RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Forum

gog.com has released this game recently, and I picked it up.

Unfortunately, since it doesn't seem to run explorer in the background, whenever I click on load/save, it just locks up. Has anyone discovered a workaround for this?

Hi,

...curious .. there's another thread here where someone mentions the
same issue, but they don't identify the gog version, and in both cases
the OS being used isn't identified, nor the crossover version. Without
such details, all I can do is guess at things...that said...

...I have the original CD release (+ the 2 expansion CD's) and latterly
I also purchased the Direct2Drive release (which includes the WackyWorlds
expansion). Both the CD and the D2D are protected by DRM -- the former
uses Securom disc based DRM, and the D2D release uses Trymedia's 'activemark
online' DRM system. The disc based DRM on the CD versions doesn't work
with crossover/wine ; activemark does ...

..the gog release looks different ..'triple thrill pack' ..and it doesn't
say whether it uses DRM or not -- I'm pretty sure you have to use the
'enable virtual desktop' setting in the Wine Configuration GUI for this
game to work, so you probably should check that.

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply. The version of Crossover Games is 10.1.2
The "Triple Thrill Pack" was the last retail version of RCT2 that was released (to my knowledge). It was a multi-pack containing both expansions. The GOG.com version is this one, but gog.com specifially removes any and all DRM from the games they release (it's one of their selling points)
The odd thing is, according to:

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/rollercoaster_tycoon_deluxe/no_explorer_whilst_playing_the_game

The gog.com version actually quits explorer.exe when the game is running for stability. I was assuming this was related to my issue, but I'm not entirely sure how crossover works with explorer in this regard. One of the "workarounds" specified was to point the shortcut directly to rct2.exe and run it in compatibility mode, but this response assumes I'm running it on Win7... and if there's any way to change the "shortcut pointer" and set "compatibility mode" in Crossover on my Mac, I'm not sure how to do it. (It took me a bit of doing just to figure out how to do registry edits.) :)

I'll see if I can figure out how to "enable virtual desktop" as you suggested and see what that does. Thank you! :)

Mark

The "enable virtual desktop" worked swimmingly.
Although the program now runs in a window instead of defaulting to full screen.

If anyone knows what I can do for that, let me know.

Thanks! :)

....I had another look at things, mostly curiousity ... the launcher
program spoken about in the gog release, doesn't exist in the D2D
version ... nor does it exist in the CD release ... well, not obviously
anyhow. If you consider the rct2.exe binary has having been the
(securom_launcher+game_binary).exe, then you might understand what
I'm saying...

...the D2D release contains 1 executable (rct2.exe) - when you start
this, the DRM process starts first, then dismisses itself as it passes
the (verified) handles onto the game binary itself (which resides in
memory at this moment in time) ... one can see all this play out with
the right wine debug flags running...

...if I disable the 'emulate a virtual desktop' setting, the D2D
release of this game fails to start ... looking at it in debug, it looks
the DRM part still works, but the game binary itself instantly detaches
and the whole stack comes crashing down =) Ergo, it's veritably impossible
to check this angle. but it doesn't surprise me -- the CD release is
the same. It's just the way games of that circa are.. I know of several
that display exactly the same behavior....

...if the gog release contains 2 executables, and it -is- DRM free (I
know that's a gog selling point, but I'm used to seeing it on all their
catalog pages and it wasn't evident on the rct2 page ;), and the binary
'rct2.exe' can be launched and it starts/runs as a 'standalone' executable,
the gog have no doubt 'cut off' the DRM portion from the original 'combined'
rct2.exe (which itself will be patched) .. and the launcher they provide..
is ... ??...<shrug>... perhaps on a windows box it sets some env-vars or
such'n'similar, but going by that post you linked to, it seems superfluous...

..this won't get around the need for emulated virtual desktop, but, if
you use the 'Run command' function in crossover, navigate to the rct2.exe
and run it that way (or create a link), that's equivalent to what the
win7 users are doing -- we don't have a 'compatibility' mode or whatever
(unless you wish to call emulate a virtual desktop that =) ...