Ok, you have just hypothetically inheited a reasonable-sized plot of land enought to build a small to medium sized theme park on. With the land obtain you've approached the bank and secured a loan to build a theme park on the land. You have enough money for building most of the basic park amenities and about $18 million worth of rides. What would go in your park?

I've not been able to find accurate price listings for rides, but bear in mind that American, Dutch, German, and Swiss designed rides tend to cost more than the Italian, Russian and French companies, especially well known companies like B&M and Intamin. To give you a rough idea, a medium/large B&M coaster is well into the $10 million+ area. Default model small kiddie/family coasters are around the $750k, $1 million mark. A Vekoma Boomerang is about $3. Most thrill rides are under $2 million.

Please keep this sensible, while I'm happy for you to buy second hand ride, park will not sell you their flagship models especially for stupid prices.

These sites should help you choose rides.
http://www.bertazzon-america.com/
http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com/index_en.aspx
http://www.chancemorgan.com/
http://www.raster.it/pinfari/rides1.htm
http://www.fabbrigroup.com/
http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/english/Gerstlauer_E.html
http://www.greatcoasters.com/
http://www.heege-freizeittechnik.de/engl/index.html
http://www.hopkinsrides.com/
http://www.hussrides.com/index.htm
http://www.iepark.com/
http://www.intaminworldwide.com/
http://www.interlink-lg.com/
http://www.intpark.it/
http://www.kmg.nl/kmg/home/home_en.html
http://www.italintl.com/lt/
http://www.mack-rides.com/en/index.php
http://www.martin-vleminckx.com/mv_en/
http://www.maurer-soehne.de/en/
http://www.mondialrides.com/ie/aindex.html
http://www.moserrides.com/
http://www.pax.ru/eng/index.htm
http://www.premier-rides.com/
http://www.prestonworldwide.it/
http://www.reverchon.com/an/c_news.htm
http://www.giantrides.com/giantwheels.html
http://www.s-spower.com/
http://www.sbfrides.com/
http://www.swingthing.com/index.html
http://www.soquet-rides.com/page3.html
http://www.thegravitygroup.com/
http://www.topfun.it/
http://www.vekoma.com/
http://www.wiegandslide.com/en/index.shtml
http://www.wisdomrides.com/catalog/
http://www.sanoyas-leisure.com/
http://www.zamperla.it/
http://www.zierer.com/

And finally I'd be intrested in the justification for your choices, say why you've choosen the rides you have. My park is below.

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Leonardo's Leisure Park

Kiddie Rides

Zamperla Jumping Star
Zamperla Junior Jet
IE Park Childrens Teacups
IE Park Miniotto Extended

Family Rides
Zamperla Rocking Tug
IE Park Old Style Carousel
IE Park Hypnos Mid Sized Bumper Cars (1 Adult or 2 Children per car)
Pax Wheel 31m
Pax Rodeo
Mack Log Flume (Custom layout, medium size)

Thrill Rides
Zamperla Disk'o
KMG Afterburner
KMG Move It 32
Mack Spinning Suspended Powered Coaster (Custom layout, medium/large size)

This park is designed to appeal to all ages. Each target group has a selection of rides including a rollercoaster aimed at them, plus each group may want to overlap a little (Older kids may well enjoy the Rocking Tug, Carousel, and Dodgems, while thrillseekers may well ride the Log Flume and Rodeo). I've tried to balance coasters and flat rides so no one should be left out. The Miniotte was picked as a cheap childrens coaster plus it's not a Big Apple clone (a coaster design I'm getting heartily sick of seeing) and so should be fairly unique to the surrounding area and possibly the country (UK doesn't have one anyway). The Bumper Cars were picked as they are usable buy all age groups while also slightly cheaper than full adult dodgems and with a small min height restriction too. The wheel should provide some height to the park and be accessible to most guests.

The Pax Rodeo was picked for a few reasons. Firstly it is another underused and therefore more unique coaster design. Secondly the track is twisted enough to worry a contortionist while carrying a reasonable amount of speed but still being tame enough for families and hopefully should appeal to thrill seekers too. It is also from Pax, a company not known for their high prices. The only slight worry is it's thoughput as it only runs one train, but careful siting slightly of the main midway should hopefully prevent too large queue's building up. The Log Flume on the other hand should have a reasonable thoughput and appeal to most age groups, the only downside is the cost due to the fact it is being purchased from Mack (slightly more expensive than getting an Italian flume) and is also a custom design thus increasing the cost. However I hope to keep the price down by keeping the length of the flume down to a reasonable size.

