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Roller Coaster Tycoon is Released
Roller Coaster Tycoon by Chris Sawyer was first released in 1999. It was an instant hit and spawned many sequels and expansion packs. These days many people around the world still play RCT, but most use it with expansion packs or play the sequels, RCT2 and RCT3D. -
RCT Loopy Landscapes is Released
RCTLL was the final expansion park for Roller Coaster Tycoon. It added more rides and themes to the game. Today almost all RCT releases use the LL expansion pack. For this reason "RCT 1" is more commonly called "LL." -
New Element is Launched
The RCT fan site New Element (NE) is launched by iris in 2002. The park Universal Island Xtreme is released as the site's first "New Element Spotlight" park. Another popular feature at NE is the "New Element Parkmakers." They are a select few that are given a webpage on the site to showcase their parks which are considered to be some of the best in the world. -
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 is Released
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 was the highly anticipated sequel to RCTLL. What it added was the ability for builders to make and import their own custom objects. It also provided better tools to use the objects than LL had. Currently it is likely the most widely used game in the RCT franchise. -
RCT2 Wacky Worlds Released
Like RCT1, RCT2 had its own set of expansion packs. The first was RCT2 Wacky Worlds, or RCT2WW. It was not greeted kindly by the RCT community. This was likely because the game’s creator, Chris Sawyer, was not involved with its production. Also everything it added could have been made by the community with custom objects for the game. Sites like NE did not support the game. A second expansion pack called Time Twister was released months later and was also shunned by most of the community. -
Euroscape Excceds Object Limit
Euroscape by Butterfinger was an RCT2 NE Spotlight park that excced the object limit. Prior to Euroscape it was unknown by many that RCT2 had an object limit. At a certain point parks can be so full that they excced the amount of space RCT2 allows on one file. A few years later a park by Fatha' hit the same hit in RCT LL. -
Escalante River Falls Wins $100
In 2003 New Element held the Hi Rollers contest where they offered $100 to the first place winner. Mala won the contest with Escalante River Falls. Rather than accepting the money Mala generously donated it back to NE. This was the first RCT contest to offer a cash prize. -
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is Released
RCT3 was the first game in the RCT series to be 3D and used a different game engine than its predecessors. It received mixed reviews from the RCT community. Sites like New Element refused to support it due to amount of changes RCT3 had and the large file size of its park files. -
Emergo Becomes First Female NE Parkmaker
Like most gaming websites NE is made up of mostly male members. Female members were quite rare, but after several impressive releases Emergo became NE’s first and only NE Parkmaker. She was a highly accomplished parkmaker who won the championship of RCTSpace.com’s Road Rally contest in 2005 and 2006. She also won the title of MVP for her role in NE’s Head-to-Head 4 contest. -
NE4 Goes Online
The fourth and current version of New Element (NE) was launched in 2010. As the three previous versions it was released with a NE Spotlight park, Europa Park World Showcase. “NE4” came with a full database of all known RCTLL and RCT2 releases. It also debuted the NE rankings system which replaced the NE Parkmaker system. Natelox is currently ranked #1 overall in the hall of fame and closely followed by Kumba, whom is rank #1 at RCT2 and in the US. -
Kumba Re-Creation Sets Record
A full re-creation of Kumba at Busch Gardans Tampa by NE member Kumba was released in 2010. This NE Design winner set A full scale re-creation of Kumba at Busch Gardens Tampa by NE member Kumba was released in 2010. This NE Design winner set a site record by scoring 92% of 100% from the site's accolade panel. Prior to that no release had hit the 90% mark. This design also sparked a trend of parkmakers attempting to re-create their favorite rides and parks. -
Dreamport
Early this year Dreamport by J K was released as NE’s 62th Spotlight park. It set the current record for highest scoring accolade with a 93% and was recently voted best RCT2 park of all time.
