E-Views with Boomer

The RCT community is alive and well! There are many different sites and most seem to be thriving. And of course, why shouldn't they be, with the popular new release of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. It hit the number 1 spot for bestseller (again) and is even now floating around the number 4 spot. Not to bad, and the figures in sales loom large, I'm sure, for the King of the RCT kingdom, Mr. Chris Sawyer! It seems all kings abound in treasures and Chris is no exception to the golden rule. But there was trouble brooding on the dark horizons of RCT land!

Trouble indeed! Throughout the RCT community the cry went out… "a good game" most agreed but "plagued with flaws and bugs", that I think really should have been worked out in more extensive Beta testing and adjusting before releasing on the international market. Then there was the wrong move of trying to use a particular CD copy protection system, a system with a poor track record and riddled with bugs and problems of its own. Nevertheless, release it they (Infogrames) did!

Now enter the scene… breaking through the black clouds of impending doom in RCT land, comes a white shining Knight with full and proper Armour, riding a white stallion, a horse of war, with nostrils flaring. Both the horse and the rider were ready for battle and the motto on the riders shield translated in English to "let the games begin!"

Who is this masked warrior, the collective cry goes out. And the mask comes off and the face revealed is that of a man, a RCT legend actually, called HENRY WINKELSTEIN! Now, surly by now most will agree I have to MUCH imagination and that is more then true, but nevertheless, most will also have to agree that to most of us really avid RCT players and addicts, Henry has come to our rescue, time and again, to help us overcome some of these initial problems and shortcomings of RCT2. He fights with and gives to us, weapons such as his RCT2TRG trainer, which is a weapon that actually grows stronger and more useful as time goes by, just like his old TRG trainer for RCT1 did!

I could go on and on about the help that hwinkels has given our community, both in the past and in the present and hopefully in the future. His expertise in computer programming and in other related fields were all laid out in detail in my first E-View with him, some time ago and you can read that E-View at RCT2.com. But no matter what his credentials may be, he has brought countless joy and fun (and downloads) to and throughout the entire RCT universe and helped (dramatically) enhance an already kickin wicked game to began with.

The dark clouds are lifting, not just because of Henry; there are a lot of other very talented "puter smart" individuals contributing countless valuable trainers and utilities to RCT and its vast kingdom of players (young and old). But even an army of seasoned warriors must have a leader and I would have to say that, so far, Henry leads the way!

So it is with extreme pleasure that I bring to you an in-depth interview with the reigning hero of RCT land Mr. Henry Winkelstein! Now I know that it's talking to Henry that y'all came here for so let's push this rE-View River Raft into the rapids and see what lurks up ahead, just around the bend!

