By Kieron Gillen on April 7th, 2010 at 3:00 pm.
Aron Persson brings news that Open TTD – the 6+-year-in-making Open Source clone of Chris Sawyer’s Transport Tycoon Deluxe – has reached that ever-alluring 1.0. Well done them. It’s far more than a straight copy, featuring a hefty list of additions, from maps 64x as big, 255-player multiplayer and… oh, just go have a look at the list. If you’ve got any interest in planes and trains and automobile and – er – cargo, it’s got to be a must-download, surely? You can get the 1.0 from here. And now we celebrate their achievement by linking to some user-footage from last year inappropriately soundtracked with a eurodance version of the Final Countdown.
This isn’t a good day for RPS music.
07/04/2010 at 15:11 Riesenmaulhai says:
This is indeed most inappropriately soundtracked.
But I can’t think of any game that would not be most inappropriately soundtracked by this.
07/04/2010 at 15:28 TeeJay says:
???
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/buck-rogers-countdown-to-doomsday/screenshots/gameShotId,46620/
07/04/2010 at 15:37 Raven185 says:
Have you ever been in a Hungarian night club?
08/04/2010 at 15:59 Vitamin Powered says:
@Riesenmaulhai
It’s bad, but I’m not sure whether it’s worse than the standard TT music jukebox.
07/04/2010 at 15:13 Jimbobb says:
Chris Sawyer?
07/04/2010 at 20:19 Bob says:
Chris Sawyer is a legend (to me anyway) RollerCoaster Tycoon 1/2 are my fav games of all time, there also the games that got me into pc gaming and modding
Loved em!!!
What ever happened to him anyway? :-( Surely he could put out something on steam or something, he done alot of RCT by himself
07/04/2010 at 23:13 boldoran says:
I don’t know what he is doing but I hope he is ok. He deserves it after creating so many nice games almost by himself (most of them programmed in assembler).
09/04/2010 at 11:24 Carra says:
The man single handedly programmed Rollercoaster Tycoon in assembler language…
And he did get over 30 million dollars for his efforts (I have a copy of RCT laying at home). I hope he’s laying on a beautiful island!
07/04/2010 at 15:14 Javaguy says:
OpenTTD is lovely. Its Multiplayer rivals Civ for its ability to eat hours.
07/04/2010 at 15:16 Dominic White says:
Transport Tycoon Deluxe was the best in its genre, although still not perfect.
The ‘still not perfect’ part has been rectified by TTD. If you like building stuff and/or business sims at all, this is about as good as you’re gonna get.
07/04/2010 at 19:31 somnolentsurfer says:
I don’t know. I could think of a few things that could do with changing before perfection is achieved. The tiny fonts, for one.
07/04/2010 at 15:16 Sobric says:
Could you not have restored musical balance with a link to some Smokey Robinson?
07/04/2010 at 15:20 Tei says:
Other people have fish tanks, my favorite “animal” was having a OpenTTD game opened and running on a 486 on a corner of my home, much like a terrarium, but with people (no ants). Dogs and cats are awesome too, but OpenTTD can run on a very old machine and is still one of the best (or the best) sim.
07/04/2010 at 16:17 RogB says:
thats…. wierd.
in a good way though!
07/04/2010 at 15:20 Schmung says:
I do love me some TTD. The last version of OpenTTD I tried had an auto update thing for downloading AIs and so forth. Fine, except for the fact that it didn’t use a standard way of getting a net connection and would be fooled by even the simplest proxy. Damm and drat.
07/04/2010 at 15:31 jon_hill987 says:
Does this still need a copy of the original or are they using their own resources now?
07/04/2010 at 15:41 WhiteDawn says:
You can download a free graphics/sound/music set from the website, but you can also use the original files, you can even swap between them while playing the game.
07/04/2010 at 15:38 w says:
This is an awesome game. If you like to build stuff, download it and run it, because it is awesome. It was awesome already at 0.3 (working fully), so it is hyper-awesome now. You don’t need to be connected to the internet to play, and that alone upgrades the awesome by like a bazillion. Download and play this game or I will eat your dog. Do it! DO IT NOW.
