RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is the sequel for the successful park management game that was fire in the 90's and 2000's.
Developed by Chris Sawyer, the game was incredibly optimized at the time, running well even on low-end computers of that era. A merit that is entirely of developer putting love and care during the development.
I remember spending afternoon after afternoon playing the game in a friend's house that had a Windows XP computer at the time (it was the mid 2000's).
OpenRCT 2 is an open source re-implementation of the game source code, originally written in assembly and ported to C++. It comes with numerous improvements, bug fixings and expands the compatibility of the game to modern platforms.
The installation process is simple and follows the same basic pattern on most platforms. With an original copy of the game, install OpenRCT2 and point to the directory where the original game is installed.
I installed OpenRCT on MacOS, so the process was a little different, but simple as well: I got a copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 at GOG (R$20!), downloaded the offline installer and used the tool Extractor to unpack the game files directly from the .exe file. Then, I installed OpenRCT2, opened it and choose the directory where the game files was extracted. It worked like a charm.
Other than bring improved compatibility for the more recent versions of Windows, MacOS and Linux distros, my favorite new features are:
- improvements in the rendering pipeline: more resolutions with different aspect ratios;
- possibility to remove the framerate limits;
- more languages available (including Brazilian Portuguese);
- fast-forward;
- auto save;
- online multiplayer.
If you are a developer or is simply curious on how the project was made, I strongly recommend checking the project website, the Github repository and of course, download it and play RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 with modern functionalities in your current computer.
OpenRCT2 is the epitome of everything I think it's awesome: coding, reverse engineering, digital preservation, a worldwide community of people that loves the same title and the will of keeping the legacy of a game so important to the years to come.