Boomer	Welcome Henry! I know you are extremely busy right now, in many different areas and directions. So I thank you and consider it an honor that you would take some time to this second interview with me. With that being said I will get right to it! Let's start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start. The long awaited RCT2 finally comes out, (and if I remember right you were one of the first few to have it) you load it, and you play it, what was your first take on RCT2 at that time? Did you love it? Did you hate it? Was it what you expected?
Henry Winkelstein	"My first thought was "Boy, this music sucks!" But seriously, once I started playing it I wasn't really surprised by anything. It wasn't anything revolutionary compared to RCT1, but I didn't expect it to be. All the reviews had prepared me for what was there. No surprises. Well, they did finally fix the Daylight Savings Time bug!".
Boomer	Oh yeah, that pesky little bug. A little time goes by and you have a better chance to put the game under a microscope, so to speak, and find out more about it. As you started uncovering more and more information it seemed like in no time at all you had a trainer out and available for download. Limited in function, still in its early stages, but very useful nevertheless, you achieved this in an astonishingly quick time, much to the delight and heavy praise from the whole RCT community. What features do you plan to add to the TRG2 trainer, if any?
Henry Winkelstein	"It quickly became apparent that a lot of the inner workings of the game were the same as RCT1. And, much to my delight, most of the anti-cheat code had been removed. I basically ripped a few functions out of the original trainer. But to make it really cool, I wanted the little vertical bar to be on top of the RCT2 screen while playing. That was the whole point of the new interface. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get that to work yet. I can't see adding any more features until I get that fixed, but if and when I do, you can expect them to be about the same as the features in my old trainer.".
Boomer	Which had just about everything that everyone wanted. A lot of talk has been going around about all the bugs and strange quirks in this new release by Chris Sawyer; do you think a patch or fix of some kind is needed to fix these bugs?
Henry Winkelstein	"It does seem like the game was rushed out the door. My guess is that they won't release a patch until after the first of the year. On the official RCT2 website they have yet to even acknowledge that there are serious bugs. The biggest seems to be just getting the game to run at all with the infernal SecuROM CD anti-copy protection. Companies should learn that anti-copy protection never has worked, it doesn't work now and it won't work in the future. It harms only their legitimate customers, as we've seen in this case. Determined pirates will find a way to get around any copy protection scheme.".
Boomer	Absolutely and do so every day! Do you think that Infogrames will come up with a fix or do you think it will have to come from within the RCT community itself?
Henry Winkelstein	"It will have to come from Infogrames. There are too many little bugs to track across all the different versions of the game. Unfortunately, they don't seem to think it's a high-priority item right now.".
Boomer	I guess this would be a good time to ask you about your website. Where is it found at and what do you have available there for downloading?
Henry Winkelstein	"It's in the process of moving again. You'll have to keep an eye out on the various message boards for word on where it will resurface. When it comes back, you'll find the TRG - That RollerCoaster Game - trainer, some custom scenery packs, and other assorted goodies.".
Boomer	Have you discovered anything in your close up look at RCT2 to give any hint at what we might expect to see in the, sure to be, RCT2 add-ons that we'll see in the (near) future?
Henry Winkelstein	"We've already seen official scenery plug-ins in the Panda World download. Also, there are references in the game code to Add-on Packs 1 through 15! Now I don't think there will realistically be 15 add-on packs released for RCT2, but the ability is there if they want to go that far. I think the most likely additions will be new "flat" rides. Since all the "track words" have been used up, it looks like any new rides will have to be flat ones. Future add-on packs will probably consist of themed combinations of flat rides and scenery. With RCT1 the add-on packs were essentially replacements of the whole game. With the new plug-in architecture, that is no longer necessary.".
Boomer	There seems to be a rather heated debate over the fact that the amounts of rides and stalls are limited in the scenario editor to 128. Rather strange when there are many more items then that available. Do you think that a feature in your trainer could eventually be worked out to "open" all these rides, stalls and items so that players have everything available to them?
Henry Winkelstein	"No trainer will be able to do that and have the game remain stable. There's just not enough room in the game's memory map to put them. For instance, the critical arrays that hold ride and attractions data are only big enough to hold 128 items. There's no way to go beyond those limits without re-building the entire game from the source code. Chris Sawyer picked the limits for whatever reason, and he's not about to release the source code, so we're stuck with what we've got I'm afraid.".
Boomer	Call me an Optimist, but do you think that this could be something that is possibly planned to be released as a future add-on by Infogrames?
Henry Winkelstein	"It's possible only if they re-build the game with higher limits defined, and the add-on completely replaces the main game code. They did that with the RCT1 add-ons, so it is definitely possible. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. As great as Chris Sawyer's games are, he is most definitely user un-friendly once he has the money.".
Boomer	Also seems to be the attitude at Infogrames, his distributor. What have you seen so far that you like the MOST about RCT2, that wasn't in RCT1?
Henry Winkelstein	"I think the Scenario Editor and the Coaster Designer are the biggest improvements. The larger map sizes are nice, too.".
Boomer	What would be the thing then that you like LEAST about RCT2?
Henry Winkelstein	"It could have been so much more. Like I said, I'm not disappointed per se, because we all knew what it was going to be like, but Chris Sawyer didn't exactly bust his butt to come up with a totally awesome sequel. There are so many things he could have done. Better peep diversity, better staff controls, more colors, more flexible scenario goals, more custom music options, etc., etc., etc. The thing that aggravates me the most is that he actually TOOK OUT some things! I miss the different styles of ride queues and I REALLY miss being able to run the game in a window. Also inexplicably missing are the ability to mute the sound and use the mountain-building tool while playing the game. It also makes no sense to me why you can't build rides inside the scenario editor.".
Boomer	That's another thing we hope is coming in a future add-on. What is the, technically speaking, single most interesting thing that you have found with RCT2?
Henry Winkelstein	"The plug-in architecture. It's really cool the way it works. It opens up a whole range of possibilities.".
Boomer	Yes, I see that in a lot of games and programs these days. If Chris Sawyer were to read this E-View Henry, (a very real possibility) what would you like to say to him concerning RCT2?
Henry Winkelstein	"He can read? LOL. Chris, you sold out, dude. Not that I wouldn't have done the same...".
Boomer	(Boomer finally quits laughing and continues) You have been a HUGE help to the whole RCT community Henry, both with RCT1 and even now with RCT2. First of all let me say THANK YOU to you, not only from me, but also collectively from the whole RCT community. That being said, I am curious as to with your work and your private life and all the work you are doing on RCT2, how much time do you have to actually play RCT and make parks?
Henry Winkelstein	"I play a couple of hours a week. I've built a few parks but I haven't even completed one single scenario that came with the game. One of my biggest problems with RCT2 is that the scenarios take too long to complete. There's nothing more boring than reaching your goal in year 2 and having to just run a park in maintenance mode for another 2 years just to get your name on the scoreboard and watch the peeps cheer you.".
Boomer	Don't forget all those cool balloons floating up in the air and popping. With all you have available to you from just your own work I bet your RCT parks are some kickin wicked parks. Have you ever submitted anything for others to see or download?
Henry Winkelstein	"Interestingly enough, I haven't. Maybe I will some day.".
Boomer	I know we have been through this all before but for the new ones could you tell us the general area that you live in and what you do for a living?
Henry Winkelstein	"I live in the extreme southeastern part of New York State in the USA and my field is Systems Engineering.".
Boomer	You told me you had time for a brief interview and I know this has been far from brief, for that I'm sorry, but I have to ask you one last question before I can let you go. Do you have any interesting new projects concerning RCT2 on your horizon that you could tell us about?
Henry Winkelstein	"The one I really want to get to is a Landscape Generator. That's something still missing from the game. The Scenario Editor should have included this, in my opinion. There's also a Photoshop plug-in I wrote that lets you view the images inside the game's DAT files. Once my site returns I'll put that up for download as well. I'm also working on a plug-in object compiler that makes custom DAT files.".
Boomer	I want to thank you for your time Henry! It is always an extreme pleasure to have these visits with you. Your E-Views get the most hits at our website at www.rct2.com and I'm sure that trend will continue. Thank you also for all the pleasure that you have provided RCT players everywhere. I mentioned once before that if you had a dollar for every download that's been made of your trainers and utilities, you would be a millionaire! But thankfully, for us anyway, we get all that from you for free, so again thank you for that and I hope to talk with you again in the near future.
Henry Winkelstein	"Always a pleasure!".

