
time fine tuning the price if you really want too.
Q: I have completed all the research, but I missed out on some of
the objects.
A: This is probably a bug in the game?
Q: I have completed all technology research before researching all
the rides. Can you get updated versions of these rides?
A: Some sort of research strategy may be required here, so that
you can still research ride updates after you have finished
researching all rides?
--------
3.0 Bugs
--------
This section is intended to include a list of the bugs in Theme Park.
If you hit a problem, this is a useful place to check to see if you've
become a bug victim.
> Does anyone out there have a comprehensive list of bugs to add to these?
- Stats for your employees do not always reflect reality:
- The time working meter is often red (= 0% ?) for someone, even though
they are actually working at the time;
- Sometime the months employed field is not accurate.
- Demolishing some structures leaves the ground unusable (you have
to re-demolish each effected square to use it).
- Monorail cars can sometimes try to go in opposite directions around
the track (usually when the entrances have track on both sides).
- employees and little people can get stuck in silly places (employees
can get moved manually, sometimes nothing can unstick a little person!):
! - little people sometimes think they get stuck when standing in line;
! - little people can have rides/etc built on top of them, sometimes
! getting them stuck;
! - etc.
- plenty of mouse related glitches:
- path tool selected if path is under cursor when picking shops, rides,
scenery;
- placing signposts near rides often changes what the sign points
to rather than placing the sign;
- etc.
! - various screen display bugs:
! - any screen update when in "Tiny Mode" erases all litter/vomit from
! the screen (annoying when you want to scroll around the screen in
! tiny mode to find the vomit the little people are gacking at);
! - the ride speed indicator incorrectly displays the "redline" section
! in hi-res;
! - etc.
------------------
4.0 Play Reference
------------------
This section is meant to supplement the manual.
Any poorly described sections of the manual should be enhanced here.
4.1 Renaming Rides
------------------
Park Attractions can be renamed by the player.
This can be done as follows:
1. Select the attraction you want to rename and open it's info
screen;
2. Bring up the name editing box by LMB clicking on the attraction
name at the top of the info screen;
3. Edit the attractions name;
4. LMB Click the "tick" button to finish.
NOTE: The "cross" button in the editing box doesn't seem to work.
So to leave an attractions name unchanged simply change it to
what it was originally.
Nice as it is to be able to do this, this can make it harder
when it comes to finding your rides that need replacing:
- the Advisors warning uses the default name anyway;
- all rides of the same type are renamed, not just one ride.
4.2 Zoning Handymen
-------------------
Once you get a few things set up in your park and some little people
wandering around, you'll quickly find rubbish (and other things)
on the ground spoiling your park. You use handymen to clean the
mess up. However, handymen left on their own, will quickly disappear
to happily mow the lawns forever, while your park turns into a waste
refuge!
To keep each handyman on track, you can use the zoning functions to
assign them cleaning routes.
A couple things to keep in mind with handymen zoning are:
- the route is a loop that passes through all control points
(reachable from the handyman's current position);
- the route can only follow the park paths and ride queues;
- any route that covers disjoint sections of path will only be
patrolled in the sections that the handyman can reach without
leaving the park paths (in fact when you are in the zone editing
mode, only those sections of the route "reachable" by the handyman
will be shown);
Handyman zones are assigned as follows:
1. Select the handyman whose zone you want to work on (place the
handyman on a path with the "tweezers" if necessary);
2. LMB click the zoning button.
This will toggle the handyman zoning mode. In this mode two
extra buttons are available:
- the "erase zone" button;
- the "add control point" button.
3. Select the "add control point" button;
4. LMB click on the path in the places you want the zone to pass
through. As new control points are added, the zone route (shown
with black shading) is extended to include the new control points.
Note: you can only have up to 8 control points in a zone.
5. LMB click on the zoning button when you have finished
assigning the zone to exit the handyman zoning mode.
Your handyman will now obediently patrol his zoned route picking up
the litter as he passes by.
4.3 Signposts
-------------
Signposts are useful things for guiding the little people around your
park. When the little people pass a signpost and see something they
like, they will walk in the direction the signpost points.
Each signpost can point to:
- 1 ride (white sign);
- 1 shop (red sign);
- the exit (blue sign).
