Trivia / Zoo Tycoon

• Dummied Out:
  • ZT1:
    • Strangely, there is a alternate version of the dust cloud that appears when animals fight with fully animated blood spraying, and even bones flying left in the game files. Obviously, it was inappropriate for the rating, so the bloodless version was used instead. See it, and also the other stuff mentioned below here.
    • In the prototype, Emperor Penguins and some other animals turn into lions when attacking guests, then turn back to normal.
    • The logo in the prototype has a roaring lion head like the MGM lion. There is also a version with a panda.
    • The player was originally going to be able to make waterfalls. There is data for this in the prototype, but with no graphics implemented. There is also unused text indicating certain animals would complain if there was not enough waterfalls in their exhibit.
    • There is a single unused image (possibly from a unused model?) of a mother chimp carrying a baby on her back.
    • There is a alternate prototype tutorial that is very useless; you can complete it just by making the smallest possible exhibit and hiring a zookeeper. The game actually calls you a loser(!) if you bother to fail it.
    • A prototype losing screen also exists. Rather than the zookeeper encountering an animal stampede like in the final game, a group of guests are shown running from a lion pride. Much like with the prototype tutorial's insult, this losing screen openly says "YOU LOSE!" in the image.
    • There is text indicating they planned for the player to be able to purchase premade exhibits of different biomes.
    • There is also text indicating they intended to add a anthill object. Presumably for use in exhibits?
    • Miscellaneous unused animations; wolves (both Arctic and Gray, and both adults and pups) being able to swim, Zookeepers carrying bags, and the maintenance workers watering flowers. The flowers don't need to be watered in the final game.
    • Salt Water terrain was once intended to be "Deep Water", and Fresh Water; "Shallow Water". There is also "Forest Floor" terrain, which in the final game was divided into Deciduous and Rainforest terrain.
  • ZT2: There is a never used ambient domestic sheep left in the game files. It was successfully brought back by one fan's mod, but because its files were left incomplete by the game developers the sheep walks through solid objects.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Zoo Tycoon was one of many "tycoon" simulation games released during the time of RollerCoaster Tycoon's popularity. However, this game was one of the few "tycoon" games that held its own, using the genre as a basis to create a distinct and well-received experience.
  • Zoo Tycoon itself would get a few imitators of its own, including SeaWorld Tycoon and the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild! expansion pack, bringing this whole thing full circle.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Neither the first or second Zoo Tycoon games were ever released on Steam or Xbox Game Pass, only the Xbox version of the game. The only way of procuring either of these games legally is to buy a used copy online.
• Missing Episode:
  • Many fan-made animals and objects have been lost as multiple sites and forums for the Zoo Tycoon fan community have gone down.
  • As far as official animals go, there's the Asiatic black bear: the only way to legitimately obtain it was to beat the mobile version of Zoo Tycoon 2, which went defunct ages ago, and no version of the game comes with it pre-installed, not even the "complete" Ultimate Collection version. However, downloading it now using fan-made mirrors may give you a clue as to why it was left out: its pre-existing code would have helped it fit in with the way the animals were programmed in the base game, but as expansion packs changed the pre-existing animals' behaviors and the way they interact with each other, this one in particular comes across notoriously buggy due to not being updated to match the rest of the animals in the game, to the point where it even lacks a conservation ranking, its Zoopedia article is only half-finished, and it is ignored by larger predators due to it still using the previous code for grouping each animal whenever they come into conflict. A fanmade "remaster" that fixes all the bugs exists, however.
• Science Marches On: Many depictions of dinosaurs and other extinct animals in both games haven't aged very well, to say the least...
  • The Plesiosaurus, added in Dinosaur Digs in the original game, hatches from an egg on land and can move on land just as well as it can swim. The same applies to its larger Palette Swap, the Loch Ness Monster. Later research proved plesiosaurs, like modern cetaceans and sirenians and their fellow marine reptiles such as the ichthyosaurs, were incapable of moving on land, and gave birth to live young. In addition, contrary to the iconic image of the Loch Ness Monster having a raised neck, studies now indicate plesiosaurs had stiff necks that were held horizontally.
  • Most small and medium-sized theropods, like Velociraptor and Gallimimus, lack the feathery covering they most definitely possessed when they were alive. Extinct Animals partially tried to remedy this by giving its Velociraptor more feathers on its body, but they are still very sparse, not to mention the Raptor model used in the second game lacks the wings dromaeosaurs had in real life. Making matters worse is the fact that the game's other two dromaeosaurs, Deinonychus and Utahraptor, don't have any feathers whatsoever, aside from the Utahraptor (male only like with Jurassic Park III Velociraptor) having clichéd feathery mohawks raptors are often given in popular culture.
  • Besides having a longer, crocodile-like head, the Spinosaurus also turned out to have been semi-aquatic with shorter hindlegs and a paddle tail.
  • Plateosaurus has been hit by this very hard, being portrayed as primarily quadrupedal in the game when nowadays, it's recognized early sauropodomorphs like Plateosaurus were obligate bipeds. The species portrayed in the game, the type species Plateosaurus engelhardti, was also declared undiagnostic, making the later discovered Plateosaurus trossingensis the new type species by default.
• Tribute to Fido: The original Zoo Tycoon had a campaign called "Beast in Show" where fans would vote for their favorite real-life animal from a zoo: the winning animal would be made available as free DLC and its home zoo would get a donation from Microsoft. The winning animal was Magnet the polar bear from the Baltimore Zoo.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • The "ways" to get a dragon as an exhibit animal, such as naming an enclosure 'Mystery Island' or putting a Bigfoot, a penguin, and a crocodile into the same enclosure. Also getting a dodo in the first game by naming an enclosure "Doflopnok". The fact that the legitimate secret animals (and items such as the yellow brick path), are made available with similar methods makes these and others very easy to fall for. The only way to get a dragon is by mods, such as this one, which can be downloaded from the rather long-lived fansite Zoo Tek Phoenix.
  • There have also been various rumors around the franchise's many forums about a third game, but this seems almost impossible due to Blue Fang and Microsoft Games' contract to make the game expiring. It's definitely not a possibility anymore (or at least not in the same way) now that the series has been handed over to Frontier Developments by Microsoft as a rebooted IP.
  • From the second game and its expansions, many claimed it was possible for the animals in your zoo that died of old age to return as ghosts that would walk around your zoo for a while before disappearing forever. However, it has been discovered that the so-called "ghosts" are actually the result of glitches which occasionally cause animal models to become transparent.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Minor example: The box art for the first Zoo Tycoon shows a zoo keeper kneeling down to feed a gazelle. While they do feed your animals, this animation is not in the final game.
  • The decorative flowers apparently were originally intended to need to be watered by maintenance workers, as an Dummied Out animation suggests. This concept was dropped for a unknown reason.
  • This beta screenshot◊ for Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania shows the marine-themed gift cart was originally going to look like a sea turtle, but in the final game it has the shape of a treasure chest.
  • Close examination of the Zoo Tycoon 2 files reveals there was going to be a domestic sheep as an ambient animal for a petting zoo guests could visit, but was Dummied Out with said petting zoo at the last moment. However, since its model, sound effects and animations are still available, one fan, Penguinman, successfully brought it back to the game. However, since Blue Fang did not complete the sheep files, the ambient can walk through solid objects.