Using this Manual, Launcher Screen, Five Theme Categories

Five Theme Categories

You can decorate your amusement park using five diverse and comprehensive themes:

•Generic – For all your amusement park needs

•Spooky – Frighten you park guests silly

•Sci-Fi– To inspire guests with visions of tomorrow

•Western – For transporting peeps to the early American frontier

•Adventure – Give your visitors a taste of Arabian nights or Caribbean escapades

Game Difficulty

In previous versions of RollerCoaster Tycoon®, the game offered easy, medium and hard scenarios. RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3 allows you to play all of the scenarios at three difficulty levels:Apprentice, Entrepreneur and Tycoon.When you first begin RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3, only a third of the scenarios are available, the remaining are locked and become unlocked as you complete scenarios at Apprentice level.

Sandbox

Throw caution to the wind and cast off all the constraints of ordinary scenario play. Now you can create the crowning achievement of amusement parks without worrying about money, time or other restrictions. Experiment to your heart’s content with any aspect of the game.

USING THIS MANUAL

With all the freedom and flexibility offered in RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3, there is also an added layer of complexity.The game’s interface has been designed to be easy to navigate once you get the hang of it, but there is a lot to absorb. For that reason, we’ve broken the manual into two sections.

The first part,“Menu and Interface Reference” (pages 9–73), provides a thorough explanation of each menu and panel you’ll encounter in the game.The second part,“A Tycoon’s Guide To …” (pages 74–101) provides advice and hints about how to succeed in virtually any aspect of the game.We also encourage you to take advantage of the in-game tutorials, which provide step-by-step animated instructions about how to get started on your RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3 career.

Throughout the manual you will find an interview with the real-world roller coaster designer John Wardley. For more information about John and his creations visit www.john-wardley.demon.co.uk.

MENU AND INTERFACE

REFERENCE

LAUNCHER SCREEN

The Launcher screen is displayed when you insert the RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3 game disc into your CD–ROM drive.You can also display the Launcher screen by double-clicking on the StartMe.exe program on the CD–ROM game disc.

READ INSTALL GUIDE – Opens the Install Guide that offers instructions for installing the game (after the game is installed, this is replaced by the PLAY button).

INSTALL – Installs the RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3 CD–ROM game (after the game is installed, this is replaced by the REPAIR or UNINSTALL button).

README – Displays the game’s ReadMe file.

MANUAL – Opens the PDF file version of this game manual. If Acrobat Reader is not installed on your computer, you will be prompted first to install it.

ACROBAT READER – Installs Adobe® Acrobat Reader version 5.0.5 (if Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 or newer is already installed, this button is grayed out).

PHOTO STORY 3 – Installs Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows. (If Photo Story 3 is already installed, this button is replaced by one that reads RUN PHOTO STORY 3.) Note: If your computer is not running on the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, this button is grayed out.