Placing Signs:
1. Select the signpost tool;
2. Select the object to point to:
With the signpost tool:
- LMB click on a ride selects white sign pointing to that ride
- LMB click on a shop selects red sign pointing to that shop
- LMB click on the exit selects blue sign pointing to the exit
3. LMB click on the path to place the sign. When placing a new sign,
the sign will be placed so that it points "towards" the selected
object.
4. Adjust the sign (if necessary) by LMB clicking on the sign with
the signpost tool to rotate the sign.
Note: clicking on an existing signpost only rotates the sign whose
colour matches the current colour of the signpost tool.
Note: The little people trust that the direction the sign points actually
points to the attraction, so make sure you orient the sign (as described
in step 4 above) to point in the direction the little people should walk
to get there.
Caution: Close signposts should generally point away from each other.
Close signposts that point towards each other might trap little people
between them who are interested in the objects of both signposts.
i.e. Rather than using signposts like:
--------------
o=> <=o
-\\-------\\--
You should use the signposts like:
--------------
<=o o=>
---\\---\\----
! 4.4 The Stock Market
! --------------------
!
! Success in the stock market depends on having a fundamental knowledge
! of how it actually works. The goal is very simple: Buy low, Sell high;
! and you'll be making lots of money (not to mention all the dividends you
! get in between).
!
! In ThemePark, the main challenge for the stock market amateur is mainly
! how to buy any shares (that is, before you opponents do).
!
! You can count on unowned company shares being available at three times:
! 1. when the company is just started;
! 2. when the company is doing badly;
! 3. when the companies stock doubles.
!
! At any other time, you'll have to be lucky to get your hands on `good'
! shares. The above knowledge can be made use of in the following way:
!
! 1. Companies are added a few at a time for the first few years
! of the game. You can take this opportunity to acquire initial
! shares in the companies then;
!
! 2. Clearly, no-one wants to own bad shares, since as their value drops,
! you are losing money. However, they may not stay bad forever,
! and when they turn, you'll have an ideal opportunity to get some
! shares dirt cheap (provided you can beat you opponents to it). The
! hard part is knowing when they have hit rock bottom;
!
! 3. When stock obtains a high enough value, the existing shares are
! halved in value, and the number of shares is doubled. These extra
! shares are initially unowned, so when this happens, it provides
! a great opportunity for obtaining some good shares (if you can
! beat you opponents to it that is).
!
! ThemePark makes things even simpler, since the major financial changes
! are performed at the end of each month. So to `wheel and deal' on the
! stock market, you need only check the share prices once at the start of
! each month, and can spend the rest of your time running your park.
! 4.5 One of the little people has gotten stuck!
! ----------------------------------------------
!
! "Through your bad park planning one of the little people has
! got stuck, find out where and help them"
!
! When the advisor tells you this, you know you are in for a long game
! of hide and seek, which you may never win. However, the following
! method should improve your rate of success.
!
! The first thing to know is all the common places the little people do
! get stuck. So here's a few:
! - in ride queues;
! - under rides;
! - between the scenery;
! - amongst ride tracks.
!
! Next, we want to make sure that we do not spend numerous minutes searching
! the park for someone who simply freaked out when they found themself
! helplessly trapped in a ride queue, only to be freed moments later when
! the queue moved, so it doesn't hurt to wait for a few minutes to see if
! the advisor continues to insist that someone truly does need help.
!
! If it seems that someone actually did manage to get themself stuck, you
! need to make a careful sweep of the entire park in an attempt to find
! them.
!
! On the first sweep, switch to tiny mode, and look for people trapped
! under the park attractions. Unfortunately the only way to get these
! peeps unstuck is to destroy the ride, wait for them to walk clear, and
! rebuild the ride in it's original position. Most often people get
! stuck in this way when rides are carelessly placed on wandering peeps.
!
! If the first sweep does not produce the trapped person, be prepared to
! take a more careful sweep of all the rest of the park. Again, it is
! often best to use tiny mode, so that attractions do not obscure the
! poor little lost soul. Basically you just need to keep your eye open
! for a person that is walking quite frantically without going anywhere,
! and hope for the best.
!