As for thrill rides I have 4, each designed to deliver a slightly different experience. The Move It 32 has a high capacity, and twists and turns close to the ground. The Disk'o has more of a pendulum effect, while the Afterburner does a simular movement but propels you high into the air without a floor! All the thrill rides can carry over 20 guests per run and thus should hopefully keep queues to a minimum. The only weakness in this selection I feel is the lack of a vertical tower ride, this should hopefully be corrected in a successive year, hopefully making use of the profts from the previous year.

The flagship ride of the park is the Mack Powered Suspended, Spinning coaster (henceforth refered to as a PSS coaster as I can't be bothered to type that again). This coaster would be totally unique, AFAIK there is no other coaster of this type in the world. Thus this coaster should be hugely marketable. As this is the flagship ride, it will be a custom design. This will also give another 'nowhere else' experience to the park along with the Log Flume. While aimed at thrillseekers, it shouldn't be so intense that brave families are scare off. This ride also means that I have a spinning and an inverted ride in the park, thus covering two 'coaster type' bases in one at the park. The ride will only be powered for part of the ride until it gains enough height, then it will free roll. this should allow the encoperation of block brakes and a second, and possibly even a third train to help queues. This ride will not be cheap an will soak up a lot of my budget, but I feel that with the savings I've made elsewhere I can afford it, and the bonuses and marketability it will bring to the park make it worth the budget expenditure.

You will note that I've tried to restrict myself to 4 manufacturers in the hope of
achieving a bulk buy discount.

So attractions are in your parks?

Well firstly, I drew up a list of what i wanted in my park, to fufil the 18million. I came up with this list and how much i budgeted for it:

Main Coaster......................$10
Kiddie Coaster....................$1
(used) Boomerang coaster...$1.5
Family coaster....................$1.5
3x Thrill ride.......................$3
4x Kiddie ride.....................$1

After browsing the pages that leonardofury posted (very useful, thanks! )
I came up with the ollowing list:

JonnyRocks' FunLand

Thrill Rides
B&M Floorless Coaster
Vekoma Boomerang
KMG Afterburner
Huss Top Spin

Family Rides
Maurer Sohne XCar
Huss Topple Tower
Huss Pirate Boat
Vekoma MadHouse
Mack Tea Cups
Mack log Flume

I made these choices for many reasons. I decided to have a floorless B&M as my major coaster, that would bring in mnay customers, although it takes up a lot of the budget. I also felt a Boomerang would be a good ride for people who are too scared to go on the major coaster. For a good family ride, I bought an XCar, as these look like a very good ride, such as the new one at Drayton Manor. Two family rides that I chose were from Huss, a topple tower, which woudl be a new and different ride for thermpark, and a good old pirate ship that everyone can ride. Also, another 'for everyhone' ride would be the vekoma Madhouse, a good example of which is Hex at Alton towers. this is a really interesting experience.

As the rides I have chosen cpuld be riden by older people as well, i decided to move them all inot the Family Rides. The log flume would be a small one, as I did not have much of a budget left. A tea cups ride is traditional, and a family faverorite.

To9 hep gain the maximum amount of rides from my budget, i have bought a couple of used rides. I ahve also bought from a limited range of manufacturers.

OK, Jonny. Firstly your park doesn't look too bad. I think you may have been a bit optimistic with your budget (Not to mention I hope your prices are in millions) but otherwise you should be ok. The only major weak spot I can see is that very young children (7 and under) are quite restricted in what they can go on. I'll go through your park in order of rides and my comments on them.

B&M Floorless - I take it this isn't a too big a coaster, roughly the size of Daemonen at Tivoli Gardens maybe slightly smaller? For $10 million you won't get anything much bigger? Other than this it is a fairly good choice for a main attraction, it is fairly uncommon, has a high throughput and is reliable and made by a good company. This attraction should serve you well as a landmark ride for your park. The only problem is how much of your budget it will soak up.

Kiddie Coaster - I couldn't find this, though with your budget overflow I'd advise a small cheap coaster, such as a Zierer Tivoli - Small, IE Park Miniotto, Second-hand Pinfari Big Apple/clone, A small Wisdom coaster like a Go Gator or a Miner Mike or a Zamperla Mini Mouse. This shouldn't take up all of your budget for a Kiddie coaster which is a good thing as I suspect you have overspent a little.

