First, I need to save the game, because ParkDat won't work on scenarios, only saved games. Exit Roller coaster Tycoon and enter ParkDat. If you are working on a park you've spent a lot of time on, you should back the file up by creating a duplicate of the file with a different name. Keep this duplicate safe until you are sure your edited park works. I've never had any problems, but this is always a worthwhile step when working with fan created tools.

Open your saved game and all the objects should appear. The first 128 slots are reserved for rides/shops (R), the next 252 for small scenery (SS), the next 128 for large scenery(LS), 128 for walls(W), 32 for banners (B), 16 for path types (P), 15 for path objects (PU), 19 for Scenery groups (G) and then one value for entrance gates (E), one for water colour (P again?), and one for the scenario text (ST). These are exactly the same as the limitations involved when choosing objects in the scenario editor, so this program can't be used to break those limits.

The first thing you should do is to look down this list and see if there are any free slots for the object type you wish to import. If there is a free slot, it is always recommended that you use the "Add object" command because it's less risky then replacing objects.

Unfortunately, in this case, there are no free slots in rides so we'll have to replace an object. The danger is that if we remove an object that's already been placed anywhere on the park, the game will crash when we try to open the park, and parts of the game may get damaged. So we have to find an object we know we haven't used. The "Wanton Soup Stall" sounds like a good bet. So find this object and click "Replace Selected". It will then pop up a dialog asking which .dat to replace it with. This is where DatChecker comes in useful.


When you run DatChecker, you should see a list of all of the .dat files in your RCT2 folder (if the list is blank, you may have to set it to \Infogrammes\Rollercoaster Tycoon 2... instead of \Infogrammes Interactive\Rollercoaster Tycoon 2..., or you may have a custom install). Sort the files by name and find the name of the object you want. In this case, it's Super Scan, CLSPRSCN.dat. Find this in the ParkDat dialog and it should replace in the file list.


Repeat this process for any other files you want. When done, save the game and load it in RCT2. You should now be able to build your new objects.