My Guide To Running Sam & Max On Linux

[joem13]

Today I installed the new Wine 1.0 rc1 for my hardy heron AMD64 system from the repository.
Then I executed "setarch i386 -X wine SamMax101.exe" from the directory. This time the process went a little further, but complained that the DVD not present in the drive.
This is what my console spewed out:
fixme:ntoskrnl:KeInitializeSpinLock 0x4577a4
fixme:ntdll:NtQueryInformationProcess (0xffffffff,info_class=34,0x16ba520,0x00000004,0x1 6ba51c) Unknown information class
fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_HANDLE_INFORMATION
fixme:ntdll:NtQueryObject Unsupported information class 3
fixme:debugstr:CheckRemoteDebuggerPresent (0xffffffff)->(0x16b940c): Stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x16b9258,0x00000000), stub!
fixmesapi:EnumPageFilesA (0xed9030, 0x1699d1c) stub
fixmesapi:EnumPageFilesA (0xed9030, 0x1664638) stub
fixme:mountmgr:harddisk_ioctl unsupported ioctl 4d014

Well anyway, somehow the DVD is not recognised depite being present if I enter the wine setup tool. Changing the system from XP to Vista didn't help a bit.
I get the feeling that I'm close but I'm missing the cigar....
Anyone else got a clue?

[colas]

For the "ice station santa" problem, could the steam version be the solution?
Do anybody know if the splash screen is present on the steam version?
(I didnt find a demo version on steam)

[Urban Nerdo]

The Splash Screen is the activation system, so no, the Steam versions don't use the launcher. Then again, does Steam even work in Ubuntu, even with WINE

[dg10050]

Steam works nearly perfectly in Wine and so do all of the Source engine games.

[BennyLZ]

HI.
this is what i get when I play season one in linux:

what can I do?

[Molokov]

Whoa! That's cool - invisible walls!

[demonfoo]

After some playing around, I managed to get all the Sam and Max games going on my Ubuntu AMD64 machine. I discovered that when launching the game itself, you need to set:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="rpcrt4,ole32,d3d8,d3d9=b"

in the environment when calling Wine, at least with recent versions - otherwise Wine will load the wrong DLLs (thanks, IE) and puke all over itself. For example, when launching Episode 101, I do this:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="rpcrt4,ole32,d3d8,d3d9=b" setarch i686 wine explorer /desktop=SamMax,800x600 ./SamMax101.exe

setarch may or may not be needed, but I'm being extra careful. Once I get past the initial splash screen, it runs just fine (and much smoother in its little virtual desktop window).

[demonfoo]

And of course, Telltale's other games (at least thus far) seem to function equally well under Wine, aside from the splash screen rendering problems. (mumble mumble IE)

[HellMoose]

Has anyone figured out a way of running 201 - Ice Station Santa - in wine yet? This is really bugging me a lot. I just finished playing Season 1 and can't wait to get into Season 2.

And as far as I've gathered, the rest of Season 2 works like a charm in wine... but starting on Episode 2 just is not an option in my mind.

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by HellMoose

Has anyone figured out a way of running 201 - Ice Station Santa - in wine yet? This is really bugging me a lot. I just finished playing Season 1 and can't wait to get into Season 2.

And as far as I've gathered, the rest of Season 2 works like a charm in wine... but starting on Episode 2 just is not an option in my mind.

It ran just fine for me, as well as the rest of season 2 (just finished the last one, in fact). What makes you say it doesn't work? Just make sure you have the latest installer, and it should work.

[Cheeseness]

Well I finally found time to have a go at season 2 today. With ies4linux, I get an "automation server can't create object" error (which comes from IE) and can't get past the "please wait" screen, but with Gecko, I can pop in my serial, restart when it crashes and then I'm good to go.

Except for Ice Station Santa that is (which is odd, because I know I had the demo running earlier this year). Demonfoo, when you say "latest installer", do you mean the normal installer from the "My Games" section or something you've found elsewhere?

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by Cheeseness

Except for Ice Station Santa that is (which is odd, because I know I had the demo running earlier this year). Demonfoo, when you say "latest installer", do you mean the normal installer from the "My Games" section or something you've found elsewhere?

Yes, the normal installer. I jus mean that if you have an older download of the installer, you should get the latest one. Telltale updates them periodically with the latest builds.

[Cheeseness]

Originally Posted by demonfoo

Yes, the normal installer. I jus mean that if you have an older download of the installer, you should get the latest one. Telltale updates them periodically with the latest builds.

Ah. I downloaded Episodes 1 and 2 last night and can't seem to get Ice Station Santa to launch properly. Is there anything special in your configuration that you think HellMoose and myself might have missed?

[tabacco]

201 has an older version of the launcher, which is probably why you're only running into problems with that one. We're hoping to bring that one up to date with 202-205 at some point, but no promises, alas

[TMM]

I had a solution to this problem for 201, but the thread with the solution was apparently removed from this forum without sending me a PM with a reason.
Telltale does not appear to be very interested in this at all. Extremely disappointing

[Cheeseness]

Originally Posted by tabacco

We're hoping

As long as we've got hope, we'll survive

TMM, if you have a workaround, I think we'd all be grateful if you'd share again (providing it's not "go find a crack" or anything that obviously questionable).

[TMM]

the fix I described did not involve a crack, but I am waiting for an explanation by some the forum admin who removed my post as to what was wrong with it so I can repost it with whatever was the problem removed.

I am not sure if what I did was 'questionable' but it did involve editing a file that comes with the game. Personally I don't think this should be a problem for games you bought. (This change also did not remove any of the DRM)

[tabacco]

It also required, in your words, that people "find alternative ways of authenticating your copy of the game". What does that sound like to you?

[TMM]

authenticate on a windows box, copy the file over. Run with ies4linux to do the auth, then edit the gamefile to allow the 3d part to run on wine.

Whatever, 'alternative' I just figured people could come up with other ways as well. The alternative is for us to not play (or buy) the game at all. Telltale's call I suppose

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by TMM

Whatever, 'alternative' I just figured people could come up with other ways as well. The alternative is for us to not play (or buy) the game at all. Telltale's call I suppose

Well, strictly speaking, Telltale is in the right - they never claimed to support Linux in any way, so discussing methods of... questionable legitimacy is something they're entitled to not allow. No need to get all huffy. The fact that it works on Linux (and I've played every single Sam & Max and SBCG4AP episode to date - they've all played through 100%) is good for us, but don't whine and bitch at the Telltale people because they're not supporting you the way you want. In short - be nice(r).