Used Boomerang - Superb idea. While they tend to be rough, and common to parks they are fairly easy to obtain second hand and reasonably cheap. They are also a good second thrill ride if you already have a main coaster, take up a small footprint in your park and add to your appeal to thrill seekers.

Maurer-Sohne X-Car - Ah, this is the first of your budgeting mistakes, I think. I am very dubious about your budget of $1.5 million for this coaster. I'm fairly sure that even the cheapest 'skywheel' design should set you back $4 million like the new X-car being built at Magic Springs & Crystal Falls Theme Park. In addition it is not really what I would class as a family coaster. Most parents especially those with younger children are not attracted to being dangled upside down on a lift hill being held in the seat only by their waist. Not mine certainly, but then again it's hard to get them on anything. In addition I can't see a minimum height restriction of 1.3m appealling to younger families. I would personally have something like a Vekoma Junior Coaster, Zierer Force or a Mack Youngstar in this catagory, $1.5 million should buy you a decent sized coaster, in fact you may just about be able to afford a Reverchon/Zamperla Spinning Mouse Coaster or a Fabbri Spinning Madness. Alternatively you could save a little more of your budget and go for something like a I.E Park JR30 Junior coaster, Zamperla Family Coaster or a L&T Systems Compact Coaster.

KMG Afterburner - No problems here, this ride should serve you well. I mean if I choose one I can't complain too much can I?

Huss Topple Tower - Here is another budgeting error I think. A thrill ride the size of a Topple Tower and especially one made by Huss, is more likely to be near the $2 million mark rather than the $1 million. Other than that not a bad choice but maybe a bit pricy considering how your budget is going?

Huss Top Spin - Another good if pricy thrill ride. While I'd be happy to have one in my park, I'm not sure you can afford it. If you can find a second hand one you might just stretch to cover it in your $1 million budget for the ride, but I'm fairly sure a new one is in the $1.5 million price range.

Vekoma Mad House - This is where I think you are going to start struggling with money. There is no way you can afford a Mad House with what you have left in the budget. Unfortunately a Mad House is going to set you back about $5 million and you only had one million left in your existing budget.

Huss Pirate Ship - This would take up all your family ride budget by itself I think. Pirate ships are not exclusively made by Huss, so I'd look at a cheaper manufacturer to try and save some much needed cash.

Mack Teacups - Again an expensive ride. Mack do superb family rides but they do tend to be pricier than the Italian manufacturers. With your budget I don't think you can afford these if you want any other family rides.

Mack Log Flume - A small Log Flume is a great idea but for budget reasons I'd suggest an L&T Systems model or another pre-fab model from a cheap manufacturer mainly because you just can't afford anything else.

To retify your budget problem, I'd suggest one of two solutions

1.) Choose a cheaper coaster as your main attraction to free up some of the $10 million tied up in the Floorless Coaster. You may also want to consider blending the Family and Kiddie coasters together and building a tame family coaster for all to leave you more bugdet free for a main attraction

2.) Drop all three rides from Huss and the Vekoma Mad House. You probably have enough thrill rides with a B&M Floorless, KMG Afterburner and Vekoma Boomerang for a park of your current size. I'd recomend then spending the remaining budget on Family/Kiddie rides, to improve your parks appeal to people other than thrillseekers. Don't forget not everyone likes what you like, I for example, hate rotational rides because they just make me feel ill. However I reckonise that not everyone feels the same way so I'll include them in the park so as to make more money . You may also want to merge Kiddie/family coasters as mentioned above to free up some more budget for this.

Hope these comments help you, and next time you build a park, I hope you consider the kind of budget your park has, and the kind of guests you're trying to attract.

First off I admire this game for its "ride-balancing" aspects. It would be nice to teach everyone how to create a ride lineup that is fun for ALL AGES.

Having said that, you have a very complicated game going here and one that only people with extensive knowledge of ride prices can play.

Maybe to make it simpler for everyone to play, you could concentrate the game more on making a good ride lineup for a park, rather than making one, but also with a realistic budget as well.

Good long post, but shouldn't this topic go in Games and Trivia then?

The problem with ride prices is that they are not easily available.To try and reduce confusion, I've had a good hunt around on the net, and have come up with this rough price scale to help.

