TTDLX in Tycoon Collection

[Mike Wagstaff]

Hi everyone,

I went ahead and bought Hasbro's Tycoon Collection (for
29.99UKP, you get TTDLX, Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster
Tycoon - 2 good games, and 1 excellent one!).

First impressions of the TTDLX Windows version are that it
is virtually exactly the same as the regular DOS one. The
only difference in the game that I noticed was that on the
opening screen, there is a small "Fish(UK) Ltd" logo, with a
natty picture of a yellow-spotted green fish. (Fish(UK) are
obviously the good folks who did the conversion work). Apart
from that, no noticeable differences in the game - saved
games from TTDLX DOS worked fine as well.

Another difference is a small "Transport Tycoon
Configuration" program which is a small utility allowing you
to alter the display and sound settings, and uninstall the
game (obviously, a redundant option that somehow got through
testing un-noticed!).

Install size is 17.2 MB, and you don't need the CD in the
drive to play, which is a good thing. Also, the game does
need DirectX version 2, as (I think) was stated in an earlier
post.

Unfortunately, Josef's Super-Patch doesn't work with it,
giving an "[Error!]" message. The technical message is:
"Fatal error GOTNTB.13070: DOS-Extender file "tycoon.ovl" not
found" - a fair enough message, since there is no
"tycoon.ovl" file.

Hope you all found this useful/useless/fascinating/boring
(delete as appropriate)!

-Mike [http://games.hplx.net]

[Patchman]

In article <16862854516588NEWS...@news.dial.pipex.com>, Mike Wagstaff
says...

Hi everyone,

I went ahead and bought Hasbro's Tycoon Collection (for
29.99UKP, you get TTDLX, Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster
Tycoon - 2 good games, and 1 excellent one!).

Cool, I wish the stores here would start to carry it

[snip]

Another difference is a small "Transport Tycoon
Configuration" program which is a small utility allowing you
to alter the display and sound settings, and uninstall the
game (obviously, a redundant option that somehow got through
testing un-noticed!).

Can you change the screen size to something larger than 640x480?

Install size is 17.2 MB, and you don't need the CD in the
drive to play, which is a good thing. Also, the game does
need DirectX version 2, as (I think) was stated in an earlier
post.

Cool, then we might even be able to play it with Wine

Unfortunately, Josef's Super-Patch doesn't work with it,
giving an "[Error!]" message. The technical message is:
"Fatal error GOTNTB.13070: DOS-Extender file "tycoon.ovl" not
found" - a fair enough message, since there is no
"tycoon.ovl" file.

That's very odd... Did you delete the TTDLOAD.EXE before trying that?
I can't imagine how *this* particular error could happen. Try deleting
TTDLOAD.EXE and restart ttdpatch, that should make a new ttdload.exe.
You'll definitely get an "unknown version" warning, I don't know whether
it'll actually work though.

--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/
---------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Please help Conserve Gravity | To email me, please change the country
Use tape&glue, no paperweights | code to .ca - Death to Spammers!

[Mike Wagstaff]

Can you change the screen size to something larger than 640x480?

No, the resolution is still the same. There are 5 different
screen modes available, and their descriptions according to
the setup utility are as follows:

Mode 1 (windowed):
------------------
Desktop window display system
Using the 'Windows' mouse pointer
The Windows mouse pointer is more responsive

Mode 2 (windowed):
------------------
Desktop window display system
Using the 'Game' mouse pointer
The Game mouse pointer has more animation

Mode 3 (full screen):
---------------------
Full screen display system
Using the 'Windows' mouse pointer
The Windows mouse pointer is more responsive

Mode 4 (full screen):
---------------------
Full screen display system
Using the 'Game' mouse pointer
The Game mouse pointer has more animation

Mode 5 (full screen):
---------------------
Full screen display system
With 'clean' screen update system
Using the 'Game' mouse pointer
The Game mouse pointer has more animation

Incidentally, the game mouse pointer having more animation
is, as far as I could see, not strictly true. Instead, you
get a little icon attached to the cursor when performing
certain actions. For example, when building a station, a
station icon appears, when laying track, there is a track
icon, etc...

As for the 'clean' screen update system, I couldn't spot the
difference between it and the normal screen update system!
Possibly, this could make a difference on slower machines.

Install size is 17.2 MB, and you don't need the CD in the
drive to play, which is a good thing. Also, the game does
need DirectX version 2, as (I think) was stated in an earlier
post.

Cool, then we might even be able to play it with Wine

I forgot to mention that for those who actually do use
Windows(!), you can now switch from the game back to Windows
(using alt-tab or whatever) and vice-versa without a problem.
I occasionally suffered game lock-ups / garbled graphics if
ever I did this with DOS TTDLX.

[snip!]
You'll definitely get an "unknown version" warning, I don't know whether
it'll actually work though.

You're right - I'd forgotten to delete TTDLOAD.EXE. Oops!
With TTDLOAD.EXE deleted, running TTDPATCH got the following
error message:

TYCOON.EXE: No such file or directory
TTDX.EXE: No such file or directory
Could find neither TYCOON.EXE nor TTDX.EXE

This message makes sense, because neither file exists. (Mind
you, I never had a TYCOON.EXE anyway, only a TYCOON.BAT).
Instead, the game executable is called GAMEGFX.EXE (1.61 MB).

Given the differences between the DOS and Windows versions,
I suppose that it would be impossible that converting the
patch would just involve changing the appropriate filename
references? (OK, that was highly wishful thinking on my
part!).

Looking on the bright side, however, savegames are still the
same and the demo??.dat files appear to be unchanged, so the
fundamental game code doesn't seem to have been altered at
all. It's just a question of getting to it, I guess...

-Mike [http://games.hplx.net]

[Matt Forbes]

Mike Wagstaff <a...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:16862854516588NEWS2LX@news.dial.pipex.com...

