The Bumper Cars (also referred to as "Dodgems" in the UK version of RCT1 and all versions of RCT2 before changing back to "Bumper Cars" in OpenRCT2) is a Gentle Ride in RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and all future installments.

(Dodgems in Blackpool Pleasure Beach)

“Guests bump into each other in self-driven electric bumper cars.” - In-game description

Table of Contents

Technical Information

Stats

  • Base Excitement Rating: 1.30
  • Base Intensity Rating: 0.50
  • Base Nausea Rating: 0.35

Stat Contribution Values

  • Excitement Rating Value Multiplier: 40
  • Intensity Rating Value Multiplier: 20
  • Nausea Rating Value Multiplier: 0
  • Soft Guest Cap Contribution: 35

Building Information

  • Size: 4x4
  • Base Cost: $440.00
  • Cost of Supports (per unit per tile): $1.00
  • Support Height Limit (ft/m/height units): 30ft/9m/+6

Other Information

  • Maximum Guest Capacity: 12
  • Sheltered?: Yes

Building Bumper Cars

The Bumper Cars are a 4x4 flat ride, which is a distinction shared with the Flying Saucers and the Enterprise. This makes is one of the least compact flat rides in the game on the basis of tile coverage, and building it above flat ground is more expensive because there are 16 tiles need to be accounted for in the support costs, whereas 3x3 rides only have 9 tiles to be accounted for. Additionally, the Bumper Cars have a fairly low support limit of only 6 height units, but this will only matter in extremely niche situations.

One advantage the Bumper Cars do have is that they are very low to the ground. A path only needs be 3 height units above the ride. Tied with the Flying Saucers, this is the lowest clearance of all of the Gentle flat rides in the game.

The Bumper Cars are one of the most customizable flat rides in the game. You can change the number of cars on the ride from anywhere between 1 and 12, and its running time to anywhere between 20 seconds and 3 minutes in intervals of 10 seconds. By default, the ride will run for 1 minute with the maximum of 12 cars. Changing these values will affect the stats of the ride.

There are three different vehicle options for the Bumper Cars: The standard Bumper Cars available in RCT1 onwards, and the Jousting Knights Bumper Cars and Triceratops Bumper Cars from RCT2's Time Twister expansion. The only difference between the three is purely cosmetic.

Like the Merry-Go-Round, the Bumper Cars also comes with its own music, known as "Dodgems beat style" (it will be called this even if you're playing a version of the game that doesn't call the ride "Dodgems"). Contrary to what many RCT guides on the internet will tell you, the music has no effect on the ride or the guests. Only the Merry-Go-Round music can affect your guests, and even then, only under very specific circumstances. It will still have an affect on you though because it's impossible to not bop your head to the sweet music that the ride plays.

Stats

The way the Bumper Car's stats work is a little bit weird.

The base Excitement Rating for the Bumper Cars is 1.30. It then gains 0.80 Excitement if the ride has at least 4 cars, which it will meet by default since it normally has the maximum of 12 vehicles.

Any number of cars other will not affect the stats. Running 1 car will yield the same stats as running 3, and running 4 will yield the same stats as running 12. Running fewer cars does not offer any stat bonus, meaning that there is no reason to ever run the ride at less than the maximum of 12. The Bumper Cars will not operate unless all of the cars are filled, meaning that some guests might be sitting on the ride for a while if the ride's influx of new guests is slow. If this happens, check the guest thoughts window to ensure that the ride doesn't cost too much money.

The Bumper Cars then gains an additional 0.10 Excitement and 0.05 for every 10 seconds that it runs for. With a possible time range of 20 seconds to minutes, this results in a minimum increase of 0.20 Excitement and 0.10 Intensity to a maximum increase of 0.90 Excitement and 0.45 Intensity. With its default time of 1 minute, it will have a bonus of 0.60 Excitement and 0.30 Intensity. Combined with the bonus of starting of having more than 4 cars present, this means that it's base Excitement and Intensity ratings with its default setup are 2.70 and 0.80 respectively.

This is very solid stats for a Gentle Ride. Decreasing the amount of time the ride runs for will decrease the ride's ticket price but increase its throughput, whereas increasing the time will do the opposite. Below is a table of every Excitement and Intensity value with every combination of running time and car count. The one fuchsia cell represents the ride's default setup.

Throughput & Profit

If we assume the ride is in its default configuration, are not charging any money for the park entrance and there are no duplicate Bumper Cars in the park, this is the amount you can charge for the ride:

Under its default configuration, the ride also has a very decent throughput. After running the ride for a single in-game year, and using cheats in OpenRCT2 to prevent the ride from breaking down, it was able to process about 700 guests over the course of one in-game year. If the ride was kept at its 5-13 month old price for a full in-game year and had no breakdowns over the course of that time, it would have an average profit of slightly under $2,000 per hour, assuming you're playing OpenRCT2. This gives it one of the highest potential profits of any of the Gentle flat rides in the game.

This profit will go up or down depending on how you choose to configure the ride settings. The most optimal setup is to let the ride run for 20 seconds at a time with 12 cars, though keeping the ride at its default setting will be fine if you don't care about hyper-optimizing everything.

Additionally, the Bumper Cars will also be popular in the rain because of its sheltered roof, meaning that it will experience less downtime than your other flat rides. In parks with the Cool and Wet climate, the Bumper Cars will be a very good flat ride.

Verdict

The Bumper Cars are one of the better Gentle flat rides in the game. It has a good ticket price, high throughput, protects guests from the rain and even gives your park some sweet tunes!

More Gentle Rides

[to come soon]