First: Moderators, please make this topic a sticky one, so those in need will find it more easily. I know I could've started a sticky one myself, but when I posted this topic my settings were still set to normal.

I have been playing around with the game for a while (again) and have collected some useful information and hints, workarounds for bugs. Plenty of it, which will make the game easier to play especially for those who don't have a manual for the game. I even found out things which you cannot find in any manual (I have two different editions of the manual and neither explains it).

I will put bug fixing information first, strategies I will cover in the end. This may be in the end some kind of 'unofficial updated manual'.

Please be patient, I cannot put everything here in one post on day one. I will possibly even add screenshots, wherever it may be of use. So stay tuned for updates, I will do my best to put everything together in a logical order. If you don't find something here, it may be added in a future update.

Setting zones/waypoints for handymen
Setting a zones can be very annoying since the game's cursor VERY VERY often switches to building paths or queues, setting sign posts, basically switches to anything you DON'T want. This means you have to start the route assignment from the beginning. Sounds familiar for sure.

Setting a zone can take a lot of clicking this way.
However, there is an easy solution/workaround for this issue:

1. Put a handyman on a road.
2. Click on the zone icon.
3. Select the newly appeared right 'set waypoint' icon
(The cursor should change to a wrench.).
4. Pause the game.
5. Move the wrench to the piece of path, queue, where you want to set a start/waypoint.
(The cursor will behave just like in an unpaused game).
6. If the background is green (meaning you can set a waypoint here) just click.
(The game will be paused so it will appear as if nothing happened.)
7. Unpause the game and you will see a properly assigned waypoint.
8. Pause the game again, move the wrench to the next field/waypoint and click.
(The next waypoint will be correctly assigned if you unpause the game.)
9. Continue until the route is set. Keep in mind the maximum number of 8 waypoints for a route.
(No, sadly it isn't possible to assign a full route while paused, you must pause, click, pause... .)
10. After you set the last waypoint click (unpaused) on the right waypoint icon.
11. The route is set. Rejoyce.

12. The zone icon on the left (with the x) erases an entire route.

Further notes:
Sometimes handymen get stuck, then you have to pick them up and put them back on the path where they belong. They'll continue their work. Handymen seem to be less problematic if you keep their zones simple. A straight, a rectangle, 90° angle. Also the more waypoints you set, the more likely it is to get stuck. 4-5 waypoints is what I use mostly and it works fine.

If you cannot see a handyman on a route and there is a toilet next to it, it is very likely the handyman is currently cleaning the toilet.

I started a new park and since time is crucial I build something then pause the game to move somewhere else, plan my next steps, by doing so I found out the solution for the route assignment issue. So far it worked perfectly for all the zones I assigned. I'm sure this will save a couple of (innocent) mice and keep your blood pressure down.

The research department
! Do not run development at too high speed (.i.e. ~ 20 000+ DosBox cycles). If the speed is too high the game might skip some upgrades.!

I know there's sources on the web which state that the research department is buggy since it can happen that you think nothing happens. The solution is pretty simple. Theme Park is simply cumulating the sums you invest into the research areas. If you reach a certain sum you get upgrade X. If you put only little money into it, it takes ages.

Example:
The first shop upgrade you get is the fries shop. You get it after you invested 4000, always, if you invest 9999 each month of course you get more than one shop, you get the 2nd one, which is the cola shop, you get it at 10 000.
Each new upgrade is more expensive, but the sum is always cumulative. Especially when you research new rides there are bigger gaps, which means for some time (ingame months/years) nothing may happen. This is not a bug. Nothing happens because you haven't reached the needed sum yet, invest more.

Basically invest as much as you can from the very beginning, you can always put emphasis into one field for a while, to get a certain desired upgrade, but try to spread the costs into all areas, you will need the other upgrades sooner than you think... Warehouses... more reliable rides... supertoilets...

Development costs for...

I will put a full list here of all costs in a while. I will add it here as text since it is impossible, I think, to attach an Excel sheet.

General hints ingame

Customer happiness:
First of all you must keep in mind that you need to keep your customers happy.

Balloons
There are many ways to do so. Many guides on the web state that one should place a balloon shop near the entrance because the little brats will be happier, indeed they forget their desire for food...

Generally by placing a balloon shop close to the entrance you do even prevent sales. If a kid has a balloon and is happy it seems to pass the food shops more quickly. So I suggest putting the balloon shop in 3rd position. First two being food and drink and then some balloons. That way you can get more money from your customers. E.g. a balloon is much cheaper than a burger.

