Run Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 On Windows 7.

[Cyrem]

If your Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 game is not running under Windows 7, this is will get it running.

What you need to do is find the game exe and open properties and go to the compatibility tab. On this set the operating system to Windows 95 or Windows 98, check Disable Visual Themes, Disable desktop composition and check Run as this program as Administrator and click ok.

Then download the patch.

After that the game should run just fine.

EDIT: This game is now available on GOG.com which is windows 7 compatible Buy here .

[Addictgamer]

I run the game running in windows 7 64 bit almost perfectly. Actually, I only have RC2. I love that game...

No compatibility mode whatsoever, and only the graphics are bugged a bit. I think it also crashes if I try to use the coaster editor.

Might it be that you need to update your graphics drivers? You could also try installing older versions. That's the only way I could play some games.

[DrDeath]

  On 7/13/2010 at 4:57 AM, Cyrem said:

I was just about had enough of trying different things to try and get the games to work on Windows 7, however just before I stopped, I got them both to work to a degree.

What you need to do is find each one's game exe and open properties and goto the compatibility tab. On this set the operating system to Windows 95, check Disable Visual Themes and Disable desktop composition and click ok.

After I did that the game ran just fine. However doing certain things causes it to crash, such as starting a new game when you are in a game and loading a saved level sometimes doesn't work.

The other alternative is to run the game in a Virtual Machine with Windows XP installed.

i run both on vista and 7 just fine

what you need to do is run them as admin with the other options you listed above (due to the new regulations and restrictions on what a program can do that is launched it is necessary to run them as admin so they can access the files they need)

also they will always be kinda unstable in a 64bit environment

[Cyrem]

  On 7/13/2010 at 5:54 AM, DrDeath said:

i run both on vista and 7 just fine

what you need to do is run them as admin with the other options you listed above (due to the new regulations and restrictions on what a program can do that is launched it is necessary to run them as admin so they can access the files they need)

also they will always be kinda unstable in a 64bit environment

Yes, I should have written that this was only tried on 32bit. I don't have 64bit.

[DrDeath]

  On 7/13/2010 at 5:58 AM, Cyrem said:

  On 7/13/2010 at 5:54 AM, DrDeath said:

i run both on vista and 7 just fine

what you need to do is run them as admin with the other options you listed above (due to the new regulations and restrictions on what a program can do that is launched it is necessary to run them as admin so they can access the files they need)

also they will always be kinda unstable in a 64bit environment

Yes, I should have written that this was only tried on 32bit. I don't have 64bit.

ive been examining my exe's of both games i run them as admin with all of what you said earlier and in win 98 combat mode

if it still doesnt work i can let me know and ill try to figure out more solutions

good luck

[Cyrem]

  On 7/13/2010 at 6:15 AM, DrDeath said:

ive been examining my exe's of both games i run them as admin with all of what you said earlier and in win 98 combat mode

if it still doesnt work i can let me know and ill try to figure out more solutions

good luck

Tried that setup, runs the same. If I go to 'New Game' while in a game it still crashes with an 'Access Violation'.

By the way, I'm talking about Roller Coaster Tycoon 1.

EDIT: Turns out, I needed the latest patch: RollerCoaster Tycoon UK Patch V1.08.187. I installed it a now it's all working! I have also uploaded the US and UK patch in case anyone needs it as it was a pain to find.

[LoopbackZero]

Apologies for the epic bump, gents. This thread is a top hit for the terms "Windows 7 RollerCoaster Tycoon." I used to LOVE playing this game, and the lady picked it up out of the bargain bin for me. Thanks to this thread, I can now save my game, and launch it without issue. I'm still having an original major problem. After anything from 5 to 15 minutes of playing, my computer will hard lock with the ambient game sounds still playing/looping. No mouse cursor movement, no keyboard commands. If this were anyone else's computer, I would say the hard drive is failing. But this only occurs when playing RCT. Tips?

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, 8GB RAM, nVidia GTX 460.

