I was looking through my gog library since I needed a game to kill some time till the release of Anno 2205 and Fallout 4 and stumbled over the Rollercoaster Tycoon Series. I own all 3 games.

Which game would you recommed to someone who is completly new to the series? So far I only installed RCT2 and looked through the tutorials.

RCT1 is good if you like classic, linear, campaign-like progression and to immerse yourself in the actual gameplay. The game is somewhat more buggy (it's also older, so I forgive it) and puts the stress on managing of what you already have. Its first several scenarios are relatively easy, but lower half of the original scenarios get pretty tough real quick (didn't play much of the expansions, but they don't start as cakewalk from what I've seen).

RCT2 is good if you put creativity over everything else. It has some improvements in the AI and functionality, as well as much higher customization capabilities to put the "theme" in "theme park". You can also play scenarios in any order or make your own. It does play (mostly) like RCT1 in general, but it's more of a "for the masses" approach. It was the best-selling one some years ago, and was the fan favourite, even though critics claimed it didn't bring much new stuff.

So it's basically a thing of taste. Give both a shot and see what you like more. I, for one, put RCT1 over RCT2, but that's because I played RCT1 first and am pretty nostalgic. And old-fashioned ;)

I don't like RCT3, though, so someone else might give a more objective opinion on it.

Thanks for information. :)
So far I tried playing the Crazy Castle Scenario in RCT2 and failed 4 times. But atleast I managed to get more than 1200 visitors into my park, so I count it as a success in my book ^^

/EDIT:
Finished it with 1720 guests and a 900 park rating :3