That experience helped with Rollercoaster Tycoon, but this theme-park sim is so easy to dive into — and hard to stop playing — that even those fat ladies who stuffed themselves into bikinis for a day at Six Flags … sorry, all those repressed memories just made me lose my train of thought.

Anyway, RCT is more fun than the Texas Giant. Sim fans: Buy. This. Game. You’ll be skeptical at first, but it’s really quite rewarding to build a park to which sim-guests flock.

Each scenario starts with, on average, a huge plot of land, some walkways and a front gate. It’s up to the player to decide where to go from there. Want to raze the flora and squeeze every last drop of fun into the space allotted? Fine. Want to go with fewer rides but more scenery? Have at it. All gentle rides? Sure. All intense rides? Better have lots of trash bins on hand.

There is no one clear formula to winning these scenarios; it’s all up to the player’s imagination. That, however, is limited to the attractions developed by a Research & Development department. Depending on the level of funding, said department will dream up rides, souvenir/food booths, transportation and scenery.

The big daddy among these rides is, of course, the roller coaster. A park can succeed without them, but it would be silly to do so. These things draw guests like ants to a picnic, and they’ll often ride again and again if they have a good time. (That’s important when money is involved — see below.)

Best of all, the player can design coasters (as well as many other rides like log flumes). There’s nothing quite so rewarding as listening to the screams of guests as the plummet five or six stories on your very own coaster, and then stagger off to vomit.

Additional ride designs by Chris Sawyer (this game is his baby) and players worldwide can be found at www.rollercoastertycoon.com.

Managing a theme park isn’t all fun and games, of course. Guests get hungry and thirsty, so food stalls and restrooms have to be placed strategically. They get tired and need benches. They get bored and need amusement (from scenery or costumed entertainers). They vomit, and somebody’s gotta clean that up.

That means hiring handymen, who also mow the lawns and water flowers. And the player will need mechanics, too, to inspect and fix the rides. In some cases, security guards will be needed — when they don’t get what they want, guests can turn unruly, smashing scenery until they’re escorted out of the park.

These folks don’t work for free. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make money, from jacking up prices on food to charging a fee per ride. If your park has enough great rides that guests pay for again and again, money won’t be much of a problem. A better strategy is to charge a flat admission fee and make the rides free; stock the park with plenty of excitement, and these folks will even say $50 per head is a cheap deal.

The graphics and sound are great. The little guests, while never seen up close, still have plenty of animation, from running stiffly when they need to hit the bathroom to vomiting to stepping in vomit and peering at their shoes. Costumed entertainers dance and spin. Rain puddles on dirt tracks. And the thunder is probably the most realistic so far.

I haven’t run across any drawbacks that pull the player out of the game. Some rides are never fully explained, nor are the effects of certain scenery or souvenirs on guests’ happiness. Building roller coasters is almost exclusively during scenarios, meaning the player will have to watch cash flow and guest happiness while trying to plan around the landscape.

But these are minor nits, and quickly forgotten. Rollercoaster Tycoon is more than worth the price of admission.