! Once you find the trapped person attempt to rescue them. Depending on
! where they are stuck, you can try one or more of the following:
! - turn off the ride so the queue files out
! - remove the entrapping obstacles to let them get out.
! If you are _really_ unlucky, someone may get stuck where they cannot be
! freed from, such as getting stuck atop the bus stop!
!
! If at this stage you just cannot locate the unfortunate person, closing
! your park is one last desperate measure you can take to find them.
! Hopefully, once the crowd has thinned out enough, it should be a simple
! matter to locate the trapped person.
! 4.6 Miscellaneous
! -----------------
!
! Cleaning up after the little people:
! -----------------------------------
!
! One thing that is bound to make a lot of little people unhappy fast,
! is lots of litter lying about the park. For normal litter, just
! assign enough handymen to you park paths to keep things clean, and
! forget about it.
!
! However, the sound of little people puking (and the accompanying
! complaining) are an emergency that need immediate attention.
! Grab the nearest idle handyman (be careful not to mess up handymen
! with assigned routes), and clean up the mess before it spreads.
! The best way to find the mess is to switch into tiny mode, since
! all rubbish stays normal size. This should make the large vomit
! spots relatively easy to find.
!
! NOTE: due to the display update bug (see 3.0) that erases all rubbish
! in tiny mode, make sure you only scroll the view in normal mode.
! Quick Save/Load
! ---------------
!
! In addition to being used to save the current game stated when you exit
! the game, the `continue game' can also be used as a `Quick Save' game
! while you are playing.
! Use the following keys:
! ALT-S to save the game
! ALT-L to load the last save point
!
! This may be useful for performing `experiments' with your park, without
! having to go through the slightly more tedious menu save and menu load
! process.
> What other bits do people think need explaining?
-------------------
5.0 Play Strategies
-------------------
This section contains a few game strategies.
If you are having trouble doing well in the game following one of these
strategies may prove beneficial.
NOTE: Some of these strategies are included WITHOUT permission of the
person who posted the strategy. Credit has been given wherever possible.
! Strategy 0: Quick Tips:
! -----------
! Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind. These are generally reflected
! by the strategies outlined below.
! 1. Listen to the advisor
! - the only things he tells you should be obvious things you either
! overlooked or forget!
! 2. Listen to the little people
! - spend some time surveying customers to fine tune your prices:
! - extra sales may provide more income than extra profit;
! - extra sales means faster usage of stocks (== more money);
! - keep the little people happier.
! 3. Keep your warehouse stocked
! a) Any time your warehouse runs out of stock you lose money!
! - do not over stress you stock capacity, only have as many
! shops as you can continuously supply (you'll hurt your ratings)
! - upgrade your warehouse ASAP so you can add more shops
! b) If you don't need to re-order the moment stock arrives, or
! Each order is not a full order, you don't have enough shops!
! 4. Prizes are valuable income (especially early on)
! - try to keep your ratings good
! - a single excellent rating is better money than all average ratings!
! Excellent = $10,000
! Good = $ 5,000
! Average,
! Poor, Bad = $ 0
! 5. Rides justify gate prices, shops and sideshows make extra money
! - make sure you maintain a profitable ratio of rides:shops:sideshows
! One drink; food; sideshow per ride is quite reasonable;
! - each time you add an extra ride, your admission price can be
! increased.
! 6. Park employees get paid whether they work or not, so only hire
! handymen, mechanics and guards as they are needed, and keep shifting
! your entertainers to where they are needed (so they earn their pay,
! and make the little people happy).
Strategy 1: Beginners Tips
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Mike Wallis
1. Make sure you listen to your advisor -- especially when he talks
about the admission prices.
2. When just starting out, don't open your park until you've laid out a
few rides, bathrooms, food and drink stands, and merchandise shops.
You don't want your first guests to enter a park that has been poorly
laid out, because they'll be dissatisfied and word of mouth will hurt
future attendance levels.
3. Research the following first:
1) ride upgrades;
2) ride technology;
3) shops/attractions/games.
1) The ride upgrades will allow higher guest capacities, as well as
more reliability.
2) The ride technology will, obviously, give you access to better and
more exciting rides.
3) The shops/games will give you a wider selection of food/drink,
merchandise, and game units to place. These will generate profits
for you.
