OpenTTD
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OpenTTD is an open source port of the Chris Sawyer game Transport Tycoon Deluxe to C using a disassembly of the original game binaries. Using the SDL cross platform graphics and sound layer, it works on virtually any operating system in common usage, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Linux, FreeBSD, SkyOS and MorphOS. However, it does not run on DOS, despite DOS being the primary platform on which Transport Tycoon ran.
OpenTTD duplicates the original game feature-wise but also has numerous additions, including canals, revised station construction and additional airports. The most interesting feature compared to the original game is its multiplayer capability. It offers LAN and Internet play via public, world-wide servers for up to ten players.
It incorporates many features from TTDPatch, and like TTDPatch it is available under the GPL. Both OpenTTD and TTDPatch are not totally standalone games — while OpenTTD does not need the Transport Tycoon Deluxe executables, it does need the game graphics files. However, there is currently an effort to devise a new graphics standard (and new graphics) to eliminate this liability.
Due to the nature of its coming to be, namely from disassembling official game binaries, the legal status of the project is still uncertain. Some have claimed fair use rights, whereas in some jurisdictions it would remain illegal in all cases due to its illegal (in said jurisdictions) origins, regardless of whether or not any original code was written out. The original game as published by Microprose has had a number of owners in recent years, namely Hasbro and Infogrames (who later renamed themselves Atari). However, it seems that Atari are not only entirely uninterested in pursuing any claim of copyright infringement, they seem uninterested in even finding out whether or not they do own the rights to Transport Tycoon.
External links
- OpenTTD Website (http://www.openttd.com/)
- Transport Tycoon Forums (http://www.tt-forums.net/)
- OpenTTD Wiki (http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Main_Page)cs:OpenTTD