RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

RollerCoaster Tycoon
RollerCoaster Tycoon	1999
RollerCoaster Tycoon 2	2002
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3	2004
OpenRCT2 (Engine fanport)	2015
RollerCoaster Tycoon World	2016
RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic	2017
RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures	2019

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 runs on a slightly improved RollerCoaster Tycoon engine. The core gameplay is identical to the 1999 original - it is an isometric amusement park building game. The game features additions like a scenario editor, new rides and themes, retouched UI, and the ability to build rides and scenery at any elevation, including underground.

After release, the game received two expansions by Frontier Developments in 2003 - Wacky Worlds and Time Twister. Both added new scenarios, themes and rides which are reskinned variants of existing ones (sometimes with different vehicle stats), but unlike the expansions for the original, they did not change the gameplay in any way.

While the game has no compatibility issues with modern systems, the community has de facto moved to playing OpenRCT2, an open-source rewrite of this game with many fixes and quality-of-life improvements compared to the original game, which requires its files to run.

General information

NEDesigns - park and scenery showcase site for Loopy Landscapes and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

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. See Play without a CD for a workaround.
Amazon.com		Triple Thrill Pack.
Amazon.com		Part of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Mega Pack
GamersGate		Triple Thrill Pack.
		Part of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Mega Pack
GOG.com		Triple Thrill Pack.
Green Man Gaming		Triple Thrill Pack.
Humble Store		Triple Thrill Pack.
Steam		Triple Thrill Pack.
Discord (unavailable)		Triple Thrill Pack.

A faithful, higher quality icon can be found on SteamGridDB.

Version differences

The Gold Edition (known as Combo Park Pack in North America) includes the base game and the Wacky Worlds expansion pack.

The Deluxe Edition (known as Triple Thrill Pack in North America and on digital stores) includes the base game and both expansion packs.

There is also a retail release bundling both expansion packs, but without the base game.

Demo

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion packs include new scenarios, scenery and reskinned rides.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Wacky Worlds
Time Twister

Essential improvements

Patches

An official patch was made for players who have issues with the SecuROM copy protection, but does not bring any other changes. It's available as an installer and as a ZIP file.

The Wacky Worlds expansion had an official patch that fixed some of the scenery items and entry points in several scenarios. It is available here. Applied to GOG.com version on November 13, 2024.

Official add-ons

Panda World scenario

Pink water (to be used with scenario editor)

Play without a CD

Edit registry files^{[citation needed]}
In the Registry Editor, go to `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Infogrames\RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Setup`. Change the `SetupPath` string value to point to your game directory (copying the `Path` value is the easiest way).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/285330/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saved Games^{[Note 1]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/285330/pfx/^{[Note 2]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Discord
GOG Galaxy		Added on November 13, 2024.
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game options menu

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Max resolution is 1280x1024, making 1280x720 the highest native widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		OpenRCT2 supports this.
Ultra-widescreen		OpenRCT2 supports this.
4K Ultra HD		OpenRCT2 supports this.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Use the RCT2 windowed mode hack.^[1]
Borderless fullscreen windowed	OpenRCT2 supports this.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Frame generation	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)	OpenRCT2 supports this.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	FPS locked to 40, although this lock can be removed with OpenRCT2.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Color blind mode	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

In-game key map settings

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

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				The UK and US English releases differ slightly in certain names and terms. The digital releases have US English.
Simplified Chinese				Retail only. Translation by «Biggamer(天人互动)». The expansion packs are translated by «Eastern Audio and Video Publishing House(东方音像出版社)» (it is not yet known whether they have obtained copyright)
Traditional Chinese				Retail only.
Dutch				Retail only.
French
German
Italian
Polish				Retail only.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only (Atari Brasil).
Russian
Slovak				Fan translation; download.
Spanish
Swedish				Retail only.

Issues fixed

Moving camera with mouse erratic in windowed mode

Set high DPI scaling override for game
Navigate to `<path-to-game>`, right click `RCT2.exe` and go into `Properties` Open `Compatibility` tab and click on `Change high DPI settings` Enable `Override high DPI scaling behavior` and choose `Application` in dropdown menu

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			OpenRCT2 supports both 32-bit and 64-bit.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98	ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	800 MB	850 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible

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 (285330) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.

References

↑ HACK: Run RCT2 in windowed mode, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[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 (285330) 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 (285330) may differ in some cases.

[6] Treat backslashes as forward slashes.

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

[3] HACK: Run RCT2 in windowed mode, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[1]

Developers

	Chris Sawyer
Expansions	Frontier Developments
Publishers
2002-2003	Infogrames
2003-present	Atari
Re-release	Sold Out Software
Release dates
Windows	October 14, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	74
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Amusement park
Series	RollerCoaster Tycoon