4. Don't pump too much money into research, as the research expenses are
incurred PER MONTH.
One important thing to note is that admission prices alone will not
provide enough revenue for your park to operate. That's where
food/merchandise/game units come into the picture. Combined with front
gate admission prices, the revenue that food/merchandise/game units
generate should bring your park into the black...
Strategy 2: General Method
-----------
This general strategy was described by:
Edward Kenworthy
I've had no problems - I've never had to take out a loan even.
(This is playing in full sim, medium hard).
My strategy:
1) Build all the rides that are available ASAP.
(build good rides two times and really good rides three times if you
can afford it)
2) Build shops, but not too many if it's not a rich country.
3) ALWAYS increase the price of the things your shops sell by 20-50% of
the default.
4) Research the maximum possible, spread between all areas, but
particularly the new rides and better rides.
5) When you have enough money, buy all your own shares - and then as
many of the others as you can afford.
6) Hire a mechanic when you find rides breaking down - and no sooner -
and hire an extra one each time you find rides breaking down and all
the mechanics are busy.
7) Hire cleaners as soon as rubbish appears (and assign them cleaning
routes).
8) When you build toilets hire a cleaner just to clean them - nothing
clears the park quicker than chain vomiting ! (By the way the number
of people in the park bears little relation to the number of little
people running around it ! - you have to look at the graphs for the
true picture!)
9) Hire a *few* entertainers.
The general rule is, don't buy anything or hire anyone unless you need
them. And don't forget to keep the warehouse stocked.
Additions described by:
Brad Bishop
I have also found that if your workers strike (and, I don't particularly
care for unions, myself) you can click on the worker and then (for lack
of a better term) user the 'pinchers' to pick them up off the picket
like and set them back to work. Seems to work, they seem to happily go
about their chores. I don't know how this affects the rest of the game,
though.
One thing I would change from the recommendations above... Don't just
buy as much stock as you possibly can. You can build up quite a bit of
cash by buying low and selling high rather than just buying everything.
I have found that sometimes other parks stock will slip below 100/share
so that it costs you virtually nothing to buy all of their stock.
Usually, the next year that same stock is worth over 10,000/share so
that you make quite a nice little profit.
One other thing, make sure that your concessions are constantly stocked,
the majority of the cash you will make will not be from tickets but from
Ice Cream, Soda, Fries, Toys, Balloons, etc... This is where the cash
flow is for your park.
Once you have everything stabilized (at least for me) your park will make
you a little money but most of your cash will come from the stock market
(relatively speaking - what I mean is that your park will do fine on its
own once you really have it going, and will supply you with a nice income,
but there is a lot of money to be made with stocks).
Strategy 3: Satisfying The Masses
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Adam Williamson
1. First of all, hire mechanics.
When a ride breaks down, don't wait for a mechanic, TELL him to fix
it (you do this by questioning him, clicking the spanner, and clicking
on the ride you want him to fix).
2. Build LOADS of shops, and KEEP THEM STOCKED.
3. Put trees down next to every bit of path.
4. Have firework displays (press F).
5. Hire lots of entertainers.
6. Every time you build a ride, put your ticket prices up, because people
don't PAY to get on rides -- their only function is to make people pay
more to come in.
7. Buy yourself out on the stock market straight away - you don't want to
be taken over.
Strategy 4: The Tech Advantage
-----------
This strategy was described by:
Howard Ship
Build a park and develop it to death. Optimize for profit. Crowd
the rides in. Don't care about esthetics. Eventually, you will be
rolling in money (example: 500 people in park, gate fee of *zero*,
income around 90K a month). Build up 5 or 6 million this way, then
sell the park. By this time, you will be number 1 in 4 or 5 areas.
When you sell the park, it resets you and your competition. Use that
incredible cash to maximize your research. You will be able to
crank out and setup an amazing park well before the competition. On
your second park, layout things more carefully.
Strategy 5: Something different
-----------
This short strategy was described by:
Peter Elfers
As an alternative to developing your park year after year, a different
approach is to develop a park just to sell it (if you can) at the end
of the year. There is an auction where you can wait until the price
is very high, then use that money to build a new park (even in the
same country).
---------------
6.0 Park Design
---------------
This section is intended to provide some opinions on useful park designs.
