July 17, 2003: All good things come to an end sometime. Sorry Angelfire...I'm moving the site (Scared ya, didn't I?). I'll keep this site open, but will no longer update it. Angelfire closed me down six times in the last two days for "excessive bandwidth consumption." So it's time to take this show on the road. Click here for the new home page. No popups there, either. See you there!

June 28, 2003: The UCES project is making good progress. There are interesting story lines and cool new objects. Scenario development is progressing nicely, and some nicely themed rides using custom scenery are being built.

If you are an experienced RCT'er who does quality stuff (objects, scenarios or rides), and have some samples of your work available for review, there's still time to get involved. PM me at Atari's forums (user: eFossil), URCT, or RCT2.com (user: Fossil). You'll be held to a high standard if you participate, but you'll have a lot of fun, too.

June 19, 2003: I've become deeply involved in the User Created Expansion Set project. The goal is to create a set of 15 - 30 scenarios that are woven together with an extended story line. The project will make extensive use of custom objects, and includes several object makers in the group. I was recruited to be the story line editor. A nice library of rides will round out the package. We don't have a target date for release, but are hard at work.

June 1, 2003: When I played last month's scenario, Pebble Beach, I completed the game without building a single coaster. To do that, I had to build a lot of gentle rides. Even using my gentle ride track packs, I still needed more. So I settled on the idea of filling up the park with hedge mazes. This soon became its own project, and led to this month's Spotlight, the Maze Track Pack. In building and testing the pack, I got a shock - the lowly hedge maze is a powerhouse in disguise. Check out the page for details.

Designing the paths for your park is one of the most important considerations in creating a successful park with the coveted "999" rating. The new article Pathing Systems describes how to do it right.

I'm working on a new scenario now. I'm not sure if it will be done this month, but I hope that I'll be able to give you a preview soon. Thanks for stopping by!

May 4, 2003: You guys gave me a lot of positive comments on the Mini Golf track pack last month. I also posted on Infogrames asking if you liked track packs "wider" (variety of rides) or "deeper" (many rides of the same type with different themes). In addition to some colorful commentary (you know who you are!), the results came in: "deeper" was a clear preference. Also mentioned was a track pack emphasizing a single theme - good idea!

As a result of all that good feedback, I decided to do another one-ride-many-themed track pack. This time, it's the Ghost Train in the spotlight. Check out the Ghostbusters Track Pack.

With this new track pack and last month's Mini Golf pack, you'll need a park to use them. The month's scenario is just perfect - it's a park where peeps prefer gentle rides. Put as many of these track pack offerings as you want in this park - the peeps will love you for it!

Oh, and, by the way...about that new scenario... Hey folks, if you want to play a landmark RIGHT NOW, check out Pebble Beach. Once the expansion pack is released, you'll have a bunch of landmarks - I hope their quality is as high as this one. Time will tell.

Rounding out this month's lineup is a new article on Park Rating. It is an edited and improved version of a post I made at the late, great RCT Station.

I updated the link to Steve Franks' track packs - its former location at RCT Station is gone. RCT2.com is its new home. If you haven't yet done so, give it a look - really nicely done.

Thanks for dropping in. I hope you enjoy your visit!

March 30, 2003: As the snow melts away - at least in certain pars of the northern hemisphere - young men's fancy turns to ... golf! At least some young men. Some not so young. Some women too - they're giving the guys a run for their money on the PGA tour these days. A far cry from the origin of the game, when golf was an acronym - Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.

So where am I going with this ramble? The April site update is dedicated to the fine art of Mini Golf. I have an article called Mini Golf Tips that shows how to avoid the dreaded "I want to get off Mini Golf 1" message. I have not seen this information published anywhere else - I figured this out the hard way, by trial and error. Since this is new and original information about the game, it's worthy of the April Spotlight.

Evidently the issues surrounding Mini Golf also eluded the game's developers, as the only Mini Golf course included with the game, Garden Golf, suffers from the "I want to get off" problem. No worries, read the article and you'll never have this problem again.

The second helping is the Mini Golf Track Pack, a dozen nicely decorated courses for your peeps' amusement.

To round out this issue, there's one more article, Block Brakes, which provides an in-depth review of this important topic. I've seen several articles on block brakes, but none that provided complete coverage of this topic, so I felt this was worthwhile.

Thanks for stopping by!

March 15, 2003: The Son of Beast Trainer was released today. I downloaded it, and have spent a couple of hours testing it out. I've written up a "first look" review, including a description of its most important features, and pictures of a few effects that I was able to achieve.

March 2, 2003: [edit] In testing the site today, I found that I got a lot of page loading errors - the files are there, but my host, angelfire, seems to running a server powered by gerbils on a wheel. If this persists, I'll be looking for a new host. Sorry, please bear with me.

Sometimes, you've just gotta rock!

I've got a couple of big, and I do mean big, items for you this month. Only two, as both were massive efforts. Together, they took the entire month to develop.

First up is this month's spotlight, a brand-new scenario called Pixie Dust Park. It's my first venture that uses custom objects. The custom objects help make the scenario unique. I think you'll agree that it's a different RCT gaming experience than you've ever had before. The testers found it exciting and compelling.

Next up is a new track pack, the Pixie Power Pack. This is not just another track pack, folks. When these tracks are stat-pumped, and I show you how to do this, the lowest excitement rating is 9.48. They all have intensity ratings under 8, and have a small footprint relative to their stats. Fossil says, "check it out!"

I've moved older news here.