# RollerCoaster Tycoon

21 Hacker News commenters recommended RollerCoaster Tycoon and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its efficient code, which ran well on limited hardware, and for the countless hours of play it gave players as kids. It still runs on modern systems.

## Why people recommend it

- Assembly code tuned for old hardware (4 comments): "if it was writte in anything else it would never had made it to the shelves with the processor power back then" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47510971)) "RCT is exemplary of mechanical sympathy being important to the game design process" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47485364)) "the beauty of this game was that it was developed in Assembly Code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46664940))
- Nostalgic favorite from childhood (4 comments): "one of my favorite games growing up by far, countless hours sunk into it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492008)) "I spent countless hours on his games when I was a child" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131953)) "This and Rollercoaster Tycoon and Doom II was my jam." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48306622))
- Countless hours of play (3 comments): "Amazingly enjoyable game btw. Killed quite a few hours with that one around 2000." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131462)) "Spent countless hours one summer doing every scenario" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131465)) "on it 'til my fingers bled" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827065))
- Runs well on modern systems (2 comments): "one thing that was really nice about the game is that it runs flawlessly under Wine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47483812)) "rebuilt for modern operating systems under Chris's own direction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46132020))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dwarf Fortress](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dwarf-fortress.md): 74 recommend
- [Airport Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/airport-simulator.md): 41 recommend
- [Firewood Splitting Simulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firewood-splitting-simulator.md): 32 recommend
- [RimWorld](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rimworld.md): 19 recommend
- [Train SIM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/train-sim.md): 19 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "RollerCoaster Tycoon", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rollercoaster-tycoon/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).