Miss the days of playing RollerCoaster Tycoon 2? Miss them no more, as OpenRCT2 [GitHub, Official Site] is alive and well with a fresh update.
Like many open source game engines, it allows you to play RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on systems not designed for it—like Linux. Naturally, it comes with tons of improvements like user interface theming, fast-forwarding gameplay, multiplayer and so on.
The latest update, v0.1.2, was released on the 18th of March and it fixes over 80 bugs along with adding new features and improvements to existing parts of the game.
Some highlights:
- Transparent menu items now draw properly in OpenGL mode
- Speed up game start up time by saving scenario index to file
- Major translation updates for Japanese and Polish
- Paths can now be placed in park entrances
- Ability to search by filename in the object selection window
- Add smooth nearest neighbour scaling
- Allow using object files from RCT Classic
- And loads more!
Have any of you tested it out? I simply love seeing old games revived by open source game engines like this, it's a beautiful thing to see. Many games deserve to live on like this. If you do want to try it, you need the original game which can be found on GOG (affiliate link).
It's a shame developers don't release the code themselves after many years pass, but that's a whole 'nother discussion for another time.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
legluondunet Mar 21, 2018
You can use the RCT1 scenarios too.
Last edited by legluondunet on 21 March 2018 at 11:35 am UTC
stretch611 Mar 21, 2018
In addition to linux, OpenRCT2 also allows the playing the game on your monitors highest resolution (instead of the games original limitation of 640x480 or 800x600; I forget which it was.) However, if you are like me and were old enough to play them when first released, you may need to use the zoom function of OpenRCT2 in order to read the UI.
They really have done a great job in getting it to work... And adding networking capabilities as well.
The one minor issue I have is that they replicated the original hot keys. So unlike most current games that allow you to scroll with the WASD keys, you scroll with the arrow keys. It takes a little to get used to it... I haven't tried to remap the keyboard for it yet.
legluondunet Mar 21, 2018
Quoting: stretch611The one minor issue I have is that they replicated the original hot keys. So unlike most current games that allow you to scroll with the WASD keys, you scroll with the arrow keys. It takes a little to get used to it... I haven't tried to remap the keyboard for it yet.
Don't forget WASD is not a confortable mapping for all gamers, like french with AZERTY keyboard. Arrow key are international.
Maybe I should dust off my openrct2 installation.
Quoting: legluondunetQuoting: stretch611The one minor issue I have is that they replicated the original hot keys. So unlike most current games that allow you to scroll with the WASD keys, you scroll with the arrow keys. It takes a little to get used to it... I haven't tried to remap the keyboard for it yet.
Don't forget WASD is not a confortable mapping for all gamers, like french with AZERTY keyboard. Arrow key are international.
Well it would be best if the user could change the mapping to their liking, then everyone would be happy.
QuoteIt's a shame developers don't release the code themselves after many years pass, but that's a whole 'nother discussion for another time.
I think I've heard most of the RCT codebase was written in x86 assembly with the exception of the code interfacing with the OS, so while it would certainly be nice to have the source as a reference for OpenRCT2, it would still be a better idea to rewrite it for the sake of portability.
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