[Cyrem]

  On 12/4/2010 at 2:55 PM, LoopbackZero said:

Apologies for the epic bump, gents. This thread is a top hit for the terms "Windows 7 RollerCoaster Tycoon." I used to LOVE playing this game, and the lady picked it up out of the bargain bin for me. Thanks to this thread, I can now save my game, and launch it without issue. I'm still having an original major problem. After anything from 5 to 15 minutes of playing, my computer will hard lock with the ambient game sounds still playing/looping. No mouse cursor movement, no keyboard commands. If this were anyone else's computer, I would say the hard drive is failing. But this only occurs when playing RCT. Tips?

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, 8GB RAM, nVidia GTX 460.

Not a problem, glad you got it working as it's a great game. I too am left with this problem but perhaps the sound is locking the game, maybe try turning off all game sounds and see if it locks up still.

[Hypa]

I am unable to apply the patch, i get an error:

Error Trapper

Exception Raised - Access Violation

Error Location: Unknown

Anyone that knows how to solve this? I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to stuff like this and I really want to play RCT...

[Cyrem]

  On 1/30/2011 at 10:54 PM, Hypa said:

I am unable to apply the patch, i get an error:

Error Trapper

Exception Raised - Access Violation

Error Location: Unknown

Anyone that knows how to solve this? I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to stuff like this and I really want to play RCT...

Not sure, maybe it's having trouble accessing the files. You might want to check folder/file permissions.

[komputerkurt]

  On 12/4/2010 at 2:55 PM, LoopbackZero said:

Apologies for the epic bump, gents. This thread is a top hit for the terms "Windows 7 RollerCoaster Tycoon." I used to LOVE playing this game, and the lady picked it up out of the bargain bin for me. Thanks to this thread, I can now save my game, and launch it without issue. I'm still having an original major problem. After anything from 5 to 15 minutes of playing, my computer will hard lock with the ambient game sounds still playing/looping. No mouse cursor movement, no keyboard commands. If this were anyone else's computer, I would say the hard drive is failing. But this only occurs when playing RCT. Tips?

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, 8GB RAM, nVidia GTX 460.

  On 12/6/2010 at 9:55 PM, Cyrem said:

  On 12/4/2010 at 2:55 PM, LoopbackZero said:

Apologies for the epic bump, gents. This thread is a top hit for the terms "Windows 7 RollerCoaster Tycoon." I used to LOVE playing this game, and the lady picked it up out of the bargain bin for me. Thanks to this thread, I can now save my game, and launch it without issue. I'm still having an original major problem. After anything from 5 to 15 minutes of playing, my computer will hard lock with the ambient game sounds still playing/looping. No mouse cursor movement, no keyboard commands. If this were anyone else's computer, I would say the hard drive is failing. But this only occurs when playing RCT. Tips?

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, 8GB RAM, nVidia GTX 460.

Not a problem, glad you got it working as it's a great game. I too am left with this problem but perhaps the sound is locking the game, maybe try turning off all game sounds and see if it locks up still.

I too, have that problem.

The problem: We all have 64 bit computers (those of us having problems, that is). The difference is your 64bit OS processes data differently, in a greater quantity at the same rate as a 32 bit OS, but 64bit is faster due to it being able to process more at once(twice as much, which is why 64 is 2 times more than 32). 64bit OS's can process 32 bit, but often times not as efficient. I do not believe it is a matter of sounds, but a matter of eventually your computer over does itself and since the game wasn't designed for 64bit it likely crashes everything including Windows. That is why just pushing the power button often won't work unless you hold it. Both Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 DO NOT work on 64bit, I've tried and both of them hang the system after a while.

Also for retro gamers, 64bit does not support 16 bit at all.

The solution: Since these games don't strain modern computers that much, you can try installing a 32 bit version of Windows 7 or just good old XP which is guaranteed to work with RCT 1 & 2 inside a virtual environment. I'd recommend virtualbox, it's free for use on all OS's. Now I'm not guaranteeing that virtualbox will work, as my current computer running XP inside of virtualbox causes a BSOD at startup, but I haven't had the time, patience or HDD space to try out Windows 7. Probably don't have much in the processing and RAM department either... Another solution is to dual boot your computer, but that is more advanced and can mess up your computer. The advantage to doing this would be being able to have a fully operational OS, instead of running an OS inside of an OS.

Easier way: If you have an older computer you never use you could always install XP on it and just use it.

Hope that that helped!

[Amauros]

  On 3/6/2011 at 12:02 AM, komputerkurt said:

Both Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 DO NOT work on 64bit, I've tried and both of them hang the system after a while.

