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Arcade Castle: A Gaming Podcast

Welcome! You've reached the home of the Arcade Castle Podcast, a podcast that looks a little at video games, a little at board games, and those things that got a little bit of both. While most podcasts tend to look at the latest and greatest, we have opted for a far darker path through the sprawling realms of digital and analog games. For lying between the two genres is a pile of games few dare to play, games that often defy categorization. Bizarre chimeric creations and licensed games abound here. Found in thrift stores and online, studying these games will be a global effort a countries across the planet send these objects to the Arcade Castle for examination. Why do we do this? To determine how well these board games capture the essence of their parent franchise. To see how the strategies, gameplay, game mechanics, player challenges, and player roles are translated from the digital realm of video games to the analog base of the board game. Can we learn anything about design and gameplay by comparing how a single franchise is represented in two different mediums? Can one inform the other? That, and who doesn't love board games and video games?
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Arcade Castle - Episode 11 - Roller Coaster Tycoon! 0
Apr 19, 2018

Surviving the Cold War of Episode 10, Arcade Castle takes a break from serious topics and takes a trip to the amusement park thanks to Parker Brothers and their 2002 board game adaptation of the Roller Coaster Tycoon PC video game from 1999!

As Arcade Castle starts acquiring properties through auction, they cast a dubious eye towards the "Parker Brothers" publisher and the similarities to one of their other titular board game titles. However, as the game progresses and patrons ride rides, events occur in the park, and victory points pile up, Arcade Castle starts to see that there is more here than a "opoly" derivative.

However, as the play progresses to the games end, Arcade Castle starts to see the scales tip in favor of luck and random events vs. player strategy. Undeterred, Arcade Castle develops a few key rule modifications and component upgrades that push the excitement factor of the Roller Coaster Tycoon Board Game to the MAX!

In this 2002 adaptation of the 1999 video game, Arcade Castle uncovers a game that, despite the potential it would a bland 'gentle ride', turns out to be an exciting, fun, and memorable ride! Besides, everyone needs more vomit tokens in their board games!!!

Episode Outline:

00:00 - 25:00 - Arcade Castle talks about roller coasters, amusement parks, management simulators, projectile vomiting, carnies, post-apocalyptic wave pools, and Top Gun.

25:00 - 45:00 - Arcade Castle takes an in-depth look at the Roller Coaster Tycoon Board Game, the components, the rules, the gameplay, as well as some of the games shortcomings such as balancing issues, luck vs. strategy, and unstructured game progression.

45:00 - 65:00 - Seeing potential, Arcade Castle takes some time to take some of the problems the board game has and creates some easily implemented rule modifications and minor component additions that add a great deal of gameplay while removing randomness and luck.

 

If, after listening to the podcast, you desire more, you can find us at:

www.arcadecastle.blogspot.com

Additionally, you can find us on Itunes (and a number of podcast services), Twitter, Facebook, BoardGameGeek, and you can contact us at: contactarcadecastle@gmail.com

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