Henry has left the house! Some of you know I stay up late to do these celebrity interviews and I have been told that strange things have happened after I have gone to bed. Now I doubt if that is really true but do me a favor, will ya? Keep your eye on things for me after I leave tonight, will you please? I don't expect anything is going to happen, but you never know! Well, that's it for me. Good night from Boomer and sweet RCT, dreams.

Boomers soft snoring gave witness to the fact that quite some time had gone by. To all who stayed to watch, it seemed as though nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen. In fact later reports told that many late night watchers, had fallen to sleep themselves.

But outside Boomers bedroom window, beyond the eyes of the bored, sleepy watchers, perhaps beyond even the realms of our known reality, a boom of thunder gave ominous warning to the flashing lightning that in turn gave eerie flashes of illumination to a scene of impending, black, rolling, billowing storm clouds. Then in a brief flash of lightening, for just a moment before the rain began to fall, just beyond the black silhouette of the tall Douglas Fir and thick Blue Spruce trees, a man, a Knight, a white knight, on a prancing white stallion appeared and with his sword flashing in the sporadic flashes of natures awesome lightshow he saluted in the direction of Boomers bedroom window and in the next flash of light, the white knight AND his majestic steed AND the mounted army behind him vanished into the black heart of the dark stormy night.

---Boomer---