Guide:Setting up LEGO Rock Raiders
Have you been wanting to play LEGO Rock Raiders again after all these years, but getting it to work on any modern computer seems impossible? Fear not as this page will explain step by step how to get this old game to run as well as how to mod and overhaul the entire game!
Quick guide
- Install the game as normal using the game disc. Alternatively, if you have a digital disc (.iso file), then mount the iso to install the game that way. After running the installation, navigate to the install path, most likely: "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders".
- Download this (contains everything to run the game) and set the compatibility options on OpenLRR.exe to run with Windows XP SP3, using 16-bit colours. The game will be run through OpenLRR.exe, NOT LegoRR.exe, so create a shortcut to OpenLRR.exe to your desktop and start the game however you want using OpenLRR.exe.
In-depth installation instructions
Get the game itself
Before we start, you do need a copy of LEGO Rock Raiders, while you can buy from places like eBay, you can also look around online if someone archived the game in your preferred language. We don't condone piracy, so it's up to you by which means you acquire the game.
Languages
The game is known to have been released in 20 different languages:
| Header text | Header text |
|---|---|
| English | British English. Original game language. Has three known versions, based on the EXE dates:
|
| French (français) | Packaged with German and sometimes English. |
| German (Deutsch) | Packaged with French and sometimes English. This version has menu rockfall transitions disabled. |
| Dutch (Nederlands) | Packaged with Italian and Spanish. |
| Italian (italiano) | Packaged with Dutch and Spanish. |
| Spanish (español/castillano) | Presumably Peninsular Spanish. Packaged with Dutch and Italian. |
| Danish (dansk) | Packaged with Norwegian and Swedish. |
| Norwegian (norsk) | Bokmål text. Packaged with Danish and Swedish. |
| Swedish (svenska) | Packaged with Danish and Norwegian. |
| Portuguese (Português) | Brazilian Portuguese. |
| Croatian (hrvatski) | Packaged with Serbian and Slovene. |
| Serbian (српски/srpski) | Latin text (Gaj's Latin alphabet). Packaged with Croatian and Slovene. |
| Slovene (slovenščina) | Packaged with Croatian and Serbian. |
| Russian (русский) | Only version of the game to use Cyrillic text. Uses a strange DRM which prevents upgrading and eventually crashes the game if the CD is not inserted; apparently all LEGO games released by Noviy Disk contained this DRM. |
| Hebrew (עִבְרִית) | Mirrors all text to be right-to-left, even with WAD files from other languages. |
| Japanese (日本語) | Requires a Japanese operating system to run, due to how its text works. |
| Korean (한국어) | Korean text; all spoken dialogue is in English. |
| Mandarin (官话) | Released in mainland China. It is the 9/25 English version of the game with a second installer that replaces Chief's streamed mission dialogue with Mandarin audio. (Taiwan had a separate release that was only in English with a traditional Chinese manual.) |
| Czech (čeština) | One of the latest versions released in 2001. |
| Polish (polski) | One of the latest versions released in 2001. |
If you prefer to run the game in any of these languages, make sure you get a game version in that language. This guide is assuming an .iso file is used where the full version of the cutscenes and the master executable (this removes safedisc from LRR) is already included. An original disc does not include the same as what is found in an archived iso! TODO: find a physical LRR disc and try to install it and see what the differences are, document how to download and place the master executable, aswell as moving the cutscene's from the disc!
Alter/mod the game
This guide will later explain the options how to run the game in different ways. Below is a table and naming schema that explains what the differences are and how the guide referes to any acronyms.
| Acronym | Description | Recommended | Vanilla | Improved visuals & stability | Maintained | Modding |
| OpenLRR | Opensource project (like OpenRCT2) | Faithful & maintained | X | X | X | |
| LRR | Original | X | ||||
| LRR Baz's Mod | A large scale "overhaul"
modification based on LRR |
|||||
| LRRCE | Community Edition | X | X |
Install Lego Rock Raiders on Windows 10/11
Assuming you have an .iso file with the game in your Downloads folder, the first step is to mount this iso file. So Windows will see it as you have a physical disc drive attached!
Double click on the .iso file:
Now you'll be brought to this window. Or navigate to the drive with the RR icon:
Double click on Setup.exe:
Choose your language of choice:
After clicking which language you want to install, hit Next and agree to the disclaimer. Let it install in: "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders".
You're now brought to the shortcuts to the game window, you can remove everything except the Advanced version.
You should end up with this in your Rock Raiders Startmenu list:
You can remove the Standard installation shortcut from your desktop aswell.
