Open roller coasters

OpenRCT2

It's amazing just how many old games have been re-implemented in new and wholly compatible open source games engines, just to keep those old games alive. It's a huge and thankless task, at least early on in development when the programmers have to pull apart what's publicly available, including data and save files, and try to recreate the same functionality without resorting to the original code. This is why so many open source recreations only ever reach a preliminary level of compatibility, but there are also a few exceptional cases that manage to go above and beyond the software that spawned them. Open RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (OpenRCT2) is one of them.

It's not too difficult to guess that OpenRCT2 is a reimplementation of the games engine behind the brilliant RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, originally released over 20 years ago in October 2002. To get it to work, you will need the original data files, and OpenRCT2 will work with files from RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, as well as their various expansion packs. These are still available through Steam and GOG. The game itself is still a peerless roller coaster park simulation, letting you design everything from the rides themselves, accompanying attractions, and the overall site. OpenRCT2 not only fixes all the bugs found in the originals, but also lets you increase the number of guests, adds new track elements and zero-g rolls, adds differing color schemes, and is compatible with old park scenarios. It's a game that's a lot of fun beyond the usual nostalgia factor of playing yet another game from your youth, and it will also appeal to just about any indie or retro game fanatic who may enjoy Minecraft, or who has stumbled onto the brilliant but costly RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 on the Nintendo Switch. They can now run OpenRCT2 on their Steam Decks forever.

Project Website

https://github.com/OpenRCT2

Forget costly fast passes and getting there early, create your own roller coaster park with OpenRCT2.