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OpenTTD README

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Last updated:    2008-10-01

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Release version: 0.6.3

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------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Table of Contents:

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------------------

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1.0) About

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2.0) Contacting

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 * 2.1 Reporting Bugs

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3.0) Supported Platforms

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4.0) Installing and running OpenTTD

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 * 4.1 (Required) 3rd party files

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 * 4.2 OpenTTD directories

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 * 4.3 Portable Installations (External Media)

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5.0) OpenTTD features

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6.0) Configuration File

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7.0) Compiling

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8.0) Translating

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 * 8.1 Guidelines

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 * 8.2 Translation

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 * 8.3 Previewing

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9.0) Troubleshooting

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X.X) Credits

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1.0) About:

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---- ------

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OpenTTD is a clone of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, a popular game originally

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written by Chris Sawyer.  It attempts to mimic the original game as closely

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as possible while extending it with new features.

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OpenTTD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0. For

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more information, see the file 'COPYING'.

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2.0) Contacting:

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---- ----------

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The easiest way to contact the OpenTTD team is by submitting bug reports or

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posting comments in our forums. You can also chat with us on IRC (#openttd

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on irc.oftc.net).

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The OpenTTD homepage is http://www.openttd.org/.

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You can also find the OpenTTD forums at

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http://forum.openttd.org/

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2.1) Reporting Bugs:

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---- ---------------

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To report a bug, please create a Flyspray account and follow the bugs

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link from our homepage. Please make sure the bug is reproducible and

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still occurs in the latest daily build or the current SVN version. Also

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please look through the existing bug reports briefly to see whether the bug

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is not already known.

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The Flyspray project page URL is: http://bugs.openttd.org/

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Please include the following information in your bug report:

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        - OpenTTD version (PLEASE test the latest SVN/nightly build)

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        - Bug details, including instructions how to reproduce it

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        - Platform and compiler (Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, ...)

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        - Attach a saved game *and* a screenshot if possible

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        - If this bug only occurred recently please note the last

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          version without the bug and the first version including

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          the bug. That way we can fix it quicker by looking at the

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          changes made.

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3.0) Supported Platforms:

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---- --------------------

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OpenTTD has been ported to several platforms and operating systems. It shouldn't

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be very difficult to port it to a new platform. The currently working platforms

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are:

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  BeOS                 - SDL or Allegro

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  DOS                  - Allegro

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  FreeBSD              - SDL

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  Linux                - SDL or Allegro

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  MacOS X (universal)  - Cocoa video and sound drivers (SDL works too, but not 100% and not as a universal binary)

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  MorphOS              - SDL

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  OpenBSD              - SDL

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  OS/2                 - SDL

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  Windows              - Win32 GDI (faster) or SDL or Allegro

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4.0) Installing and running OpenTTD:

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---- -------------------------------

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Installing OpenTTD is fairly straightforward. Either you have downloaded an

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archive which you have to extract to a directory where you want OpenTTD to

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be installed, or you have downloaded an installer, which will automatically

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extract OpenTTD in the given directory.

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OpenTTD looks in multiple locations to find the required data files (described

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in section 4.2). Installing any 3rd party files into a "shared" location has

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the advantage that you only need to do this step once, rather than copying the

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data files into all OpenTTD versions you have.

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Savegames, screenshots, etc are saved relative to the config file (openttd.cfg)

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currently being used. This means that if you use a config file in one of the

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shared directories, savegames will reside in the save/ directory next to the

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openttd.cfg file there.

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If you want savegames and screenshots in the directory where the OpenTTD binary

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resides, simply have your config file in that location. But if you remove this

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config file, savegames will still be in this directory (see notes in section 4.2)

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4.1) (Required) 3rd party files:

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---- ---------------------------

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Before you run OpenTTD, you need to put the game's datafiles into a data/

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directory which can be located in various places addressed in the following

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section.

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As OpenTTD makes use of the original TTD artwork you will need the files listed

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below, which you can find on a Transport Tycoon Deluxe CD-ROM.

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The Windows installer optionally can copy these files from that CD-ROM.

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List of the required files:

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	- sample.cat

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	- trg1r.grf

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	- trgcr.grf

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	- trghr.grf

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	- trgir.grf

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	- trgtr.grf

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Alternatively you can use the TTD GRF files from the DOS version:

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	- TRG1.GRF

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	- TRGC.GRF

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	- TRGH.GRF

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	- TRGI.GRF

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	- TRGT.GRF

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If you want the TTD music, copy the gm/ folder from the Windows version

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of TTD to your OpenTTD folder (not your data folder - also explained in

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the following sections).

