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There are 5 types of Weather, which I will call 
Sunny; 
Overcast; 
Cloudy; 
Rainy; and 
Stormy.
The screen does not change during Sunny, Overcast, or Cloudy conditions, but the temperature appears to decrease as cloud cover increases. During Rainy and Stormy conditions the screen darkens somewhat, and
When it rains, some guests will stop riding outdoor rides, many will quickly head for "covered" rides, and a few will head for the park exit {s}. Every guest will open an umbrella if they own one, and many will quickly try to acquire one (and will pay much higher prices for them then they would when its not raining {s}). Two instances when guests will continue to choose an outdoor ride in the rain is if the ride still has a high "Novelty Factor", and when they just got off the ride and are joyfully wanting to go on it again.
Weather is dynamic and constantly changing between the five types. The current weather condition is displayed in the lower righthand corner of the screen beside the current temperature. Rain will most often occur in the Spring and Fall {s}, while the highest temperatures will occur in Summer (the game has no Winter season). When the weather is about to change, an arrow appears indicating what the next weather condition will be 
. Use that forecast to your advantage by making minor play tweaks to accomodate.
All Scenarios have a "climate", which dictates both its Temperature range and the kind of Weather change. Climate has a major influence on your parks construction decisions, as climate will affect guest needs. Dry climates have little rain, so if you plant flowers, you must hire a Handyman to keep them watered or they will die. Wet climates usually have sufficient rain to keep flowers alive without supplemental watering, but you need to keep the guests dry with covered attractions, including perhaps building some of your big outdoor rides partly, or completely, underground {s}. In Hot climates guests will desire shade, cooling scenery, and cooling refreshments. Shops which provide warming refreshments will help guests cope with low temperatures in a Cold climate.
There are 9 positive and 4 negative Awards.
While the cumulative reviews of guests leaving your park will have a continuous affect of increasing or decreasing your parks desirability, when you play an incomplete Scenario, an outside critic organization may sometimes also present the park with positive or negative Awards for a previous months extreme park conditions (supposedly as compared against other parks in the universe). Awards appear in the Awards tab in the Park window 
, and the particular trophy/ribbon/certificate Award along with its influence on guests will remain visible in the window for 5 months.
Negative Awards reduce the number of guests entering the game and heading towards the park entrance, and thus will effect the potential for new guest revenue. Positive awards have the opposite effect, much as an Advertising Campaign for the park would. Awards also serve as tips to the player, indicating what they are doing right or wrong. An Awards opposing counterpart will not be issued during the period that the opposing Award is in effect (e.g., you could not have a Best Value Park and a Worst Value Park Award at the same time).
During the period of an Award being displayed a duplicate of that particular Award cannot be earned. Awards cannot be refused or canceled, but you should take the opportunity to correct issues which lead to a negative Award so that you don't receive that award again (and continue leaving guests exiting the park with a negative impression). Awards are merit based and evaluated at the end of each month. If the park has met the criteria for an Award (multiple Awards might end up in contention) the game will randomly at the start of the new month choose to issue (or not to issue at all) from the contention list a merited Award.
All scenarios are stored in the "Scenarios" directory, and are dynamically indexed in the "sc.idx" file. Only five "unfinished" scenarios of each category will be available at any one time. A focussed player who pauses the game very little, can finish a typical scenario in about 3 hours. Achieving the scenario's stated goal within a specified time, is all that is required to "win" a scenario (and there are literally hundreds of ways to acomplish the "win"). It is a good policy to view the Park Objective every now an then, because it is easy to become engrossed in park minutiae and forget the Scenario's goal {s} (the Park Objective can be accessed at any time from the Park Information Window). Even if you fail to "win", most scenarios can continue to be played past the end point. You do not have to play scenarios in any particular order, and you can delay playing scenarios indefinately. The "score" of a "won" scenario is kept however, so if you play the scenario again, you must beat the previous score in order to "win" the scenario again (winning consists of hand-clapping by all your guests, releasing of any balloons carried by your guests, and a recording of your score).
Because Scenarios often have a time limit, it is good practice to always Pause when initially starting a Scenario and study the current situation. Re-read the Scenario objective. Scan for problem areas (confusing or insufficient path layout, staff quantity and location, bad ride designs, pricing, etc.), especially by using the underground view and patrol assignment tools. Check what is being Researched, and adjust if necessary (missing Stalls often need to be prioritized, as guests will later be expressing a need for them). Remember that a "Year" is only 8 months [1 March - 31 October].
Some scenarios may include "handicaps". The hadicaps are: Admission always free; Advertising prohibited; High Construction prohibited; Land Modification prohibited; Tree Removal prohibited.
There are twenty-one Original Scenarios, stored in the files "sc0.sc4" - "sc20.sc4".
There are thirty Corkscrew Follies Scenarios, stored in the files "SC40.SC4" - "SC69.SC4".
There are thirty Loopy Landscapes Scenarios, stored in the files "SC22.SC4" - "SC31.SC4" and "SC80.SC4" - "SC99.SC4".
There are three official "Real" Park Scenarios, stored in the files "Alton1.SC4", "BPB1.SC4", and "HEIDE.SC4".
There are two official Extra Scenarios. One is stored in the file "Fort1.SC4". The other (Mega Park) is stored in the file "SC21.SC4", which is created by the game upon compleating all 21 original scenarios.
gameplay (gameplay.SC4) 
Your objective: To have at least 1,250 guests in your park at the end of October, Year 3, with a park rating of at least 600.