Your themepark can be designed with a number of factors in mind.
Things you may want to consider in designing the park layout:
- park aesthetics (i.e. making it nice to look at - both for the
player and the little people)
- clutter control (i.e. keeping the rides nicely spaced out)
- crowd control (i.e. getting the little people distributed around the
park)
- facility layout (i.e. what facilities work best grouped together)
- host climate (i.e. the conditions: climatic and financial, of the
country your park is in
6.1 Park Aesthetics
------------------
In the PC version you can use the nickname "DEMO" when starting Theme Park
! to check out a demo park. The demo park is built into the game, so to
! see it, choose "Continue Park" after you enter the nickname "DEMO".
!
! Here are a few simple things you usually want to do in order to make your
! park more aesthetically pleasing to the little people:
! - place trees/fences along the path ways;
! - keep the litter levels low.
6.2 Clutter Control
-------------------
! For non-experts, you may want to keep you park fairly spaced out.
! Keeping plenty of space around your attractions will provide many
! benefits, including the following:
! - extra space for reorganizing attractions without rebuilding the
! entire park (especially when you want to fit in a new ride after
! one blows up!);
! - extra space for doing minor modifications such as:
! - adding in extra path between attractions;
! - rearranging (or extending) you ride queues;
! - extra space for laying down non-elevated ride tracks that zig-zag
! about the park;
! - ample clearance for placing and adjusting signposts, so that nearby
! rides do not interfere with the process.
6.3 Crowd Control
-----------------
Here are a few ideas for spreading out the crowd in the park:
- use arrows on the path to lead the crowd to the inner park
(where the better rides are -- right?)
! - position the ride entrances and exits (where possible) to
! channel the crowd about the park. In general at least place the
! entrance and exit on different sides of the ride
- use a wide entrance area to avoid congestion at the park entrance
6.4 Facility Layout
-------------------
! As a general rule, mixing the rides, shops, and sideshows all together
! is a much better practise than grouping these things together.
! Here are some more specific (yet obvious) suggestions for grouping
! facilities:
! - place a food stall with a beverage stall (and vice versa).
! If you use appropriate combinations, you can use one to boost sales
! at the other (for example, selling _salty_ fries right next to a
! cola stand);
! - place the more expensive shops near the more exciting attractions.
! When the excited little people leave the ride, they are more likely
! to pay a higher price.
6.5 Host Climate
----------------
6.6 Interesting Things To Try
-----------------------------
Here's some interesting ideas to try that you may not have considered
before:
RIDE CHAINS:
- build a roller coaster "chain":
i.e. an entrance ... some track ... another entrance ... more track ...
... more track ... the first entrance.
- do the same with the bumper cars, or the tube ride (the mono rail's
not the only way to get around the park ;-) ).
STREET FAIR:
- Use the grassy area out the front of your ThemePark to create a
street fair! Sure, it's only 3 squares wide, but you have a decent
selection of shops and scenery that will fit in that, and if you're
tricky, you can even manage to fit in some of the track rides!
(see the table on space requirements for clues on what things you
can use in your "street fair").
-------------
7.0 Utilities
-------------
This section covers any utilities for use with Themepark.
It includes cheats, patches, and demos.
7.1 Theme Park Cheats
---------------------
BuiltIn Cheats:
ThemePark has a built in cheat player that you can use to try out
all the ride, shops, and scenery. To access this cheat player,
choose to start a new Themepark, and use the nickname "HORZA".
(Make sure you have "First game" set to "NO".)
While you are making your park, the following cheat keys are
available:
C - gives you $50,000
ALT-Z - gives you ALL rides
CTRL-Z - gives you ALL shops
LSHIFT-Z - gives you ALL scenery
! NOTE: Once enabled the cheat mode cannot be disabled, so to get
! the above cheat functions in your own parks, simply start or continue
! a park as HORZA, exit to the main menu screen, start a new park,
! changing the nickname to your own nickname, then load the game you want,
! and presto, cheat keys are enabled in your park! :-)
Third Party Cheats:
! A money cheat for ThemePark can be found at the following site:
!
!
!
! The cheat is quite small (only an 8Kb ZIP file) and can be applied
! to any of the ThemePark save games to boost the available cash to
! $500 million!