I must disagree as I played RCT on my vista x64. I've not tried it on Win7 yet since I upgraded, but 64-bit computer archetecture is not the cause of game failure. I mean LRR runs just fine yet it is older than RCT (or at least I think?). 16-bit games can also be played through emulators, only you have to get a ROM version as if it were a console game.

[SlLENTCAPYBARA]

Whenever I try installing the patch that is linked in the OP, I get this error:

Unable to update files

Unrecognized game version, wrong language, or game files are corrupted.

Any ideas?

[Cyrem]

  On 5/31/2011 at 3:55 PM, SlLENTCAPYBARA said:

Whenever I try installing the patch that is linked in the OP, I get this error:

Unable to update files

Unrecognized game version, wrong language, or game files are corrupted.

Any ideas?

Weird. Did you try both of them?

[Devestater]

Whta about rollercoaster tycoon 3: platinum on Win 7 and Vista since, it wount install on my Win 7 and Vista computers. :bandit:

[EchoLight]

  On 6/5/2011 at 9:43 AM, Cyrem said:

  On 5/31/2011 at 3:55 PM, SlLENTCAPYBARA said:

Whenever I try installing the patch that is linked in the OP, I get this error:

Unable to update files

Unrecognized game version, wrong language, or game files are corrupted.

Any ideas?

Weird. Did you try both of them?

I registered purely for the sake of this game. ^^';

I had the exact same problem. BUT I googled for another solution and found that compatibility mode in Windows 7 lets the game run perfectly - without having to patch. Now I am a happy gamer.

By all means investigate. For the record, I have the original RCT and AA and LL expansion packs.

Love LEGO btw. I remember I had Legoland PC because of RCT.

  On 6/5/2011 at 8:53 PM, Devestater said:

Whta about rollercoaster tycoon 3: platinum on Win 7 and Vista since, it wount install on my Win 7 and Vista computers.

RCT 3 is a whole different ball game to RCT 2 and 1, since it's developed by Atari and not Chris Sawyer/Micro Prose.

But the fact that it wouldn't even install raises questions. RCT1 and 2, much older than RCT3, install perfectly well on Win7 and Vista and only need tweaking. Firstly, are you installing from a CD? If you not, then find one.

Hope that all helps.

[Cyrem]

Welcome EchoLight.

If you have Windows 7 Ultimate it comes with XP emulator, this will probably get it going no problem. However, I have just the home edition which doesn't come with that and the standard compatibility options didn't fix the problem for me. After the patching however, It did work... even though saving is a little buggy.

But glad you got it working anyway :)

[bdizzles]

  On 6/5/2011 at 9:43 AM, Cyrem said:

  On 5/31/2011 at 3:55 PM, SlLENTCAPYBARA said:

Whenever I try installing the patch that is linked in the OP, I get this error:

Unable to update files

Unrecognized game version, wrong language, or game files are corrupted.

Any ideas?

Weird. Did you try both of them?

I've tried both and it still wont install on my machine. I am running windows 7 32bit and set the game and both the uk and us patch to run in compatibility mode for windows xp sp3. i have also disabled visual themes and desktop composition for both, as well as set them to run as an administrator. any ideas? any help is awesome

EDIT-

actually it runs but crashes randomly after certain periods of time or it will auto minimize the window. i'm a pretty heavy tech user and i have no background processes much less services running. disabled everything i could startup wise. also i know i don't have issues with the computer itself because i run oblivion and cs:source and others with ease. AMD 255w oc 3.8, 4Gb's 1066 Dominator, X1800xt Platinum 768 ATI card (oldie but a goodie )

[deejayjak]

My problem is being unable to find the actual download amongst a page of pop-ups and looping-ads... point swim in the right direction please?

[Addictgamer]

I headed over to that page and had the same problem.

Scroll down to the bottom of it, there should be a bunch of info.

"Hosting site" "Download Link" and "Upload status"

I went ahead and clicked on the first one, "uploaded". It gave me a 404 error after I left the redirect page.

So next I tried the rapidshare link. That one worked for me.

So, that's how you get your download.

[le717]

  On 8/31/2012 at 2:21 PM, deejayjak said:

My problem is being unable to find the actual download amongst a page of pop-ups and looping-ads... point swim in the right direction please?