Ignoring the balloon shop is also wrong, it does deliver cheap satisfaction and in some 'test parks' I have built I sold tons of ballons... and the much more expensive burger shop next to was relatively low on sales. In numbers that meant about 800 balloons sold (@ 18) and about 200 burgers sold (@90). The price of the burger wasn't the problem. Once I demolished the balloon shop the sales of burgers increased drastically. This then gives you further 'trouble' since you have to keep your stock of burgers in mind which can be 0 in realtime seconds once there is a queue for burgers..

Just an example how important proper planning and placement of shops is in the game. You quenched the desire for (expensive) food with a cheap balloon.

Fireworks
Fireworks are a good way to boost happiness in the park. Even with entertainers and a clean park it can be difficult to get happy (light blue) little people. Other factors are important here, which I will explain later, just know that fireworks are great to boost happiness.
You can boost happiness from 0 to 100 with fireworks alone. However, if you turn off the fireworks it will drop pretty quickly, if there is a lot of litter everywhere etc.
Fireworks alone can work, but they're expensive. The costs for fireworks is around 160-175 per DAY. Don't know why the sum varies sometimes. A full year of fireworks will cost you ~64 K.

The following is a good strategy for the use of fireworks:
Use fireworks max. 50% of the year. It takes a while until the satisfaction drops after you end fireworks.

I don't like the fact that it is almost impossible to check your numbers at the beginning of the month. The positions of interest just disappear too quickly and all you see is 160's and 5's. Sure you know how much your lazy handymen cost you and you know how much you invest in research each month, but I like to look at the sales numers because they tend to show you a forecast (e.g. when dropping).

Therefore turn off fireworks ~3 days before the month ends. This will give you the possibility to check numbers with ease. Since the little brats will stay happy for a while you can pause until about the 12th of a month before you turn
fireworks back on. This way you have successfully cut your costs to half and there won't be and drop in happiness.

If the park is nice and clean it can take even months before your customers become really unhappy again. Especially in the beginning with fewer rides fireworks can brigde the gap until you have successfully researched new shops and rides which will then boost happiness again.

General hint for orders
Especially later in the game with 100's of people in the park ordering supplies can become pretty stressful and expensive. Stress because you constantly check your stock (therefore upgrade warehouse capacity sooner than later) and expensive because you might just order a 'full stock' as you have no time to adjust the numbers. Anything that exceeds your total capacity is gone. That's lost money. If your order exceeds by 5 units (@ little cost) it may be 'bearable'.

But there is - again - a pretty simple solution for that:
You can place orders while the game is paused. It's really that simple. Just pause the game. Hit 'Shift + S', look at your stock and order the number you need. It may not be possible to always adjust the exact number you need, but a LITTLE more or less is fine, if your stock isn't 0 and you have buying customers. At least you won't lose money anymore as you do with excessive full orders.

When you order also keep in mind that it takes at least 75 ingame days until you get your order, so it is good to know your average sales per month to make sure you won't run out of stock before the new shipment reaches you. The more expensive the good is which you order the more time it takes. Ice cream needs 75, steaks and beer even longer. Don't want to just put tables here. But will do so later.

Stay tuned for more. Whenever I will be up to it, so return here later. If anybody wants to say thanks sometime, I'll add some (usually cheap) games to my wishlist... sometime they'll be available on sale.

Thanks for this write up, I find the first tip about laying zones very handy! Making waypoints and putting down sign posts is very important but many players never realise because of how wonky the tools are.

I may be mistaken but there are several different game modes you can switch between at any time. If handling warehouse orders is too much trouble I believe one of the non-full game modes disable that aspect of the game. Basically all the financial simulation can be turned off for a simpler possibly more enjoyable game.

I have to start playing again to remember all this stuff, and your guide has motivated me to do so.

There is more to come, just didn't have time to prep everything, life, chaos, you know. Think I will soon add something, worst chaos in my life is over, for now.

The zones are probably the thing that bothered me most, therefore I put it at the beginning... without zones the park just becomes a mess, hiring more people doesn't help, they just tend to circle in one or two areas even in a small park. The fireworks are too expensive to have them on all year.

Yes, you can switch anytime. Can be pretty handy if your workforce demands more money. Saving a lot in this game is a must anyway, so I just reloaded an earlier save, changed the complexity to easy, let a couple days pass, when the day of negotiations passed put the complexity back up. Negotiations seem to be appearing at fixed dates, every x months after the first years passed. Usually at the beginning/end of a month. At least since I spent quite some time playing the game I can say that I never got the opposite: no negotiations or staff agreeing to wage cuts while the park is in the reds. Maybe there is a way to always get wage cuts, but I haven't found it yet.

