Railroad Tycoon 3

Railroad Tycoon
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon	1990
Railroad Tycoon II	1998
Railroad Tycoon 3	2003
Sid Meier's Railroads!	2006

Warnings

The Mac OS X release of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

General information

Hawk & Badger Railroad - A fansite and file database for the game

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM DRM disc check
Retail

GOG.com
Steam		Can only be purchased in USA, Canada, UK, EU countries except Croatia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Vietnam

A free demo is available in several languages from GameFront.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Coast to Coast	Free download; distributed within the 1.04 patch

Essential improvements

Patches

1.05 patch is the latest official version; requires the 1.04 patch.

1.06 patch is the latest fan-made patch with bugfixes and extra engines; requires the 1.05 patch. It is possible to have multiple installations with different versions; see instructions.

Maps, mods and more

All of the official downloads and user created fixes for the game can be found here.

Game data

In-game general settings.

In-game miscellaneous settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data\Configuration^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7610/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saved Games^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/7610/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		The resolution dropdown menu does not show all possible options. Use `F11` and `F12` to cycle between all possible resolutions. Widescreen resolutions will stretch the interface and cause Vert- behavior.^{[citation needed]}
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Unplayable if forced - causes clicks to register at incorrect locations.^{[citation needed]}
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Color blind mode	Under the Miscellaneous menu as Color Adjustment.

In-game advanced video settings (1/4).
In-game advanced video settings (2/4).
In-game advanced video settings (3/4).
In-game advanced video settings (4/4).

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

In-game camera settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Uses system cursor.
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound, Voice. Train arrival "Ching" volume found under Miscellaneous settings.
Surround sound
Subtitles		Affects cutscenes/campaign screen. In-game messages are text-only.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 3^[1]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Retail only
Polish				Retail only
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		4	Versus
Online play		4	Versus The official GameSpy service shut down in 2014; a custom client became available in 2019 here and at HawkDawg.com.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	6073, 6500, 9000

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game crashes on startup

The game crashes when running Windows Vista and newer if using the default configuration. The only way to play the game is to disable the game's hardware T&L setting:

Disable Hardware T&L^[2]
Make sure that the game has the latest patch installed (v1.05). Download the Vista/Win 7/Win 8 Fix from here. Extract the contents of the ZIP file. Move the `engine.cfg` file to the game's configuration folder (<path-to-game>\Data\Configuration). Confirm the file overwrite. Launch the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98	ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	400 MHz	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	32 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.2.8
Processor (CPU)	400 MHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1
Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (7610) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ ALchemy database Railroad Tycoon 3 entry
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named hardware TL

[gamedir-1] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
The app ID (7610) may differ in some cases.
Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.

[4] Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.

[5] The app ID (7610) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

[7] See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

[3] ALchemy database Railroad Tycoon 3 entry

[hardware_TL-4] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named hardware TL

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[1]

[2]

Developers

	PopTop Software
macOS (OS X)	Beenox Shift
Publishers
	Gathering of Developers
OS X	MacSoft
	2K Games
Release dates
Windows	October 27, 2003
macOS (OS X)	September 13, 2004
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building, Business
Vehicles	Train
Series	Railroad Tycoon