7.2 Patches
-----------
! Sadly, there is currently no patch for ThemePark, despite how badly it
! it needed to fix up the numerous bugs. Worse still, it has been said
! that there is no plan, nor intent, to ever make a patch.
!
! There _is_ a ThemePark archive in the patches section of the Games Domain
! WWW site, however, it contains only files that are identical to the
! original ThemePark files.
!
! Anyone wanting to check this out for themselves can find this file at:
!
!
7.3 Theme Park Demo
-------------------
Builtin Demo:
-------------
ThemePark has a built in DEMO player. Use the nickname `DEMO' and
continue the game to see the builtin demo park in the PC version.
! Playable Demo:
! --------------
!
! A playable demo of Theme Park does exist. Links to a number of sites the
! demo can be downloaded from are on:
!
!
!
! The demo is a 1.31Mb ZIP file.
!
! Here's a brief overview of what you can do with the demo:
! - 3 year playing time (after which you get dropped to DOS);
! - brief introductory tutorial from the advisor (which MUST be done,
! since you cannot scroll the screen until you finish it);
! - Sandbox play mode only: the research, stock and shares screens
! aren't implemented;
! - SoundBlaster FM music support only;
! - No digital sound support;
! - The following `cheat' keys are available in the demo:
! C - add $50,000
! T - cycle through weather conditions
! Y - perform end of year evaluation (and give out awards)
! - The following usual keys are also available: (this is not exhaustive)
! F - toggle the fireworks display
! R - toggle between hi-res and lo-res modes (hi-res requires VESA)
! O - open/close the park
! - limited set of attractions provided
! - rides:
! - Bouncy Castle
! - Tree House
! - Merry-Go-Round
! - Ghost House
! - shops:
! - Mr Whippy Ices
! - Balloon World
! + Big Time Fries
! - scenery
! - Apple Tree
! - Rose Bush
! - Outhouse
! - Lake
!
! Note: Additional attractions made available through research during the
! allowed playing period may vary. I've only seen Big Time Fries researched
! though, and invoking the other cheat functions to enable all rides, shops,
! and scenery causes the game to crash when the selection screen/window
! for these are opened.
7.4 Other
---------
VESA TSRs:
----------
If you don't have a VESA TSR for your video card there are plenty
available by ftp. SciTech Software's UNIVBE is an outstanding VESA TSR
product available as unimpaired shareware. Not only does it support
the majority of video cards, but it often offers speed increases over
the manufacturers VESA support (including built in VESA support)!
UNIVBE is available at you nearest SimTel mirror:
e.g.
----------
8.0 Tables
----------
This section includes some tables with various useful bits of info.
> Any suggestions on the contents of this sections are welcomed.
8.1 General Info
----------------
These tables list some basic (but useful) info on Rides, Shops, and
Scenery.
RIDES
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
| | | | | | Capa| | |
|Name | Area| Extra | Full| Type| city| Excitement| Reliability|
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
|Race Car Ride | 2x1 | Track | Y | GT | 25 | Very Good | Quite Good |
|Rubber Tubing | 2x1 | Track | Y | GT | 25 | Excellent | Quite Good |
|Big Dipper | 5x1 | Track | N | RT | 4 | Superb | Okay |
|Monorail | 5x2 | Track | N | RT | 2 | Bad | Top Notch |
|Roller Coaster | 5x2 | Track | N | RT | 4 | Top Notch | Okay |
|Loop The Loop | 5x1 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Top Notch | Okay |
|Water Splash | 5x1 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Superb | Okay |
|Cork Screw | 1x6 | - | Y | TE | 0 | Excellent | Okay |
|Big Wheel | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Good | Excellent |
|Bouncy Castle | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Okay | Very Bad |
|Flight Sim | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 5 | Superb | Poor |
|Ghost House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 5 | Okay | Very Good |
|Haunted House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 14 | Excellent | Very Good |
|Maze | 4x4 | Ent/ | Y | SR | 16 | Very Bad | Very Good |
| | | Exit (1) | | | | |
|Merry-Go-Round | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Bad | Poor |