I say this not only because you deserve to have fun (because you’re such a good customer), but also because this game represents the PC, big time. It’s not this typical modern dumb shit, and if you wonder what the dreaded word “streamlined” means (I’m sorry, RPS), you should know that this thing is the complete opposite. Yay! ^^
07/04/2010 at 15:39 Taillefer says:
Here’s the 32Bpp Graphics Pack to make it extra-lovely: Forum Thread
07/04/2010 at 15:45 Levictus says:
Damn I kind of wish they made a version of simcity 2000 out of the in game models.
07/04/2010 at 16:03 Wilson says:
Yeah, OpenTTD is great. This release is an exciting opportunity for people who don’t own the original to play. I highly recommend it!
07/04/2010 at 16:11 dartt says:
This has to be one of my all time favourite games, I love seeing how many trains I can squeeze on to one network, working out the optimal position for a crucial passing point that will allow all my locos to smoothly maintain their speed and prevent the whole system falling apart in to a spaghetti of broken down diesels and cross country expresses stuck between stations in deadlock with the local mail freight due to a signalling problem hundreds of miles away.
The only problem I’ve ever really had with TT is that the trains have always been the most interesting part of the game to me and, as such, it’s always a shame when it gets to the point where everyone can afford to invest in aircraft and suddenly the choo-choos seem like costly and inefficient vanities rather than mission critical necessities.
07/04/2010 at 17:22 Cooper says:
A lot of the multiplayer games restrict it to trains only, or trains and road – or anything /but/ planes. Then it becomes fun.
I prefer playing single player and maximising route efficiencies. Some train routes, though, take up -huge- amounts of space.
07/04/2010 at 17:44 dartt says:
That sounds ideal, I’ll have to see if some buddies want to indulge some time this week.
07/04/2010 at 16:15 eot says:
Looks a lot like RCT
07/04/2010 at 16:28 Scoopsy says:
I think “Have you ever been in a Hungarian night club?” is going to be my new stock retort to pretty much everything.
Because really, have you?
07/04/2010 at 16:52 Dain says:
Just finished setting this up with a whole bunch of addons for my Grandad who is a big Transport Tycoon player.
He’s been using TTDpatch for ages, but this is far more elegant! Shiny!
07/04/2010 at 17:00 Dain says:
On that note, I highly reccomend trawling the various graphics sites and forums for good graphics sets to get the most out of OTTD!
07/04/2010 at 16:56 Mad Doc MacRae says:
I like how the interface is straight out of old Linux distros.
And by “like” I mean “am completely turned off by.” Have fun with your transport-off though.
/never been to a Hungarian night club
07/04/2010 at 17:14 Rei Onryou says:
At least the first 10 seconds of this was TTD music (or some mix of it). Then….it just doesn’t fit!
I’m glad I still have my TT (not deluxe unfortunately) boxed. Heck, I just took it out. It’s on my lap. So graceful, so pure and innocent. The boxy corners. That smell. A different time. Where solo game developers would have their signature on the box. Where MicroProse was on the box. OH GOD, WHAT HAS BECOME OF GAMING!!! KILL ME NOW.
Alternatively, I’ll just install this and enjoy failing at managing a successful transport business. Again. Seriously, 7 year olds shouldn’t be allowed to run transport tycoons.
07/04/2010 at 19:20 Mr_Day says:
I stroked the TTD disc I have, placed it in the drive, and it refused to be read.
Rargh! Petey Smash!
07/04/2010 at 17:29 Britpunk says:
In one of those glorious moments of synchronicity I was attempting to install TTD to my netbook this very morning. It didn’t work though, so I gave up, but this is fantastic!
08/04/2010 at 15:18 jon_hill987 says:
I managed on Ubuntu 9.10 NBR. Runs fine but it crashes on exit and you have to kill the process…
07/04/2010 at 17:54 K.Boogle says:
My goodness, that spaghetti T-Junction is so inefficient!
But the bridge used as a waiting bay? That’s awesome! I ought to go try that. I usually dig tunnels for waiting bays.
07/04/2010 at 18:05 Nilocy says:
This game can be summed up as: The game where companies so big create massive causeways that are so big that they destroy villages/forests/seas/other comapanies roads. Oh capitalism, I <3 thee.
07/04/2010 at 18:12 fishoil says:
sorry for sounding daft, but what do i actually need to download for the better graphics to work.
