emmatpw

[emmatpw]

How to get Theme Park World (Sim Theme Park) to work on Windows 11

Hey all, I got this to work on Windows 11 today! (31 March 2025) I’ll put the steps I took below.

I used this guide plus these extra steps https://pleasantsims.com/sim-theme-park-windows-10/

I also installed it wrong the first time, and I’ll put all the steps to fully uninstall it at the bottom (you need to do more then just go to ‘programs’ and ‘uninstall’).

Please follow these steps at your own risk, as they involve putting files as exceptions in Windows defender (it’s a common problem where anti-virus thinks that old game files are viruses).

Make sure you do this on an Admin account on your computer.

Before starting step one of the main guide:

Download the three files and extract them into a folder (I put them in a folder on my desktop called ‘TPW Download Files’).

Go into your ‘Windows Security’ → ‘Virus & threat protection’ and scroll to around the bottom where it it says ‘Virus & threat protection settings’ and got to the link under that title that says ‘manage settings’

from there, click ‘manage exclusions’ and ‘add folder’, then select your folder with the files in it as an exclusion. (for me, this is the ‘TPW Download Files’)

(keep this exclusion page handy, we’re going to be adding more to it later)

During the main guide:

-Complete Step 1 of the main guide

---immediately following pressing ‘mount’ you will have a ‘disc’ on your PC called ‘BUNNY-WABBIT’ this is you Theme Park World ‘disc’.

-----You can see this by going to file explorer -> ‘this PC’.

(If you have a physical disk, still follow these steps, but your disc will read as ‘TP World’ or something similar).

Add this ‘disc’ to the windows security exclusions following the steps above.

Continue following the main guide until step 8.

When the installation process is running, there will be a stage where it asks where to install the game. We need to change this as Windows XP/2000 did not have ‘Program Files (x86)’, and only ‘Program Files’. Because of this, installing into ‘Program files (x86)’ can mess up old games sometimes.

Here is where it will automatically try to install: C:\Program Files (x86)\Bullfrog\Theme Park World

Here’s what we need to change it to: C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Theme Park World

The easiest way is simply to delete the (x86) from the suggested path, making sure there’s no gaps between ‘Program Files’ and the \ . Otherwise, just copy paste C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Theme Park World

It will then say something like ‘this path does not exist, Do you want to create one?’ press ‘YES’/’OK’ (This happens no matter if you change the path or not)

Keep installing like the guide says, and DO. NOT. START. THE. GAME!

---Before Patching Sim Theme Park---

Before starting step 10.1 go to Windows Security again and add the ‘Bullfrog’ game folder as an exclusion.

Now follow step 10.1 and install the first patch ONLY. (right click the patch and press ‘run as administrator’ if you can)

DO NOT FOLLOW STEP 10.2 AND COPY THE FILES IN YET!

After you have installed the patch (step 10.1) you need to restart the computer!

--(I found an old guide on the wayback machine for windows XP/2000/7, and it was very VERY specific that you needed to restart here, so that’s what I did!)

Go to step 10.2 and follow the steps (although you will be copying into ‘C:\Program Files\Bullfrog\Theme Park World’)

Go to step 10.3, and when when running the TP registration entries file, right click it and press ‘run as administrator’.

follow the final step 10.4 and hopefully the game will work!

------Guide for uninstalling the game-----

The first time I did it I accidentally installed in programs (x86) and it didn’t work! Here’s how I uninstalled it completely so I could get the new install to work!

First go to ‘Add or remove programs’, scroll to ‘Theme Park World’ and press ‘uninstall’.

Next, go to where the game was saved (either ‘C:\Program Files (x86)’ or ‘C:\Program Files’) and delete the ‘Bullfrog’ folder that’s still in there

next, go to ‘System’ → ‘Storage’ → ‘temporary files’.

This will show where your temporary files are saved.

Select everything except ‘downloads’ and press ‘remove files’.

I also went to ‘Delete cookies or temporary files’ → ‘delete’, making sure the following was ticked

---Temporary Internet files

---Cookies

---History

(it probably has the ‘preserve favourites website data’ ticked, but im not 100% sure)

Press ‘delete’, then ‘apply’.

RESTART YOUR COMPUTER

Now you should be ready for a fresh install!

--Why I think these extra steps in uninstalling are needed: My understanding (and idk if this is totally right) is that when you run the game for the first time, even if it doesn't work it creates some corrupt ‘temporary’ files, that are associated with the game in the background and stay in the chache. These files are only created when the game identifies that none already exist in your computer, and uninstalling the game doesn't automatically delete them.

If they’re not deleted, when you re-install the game and re-run it, new files aren’t made since you computer ‘already has them’ and these corrupt files are used on you fresh install, meaning the game wont work even if you did it right!