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Zoo Tycoon 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Zoo Tycoon 2
Zoo Tycoon 2 cover
Developers
Blue Fang Games
Publishers
Microsoft Game Studios
OS X MacSoft
Engines
Gamebryo
Release dates
Windows November 9, 2004
macOS (OS X) December 2005
Reception
Metacritic 72
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view
Controls Point and select
Genres Building, Educational, Simulation
Themes Contemporary
Series Zoo Tycoon
Zoo Tycoon 2 on HowLongToBeat
Zoo Tycoon 2 on IGDB
Zoo Tycoon 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Zoo Tycoon 2 on MobyGames
Zoo Tycoon 2 on Wikipedia
Zoo Tycoon
Zoo Tycoon 2001
Zoo Tycoon 2 2004
Zoo Tycoon Friends 2014
Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection 2017

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Zoo Tycoon 2 is a singleplayer bird's-eye view building, educational and simulation game in the Zoo Tycoon series.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SafeDisc 4.90.010 DRM[Note 1] for base game and Ultimate Collection. SmarteSECURE DRM for expansion packs. The Zookeeper Collection does not require a CD key.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Publisher website (unavailable)
DRM details are not known
macOS (OS X)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Ultimate Collection[3]
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
Free demo versions are available from Archive.org: base game, Endangered Species.

Version differences

Zookeeper Collection includes the base game with the African Adventure and Endangered Species expansions.
The Ultimate Collection contains all of the released expansions packs. It does not require any additional patches.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
African Adventure
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Dino Danger Pack Digital only and no longer available for purchase. Made obsolete by the Extinct Animals expansion pack.[4]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Endangered Species
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Extinct Animals
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Marine Mania
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Essential improvements

Patches

Skip intro videos

Go to <path-to-game> and delete BF_Intro.bik, MSGSLogo.bik and zt2intro.bik[5]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2
macOS (OS X)

Video

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.
In-game advanced video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use jackfuste's widescreen fix.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Use jackfuste's widescreen fix.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
100 FPS is the maximum.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
All speech is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Brazilian Portuguese
Except Extinct Animals.
Spanish
Swedish

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL 2.0 OS X only.
Shader Model support 2
ExecutablePPC 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
No expansions were released here. Received a universal binary in February 2006 with patch 1.1.0. Still 32-bit only.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio Miles Sound System 6.5e[6]
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.6.3.0

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 733 MHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 900 MB
Video card (GPU) 16 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
The Marine Mania and Extinct Animal expansions do not support 98SE, ME, or 2000.
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.2.8
Processor (CPU) G4 800 MHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]

References

  1. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  2. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  3. Welcome to Games for Windows Marketplace - Games for Windows - last accessed on 19 August 2022
  4. Zoo Tycoon - Dino Danger Pack Home (archive) - last accessed on 21 August 2022
  5. No-Intro Palace: Zoo Tycoon 2 No Intro - last accessed on May 2023
  6. Verified by User:Nessy on 2019-07-19
    Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.