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Written by
Stealth
Problems between RCT and Windows XP have had a considerable
effect on the RCT community. Webmasters are bombed with emails
about the incompatibility and not a week goes by without forums
being plagued with the question. The problem can be in most
cases is either hit or miss, it either works on your XP system
or in most cases you get an error. Before we can address the
problem we must understand the following:
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When RCT was released it didn't work on versions
of Windows built on NT technology, that is Windows NT / 2000 and
more recently XP.
Some people are puzzled by the difference in NT/2000 and XP this
so here is an easy way to think of it:
You have 3 cars. One car has an X-Engine and the other has an
X-Engine but it has modifications to make it run smoother and
with less problems. Car 3 has the same as car2 but another step
up, it has more cool things and it runs faster and better.
This is the same with NT, 2000 and XP. NT has your standard
engine, 2000 has the next model up and XP has your standard
engine with lots more new, cool, shiny things on top! |
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The problem between NT and RCT was due to
disagreements between the game and DirectX functions. Patches
were released for all game languages to fix this problem. There
is also another problem where RCT doesn't work despite having
patches installed. This generally happens on 'fresh'
installations of XP. Fresh meaning you started from scratch;
didn't upgrade from a previous version of windows |
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Step 1 -Installing
RCT
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2. When its done we need to install the latest official patch.
this will fix our problem of DirectX incompatibility.
Download it here
3. Run RCT to make sure it works. If it does, congratulations.
If not go to the "Setting Compatibility Mode" below. |
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Step 2 -Installing
CF/AA
If you have Loopy Landscapes go straight to
Step 3. If you own Loopy Landscapes AND CF/AA then you must also
go to Step 3 |
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1. Install CF/AA using full installation
Click here for a
picture
2. When installation is complete go back to the
patches page
and download the appropriate patch.
3. Make sure the game runs ok. If so then congratulations. If
not go to the "Setting Compatibility Mode" below. |
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Step 3 -Installing
Loopy Landscapes
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1. Install Loopy Landscapes using full installation
Click here for a
picture
2. When installation is complete go back to the
patches page
and download the appropriate patch.
3. Make sure the game runs. If it works then well done. If not
go to the "Setting Compatibility Mode" below. |
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Setting Compatibility
Mode
Compatibility mode in XP makes programs run as
if they were in a different OS environment. e.g. you may not
know it but windows 98 and 2000 are very different. You may
thing, well 2000 is better because its newer. this may be the
case but both versions are built on totally different engines.
NT/2000 and XP are built on the NT engine while Windows 95/98
and ME are not. This means that a program that was designed for
98 may not work on XP and vice versa. RCT was not designed to
run on XP because when RCT was being made nobody knew enough (if
anything) about XP. So back to the compatibility mode. If you
select RCT to run in Windows 98 / Windows ME compatibility mode
then XP will act as if it is one of these systems and so
theoretically the program should work. To do this you must: |
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1. Navigate to the RCT directory (usually: C:\Program
Files\Hasbro Interactive\RollerCoaster Tycoon)
2. Right click on 'RCT.exe' and choose
Properties.
shown here
3. The properties dialog will open. Choose the
Compatibility tab and check 'Run this program
in compatibility mode for:' and select 'Windows
98 / Windows ME'
You can see it here
4. Click on Apply and run RCT.
Hopefully this time it should work. |
In some rare occasions this isn't enough help, so if you
have more problems visit
RCT Inc Discussion Boards
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