To play the game in windowed mode you must remove the -best flag in the shortcuts in the Target field in Lego Rock Raiders - Advanced on your desktop and the folder Rock Raiders Startmenu list. Below is an example what to remove to always be given the choice to play fullscreen or windowed:
You can also right click on the Dvd-station and click on Eject as the installer is no longer needed.
This concludes how to install Lego Rock Raiders in your language of choice on Windows 10/11.
How to run (Open) Lego Rock Raiders on Windows 10/11
This paragraph will start from a fresh installed Lego Rock Raiders installation directory and each issue that arrises will be explained and a fix will be provided. Continue reading futher to fix additional parts of the game. After getting Lego Rock Raiders to work, you can choose to make additional copies of the game installation directory and change the game by modding. It's definitly worth your time to play OpenLRR aswell as the other options.
It's also adviced to rename the shortcut on your desktop from Lego Rock Raiders - Advanced to just Lego Rock Raiders.
First we'll fix the missing d3drm.dll by downloading it from here: http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/bin/D3DRM.zip unzip the content to the following location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders . You will be prompted to paste the dll file as an administrator. You should now have the following:
Next add the last part to make the game work/perform well whic is to get dgVoodoo2. It can be downloaded here: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/releases/latest and make sure to download dgVoodoo2_xx_y.zip . The file with dbg is meant for debugging which isn't needed and may run worse.
You can unpack the zip and you copy the following contents to C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders:
- dgVoodoo.conf
- dgVoodooCpl.exe
- MS/x86/D3D8.dll
- MS/x86/D3DImm.dll
- MS/x86/DDraw.dll
Make sure that your installation directory looks like this:
We'll tweak the configuration of dgVoodoo2 by running dgVoodooCpl.exe as an Administrator (right click on the exe and click run as admin).
The first step you must do, is to click on the .\ button. You'll see that the Config folder / Running instance path changes to that of your current installation of Lego Rock Raiders (important). Click on the DirectX tab and uncheck dgVoodoo Watermark. Hit Apply and then OK.
You can verify if you did it right by opening the file dgVoodoo.conf and look for the word: "dgVoodooWatermark". It should have false after the "=".
Lastly, right click on the LegoRR.exe, go into properties and toggle the following on to get cutscene's working and fix a bug with TNT:
Download the latest release from: https://github.com/trigger-segfault/OpenLRR/releases/latest from there copy the content of the OpenLRR and paste them into: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\OpenLRR . Your directory should look like this:
Create a shortcut from your desktop to: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders\OpenLRR.exe . You can put this shortcut also in: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\LEGO Media\Rock Raiders .
Lastly, right click on OpenLRR.exe and run it in compability mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3) so that cutscene's and the intro work again. The bug with TNT is fixed in OpenLRR.
It's adviced to play in windowed mode so you can access some additional debug/options.
Don't forget to also back-up the Rock Raiders folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games.
To start the game, Run the OpenLRR shortcut. OpenLRR fixes all the crashes and is generally the option you want to play. You can play the unfixed version but this is generally not recommended.
This concludes setting up the ideal way of playing Lego Rock Raiders with OpenLRR. Continue reading how to setup Baz's mod which completly overhauls the core game itself!
How to restore the music in (Open) Lego Rock Raiders
If you wish to restore just the original music that should play, download the following zip: https://rockraidersunited.com/files/dl-r258/ and copy the entire content of the zip file into your installation directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders . Your installation now should look like this:
If you want more then 3 songs ingame, you can add additional music by downloading this zip file: https://rockraidersunited.com/files/lego_rock_raiders/resources/lrr-music-collection-ogg-r259/
Credit to the original authors of this work.
- Tracks 01 - 09 are from the LRR Playstation game.
- Tracks 10 - 12 are from the LRR PC game.
Copy the .ogg tracks into the music folder in: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders\Music
This concludes setting up the pure vanilla methode of Lego Rock Raiders, while you may want to go ahead and play the game, you should consider backing up your installation directory as a back-up, aswell as to create copies so you can enjoy the alterations/improvements made by the Lego Rock Raiders community!
Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games and right click and click compress to Zip file to create a backup. This zip will be placed on your desktop but you can move it back into the aformentioned directory.
How to play Baz's mod
Baz's mod is an overhaul of the core game. This paragraph assumes that you have a working Rock Raiders installation directory. It's strongly adviced to create a copy of this directory and rename it from Rock Raiders - copy to Rock Raiders Baz's mod.
Download the installer for the overhaul here: https://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/477 . You can run the RRUBazsModxx.exe and choose to just run it. Continue through the installer and also agree that all your walrus are belonging to Baz now and that the Koala Bear of the Mountain Pass would be pleased with your agreement.
Continue through the installer and also agree that all your walrus are belonging to Baz now and that the Koala Bear of the Mountain Pass would be pleased with your agreement.