Kiddie Merry-go-round and simular small kiddie rides are about $200,000 to $250,000
Ferris Wheel's are about $500,000.
A cheap kiddie coaster is about $200,000 for a small circular layout, $300,000 for a slightly bigger oval, or spiral design.
Family rides are about $400,000 to $500,000 each.
Smaller transportable thrill rides tend towards $1
Bigger park based rides such as Topple Towers and Giant Drops tend to be nearer $2 million.
An S&S Screaming Squirrel is about $2 million
A Vekoma Boomerang is about $3 million
A Maurer-Sohne X-car in the 'Skywheel' design is about $4 Million
A Vekoma Mad House is about $5 million
An Interactive Dark Ride is about $5 million
A custom designed Mack Powered Coaster is about $5 million
A Gravity Group wooden coaster is about $6 million
Custom designed big coasters such as B&M Floorlesses, Vekoma Corkscrew Coasters and Intamin Rocket Coasters are $10 to $12 million dollars for small to medium length examples.

I E Park, L&T Systems, D.P.V, Preston Barberi, Wisdom, Zamperla, Reverchon, Moser, ABC, SBF, Interpark, Top Fun, Soquet and Pax tend to be reasonably cheap use the estimates on the list, maybe just slightly less.
Mack, Fabbri, Zierer, Mondial, Maurer-Sohne, Gravity Group, KMG, Gerstlauer, Vekoma, S&S, Heege, Chance-Morgan, Meshio Amusment Machines, Wiegand, Martin and Vleminkx, Interlink, Hopkins, KumbaK and Setpoint all tend to be a little more expensive. I'd advise overestimating slightly on the price list above.
GCI, B&M, Intamin, Huss, Premier and Roland Bussink AG all tend to be high quality, expensive attractions so you should compensate accordingly, as a rough estimate say 1.5 times the prices on the list.

Hope this helps.

EDIT Humanmango I think this fits better here than in Games and Trivia. The Games and Trivia section is more for word games and one word post games.

Hmm fair points there, It was only going on rough estimates. I was going to put in a kiddie coaster such as a mine train, but I think I forgot, and my budget disappeared somewhere

[Park Name Grand Opening Contest to raise awareness] Park

NOTE: I checked out most of the prices including the coasters and the carousel and have adjusted them based on prices I could find and currency exchange rates and inflation

Performances
Jazz Band outdoor covered stage [$175,000]

Stationary (Non-Mechanical)
Giant Slide [$300,000]
Large Playground {similiar to the kind found at Legoland California} [$750,000]

Slow Kiddie Rides
Dentzel Brass Ring Carousel (straight from their website) [$65,000
Zierer Tivoli Small [$600,000] |price from RCDB adjusted for modern changes including inflation|


Big Rides:
Intamin Accelerator (Superman Escape) [$9,000,000]
Caripiro Batflyer Twin (no idea of price) [$1,500,000]
Maurer Sohne X-Car Coaster [$4,000,000]

Ok Skyvanman I like all of your choices, but possibly not in the same park.

The covered performance area is an excellent Idea and one I never thought of. Simularly I like your choice for stationary rides, Tivoli small childrens coaster and the carousel, in fact you found a company I'd never heard of so I thank you for that.

Then I have to admit you have a little bit of a problem. I like both the X-Car and the Accelerator Coaster a lot, but I think with your budget trying to fit both in the same park has left a massive gap in the family ride area, The only ride really suitable for families is the Caripro Batflyer. The two main problems with a Batflyer are the limited throughput and the fact that Caripro don't make coasters anymore. For the only family ride in the park I think the limited throughput may hurt you. On the plus side I believe you could possibly get Setpoint to make you a Batflyer or something simular, and there are lots of secondhand examples around. My personal recommendation would be to think hard about which of the two thrill coasters you really want to keep and spend the money on flat thrill rides and a family ride or two instead. If you replace the Accelerator you may be able to get a cheaper thrill coaster. I personally would love an almost pure coaster park, unfortunately most people like to be spun around violently or ride something a little tamer and they have to be catered for too.

All in all though you did a reasonable job.

That's why they closed down spellbreaker at Legoland, the manufacturer stopped makign coasters, I didnt know that, I loved that caoster since it was really smooth and was the only cool suspended coaster that didnt scare mee to death, I would never go on anythign like X or anything. Maybe I'll fire up RCT2 and create a park again, have to find the disc though.

Actually I suspect the reason Spellbreaker was removed was the standard reason for the removal of Caripro Batflyer's, throughput. I suspect they discovered that they could fit something that moved more guests. I'm not sure about this but I have also heard rumours that their reliability isn't the best, anyone heard anything about this?

When I was there throughput was not a problem, I rode that thing 6 times in one day in under an hour, it was raining but it still didnt seem to be a problem I think that they must have had at least a few hundred rider sthat hour with no wait. It was a twin so you get double the number.