Getting started

Welcome to the Getting Started guide for OpenTTD! In this guide, you'll learn how to download OpenTTD and its dependencies, then launch the game.

Download
To get started, let's head over to the OpenTTD download page. Scroll down to the Download stable section and click on the version which matches your operating system. Make sure to download the zip archive version. So if I was on a Windows 10 64-bit computer, I'd click the Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 (64bit) (zip archive) link. After it downloads, move it to your desktop and leave it there for a moment.

Next, we need to install data packs. Data packs are sound, music, and graphic packs that the game uses. OpenTTD doesn't actually come with any of those, so we'll need to download them! Click on each of the following links and download the binary files for each. After you're done, move all four zip archives to your desktop.


 * OpenGFX (graphics)
 * OpenSFX (sound)
 * OpenMSX (music)

Windows
Now you're done, your desktop should contain the four zip archives you downloaded in the last step, which look something like the picture on the right.

In this part of the tutorial, we'll unarchive the zip archives, and install OpenTTD and its data packs. I'll be using WinRAR, a free program, for this step, because of its simplicity, but you can use any unarchiving program you wish!

If you launched the OpenTTD program right now, you'll find that there isn't any sound. This is why we install the data packs!


 * 1) Select all four folders, and click "Extract each archive to separate folder".
 * 2) Open the folder which starts with openttd.
 * 3) Inside that folder, create two more folders: data and save.
 * 4) Open the data folder you just created.
 * 5) Move the folders which start with openmsx, opensfx, and opengfx into it.
 * 6) Close this folder, and go to the previous one.
 * 7) Right click the openttd.exe file, and select "Create shortcut". You can rename it if you wish.
 * 8) Move the openttd.exe - Shortcut file to your desktop
 * 9) Run the openttd.exe - Shortcut file!

After you install the game, feel free to change the folder's name or move it wherever you like. I personally changed my folder's name to "OpenTTD" and moved it to my documents folder. After you do this, you'll have to create a new shortcut to it.

MacOS
Now you're done, your desktop should contain the four zip archives you downloaded in the last step.

In this part of the tutorial, we'll unarchive the zip archives, and install OpenTTD and its data packs. I'll be using Keka, a free program, for this step, because of its simplicity, but you can use any unarchiving program you wish!

If you launched the OpenTTD app right now, you'll find that there isn't any sound. This is why we install the data packs!


 * 1) Open all four of the archives with Keka or your preferred archiver.
 * 2) Open the folder which starts with openttd.
 * 3) Inside that folder, create two more folders: data and save.
 * 4) Open the data folder you just created.
 * 5) Move the folders which start with openmsx, opensfx, and opengfx into it.
 * 6) Close this folder, and go to the previous one.
 * 7) Right click the OpenTTD app, and select "Create alias".
 * 8) Rename the OpenTTD alias file to OpenTTD.
 * 9) Copy the OpenTTD alias to your Applications folder.
 * 10) Copy the OpenTTD alias to your desktop, then delete the original
 * 11) Run OpenTTD!

After you install the game, feel free to change the folder's name or move it wherever you like. I personally changed my folder's name to "OpenTTD" and moved it to my Documents folder. If you move the folder, the alias will still work, so you don't have to make a new one.

Linux
Coming soon

Next steps
Congratulations on successfully installing OpenTTD to your computer. If you run the program, you should find that the game now has sound and graphics, and you're ready to proceed to the next step!

Basic Tutorials

This is the first tutorial. << >> Starting a new game