|Observation Tower| 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 20 | Bad | Okay |
|Observatory | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 30 | Okay | Superb |
|Parasol Chairs | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Quite Good| Poor |
|Pirate Boat | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 8 | Excellent | Very Good |
|Plane Flyer | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 4 | Quite Good| Very Good |
|Planet Rocket | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 10 | Bad | Poor |
|Snakes & Ladders | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 1 | Poor | Very Bad |
|Space Shuttle | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 6 | Very Good | Very Good |
|Super Spinner | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 20 | Quite Good| Very Good |
|Tree House | 4x4 | Ent | Y | SR | 1 | Poor | Very Good |
|Clown Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Okay | Superb |
|Cowboy Acts | 6x5 | - }(2)| N | LS | 24 | Good | Superb |
|Dolphin Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Quite Good| Superb |
|Medieval Acts | 6x5 | - } | N | LS | 24 | Very Good | Superb |
+-----------------+-----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----------+------------+
SHOPS
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
|Name | Area| Full| Type | Addictiveness|
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
|Balloon World | 5x2 | N | Toy | - |
|Coffee Shop | 3x3 | Y | Drink | - |
|Coconut Shy | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Very Good |
|Duck Shoot | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Poor |
|Gunshoot | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Quite Good |
|Mr Whippy Ices | 3x2 | Y | Sweet | - |
|Novelty Shop | 3x2 | Y | Novelty | - |
|Saloon | 3x2 | Y | Drink | - |
|Tincan Alley | 3x2 | Y | Sideshow | Good |
|Arcade | 3x1 | Y | Sideshow | Top Notch |
|Big Time Fries | 3x1 | Y | Fast Food| - |
|Big Time Burger | 3x1 | Y | Fast Food| - |
|Gift Shop | 3x1 | Y | Gift | - |
|Pokey Cola | 3x1 | Y | Drink | - |
|Race Track | 3x1 | Y | Sideshow | Very Good |
|Steak Restaurant | 3x1 | Y | Savory | - |
|Toyland | 3x1 | Y | Toy | - |
+-----------------+-----+-----+----------+---------------+
SCENERY
+-----------------+-----+-----+
|Name | Area| Type|
+-----------------+-----+-----+
|Lamp Post | 1x1 | O |
|Tree Stump Fence | 1x1 | F |
|Birch Tree | 1x1 | P |
|White Fence | 1x1 | F |
|Castle Wall | 1x1 | F |
|Orange Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Apple Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Privet Hedge | 1x1 | F |
|Rose Bush | 1x1 | P |
|Tropical Bush | 1x1 | P |
|Weeping Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Palm Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Oak Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Spooky Tree | 1x1 | P |
|Outhouse | 1x1 | T |
|Boggy Crapper | 1x1 | T |
|Lake | 3x3 | W | (3)
|Super Toilet | 1x1 | T |
|Centre Fountain | 3x2 | W |
+-----------------+-----+-----+
Table Key:
Area - the minimum bounding area required to build the object
Extra - (Rides only) Addition Space outside the minimum bounding area
required for:
Track - the rides track
Ent - the rides entrance
Exit - the rides exit
Full - (Rides and Shops) indicates whether or not the minimum bounding
area is filled by the object.
Ride Type: (4)
RT - raised track (i.e. Paths can be placed underneath)
GT - ground track (i.e. Require dedicated space)
TE - track extras (i.e. require flat, straight track to go on)
LS - live show
SR - standard ride
Capacity - (Rides only) The ride capacity (or for raised track rides, the
capacity per car on the ride).
Excitement - (Rides only) The ride excitement level.
Reliability - (Rides only) The rides reliability.
Shop Type - (Shops only) (5)
For Refreshment shops - the food type sold
For Souvenir shops - the object sold
For Sideshows, the addictiveness is additionally recorded.
Addictiveness - (Sideshows only) How addictive the side show is.
Scenery Type:
P - plant/tree
F - fence
W - water feature
T - toilet/latrine
O - other
Notes:
! (1) All of the live action shows (....) have restricted/fixed positions
! for the entrance booth and exit stairs. The placement positions
! of these are within the bounding area of the ride, the remainder of
! which is typically filled with ride queues.