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Do NOT copy files included with OpenTTD into "shared" directories (explained in

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the following sections) as sooner or later you will run into graphical glitches

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when using other versions of the game.

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4.2) OpenTTD directories

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---- -------------------------------

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The TTD artwork files listed in the section 4.1 "(Required) 3rd party files"

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can be placed in a few different locations:

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	1. The current working directory (from where you started OpenTTD)

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	2. Your personal directory

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		Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\OpenTTD

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		Mac OSX: ~/Documents/OpenTTD

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		Linux:   ~/.openttd

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	3. The shared directory

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		Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\OpenTTD

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		Mac OSX: /Library/Application Support/OpenTTD

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		Linux:   not available

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	4. The binary directory (where the OpenTTD executable is)

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		Windows: C:\Program Files\OpenTTD

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		Linux:   /usr/games

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	5. The installation directory (Linux only)

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		Linux:   /usr/share/games/openttd

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	6. The application bundle (Mac OSX only)

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		It includes the OTTD files (grf+lng) and it will work as long as they aren't touched

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Notes:

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	- Linux in the previous list means .deb, but most paths should be similar for others.

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	- The previous search order is also used for newgrfs and openttd.cfg.

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	- If openttd.cfg is not found, then it will be created using the 2, 4, 1, 3, 5 order.

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	- Savegames will be relative to the config file only if there is no save/

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	  directory in paths with higher priority than the config file path, but

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	  autosaves and screenshots will always be relative to the config file.

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The prefered setup:

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Place 3rd party files in shared directory (or in personal directory if you don't

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have write access on shared directory) and have your openttd.cfg config file in

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personal directory (where the game will then also place savegames and screenshots).

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4.3) Portable Installations (External Media):

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---- ----------------------------------------

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You can install OpenTTD on external media so you can take it with you, i.e.

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using a USB key, or a USB HDD, etc.

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Create a directory where you shall store the game in (i.e. OpenTTD/).

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Copy the binary (OpenTTD.exe, OpenTTD.app, openttd, etc), data/ and your

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openttd.cfg to this directory.

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You can copy binaries for any operating system into this directory, which will

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allow you to play the game on nearly any computer you can attach the external

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media to.

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As always - additional grf files are stored in the data/ dir (for details,

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again, see section 4.1).

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5.0) OpenTTD features:

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---- -----------------

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OpenTTD has a lot of features going beyond the original TTD emulation.

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Unfortunately, there is currently no comprehensive list of features, but there

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is a basic features list on the web, and some optional features can be

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controlled through the Configure Patches dialog. We also implement some

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features known from TTDPatch (http://www.ttdpatch.net/).

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Several important non-standard controls:

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* Use Ctrl to place semaphore signals

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* Ingame console. More information at

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  http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Console

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5.1) Logging of potentially dangerous actions:

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---- ----------------------------------------

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OpenTTD is a complex program, and together with NewGRF, it may show a buggy

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behaviour. But not only bugs in code can cause problems. There are several

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ways to affect game state possibly resulting in program crash or multiplayer

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desyncs.

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Easier way would be to forbid all these unsafe actions, but that would affect

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game usability for many players. We certainly do not want that.

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However, we receive bugreports because of this. To reduce time spent with

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solving these problems, these potentially unsafe actions are logged in

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the savegame (including crash.sav). Log is stored in crash logs, too.

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Information logged:

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* Adding / removing / changing order of NewGRFs

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* Changing NewGRF parameters, loading compatible NewGRF

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* Changing game mode (scenario editor <-> normal game)

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* Loading game saved in a different OTTD / TTDPatch / TTD version

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* Running a modified OTTD build

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* Changing patch settings affecting NewGRF behaviour (non-networksafe patches)

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* Changing landscape (by cheat)

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* Triggering NewGRF bugs

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No personal information is stored.

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You can show the gamelog by typing 'gamelog' in the console or by running

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OpenTTD in debug mode.

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6.0) Configuration File:

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---- -------------------

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The configuration file for OpenTTD (openttd.cfg) is in a simple Windows-like

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.INI format. It's mostly undocumented. Almost all settings can be changed

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ingame by using the 'Configure Patches' window.