When on easy you also have no more hassle with ordering supplies. The game becomes kinda boring then at some point, on easy, especially once you have everything set up and running smoothly. Then it is just a wait for R&D to give you the next ride/shop/feature.

Switching back and forth gives you some freedom if things go wrong. E.g. I did change to the complexity before I knew I could order supplies while in pause mode. Why? Because I was ordering always the max amount, which burnt a lot of money, since any excess supply is just gone.

The biggest problem with Theme Park is that many hints and tweaks are just not given, at least I have read the manual in two languages and it didn't mention my findings at all. Maybe because the manual would've been too thick? Well, I miss those days of good manuals. Once you know e.g. all I know it becomes more fun... getting there was less fun at times, but my good-old Logitech mouse still lives and will continue to do so.

See the attached file for a complete list of costs in the game.
Created a .JPG image for now, maybe will add an Excel sheet later.

Heya ForBarterOnly,

thank you for your effort to write all the hints down.

I also want to contribute to some of the things you already mentioned and general advice.

Dosbox/Gameplay
With current machines it is better to run the game at 6000 or 7000 cycles (Dosbox starts with 10000-12000!)
Use CRTL+F11/F12 to de-/increase cycles each time manually or edit the Dosbox config file and set the cycles to 6000 or 7000 cycles.


Tips for the start:

MOST IMPORTANT for "Business Game" Difficulty:
Press CRTL+S (Stockmarket) and buy all your shares!
If you don't own your shares, then NPCs will do buy them and you lose money for paying out dividend.

When you start researching for bus & stock expansion, disable "auto buy bus" (menu band > options!)
The random upgrades of the bus expansion will kill your little reserves in the beginning.

Focus research in the beginning (see below).
Don't build rides with less than OKAY reliability and do build some rides twice, but not next to each other.

Only have a couple Entertainers in the beginning and keep track of their locations (2-3 and don't use bear or shark).
Relocate them when they stroll somewhere, where are no people.
I never figured if this was important, but they hand out umbrellas to the customers when it rains.

Handyman (janitor) need a path, so lay out a pattern where they should patrol.

Guards are usually not necessary, if you park is "OK", means cleaned up and people think the park is OK.

Mechanics are expensive so hire only one in the beginning or wait until a ride starts to need maintenance.
A ratio of one mechanic per 2 or 3 rides is OK.

Negotiations are really tricky, I tend to go forward, really close to the other hand.
Then I pull back quickly and wait for the other hand to leap forward too.
Doing this back and forth until the time runs out (one cookie left on the plate of negotiations table).
This usually results in a below 10% raise (though cuts are possible too, but very rare).

General placement:
1. you can place shops and rides left and right outside the entrance
2. rubber tube and racer are best for this, because they are sleek and offer maximum happiness
3. roller-coasters/monorail have limited amount of track slots, so watch their length
4. place a fast ride (coaster) paired with a shooting shop, while a slow ride with a food shop + super toilette
5. place the exit of a ride strategically near a shop, use the one-way arrow to lead customers into the "right" direction

Shop placement:
Most shops can be build into each other (glitching). For example the Cola or Burger are 2x3. You can right-click (delete) all units around the main shopping window (where drinks/food are sold) of a shop and drop another shop directly to it, with just one tile between them.
This has two advantages:
1. saving a lot space, people do not need to wander that extra unit
2. your cleaning personal can be set 2x2 zones keeping everything super-clean

This is, if you go and put all food shops together in one row (like I do).

Happiness:
The best ride to get people happy is Rubber tube!
Build it close the entrance and use the sign posts to lead people there.
You should build it filling a screen is good.
Make lots of "U"s up and down, squeeze it together, no empty space (!), because customers like to get stuck everywhere... you will see.

What does this mean?
Well, happy people will instantly pay more for shops (or are getting the urge/mood to pay for something... ;P!).
So place shops near the rubber tubing (or later racer), which actually do not need any refill (novelty shop!) or use two distinct shops to fill your pockets: steak house and saloon (both need to be stocked!!!).
They are expensive and happy people love to spend more money.
Win-Win

Research:
The budget is listed in monthly amounts. This means a budget of 1k/month, will net into 12k per year.
Consider this when you plan your research operation.
I try to keep the budget at 1.000-1.500/month, later increase the overall budget to some 3-4k.

It is not advisable to invest the 9.999/month at all.
Many of the Research milestones are locked behind a threshold and the game does skip upgrades/trainings if the invested sum is very high. The same applies for some rides and shops.
I often found myself without the Arcade in the past, until I figured that the research input was too high.