07/04/2010 at 19:11 Hodge says:
I’m not sure but I think it’s this one.
07/04/2010 at 18:14 fishoil says:
with regards to the 32bpp gfx. reply doesnt seem to work. grrrr
07/04/2010 at 19:04 stahlwerk says:
Someone should travel back in time and fit the prototype of Roland’s TR-909 with a DRM scheme that deactivates the unit once the user enters any kind of eurodance pattern.
seriously.
now.
07/04/2010 at 23:17 D says:
Would it… would it really matter.. exactly when someone travelled back in time? I mean..
08/04/2010 at 01:38 stahlwerk says:
@D well, duh, if you’re the time traveler.
Or his assistant, of course.
(Ouch, brain hurts! Help me, campy Einstein!)
07/04/2010 at 19:17 c-Row says:
It’s a shame they didn’t continue the OSX version after 0.7.5, but what’s worse is that they don’t even link to the last Mac build at all… :(
07/04/2010 at 20:39 AW says:
Hmmm, I have no trouble with TTD, and have been using that hacked version, but I am disappointed that my Locomotion disk got scratched somehow and now I can’t play that.
I have tried OpenTTD in maybe the .6X versions, and it seemed like it was making progress, but I had some interface troubles that were inscrutable.
Chris Sawyer appears to be destined to be on a milk carton: he hasn’t updated his website in years.
I *have* been in a Hungarian nightclub. Jo napot kivanok!
07/04/2010 at 22:06 Sam C. says:
That’s because Simon Foster did the art and Chris Sawyer did the programming for both games.
07/04/2010 at 22:07 Sam C. says:
Sorry, this was @eot…
08/04/2010 at 00:21 simonkaye says:
Oooooohhhh, Transport Tycoon was brilliant. I remember my mind boggling when I realised that more people would use your stations if you beautified them by surrounding them with trees.
08/04/2010 at 02:12 Mister Adequate says:
Why is an open-source fan remake of a 15 year old game superior to almost everything that comes out these days?
08/04/2010 at 02:46 jarvoll says:
Hey, now! Don’t be saying “open-source” and “15-year-old” as though they’re dirty words. In all seriousness, I would like to (in as polite and friendly a manner as possible) reject that assumption that closed-source is automatically better than open, and that new is automatically better than old. Although I get that you’re kinda pointing out that old can often be better than new.
Hrm… Actually, I’d consider this to be a part of the “what comes out these days” rather than the old, since it represents current efforts at game-making. I don’t think it matters that it’s a remake of the old: for a start, it’s a REmake, indicating newness in principle right there. In practice, too, there are many, many new/updated features, as far as I can tell. You couldn’t have played a game *this* good (super-polished, super-moddable, open-source, and on such a variety of OSs) 15 years ago.
So, on the one hand, new is not necessarily better than old, but on the other, it most assuredly is.
08/04/2010 at 05:16 Haw Seow says:
So disappointed when I played it to find out that the final countdown remix wasn’t part of the actual soundtrack.
08/04/2010 at 09:07 Freelancepolice says:
Projects like this warm my soul. Are there any other things like this and free civ which will keep me warm till xmas?
08/04/2010 at 13:32 LionsPhil says:
There’s something about this page which is making a horrid slide-out ad appear on th left margin, RPS bods. Given it’s repeatable, did you embed more than you bargined for with that video?
Personally, I think OpenTTD peaked around 0.6 or so, when it was TTDeluxe with the technical limits resolved. Since then they’ve gone a bit simulationist and lost the plot gameplaywise, IMO.
08/04/2010 at 13:34 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s unrelated to the video. It should be removed soon.
08/04/2010 at 17:47 Jarek says:
@somnolentsurfer : you can manually edit fonts and their sizes in the openTTD config file (in my documents)… though I find this game easier to play on lower resolution, like 720p instead of native full hd.
08/04/2010 at 22:24 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
so…is it about shoes or sexy inaccessible female friends? :D
12/04/2010 at 13:13 MMORPG Center says:
I played and it’s great. The community made new graphics, lots of smart AI scripts, can customize a lot of things, more accesibility options on building tracks, overall great upgrade, remake.
GJ!