Running Theme Park on Windows 8 and Windows 10

My copy of Theme Park World wouldn't work on Windows 8: it loaded and then displayed the error message "tp.icd has stopped working".

Thanks to articles here and the great work and hours spent by Adam Hearn I got it working again.

To ensure they are kept for prosperity I repeat the instructions here, but all credit is due to the authors above.

Installing Theme Park World on Windows 8

(Installing Sim Theme Park on Windows 8)

Steps:

(1) Installation
(2) Patching
(3) No-cd TP.exe(4) Microsoft SafeDisc Patch
(5) Compatibility Mode(6) Mouse Pointer Issue

____________________________________________

(1) Installation

Theme Park World should install without any issues on a modern PC. Simply insert the CD / mount the ISO and follow the on-screen prompts. If the CD / mounted ISO does not auto-run, explore the contents of the CD in Windows Explorer and run the “Autorun.exe” file. You should then see a menu allowing you to install the game.

(2) Patching (to version 2.0)

Before playing Theme Park World on a modern PC, you must install the version 2.0 patch. You can download the patch here. Simply run the patch once it has downloaded and the game will start.

(3) No-Cd TP.exe

In the event you have installed Theme Park World from a .iso file, you will need to switch the TP.exe executable file (located in your TPW folder) with a version that allows the game to be run sans disc (search on Google for Theme Park World Nocd Patch). Note that the original TP.exe file is approximately 260KB whereas the No-Cd version is approximately 3647KB.

(4) Microsoft SafeDisc Patch

Download and install this file: http://www.adamhearn.co.uk/games/themeparkworld/files/updatesecdrv.exe

(4a) Install Fonts (may be optional)

Run the Fix Fonts installer.

(5) Compatibility Mode

Right click on TP.EXE, select properties and then the 'Compatibility' tab. In the compatibility mode section, tick the checkbox (Run this program in compatibility mode for:) and select 'Windows 7'.

(6) Mouse Pointer Issue

If you have followed the instructions above at this point you should be able to launch into Theme Park World / Sim Theme Park. Unfortunately, due to an issue with 32bit colour (color) the mouse pointer in the game will not be visible. This is just a minor glitch and easily resolvable so with a little patience you'll be playing TPW in under 5 minutes :)

So, first step is to navigate to the TPW / Sim Theme Park folder on your pc - once there locate the Data folder and you will see a list of files. We are interested in just 3 of these, namely:

low.sam
medium.sam
high.sam

What you need to do is open every one of them using Notepad (double click on the icon and select to open using notepad), then set "GraphicalOptions.TEXTURE32" and "GraphicalOptions.RENDER32" to 1 (in place of the 0 that had been listed previously).

Take care to save .sam file as a .sam file (windows may attempt to convert it to a .sam.txt file). For example if you want to save the low.sam file, just do a normal save and type the file name as "low.sam". 

[In the event that while trying to save the .sam file you receive an error message, this is as a result of Windows' user privilege settings - What you will have to do is save the .sam files elsewhere, say the desktop for example, and then copy and paste them into the folder with the original .sam files. NB - Make sure to click yes if Windows requests your administrator access to move the files] 


[In the event it the .sam files get saved as .txt files... you will need to open up an explorer page (e.g. double click on 'My Computer', click 'View' in the top left hand menu, click options in the drop down ribbon menu which appears just below and then 'Change folder and search options'. You will now see a folder options popup box and here there are 3 headings - General / View / Search. Click on View. Navigate to 'Hide extensions for known file types' and unclick it. Next click apply. Now go back you your .sam.txt file and rename it to just .sam]

(7) Processor Affinity

For added security, once the game is running, go to Task Manager, select tp.exe in the Details tab and click "Set Affinity". Only check a single CPU (e.g. CPU 0) and this will ensure the game will run with one CPU only (the game may not be expecting the modern day multi-core processors).

(8) Set the Preferred Resolution

1) Exit the game if you haven’t done so already.

2) Browse to the games installation folder using Windows Explorer. By default this is C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Theme Park World on 32 bit systems and C:\Program Files (x86)\Bullfrog\Theme Park World on 64 bit systems.

3) Find a file called _Resolution.sam and rename it to Resolution.sam (remove the underscore character at the start of the file name).

4) Click on the Resolution.sam file and choose to open it in Notepad. Inside this file you will see a note explaining how to activate extra resolutions. Amazingly for such an old game, Theme Park World actually supported high definition screen resolutions. However, the monitors at the time were not widescreen, so you probably want to avoid modes like 1600×1200 or 2048×1536.

5) To change to one of the extra resolutions, locate the line beginning “Res.RESOLUTION” at the very bottom of the file, then simply change the number on this line according to the instructions in the text file. For instance, to use 1280×1024 screen mode (works best on a 1080p monitor) use “Res.RESOLUTION 5″. Don’t forget to save your changes when you are done.

6) If you did everything correctly, next time you start the game it should start in your chosen screen resolution.

References

http://www.adamhearn.co.uk/games/themeparkworld/tpwwin2kfix.html

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-gaming/need-help-running-sim-theme-park-in-windows-8/07996af5-24cf-43a0-b7b5-5148e1bb6354

http://www.play-old-pc-games.com/2013/08/13/theme-park-world/

http://interestedness.weebly.com/theme-park-world-installation.html