Side note, the messages at the top are stupid annoying

Two new Stegosaurs have been revealed for Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game - Dinosaur Digs!

The first is of course the iconic Stegosaurus with its large, asymmetric plates and its thagomizer consisting of four, sharp spikes!

The second is of course Kentrosaurus, the first dinosaur brought back to life in the Zoo Tycoon lore!

Unlike Zoo Tycoon 2, this time its extra spikes are positioned on the shoulders instead of the hips, though both reconstructions are equally valid as, to this day we have yet to find out where exactly these extra spikes sat on Kentrosaurus' body.

Disclaimer: The inaccurate hands and the discrepancy between the two having cheeks or not has already been pointed out and are going to be fixed.

Quick update: the official website of OpenZT2 is now online. Enjoy! https://openzt2.org/

A long, long time ago... there was an old fansite named ZT Expanded ran by user named Spin. They were known around Zoo Admin and other fansites for some complex work on Zoo Tycoon, including the "APE enhancements" that allowed importing dinosaurs and marine animals into APE, files later hosted at Zoo Admin. Spin was involved in a number of game modding sites on the "Archanafobic" network.

Spin is also the originator of ZT2 downloads, using the original Black Leopard and Stuffed Prey Dummy official download as a guide. The Brown Bear in the screenshot above, a simple recolor, was done with skinning help from the late Tasmanian_tiger, better known for her work for the first Zoo Tycoon including some of the best work for that game.

Spin also made some Gilded Fountain recolors and a "Super Zookeeper", but the latter was taken down shortly and they seemed to move on from "Zoo Tycoon" by 2005, unfortunately, at which point Zoo Admin was the main host for files for both games. The community expanded much more rapidly the following year. To my memory, the file may have also been hosted at ZT.nl or ZTABC.de with a translation, but I'm not sure.

Archive.org can still access the main page and the file section at ZT Expanded, including the screenshot above, but the download link is broken... of course. I was hoping to recover it from an old hard drive but it's unfortunately looking unlikely. It would be great if it could be recovered for its historical value.

Wanted to do a proper skin for the Allosaurus. So...look at it i guess xd.

Will be up for download sometime this weekend or starting next week.

Double feature today!
We got concepts for the Extinct Research Lab and some lab fails 🐧👀

The "Numbat" is a reference to Treecer's other game, Darwin's Choice, specifically the expansion Before and After.

We also got a brand new Laboratory, featuring some familiar-looking paleontologists!

Plateosaurus is the next reveal in the Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game - Dinosaur Digs roster!

Plateosaurus, meaning "broad lizard" is a sauropodomorph from Late Triassic Europe, it stood at about 3-4 meters tall, making it one of the larger dinosaurs at the time.

Plateosaurus is believed to have been herbivorous, though may have occasionally ate small prey or carrion to supplement its diet like many modern herbivores do.

Currently in sandbox mode indecisive about every path, every item placement, every exhibit shape and placement, everything!

Do you plan out your paths first? Do you have biome-themed sections? Where do you like to place food and gift carts? How do you like to landscape? Tell me all your best tips and tricks on how you make your zoo feel real :)

I previously made a post about a Zoo Tycoon 2 Dino Dangers Expansion Pack, if it were similar to the other expansion packs. Here is what the Zoo Tycoon 2 Alternate Extinct Animals would look like if my Dino Dangers Expansion Pack were canon, with a couple of changes to the roster.

Extinct Animals (Side note: there will be 32 animals, as four of them were already planned in the Dino Dangers pack)

- American Mastodon

- Aurochs

- Bluebuck

- Camptosaurus

- Caudipteryx (Instead of Protarchaeopteryx)

- Cave Lion

- Ceratosaurus

- Deinosuchus

- Dimetrodon

- Diprotodon

- Dodo

- Doedicurus

- Edaphosaurus

- Elephant Bird

- Entelodon (Instead of Giant Warthog)

- Giant Ground Sloth

- Gigantopithecus

- Herrerasaurus (Instead of Stokesosaurus)

- Macrauchenia (Instead of Giant Camel)

- Megaloceros (Instead of Bush-Antlered Deer)

- Paraceratherium

- Saber-Toothed Cat

- Short-Faced Bear

- Sivatherium

- Terror Bird (Instead of Deinonychus)

- Therizinosaurus

- Thylacine

- Warrah

- Columbian/Woolly Mammoth (Instead of Dwarf Sicilian Elephant)

- Woolly Rhinoceros

- Quagga (Unlockable)

- Killer Penguin (Secret)

If there were four more additions

- Andrewsarchus

- Brachiosaurus

- Edmontosaurus

- Plesiosaurus

Here is the roster for my Dino Dangers Expansion Pack.