! (2) Rides with totally fixed positions for the entrance and exit outside
! of the bounding area of the ride (i.e. Maze), will `reclaim' this
! space from various existing uses, such as pathways, etc, without
! requesting permission. This is useful to keep in mind to save some
! minor pain when placing these rides.
(3) A Lake piece must be placed in a 3x3 area, but can be reduced
to take up only a 2x2 area (and can of course be made much larger)
(4) All track ride entrances can be oriented in four ways:
facing down ("normal"),
facing up,
facing left, or
facing right.
The area required to place the ride entrance varies according to
the orientation of the entrance (raised track ride entrances are
manually oriented, ground track rides are automatically oriented).
(5) For shops, it is possible to reclaim the area under the shop for
other objects (except the square directly under the shop -- see
this in tiny mode).
You can reclaim this area by erasing the ground under the shop
(i.e. RMB click on the square).
This will change the grass from short "used" grass to normal
"usable" grass. You can also do the same to the square directly
under the shop (just click "No" when it prompts you to confirm the
delete operation), but the only thing you can put down is a path.
In this was you can pack MUCH more into your park if you really
want to (you effectively reduce the space requirements for each
shop to a single square!). It looks pretty messy however.
8.2 Price/Profit Ratios
-----------------------
These tables (provided by Trevor Farrell ),
are the results of an experiment that aim at determining the optimal
sales margin for various shops.
Tables are included only for "Big Time Fries" and "Balloon World".
(Tables for other shops will gladly be accepted from anyone wanting
to conduct their own experiments.)
Trevor explains:
The results were obtained by saving a setup, setting a price, running
the sim for a predetermined time and noting sales, reverting to the
saved setup, adjusting the prices, etc...
It is clear from the limited data so far that the margins are very
different for different products, but there was good correlation for
the results presented. They seem repeatable and consistent.
My conclusion is that the initial computer suggested mark ups are way
too low for most products.
+---------------------------------------------------+
| Big Time Fries: |
| |
| Buying at: 35 |
| Computer suggested mark up: 45 |
| |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| Price | Contribution | Margin | Sales | Profit |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| 45 | 10 | 29% | 36 | 360 |
| 50 | 15 | 43% | 30 | 450 |
| 52 | 17 | 49% | 25 | 425 |
| 54 | 19 | 54% | 20 | 380 |
| 55 | 20 | 57% | 28 | 560 |
| 56 | 21 | 60% | 20 | 420 |
| 58 | 23 | 66% | 19 | 437 |
| 60 | 25 | 71% | 10 | 250 |
| 65 | 30 | 86% | 10 | 300 |
| 75 | 40 | 114% | 4 | 160 |
| 85 | 50 | 143% | 0 | 0 |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
+---------------------------------------------------+
| Balloon World |
| |
| Buying at: 10 |
| Computer suggested mark up: 12 |
| |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| Price | Contribution | Margin | Sales | Profit |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
| 10 | 0 | 0% | 29 | 0 |
| 12 | 2 | 20% | 26 | 52 |
| 14 | 4 | 40% | 27 | 108 |
| 16 | 6 | 60% | 23 | 138 |
| 18 | 8 | 80% | 24 | 192 |
| 20 | 10 | 100% | 21 | 210 |
| 22 | 12 | 120% | 21 | 252 |
| 30 | 20 | 200% | 0 | 0 |
+---------+--------------+--------+-------+---------+
Unfortunately, the economic environmental conditions that were
used in this experiment are unknown, but may well be an influencing
factor.
Addition questions also remain:
- Does the optimal margin change during the life of the game?
- Is the optimal margin dependant on starting price?
! ---------------------------------
! 9.0 Alternate Information Sources
! ---------------------------------
!
! There are a number of WWW pages that have other information of interest
! for ThemePark players.
!
! The Games Domain WWW site contains the reviews of ThemePark from
! - Game Bytes
! (http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/GameBytes/issue21/greviews/themepark.html)
! - GD Review (of course)
! (http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/gdreview/pc/june/themep.html)
!
! Bullfrog provide some inside information into the game on their WWW site:
! - Some basic tips:
! (http://www.bullfrog.co.uk/hints/index.html)
! - "Alex Trowers Guide To ThemePark"
! (http://www.bullfrog.co.uk/hints/alex_html#themepark)
[THE END]