Hi everyone,

I went ahead and bought Hasbro's Tycoon Collection (for
29.99UKP, you get TTDLX, Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster
Tycoon - 2 good games, and 1 excellent one!).

Thanks for the info Mike - just one small question - where in the UK can you

get it?? It's not reached Salisbury yet (as I found out after wasting an
entire lunchtime trying to find it!!)

Cheers

Matt
Salisbury, UK

[Mike Wagstaff]

I went ahead and bought Hasbro's Tycoon Collection (for
29.99UKP, you get TTDLX, Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster
Tycoon - 2 good games, and 1 excellent one!).

Thanks for the info Mike - just one small question - where in the UK can you
get it?? It's not reached Salisbury yet (as I found out after wasting an
entire lunchtime trying to find it!!)

I got my copy in Electronics Boutique in the charming town of
Croydon (world-renowned for being the centre of technological
advances and civilisation in general).

Perhaps you could try buying it online? It's got to be on
sale somewhere...

-Mike [http://games.hplx.net]

[N.L.Allan]

'Game' stores (saw it in Edinburgh on Princes St. today). Their online shop
is http://www.game-retail.co.uk/

It really does look a fantastic package for those wanting to break into
strategy gaming. I'll be very surprised if it isn't top in the PC Format
budget round-up some time soon.

Interestingly, it shows how a five year old game can hold it's own against
the young whipper-snappers of today's strategy game market. Either that, or
strategy gaming isn't evolving at the pace of all the other sectors.

Nick Allan
========
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.

[Trikky]

Matt Forbes <mattfor...@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:kLc64.354$%85.8516@nnrp3.clara.net...

I went ahead and bought Hasbro's Tycoon Collection (for
29.99UKP, you get TTDLX, Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster
Tycoon - 2 good games, and 1 excellent one!).
Thanks for the info Mike - just one small question - where in the UK can
you
get it?? It's not reached Salisbury yet (as I found out after wasting an
entire lunchtime trying to find it!!)

Ok..I'll seen it in a few places....
PC World (Ick!)
MVC

And not to be funny but have you thought of trying second hand shops?

--
Rick McGreal
ICQ - 51210676
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
tri...@bigfoot.com
http://www.transport-tycoon.co.uk

[Boudewijn]

Mike Wagstaff <a...@dial.pipex.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
211512854518289NEWS...@news.dial.pipex.com...

SNIPPY!

You'll definitely get an "unknown version" warning, I don't know whether
it'll actually work though.

You're right - I'd forgotten to delete TTDLOAD.EXE. Oops!
With TTDLOAD.EXE deleted, running TTDPATCH got the following
error message:

TYCOON.EXE: No such file or directory
TTDX.EXE: No such file or directory
Could find neither TYCOON.EXE nor TTDX.EXE

This message makes sense, because neither file exists. (Mind
you, I never had a TYCOON.EXE anyway, only a TYCOON.BAT).
Instead, the game executable is called GAMEGFX.EXE (1.61 MB).

Have you tried to rename gamegfx.exe to tycoon.exe or ttdx.exe?

> <SNIP2>

[Mike Wagstaff]

This message makes sense, because neither file exists. (Mind
you, I never had a TYCOON.EXE anyway, only a TYCOON.BAT).
Instead, the game executable is called GAMEGFX.EXE (1.61 MB).

Have you tried to rename gamegfx.exe to tycoon.exe or ttdx.exe?

Amazingly enough, the game still works! Unfortunately, the
patch still doesn't - here's what it says:

Copying TTDX.EXE to TTDLOAD.EXE:
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C COPY TTDX.EXE TTDLOAD.EXE >nul
Could not determine program version

-Mike [http://games.hplx.net]

[Patchman]

In article <307202854642346NEWS...@news.dial.pipex.com>, Mike Wagstaff
says...

This message makes sense, because neither file exists. (Mind
you, I never had a TYCOON.EXE anyway, only a TYCOON.BAT).
Instead, the game executable is called GAMEGFX.EXE (1.61 MB).

Have you tried to rename gamegfx.exe to tycoon.exe or ttdx.exe?

Amazingly enough, the game still works! Unfortunately, the
patch still doesn't - here's what it says:

Copying TTDX.EXE to TTDLOAD.EXE:
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C COPY TTDX.EXE TTDLOAD.EXE >nul
Could not determine program version

Well, I guess that means that I do have to buy it. Too bad

--
Josef Drexler | http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/
---------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Please Conserve Gravity: Don't | To email me, please change the country
hang your clothes - pile them up| code to .ca - Death to Spammers!

[Chipendale]

Is Transport Tycoon DLX in the tycoon collection the windows version or the
dos version ? Email me if you know in the addy below

Steve
sha...@interalpha.co.uk


Boudewijn <newsgr...@bdijkstra.tmfweb.nl> wrote in message
news:ftO64.107$P56.4513@zonnet-reader-1...

Mike Wagstaff <a...@dial.pipex.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
211512854518289NEWS...@news.dial.pipex.com...

SNIPPY!

You'll definitely get an "unknown version" warning, I don't know
whether
it'll actually work though.

You're right - I'd forgotten to delete TTDLOAD.EXE. Oops!
With TTDLOAD.EXE deleted, running TTDPATCH got the following
error message:

TYCOON.EXE: No such file or directory
TTDX.EXE: No such file or directory
Could find neither TYCOON.EXE nor TTDX.EXE

This message makes sense, because neither file exists. (Mind
you, I never had a TYCOON.EXE anyway, only a TYCOON.BAT).
Instead, the game executable is called GAMEGFX.EXE (1.61 MB).

Have you tried to rename gamegfx.exe to tycoon.exe or ttdx.exe?

SNIP2