Do change the default path to the copy we made for Baz's Mod to install in: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders Baz's mod .
Your game is now altered and you can see the slight changes in your installation directory already (different dates for the .wad files, and the capital lettering of WAD).
Make sure to go into LegoRR.exe and change the compatability to run under Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and if you wish to run windowed, to reduce the color to 16 bit.
Again feel free to make a shortcut from your desktop to C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders Baz's mod\LegoRR.exe . You can append -best in the target so it launches in fullscreen mode all the time. Rename the shortcut to something like Lego Rock Raiders Baz's mod. If you want a different icon you can download the ico file here. You can place the .ico file in the Baz's mod folder and in the properties of the shortcut you're making you can navigate to the same folder and choose the .ico picture.
And yes, do zip in C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games the Rock Raiders Baz's mod as back-up!
You have now setup Baz's mod and can play the overhaul of the game! The last part of this wiki page will explain how to setup Lego Rock Raiders Community Edition with Cafetaria which allows you to apply mods to change the game itself to your liking, withoud the need of extracting the wad files, editting source code and compiling it back into the wad files.
How to run Lego Rock Raiders Community Edition with Cafetaria to mod
Note that while this paragraph will explain how to set this up, this project is no longer maintained and actually has some problems with because of that. Nevertheless for completion and the easier methode of applying mods start with making a copy again of your Rock Raiders folder and rename it to Rock Raiders Community Edition.
First download and unzip Lego Rock Raiders Community Edition. (Thanks to baraklava sharing this with me through Discord). Put the contents of the zip folder into C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders Community Edition .
Second download and unzip Cafetaria: https://rockraidersunited.com/files/lego_rock_raiders/tools/cafeteria-10-beta-7-r355/
Copy the content into C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Rock Raiders Community Edition . Your folder should look something like:
Create a shortcut to Cafetaria to your Desktop, and set the compatabilty and color mode on LegoRRCE.exe.
Next download the following mods, it's not adviced to use High-Poly model mods as they slow down the game alot and can even crash it:
- Aiden's Improvement Pack v1.3
- Improvements Pack
- Community Edition Core
- Enhanced biomes
- If you want to play custom maps from Aiden, install the following:
Start Cafetaria.exe and click on Start Setup (if you get an error, you have to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86) from here: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
After Start Setup has finished, click on OK and you'll be greeted by a an empty Mod Manager. Click on the plus icon and add all the mods you downloaded.
Enable all the mods you downloaded and you can use the picture on the right to know the correct order so everything loads nicely!
Under Tools you can verify if Community Edition is set to True. You can adjust your LRR Resolution to your liking (you must Re-Build the game then) and choose which Parameters you want to enable. Click on Re-Build game, if it hangs just let it continue it will complete in 10 or so seconds. Click Start Rock Raiders CE.
Your now able to play with mods and even custom resolutions both in windowed and full screen. Aswell as easily setting extra options like bypassing the intro! You may need to sometimes tweak the order of mods that are being loaded, but once your happy make sure to also back-up that game directory especially.
This concludes the entire guide step by step including all needed parts, backup and shortcuts to run each version of this game that has come out. Enjoy!
FAQ
Where are my save files stored?
Depending if you run the game with Admin or not, will affect where the game can access your save files! For this reason alone, it's adviced to always run the program with compatability mode turned on with Windows XP (Service Pack 3). As this setting fixes cutscene's, intro's and even the TNT bug, but will always run the program with admin aswell! Just make sure to keep these two checked on:
- If you accidantly run the game withoud Admin and you save your game, the save data will be stored in: %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games
- If you run the game with Admin and you save your game, the save data will be stored in the location where you run the game from: C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Media\Games\Subfolderwhereyouranthegame/Data/Saves/
What's the difference between the Advanced and Standard shortcuts?
Both shortcuts have in the properties under general in the target field additional flags defined. This tells the game to run in a different way.
Advanced only has -best which tells it to always run fullscreen.
Basic has -reducesamples -reduceanimation -reducepromeshes -reduceflics -reduceimages -best. Which tells the game to run with lower quality and start in fullscreen.
How to get windowed mode working?
Go into the properties of the game executable (LegoRR, OpenLRR or LegoRRCE.exe) and and under Compatabilty check compatabilty mode on and on Reduced color mode check it and choose 16-bit.
How to get cutscene's working?
Go into the properties of the game executable (LegoRR, OpenLRR or LegoRRCE.exe) and and under Compatabilty check compatabilty mode on and on Compatibility mode check it and choose Windows XP (Service Pack 3).
How can i play OpenLRR.exe in full screen?
Remove the -best flag in the shortcut to OpenLRR.exe. You'll get the option to play fullscreen!