General Research Advice:
1. Facility upgrades: Do 2-3 upgrades for your stock (invest 0.5-1k, later 1k-1.5k)
2. Shops: Until you have Fries, Cola, Burgers and the Novelty Shop (invest 500-1.5k)
3. Rides: Your goal is getting the Rubber Tubing -> instantly raises happiness, if placed near your entrance (invest 500-1.5k)
4. Features: Until Super Toilette (invest ~500)
5. Upgrades: Invest 300-500. If it's higher, than it skips a lot of upgrades.
6. Staff Training: Invest 100-200. If it's higher, it skips a lot of upgrades.

Start researching with 1k per month until you there are 2-3 storage upgrades. Don't upgrade the bus yet, only the storage capacity. You will have to re-order goods less often.

Next invest in new shops, until you have Cola and Fries.
Switch to rides and research until you have the Maze.

Research 1-2 upgrades for the storage, if possible upgrade the bus now 1-2 times.

Now switch between shops and rides until you have the novelty shop and the rubber tubing.
Save money up to build a good rubber tubing.

Also do staff and ride upgrades in between (training 150 / Upgrades 350 = 500/month for both).
After you have this base, you can switch between shops and rides.
If needed increase goods stock/bus capacity.


Misc:
There is a bug with scroll-speed, depending on in-game speed settings:
normal=stutters, while slow/fast are smooth

Some people play(-ed) the game with focus on stock-market money making (no park at all).
There is guide somewhere (gamefaqs?), but I never made much use of this.
Though if you have cash on hands and shares are available, buy some of your competitors.
They pay good dividend over time, which means I make sometimes more dividend money than overall turnover.

Never forget to purchase all stocks of your park first, when you start the full business game!

This should also help, one or the other.

Cheers

im new to this but ive just bought the theme park game and have downloaded it but for some reason it wont open on my laptop can anyone tell me why?

Hey people, time for another update from me.

Been working on a couple things, among those the Theme Park manual.
A lot of fiddling with my 'housewife Photoshop', so not finished, yet.
Yes, takes longer than expected, because I am working on it whenever there's nothing else more important to do.

If any of you still have issues with Theme Park, especially the speed, I found another working solution for that, before I leave another looooong post here, those interested, just send me a message and I will get back to you, when I can.

Hi, can anyone give a small guide on the design of roller coasters please? I cannot seem to get the height/level to change at all, playing on pc..

Heya sorry for the late reply.

There are things to consider:

- "Rollercoaster-design" not as advanced as in games like Rollercoaster Tycoon etc.
- height limit
- part limit (I do not know the exact number).

1. To place a Rollercoaster, drop the initial Entrance/Exit part.
2. The coaster goes to the left, so drop the upcoming parts to the left, go up/down the screen, then return to the right side and again up/down and connect it with the ending part of the Entrance/Exit.
3. Now you should start deciding how it will go up and down the tracks... you use the left/right button to increase/decrease height of the track tiles.
4. If you want to add corcscrew or looping it needs a 4-6 track flat part.
5. Do not overdo height (more speed) etc. people will fly off the carts and drop all around your park getting stuck.
6. Well you can do this for the fun once, but not advisable.... place food shops in front of the coaster and at the exit some toilettes ;P and some more handymen :D

I design my coaster very simple (see picture).
Place the entrance, then the tracks in a flat manner first.
After you have your initial layout you can level them out with left MB increase hight and right MB decrease height.

Here is also a link to my stream at the moment I am starting to build the rollercoaster:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/382956785?t=01h54m15s

Cheers

O4S

Hi guys,

got this game a couple of days ago.
Oh, the memories!
I remember playing this game times and times again back in the day. ONly issue, I completely forgot how to play it!

In particular, I really can't remember how to NOT go bankrupt in the first three years or so :D
It takes forever for new shops/rides to spawn and I keep getting in the red in the meantime.

Another weird thing, today I decided to just cheat and checkout all the attractions and shops after so many years, and I built a fantastic park complete with everything a kid might dream. BUT, everyone left the park. Seriously, the park stayed open and deserted for MONTHS until the bus brought back like 3-4 customers (!)
DId that happen because I cheated?

Keep on trying, you will find a balance. Otherwise reduce the difficulty, this will deactivate the stock market, warehouse and research (you get the shops/rides for free each year). Try this first and get back used to how you played ;)

Cheers

It's kinda ok now, I figured I had to buy my own stocks and stop uprading busses automatically

Ah :D yeah these can drain you good :P

Can you add some pics or a getting started video maybe? Thanks for the guide.

Heya,

for now I have this:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/556269078

But I am inclined to do a YT tutorial at some point.

Cheers