Difference between revisions of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"

Revision as of 18:36, 4 December 2022


⤏ Go to series page
The Hobbit	1982
The Fellowship of the Ring	1985
The Shadows of Mordor	1987
J.R.R. Tolkien's War in Middle Earth	1988
The Crack of Doom	1989
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I	1990
J.R.R. Tolkien's Riders of Rohan	1990
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II	1992
The Fellowship of the Ring (2002)	2002
The Return of the King	2003
War of the Ring	2003
The Hobbit (2003)	2003
The Battle for Middle-earth (series)
The Lord of the Rings Online	2007
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest	2009
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North	2011
Lego Middle-earth (series)
Guardians of Middle-earth	2012
Middle-earth: Shadow (series)
Journeys in Middle-earth	2019
The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game	2019
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum	2023
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria	2023

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v3 DRM^{[Note 1]}.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demo

The Windows version has both a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM release, the DVD edition features additional bonus content.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\<Localized LOTR Return of the King Data>\ROTK.ini
macOS (OS X)

Folder LOTR Return of the King Data may be named differently, based on the system language.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\<Localized LOTR Return of the King Data>\
macOS (OS X)

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor		See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD		See Widescreen resolution. FMVs & menu backgrounds are not in 4K.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Use dgVoodoo2.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use dgVoodoo2.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 62 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Widescreen resolution

Widescreen fix^{[citation needed]}

Download Widescreen fix by nemesis2000.
Extract lotr.7z files to the installation folder (password: lotr).
Edit lotr.ini to set the resolution.

Notes

Supported exe size: 2 874 232 bytes.

Windowed

Use DxWnd^{[citation needed]}

Download and extract DxWnd.
Start DxWnd.
Click Edit and Add.
Type in the name of the game.
In Path type in a path to your ROTK.EXE file.
Check fields: Hook enabled, Run in a Window, Hook all DLLs and Remap Client Rect.
Go to a Video tab and check the field: Prevent Win Maximize.
Go to a DirectX tab and check: DirectX8.
Click OK and start the game without closing DxWnd.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Extreme mouse declaration applied to a cursor.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Triggers not recognized.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Shown as "3D" sound.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		No option to disable it.
EAX support
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
Italian
Japanese				Japan only.
Korean				Korea only.
Spanish
Dutch
Polish
Portuguese
Swedish
German
Russian				Fan translation by «ENPY Studio/Spirit Team»

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	2	Co-op Requires a controller.
LAN play
Online play

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, requires D3D8to9 wrapper, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 700 MHz AMD Athlon 700 MHz	Intel Pentium 4 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon XP 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2.0 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	64 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.2.6
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC 74xx PowerPC G4
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	3D accelerator 32 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ 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

↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16

[3] 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]

[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

[Note 1]

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 |taxonomy     =
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/monetization      | One-time game purchase }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/microtransactions | }}
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/modes             | Singleplayer }}
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/pacing            | Real-time }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/perspectives      | Third-person }}
+{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/perspectives      | Bird's-eye view, Third-person }}
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/controls          | Direct control }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/genres            | Action, RPG }}
+{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/genres            | Action, Hack and slash, RPG }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/sports            | }}
+{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/art styles        | Realistic }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/vehicles          | }}
-{{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/art styles        | }}
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/themes            | Fantasy }}
 {{Infobox game/row/taxonomy/series            | Middle-earth }}
@@ Line 68: / Line 65: @@
 |widescreen resolution      = hackable
 |widescreen resolution notes= See [[#Widescreen resolution|Widescreen resolution]].
-|multimonitor               = unknown
+|multimonitor               = hackable
-|multimonitor notes         =
+|multimonitor notes         = See [[#Widescreen resolution|Widescreen resolution]].
-|ultrawidescreen            = unknown
+|ultrawidescreen            = hackable
-|ultrawidescreen notes      =
+|ultrawidescreen notes      = See [[#Widescreen resolution|Widescreen resolution]].
-|4k ultra hd                = true
+|4k ultra hd                = hackable
-|4k ultra hd notes          = See [[#Widescreen resolution|Widescreen resolution]]. Cutscenes & menu backgrounds are not in 4k
+|4k ultra hd notes          = See [[#Widescreen resolution|Widescreen resolution]]. FMVs & menu backgrounds are not in 4K.
 |fov                        = false
 |fov notes                  =
@@ Line 80: / Line 77: @@
 |borderless windowed        = unknown
 |borderless windowed notes  =
-|anisotropic                = false
+|anisotropic                = hackable
-|anisotropic notes          =
+|anisotropic notes          = Use [http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/ dgVoodoo2].
-|antialiasing               = false
+|antialiasing               = hackable
-|antialiasing notes         =
+|antialiasing notes         = Use [http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/ dgVoodoo2].
 |upscaling                  = unknown
 |upscaling tech             =
@@ Line 93: / Line 90: @@
 |120 fps                    = false
 |120 fps notes              = Frame rate is capped at 62 FPS.
-|hdr                        = unknown
+|hdr                        = false
 |hdr notes                  =
 |color blind                = false
@@ Line 370: / Line 367: @@
 ===API===
 {{API
-|direct3d versions      =
+|direct3d versions      = 8
 |direct3d notes         =
 |directdraw versions    =
@@ Line 391: / Line 388: @@
 |shader model notes     =
 |windows 32-bit exe     = true
-|windows 64-bit exe     = unknown
+|windows 64-bit exe     = false
-|windows arm app        = unknown
+|windows arm app        =
 |windows exe notes      =
 |mac os x powerpc app   = true

Developers

	EA Redwood Shores
macOS (OS X)	Beenox Shift
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows	October 31, 2003
macOS (OS X)	March 30, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	78
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Hack and slash, RPG
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Middle-earth