  On 8/31/2012 at 9:46 PM, Addictgamer said:

I headed over to that page and had the same problem.

Scroll down to the bottom of it, there should be a bunch of info.

"Hosting site" "Download Link" and "Upload status"

I went ahead and clicked on the first one, "uploaded". It gave me a 404 error after I left the redirect page.

So next I tried the rapidshare link. That one worked for me.

So, that's how you get your download.

I saw that the download page was full of ads too. I'm kinda wondering why the patch is not reuploaded here...

[Addictgamer]

  On 8/31/2012 at 9:57 PM, le717 said:

I saw that the download page was full of ads too. I'm kinda wondering why the patch is not reuploaded here...

If I recall correctly, it was removed from here because it was a huge bandwidth drain; thousands of downloads.

[mybad]

THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE SOLUTION FOR ANYONE TRYING TO RUN THESE GAMES ON WINDOWS 7 !!!

No need to use certain settings like "compatibility mode" or "run as administrator" or "disable this or that" ETC... it will run perfectly and completely on its own, and without any patches!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. If you already have Roller Coaster Tycoon (whatever version) installed... completely uninstall it in "Programs and Features", and after that is done make sure you *search for any and all leftover files/folders and delete them. *Search your computer for these keyword/s: Atari; RollerCoaster Tycoon; Infogrames.

(If you don't know how to search your computer for files/folders...read this> http://windows.micro...-file-or-folder )

2. After you have finished searching your computer...do the same search using the same keywords, but this time in your registry. Delete only the "Keys" that match your keywords exactly by right clicking and selecting "delete".

NOTE..be especially careful when editing your registry in ANY way!! DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

(If you don't know how to search your registry for keywords...read this...specifically ...

"Locate All References to a Specific Word or Filename" > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/136393 )

3. Now pop-in your RollerCoaster Tycoon install CD...more than likely a window will open shortly after loading your CD...in the window choose..."Open to view files". Next...locate "Autorun.exe" and right click on it. Now here is the simple trick that will enable this game and probably most other older games to run without fail in most cases...IT SIMPLY HAS TO BE INSTALLED AS THE ADMINISTRATOR...so from the menu that opens choose "Run as administrator" and BINGO! Just follow the rest of the intallation process and you'll be up and running in no time!

[noghiri]

  On 9/7/2012 at 7:29 PM, mybad said:

THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE SOLUTION FOR ANYONE TRYING TO RUN THESE GAMES ON WINDOWS 7 !!!

No need to use certain settings like "compatibility mode" or "run as administrator" or "disable this or that" ETC... it will run perfectly and completely on its own, and without any patches!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. If you already have Roller Coaster Tycoon (whatever version) installed... completely uninstall it in "Programs and Features", and after that is done make sure you *search for any and all leftover files/folders and delete them. *Search your computer for these keyword/s: Atari; RollerCoaster Tycoon; Infogrames.

(If you don't know how to search your computer for files/folders...read this> http://windows.micro...-file-or-folder )

2. After you have finished searching your computer...do the same search using the same keywords, but this time in your registry. Delete only the "Keys" that match your keywords exactly by right clicking and selecting "delete".

NOTE..be especially careful when editing your registry in ANY way!! DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

(If you don't know how to search your registry for keywords...read this...specifically ...

"Locate All References to a Specific Word or Filename" > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/136393 )

3. Now pop-in your RollerCoaster Tycoon install CD...more than likely a window will open shortly after loading your CD...in the window choose..."Open to view files". Next...locate "Autorun.exe" and right click on it. Now here is the simple trick that will enable this game and probably most other older games to run without fail in most cases...IT SIMPLY HAS TO BE INSTALLED AS THE ADMINISTRATOR...so from the menu that opens choose "Run as administrator" and BINGO! Just follow the rest of the intallation process and you'll be up and running in no time!

FAIL

Also, still doesn't play right with Windows 64x all the time. It's a good place to start, but not an end-all solution.

[mybad]

noghiri...my son and I have been playing this game on his laptop running windows 7 home premium 64 bit after I installed it, as mentioned in my post above, almost a year ago now without any problems. Sorry your experience was not the same.