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7.0) Compiling:

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---- ----------

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Windows:

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  You need Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Open the project file

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  and it should build automatically. In case you want to build with SDL support

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  you need to add WITH_SDL to the project settings.

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  PNG (WITH_PNG) and ZLIB (WITH_ZLIB) support is enabled by default. For these

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  to work you need their development files. For best results, download the

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  openttd-useful.zip file from SourceForge under the Files tab. Put the header

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  files into your compiler's include/ directory and the library (.lib) files

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  into the lib/ directory.

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  For more help with VS see docs/Readme_Windows_MSVC.txt.

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  You can also build it using the Makefile with MSYS/MinGW or Cygwin/MinGW.

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  Please read the Makefile for more information.

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Solaris 10:

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  You need g++ (version 3 or higher), together with SDL. Installation of

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  libpng and zlib is recommended. For the first build it is required

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  to execute "bash configure" first. Note that ./configure does not work

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  yet. It is likely that you don't have a strip binary, so use the

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  --disable-strip option in that case. Fontconfig (>2.3.0) and freetype

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  are optional. "make run" will then run the program.

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Unix:

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  OpenTTD can be built with GNU "make". On non-GNU systems it's called "gmake".

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  However, for the first build one has to do a "./configure" first.

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  Note that you need SDL-devel 1.2.5 (or higher) to compile OpenTTD.

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MacOS X:

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  Use "make" or Xcode (which will then call make for you)

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  This will give you a binary for your CPU type (PPC/Intel)

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  However, for the first build one has to do a "./configure" first.

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  To make a universal binary type "./configure --enabled-universal"

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  instead of "./configure".

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BeOS:

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  Use "make", but do a "./configure" before the first build.

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FreeBSD:

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  You need the port devel/sdl12 for a non-dedicated build.

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  graphics/png is optional for screenshots in the PNG format.

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  Use "gmake", but do a "./configure" before the first build.

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OpenBSD:

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  Use "gmake", but do a "./configure" before the first build.

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  Note that you need the port devel/sdl to compile OpenTTD.

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MorphOS:

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  Use "make". However, for the first build one has to do a "./configure" first.

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  Note that you need the MorphOS SDK, latest libnix updates (else C++ parts of

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  OpenTTD will not build) and the powersdl.library SDK. Optionally libz,

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  libpng and freetype2 developer files.

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OS/2:

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  A comprehensive GNU build environment is required to build the OS/2 version.

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  See the docs/Readme_OS2.txt file for more information.

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DOS:

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  A build environment with DJGPP is needed as well as libraries such as

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  Allegro, zlib and libpng, which all can be downloaded from the DJGPP

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  website. Compilation is straight forward: use make, but do a "./configure"

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  before the first build. The build binary will need cwsdpmi.exe to be in

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  the same directory as the openttd executable. cwsdpmi.exe can be found in

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  the os/dos subdirectory. If you compile with stripping turned on a binary

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  will be generated that does not need cwsdpmi.exe by adding the cswdstub.exe

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  to the created OpenTTD binary.

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8.0) Translating:

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---- -------------------

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See http://www.openttd.org/translating.php for up-to-date information.

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The use of the online Translator service, located at

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http://translator2.openttd.org/, is highly encouraged. For a username/password

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combo you should contact the development team, either by mail, IRC or the

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forums. The system is straightforward to use, and if you have any problems,

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read the online help located there.

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If for some reason the website is down for a longer period of time, the

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information below might be of help.

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8.1) Guidelines:

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---- -------------------

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Here are some translation guidelines which you should follow closely.

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    * Please contact the development team before beginning the translation

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      process! This avoids double work, as someone else may have already

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      started translating to the same language.

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8.2) Translation:

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---- -------------------

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So, now that you've notified the development team about your intention to

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translate (You did, right? Of course you did.) you can pick up english.txt

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(found in the SVN repository under /lang) and translate.

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You must change the first two lines of the file appropriately:

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##name English-Name-Of-Language

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##ownname Native-Name-Of-Language

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Note: Do not alter the following parts of the file:

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    * String identifiers (the first word on each line)

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    * Parts of the strings which are in curly braces (such as {STRING})

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    * Lines beginning with ## (such as ##id), other than the first two lines of

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      the file

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8.3) Previewing:

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---- -------------------

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In order to view the translation in the game, you need to compile your language

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file with the strgen utility, which is now bundled with the game.

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strgen is a command-line utility. It takes the language filename as parameter.

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Example:

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strgen lang/german.txt

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This results in compiling german.txt and produces another file named german.lng.

