Bullfrog's Theme Park World [TPW] is the follow-up to the oldy and popular Theme Park [TP]. You have to worry about constructions and human resources management, but this doesn't mean that TPW is just a refined sim, years after the original...

There are many novelties that you can't easily spot, and that transform TPW in a whole new, surprising, experience! To start with, the most obvious progress, is the 3rd graphical dimension: you can now rotate and zoom in / out of your park, thus having a freedom that will certainly help you feeling how solid the world you are creating can be...

But graphics are far from being the most important attribute of today's games. After just a few hours, you should have noticed that TPW goes deeper than ever. You are allowed to control your staff's patrol paths, training budget, and resting places. Careful planning of these details will maximize your workers, and contribute (a lot!) for a better running park.

You can also adjust the quality of your goods, from balloons to burgers. Higher quality usually translates in less profit, but much higher consumer satisfaction, and that is what really matters. As a playing tip, I advise you to go max quality from the very early stages of your investment plan: you will build a great reputation and you'll probably manage to compensate the expense, by rising the price of the entrance tickets, which you should do regularly, at the same rhythm that your park grows on offer. Don't rise the ticket's price, if you are not to build new rides, the next day :)

As basic and logical these measures might read, how many real life examples, acting this way, can you name? In Portugal, the bigger names tend to do the opposite: they rise prices, while dominating the market, then they drop them, as soon as consumers get alternatives from other enterprises. "Portugal Telecom" [PT] - of which I am a stock holder - is a fine example: they have a long history of consumer exploitation, and now, with just a few alternatives on the market, they are trying to play "the nice guy", with useless promotions that look like a great deal, but that only affect a small number of customers...

Back to TPW, ever fancied jumping on your own rides and have a scream out of them?! Well, now you can do it!! YEAH! One of TPW's strongest features is the chance you are given, to experience your own park! You can try not only the rides - though they are the top fun - but also the WCs, the balloon shops, the waiting queues... everything! Such option is called the "camera mode", and you can try any time.

If you have ever played Dungeon Keeper, you should recall that the game also had a 1st person mode... Well, TPW's "camera mode" looks very much like that, meaning that what you view isn't as solid as Quake 3 Arena objects :), but hey, Q3A also doesn't have many strategy features, does it?

To help you get started, TPW features a software agent, that appears frequently, explaining how to do things, alerting about incoming problems, but NOT telling you about keyboard shortcuts, which is something other agents do (Jane's USAF)... Translation is: you must, at least, read about the keys (B to build... H to hire staff... R to access the research window... etc)...

Parks must obey a theme, and you can't play on all parks, until you gather enough golden tickets and golden keys, objects that are only awarded to successful managers.

TPW is just superb! Some rides are so funny, that you'll have trouble not laughing loud! Hint: try the Belly Bounce attraction on the Lost World park...

Go buy this one.

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Gaming Links + Windows 2000 Compatibility Status

Of the following games, here is some info about their Windows 2000 compatibility. Check about my system hardware, on the column on your left.

incompatible with Windows 2000:

Theme Park World - it starts, it plays, but you can't see your staff, the rides on the rides' screen, and sound is badly out of sync, not responding to the setup you choose.

GTA 2 - game doesn't start at all.

Need for Speed 4 - "invalid win32 application" :)

Most of the other games are yet to be tested; others exhibit small problems:

Jane's USAF - there are problems with the setup screens (do it in Win9x!); otherwise it plays fine.

Rally Championship - You can play with the keyboard, but other controllers' setup is totally messed up.

Theme Park World @ 190400

Michelin Race of Champions @ 300300

Beetle Crazy Cup @ 290300

Flight Simulator 2000 @ 020300 ; 040300 ; 200300

Le Mans, 24 Hours @ 130200

Baldur's Gate @ 280100 ; 100200

Ford Racing @ 260100

F199 @ 260100

Zelda 64 @ 060100

Mario 64 @ 060100

Rally Championship @ 231299 ; 271299 ; 010200

Jane's USAF @ 061299 ; 101299

Unreal Tournament @ 221199 ; 240100 ; 010200

Quake 3 Arena @ 221199 ; 271199 ; 041299 ; 250100 ; 140300

Delta Force 2 @ 161199 ; 141299 ; 151299 ; 160200

AoE2 @ 250799 ; 311099 ; 021199 ; 051199 ; 101199 ; 041299

Revolt @ 201099 ; 221099 ; 271099

Flight Unlimited 3 @ 271099 ; 271199

Driver @ 271099 ; 021199 ; 051199 ; 081199 ; 021299

Nascar Legends @ 101199

M25 @ 131199

Extreme Mountain Biking @ 131199

GTA2 @ 141199

the truth about the patch @ 270999 ; 280999 ; 091099

Creatures @ GIL ; SW Agents Paper ; 160399 ; 170399 ; 140499

Delta Force @ 020599 ; 050599 ; 130599

Half Life @ 030699

Aliens versus Predator @ 130799 ; 150799 ; 250799 ; 050899

Kingpin @ 060899

Simcity 3000 @ 200899 ; 260899

Hidden & Dangerous @ 110999 ; 140999 ; 170999 ; 21099

Roller coaster Tycoon @ 061099 ; 101099 ; 111099

Sega Rally 2 @ 111099

GP500 @ 161099

Apache Havoc @ 181099