Roller Coaster Tycoon Used to Illustrate Housing Market

June 4, 2007
The U.S. housing market is down - for now.

But a clever use of the build-your-own feature in Roller Coaster Tycoon by The Speculative Bubble shows what a wild ride real estate can be. 



The data underlying the roller coaster design can be found here.



 

Buzz It

Comments

Very clever!

meh. filler.

I was hoping that the coaster car will fall off the track at the end.

I can't see the video, which version was used?

Hehe, clever. Who'd have thought tracking real estate prices could be so much fun? ;)

This remind anyone else of the Simpsons episode "Special Edna" with the Enron Rollercoaster that ended in the poor house?

"Mmmmm, that's good satire!"

Pretty neat, although it would have been cooler had it included something that showed what time period of the graph you were currently on. Sort of like those birds-eye maps for racing games.
-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...

I have to ask: If the house prices are nearly twice as high as they've ever been, why does everyone keep saying the housing market is down? Seems to me like it's due for a crash...

I believe that was Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, but then I'm just guessing. I haven't played RCT games since 2.

But that's pretty interesting. Prices are indeed high.

It was Tycoon 3, very good game, but it doesn't like multi-processors much, and struggles doing graphics at night, even on Core2-6600 with an X1950 for some reason :( Still, certainly a good game, as can be expected from the guy who wrote Elite ;)

Interesting use of the data, not exactly as 'wild' as it must have been for the people with money involved, but still an interesting way of presenting data.

Not to be deliberately negative, but that was one of the most useless things I've seen in recent memory. Without actual dollar amounts to reference, the only thing that video shows is relative ebb and flow. Not only that, but viewing it from POV instead of side view prevents you from gaining an accurate perspective on the differences in fluctuations. To me, the whole thing came off as someone trying something different only for the sake of being different, and it doesn't hold up particularly well.

@Nekojin:

I believe people may be referring to the actual rate of increasing prices, not the nominal level of the prices themselves. I know my home in CA has not increased in value nearly as much this year as it did in the first three that I've owned it.

Ahh, RCT3, how I love you so. Even if your stupid light bloom makes the screen totally wash out in the daytime on the desert scenery.

I agree, some scenery (or even just captions) to mark out key moments would've made it a much more interesting piece. Or they could've coloured the tracks to highlight certain periods.

I hope their next project is history of the dotcom bubble as presented in The Movies.

@Nekojin

People are saying the housing market is 'down' because it has started to collapse. Prices are still nice and high, but foreclosures are going through the roof and that is causing a rapid drop in housing value.

So a slow pop.

They need signs showing you what year you are in at the ride at that point or maybe the cash. Also I would've love to see the car crash.

Heh, there's a great trick with an unfinished Coaster, and one long road from the entrance.

Jack Thompson wouldn't approve, even if no-one actually gets hurt ;)

They should use the British housing market, you'd have never got off the damn start hill :( Let's just say I hope I'm not on it when it reaches the top.....

@Neeneko: "People are saying the housing market is ‘down’ because it has started to collapse. Prices are still nice and high, but foreclosures are going through the roof and that is causing a rapid drop in housing value.

So a slow pop."

But that's not what people have been telling me. People have been telling me - for the last 5 years, mind you - that housing values are low, and I should buy while I can. But prices haven't been "low" for at least 8 years... even the prices from 5 years ago were much higher than previously.
Forgot your password?
Username :
Password :

Shout box

You're not permitted to post shouts.
Andrew EisenThat article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm
Uncharted NESCritics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm
ZenI felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm
DorthLousPassed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am
TechnogeekBrutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm
RedMageIt looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
RedMageBrutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
ddrfr33kHas anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm
GuamishI think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm
Andrew EisenIt'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm
james_fudge$1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am
Uncharted NESGermany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am
Andrew EisenDamn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm
Andrew EisenAudrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm
james_fudgeI hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm
Andrew EisenHey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm
Andrew EisenToki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm
james_fudgeThanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm
DorthLousWill do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm
Andrew EisenI appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

Be Heard - Contact Your Politician