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Any missing strings are replaced with the English strings. Note that it looks

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for english.txt in the lang subdirectory, which is where your language file

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should also be.

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That's all! You should now be able to select the language in the game options.

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9.0) Troubleshooting

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---- ---------------

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To see all startup options available to you, start OpenTTD with the

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"./openttd -h" option. This might help you tweak some of the settings.

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If the game is acting strange and you feel adventurous you can try the

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"-d [[<name>]=[<level>]" flag, where the higher levels will give you more

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debugging output. The "name" variable can help you to display only some type of

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debugging messages. This is mostly undocumented so best is to look in the

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source code file debug.c for the various debugging types. For more information

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look at http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Command_line.

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The most frequent problem is missing data files. Don't forget to put all GRF

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files from TTD into your data/ folder including sample.cat!

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Under Windows 98 and lower it is impossible to use a dedicated server; it will

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fail to start. Perhaps this is for the better because those OS's are not known

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for their stability.

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With the added support for font-based text selecting a non-latin language will

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result in garbage (lots of '?') shown on screen. Please open your configuration

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file and add a desired font for small/medium/-and large_font. This can be a font

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name like "Tahoma" or a path to a font.

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Any NewGRF file used in a game is stored inside the savegame and will refuse

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to load if you don't have that grf file available. A list of missing files

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will be output to the console at the moment, so use the '-d' flag (on windows)

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to see this list. You just have to find the files (http://grfcrawler.tt-forums.net/)

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put them in the data/ folder and you're set to go.

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X.X) Credits:

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---- --------

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The OpenTTD team (in alphabetical order):

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  Jean-Francois Claeys (Belugas) - GUI, newindustries and more

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  Bjarni Corfitzen (Bjarni)      - MacOSX port, coder and vehicles

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  Matthijs Kooijman (blathijs)   - Pathfinder-guru, pool rework

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  Victor Fischer (Celestar)      - Programming everywhere you need him to

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  Christoph Elsenhans (frosch)   - General coding

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  Loïc Guilloux (glx)            - General coding

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  Jaroslav Mazanec (KUDr)        - YAPG (Yet Another Pathfinder God) ;)

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  Jonathan Coome (Maedhros)      - High priest of the newGRF Temple

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  Attila Bán (MiHaMiX)           - WebTranslator, Nightlies, Wiki and bugtracker host

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  Owen Rudge (orudge)            - Forum host, OS/2 port

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  Peter Nelson (peter1138)       - Spiritual descendant from newGRF gods

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  Remko Bijker (Rubidium)        - Lead coder and way more

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  Benedikt Brüggemeier (skidd13) - Bug fixer and code reworker

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  Zdenek Sojka (SmatZ)           - Bug finder and fixer

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Inactive Developers:

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  Tamás Faragó (Darkvater)       - Ex-Lead coder

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  Christoph Mallon (Tron)        - Programmer, code correctness police

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Retired Developers:

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  Ludvig Strigeus (ludde)        - OpenTTD author, main coder (0.1 - 0.3.3)

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  Serge Paquet (vurlix)          - Assistant project manager, coder (0.1 - 0.3.3)

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  Dominik Scherer (dominik81)    - Lead programmer, GUI expert (0.3.0 - 0.3.6)

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  Patric Stout (TrueLight)       - Programmer, webhoster (0.3 - pre0.6)

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Thanks to:

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  Josef Drexler                  - For his great work on TTDPatch.

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  Marcin Grzegorczyk             - For his TTDPatch work and documentation of TTD internals and graphics (signals and track foundations)

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  Petr Baudis (pasky)            - Many patches, newgrf support, etc.

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  Simon Sasburg (HackyKid)       - For the many bugfixes he has blessed us with

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  Stefan Meißner (sign_de)       - For his work on the console

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  Mike Ragsdale                  - OpenTTD installer

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  Cian Duffy (MYOB)              - BeOS port / manual writing

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  Christian Rosentreter (tokai)  - MorphOS / AmigaOS port

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  Richard Kempton (RichK67)      - Additional airports, initial TGP implementation

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  Michael Blunck                 - For revolutionizing TTD with awesome graphics

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  George                         - Canal graphics

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  David Dallaston (Pikka)        - Tram tracks

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  All Translators                - For their support to make OpenTTD a truly international game

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  Bug Reporters                  - Thanks for all bug reports

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  Chris Sawyer                   - For an amazing game!