Aesthetically speaking, a roller coaster is a pretty stark thing. Disney, for all its terrifying power, needs an entire platoon of chain-smoking Imagineers and millions of dollars to make you forget that you’re only looking at 1) a bunch of supports and 2) the thing being supported. The original RCT1 and 2 are unique among sims of the era: Maxis games of the time have similarly endless warrens of detail for the devoted player, but Will Wright’s verve pales in comparison to Chris Sawyer’s knowledge of what elements ought to be spotlighted or relegated to the background. (Sawyer hand-coding RCT in assembly language will remain a top 10 technical achievement in video games for decades to come.) Years of refinement by modders have only made Rollercoaster Tycoon more of what it’s always been: nothing more than a bunch of supports and the thing being supported, more than enough to dominate the skyline.