PC Gaming World (Pcgw.SC4) 
Your objective: To have at least 1,250 guests in your park at the end of October, Year 3, with a park rating of at least 600.
PC Player (pcplayer.SC4) 
Your objective: To have at least 1,250 guests in your park at the end of October, Year 3, with a park rating of at least 600.
Steel Twister Roller Coaster Competition (Comp-st.SC4) [slot #110] 
Your objective: Build the best Steel Twister Roller Coaster you can!
Go Karts Competition (sc114.SC4) [slot #114] 
Your objective: Build the best Go Karts you can!
Steel Corkscrew Roller Coaster Competition (sc116.SC4) [slot #116] 
Your objective: Build the best Steel Corkscrew Roller Coaster you can!
Mine Train Roller Coaster Competition (sc117.SC4) [slot #117] 
Your objective: Build the best Mine Train Roller Coaster you can!
Steel Roller Coaster Competition (sc119.SC4) [slot #119] 
Your objective: Build the best Steel Roller Coaster you can!
Bobsled Roller Coaster Competition (sc120.SC4) [slot #120] 
Your objective: Build the best Bobsled Roller Coaster you can!
Inverted Roller Coaster Competition (sc123.SC4) [slot #123] 
Your objective: Build the best Inverted Roller Coaster you can!
Suspended Roller Coaster Competition (sc124.SC4) [slot #124] 
Your objective: Build the best Suspended Roller Coaster you can!
Stand-Up Steel Roller Coaster Competition (sc125.SC4) [slot #125] 
Your objective: Build the best Stand-Up Steel Roller Coaster you can!
Wooden Roller Coaster Competition (sc126.SC4) [slot #126] 
Your objective: Build the best Wooden Roller Coaster you can!
Steel Mini-Roller Coaster Competition (sc127.SC4) [slot #127] 
Your objective: Build the best Steel Mini Roller Coaster you can!
Prior to the release of the "RCT Save Game Modifier" utility, programmer Henry Winklestein released an unofficial sandbox "Competitions" scenario.
RCTOA Acres (rctoa.SC4) [slot #100]
Your objective: Have Fun!
This "RCT-acCeSS" utility lets you permanently 'crack' the RCT Scenarios so that ALL of them are available at ANY time. An 'undo' function also lets you reset scenario progress to the way that the game's developer intended. Additionally, if you need a 'sandbox' to practice your RCT skills, the program can crack open JUST the RCT Mega Park.
Alternatively, you can download to your "Saved Games" directory these 'almost finished' saved games gathered from the internet ("SavesOriginal.zip, "SavesCF.zip, "SavesLL.zip "SavesReal.zip, and "SavesExtra.zip), that you can use to WIN (and therefore make always available) any/all of the games official scenarios. Many are worth examining for good ideas to use in your own parks. Note that the Mega Park will be created for you by the game only after first compleating all of the Original scenarios.
Most of these Saved Games are only a few moments from compleation, and all you have to do is wait. A few require you to open one of the CLOSED rides in order for the scenario to complete. Once you WIN a scenario, the saved game can be deleted. Note that if you choose to again play any WON scenario, your own WIN will only be officially recorded if you exceed the score of the previously WON scenario.
There is no mechanism within the game to modify a Saved Game or create a Scenario. For a long time the only way for a player to create a "pseudo-scenario" was to take a standard scenario (Razor Rocks was poplular), change the landscaping by spending money, then release the final "workbench" as a "Saved Game" (SV4 file).
Just prior to the release of RCT2, the "RCT Save Game Modifier" utility was created. This utility allows you to create new SV4 files with random terrain. It is also allows you to save a file as a true SC4 Scenario file (they will appear under a new tab called "Competitions"). Custom scenarios created this way must use one of the slot numbers originally reserved for the official Hasbro Interactive competition scenarios (i.e., scenario slot numbers 100-127).
Tip: When creating a custom scenario, it is good practice to include in the scenario name the scenarios slot number (i.e.: "sc123.sc4", etceteras). This way a player will know exactly what slot is being used just by looking at the file name. Typically slot #101 is used.
The late release of the SGM utility is why there are so few Fan created Scenarios. Also, as Scenarios must must be given one of the only 28 available "slot numbers", and as each slot number MUST be unique (placing two SC4 files in the "Scenarios" directory that use the same slot numbers will crash the game until you remove the offending files), you are limited to the number of Fan made Scenarios you can keep simultiniously inside your "Scenarios" directory. There is no limitation on the other hand to the number of Saved Games you may have (as long as their SV4 file names differ that is).
Tip: Create a special storage directory to hold ALL of your Fan created Scenarios inside. Then, prior to starting RCT, move just ONE of these Scenarios into your "Scenarios" directory. When you are finished with this Scenario, simply move the file back out into the storage directory. In this manner, you will never have any problems with too many simulatnious Fan Scenarios or conflicting slot numbers.
This handy viewer utility called "RCT Explorer" allows you to view the parameters of a "Saved Game" or a "Scenario" without having to launch them inside RCT (i.e., park name, scenario goal, starting money, etceteras). This viewer is particularly useful for Fan created Scenarios, as it allow you to view the "slot number" used by the Scenario, and thereby prevent potential slot number conflicts.