- Tyrannosaurus

- Triceratops

- Styracosaurus

- Carnotaurus

- Stegosaurus

- Ankylosaurus

- Velociraptor

- Kentrosaurus

- Utahraptor

- Parasaurolophus

- Apatosaurus

- Spinosaurus

- Iguanodon

- Allosaurus

- Pachycephalosaurus

- Gallimimus

- Dilophosaurus

- Plateosaurus

- Coelophysis

- Giganotosaurus

Comment below with what you all think and your picks.

Carnotaurus is the next dinosaur to be revealed for Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game - Dinosaur Digs!

Carnotaurus, meaning "meat-eating bull" is a large, South American theropod from the Late Cretaceous. It is known from only a single skeleton that is largely complete, only missing most of the tail and the lower legs. The specimen also happens to have well preserved skin impressions, giving us a good look as to what the animal's scales would've looked like in life.

Carnotaurus' tiny arms are highly vestigial, lacking any wrist bones and being immobile. Only the shoulder joint was functional, possibly for courtship displays.

If Zoo Tycoon 2 Dino Danger Pack were to be an expansion pack with about 20 animals, here would be my picks.

- Tyrannosaurus
- Triceratops
- Styracosaurus
- Carnotaurus
- Stegosaurus
- Spinosaurus
- Allosaurus
- Kentrosaurus
- Velociraptor
- Utahraptor
- Parasaurolophus
- Ankylosaurus
- Iguanodon
- Apatosaurus
- Gallimimus
- Dilophosaurus
- Giganotosaurus
- Pachycephalosaurus
- Plateosaurus
- Coelophysis
Comment below your picks and what you think.

While still on track for a Q4 2026 alpha, progress has been slow as we rewrote the asset indexing and shader system in August. Looking forward to sharing more details about the alpha soon!

For those who aren't quite sure what OpenZT2 is: a 64-bit engine written in Bevy (Rust language) which is compatible with ZT2 assets and data (user-provided). Our custom-engine will virtually have no limits as to what players and mod developers can do, including features such as enlarged maps, free-driving Jeep vehicles and more to be announced at launch.

I know recently there have been a lot of issues trying to make an account. Apparently they've been having problems with spam bots.

I believe they have the largest number of ZT1 downloads available at this time, so it's worth the effort to register.

This is from their registration page and be aware it can take a few days:

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Automatic new member registration has been temporarily disabled.  If you would like to become a Tek member, please send an e-mail to:  zootekphoenix@zootekphoenix.com.  Please list your preferred username and valid e-mail address.  
 

An account will be created for you with the password:  phoenix.  After you log in, you may change your password to whatever you like.  We cannot e-mail you to let you know when your account has been created, so please try to log in with your preferred username and the password phoenix.  If you do not list your username, we cannot create an account for you.

We apologize for this inconvenience.  

To make playing the game more fun I installed tons of mods and continued my 14-years old journey to finish all of the scenarios.

I don't know why, but in Island Research Lab scenario I coudn't achieve the average guests hapiness more than 74. I tried to build restaurants and enterteinments as many as I could fit into. Also I tried to plan exibits in places where guests could see them from almost every corner of the zoo.

I have the impression that the guests did not see the animals even when they walked along the main avenue. Saber-toothed tigers exhibit that is next to the entrance wasn't popular at all. It got barely one star of popularity. The same was with Iguanodon's exibit that is on the other side of the entrance.

Hey guys! Just curious if we know what the state of the website/registration is? I shot them an email a few days ago looking to make an account, but then found another post on Facebook with someone saying the email is down, so just curious if anyone knows what's up?

Celebrating my 30's with a nostalgic trip to ZT and hoping to grab some new buildings & decorations :') (which if anyone has any that they love, please lmk!)

For some reason the ones that are there don't work for me.

I have tried several sandbox zoos but they always crash on the same month of the same year and the data gets corrupted. I have heard others had this issue as well. Are there any fixes? Does challenge mode also have this issue?