howto: get SBCG4AP 101 (demo and full game) running on Linux

[tremby]

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People episodes 101 and 102 howto: get them running in Linux
by demonfoo and tremby

the commands in this howto (and some of the files linked) are specific to Ubuntu Hardy Heron. a similar procedure should work for other distros, though.

1. install Wine 1.1.3 or later
   
   1. if you haven't already, add WineHQ's repository to your package manager. (instructions from WineHQ)
      
      1. add the repository's key so packages can be authenticated by running
         

         wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

      2. add the repository to the list of sources by running
         

         sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

      3. refresh your package list by running
         

         sudo apt-get update

   2. install or upgrade Wine by running
      

      sudo apt-get install wine

2. install IEs4Linux
   
   1. first we need cabextract and tar. we'll get the MS fonts while we're at it. install them by running
      

      sudo apt-get install cabextract tar msttcorefonts

   2. then download and extract IEs4Linux by running
      

      wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz -O- | tar zx

   3. move into the IEs4Linux directory by running
      

      cd ies4linux-*

   4. load the installer by running
      

      ./ies4linux

      it'll complain on the command line that you're running an old version of Wine, but it's lying.
      
   5. install it. the default options are fine for the purposes of this howto, but since i'm a web developer i install IE7 too by clicking "advanced" and then checking IE7's box. close the installer when it's done.
      
   6. move back out of the IEs4Linux directory by running
      

      cd ..

3. set up Wine for SBCG4AP and install the game
   
   1. copy the WINEPREFIX ("drive C") for IE6 to make one for SBCG4AP which has IE6 installed by running
      

      cp -a ~/.ies4linux/ie6 ~/.wine_sbcg4ap

   2. download the Homestar Ruiner demo installer with your browser (i'll assume to your desktop) or by running
      

      wget http://www.telltalegames.com/demo/homestarruiner -O ~/Desktop/homestarruinerdemo.exe

   3. start the installer by running
      

      env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine_sbcg4ap WINEDLLOVERRIDES="rpcrt4,ole32,d3d9=b" wine ~/Desktop/homestarruinerdemo.exe

   4. follow its instructions. the default paths are fine, and be sure to answer "yes" to the question about installing DirectX. uncheck "Play now" when it's done and click "Finish". then you can delete the installer if you like by selecting it and hitting delete or running
      

      rm ~/Desktop/homestarruinerdemo.exe

   5. set up Wine for this WINEPREFIX (and therefore the game)
      
      1. run the Wine config tool with the game's WINEPREFIX by running
         

         env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine_sbcg4ap winecfg

      2. on the "Applications" tab, set the Windows version to Windows XP
         
      3. on the Audio tab, say OK to the box telling you to edit your audio settings and it will set some defaults. check they make sense.
         
      4. add DLL overrides. to do this, go to the "Libraries" tab and add each of the following:
         
         • d3d9
           
         • ole32
           
         • rpcrt4
           
         by choosing from the list (or typing) and then clicking add, for each.
         
      5. for each of the overrides above, click its entry in the list of "Existing overrides" and click "Edit". choose "Built-in (Wine)" from the menu and click OK.
         
      6. optional (do this if you're having problems with the game screen or just want to run in a window): on the "Graphics" tab, check "Emulate a virtual desktop" and enter the resolution you want.
         
      7. click "Apply" and then "Close"
         
4. start the game
   double click the launcher, enter your My Telltale login information (if asked) and then click on the green area at right about the level of Strong Bad's feet; unfortunately the image that should be there doesn't appear.

to install the second episode, make sure you run the installer in your SBCG4AP environment:

env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine_sbcg4ap wine ~/Desktop/Strong_Badia_the_Free_setup.exe

this time, you can say no to the DirectX question. if you do, you need to put a link to the DLL which the DirectX installer would have added (already in the Episode 1 directory) for Episode 2 after installing by running

ln -s "../Episode 1 - Homestar Ruiner/d3dx9_27.dll" ~/.wine_sbcg4ap/drive_c/"Program Files/Telltale Games/Strong Bad/Episode 2 - Strong Badia the Free/"

then the launcher the game puts on your desktop should work just fine.

to install the third, do the same stuff as for the second, but the link command will be a tad different:

ln -s "../Episode 1 - Homestar Ruiner/d3dx9_27.dll" ~/.wine_sbcg4ap/drive_c/"Program Files/Telltale Games/Strong Bad/Episode 3 - Baddest of the Bands/"

[demonfoo]

Very detailed - though I believe the arguments to /desktop need to be reversed. Also, if someone needs Wine packages built for another distro, let me know, and I can build them and make them available for downloading.

Edit: I've uploaded Ubuntu hardy/amd64 packages. I can bootstrap other distros for packaging as well.

[tremby]

yeah, i tried to put every step in there -- i haven't assumed anything except that people know how to run a command.

regarding the /desktop args -- i wondered about that since you had it the opposite way to how i've always done it. i just tested and it works (resoulution is set) the way i typed it above (title,resolution) and not the other way around.

the desktop gets resized when the system call to change resolution is handled, though, so when playing SBCG4AP it'll get resized to whatever you set in the game settings.

[The Rob]

Hi!

Thanks for giving such detailed information and solutions! However I must call on you once again - thought hte game is running, I can get no sound. The Test Sound button in WINE config seems to work okay though, oddly.

This may be related to sound problems elsewhere on my PC though (Ubuntu Heron), with games such as Supertux not having sound either (and crashing when I exit them).

Thanks for the help.

[tremby]

demonfoo mentioned in the other thread that he fixed that particular issue on his machine by switching Wine to Windows XP mode -- are you certain you followed that instruction? go over the instrux starting at 3.5 ("set up Wine for this WINEPREFIX").

if you've definitely done that, i don't know what to suggest. you could try loading wineconfig again (run it with the command shown in the instructions above so that it affects your SBCG4AP WINEPREFIX) and experimenting with other settings on the "Audio" tab. mine's set to ALSA, with acceleration on full, sample rate at 48kHz and sample size 16. the driver emulation box isn't ticked. i've got a fairly old Soundblaster card.

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by The Rob

However I must call on you once again - thought hte game is running, I can get no sound. The Test Sound button in WINE config seems to work okay though, oddly.

This may be related to sound problems elsewhere on my PC though (Ubuntu Heron), with games such as Supertux not having sound either (and crashing when I exit them).

As tremby mentions, it's *critical* that you set Wine (at least for the WINEPREFIX you're using for SBCG4AP) to pretend to be Windows XP - if you use Windows Vista like you would for the Sam and Max titles, you'll get no sound (apparently the sound library used for the game has some Vista-specific features, and if the object for those Vista-specific bits isn't present, it just shuts audio off entirely). I left audio at full acceleration in the winecfg settings, and didn't have to enable the Driver Emulation option; you might try tweaking one or both if you're using Windows XP compatibility mode and still not getting audio though.

[The Rob]

I've done all of that, nothing seems to work. I've got a generic PCI soundcard though if that helps.

[The Rob]

Got it. I installed libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio and changed the driver used from ALSA to OSS.

This also fixed all audio/crashing issues in other games.

HOWEVER! Upon starting the game, I now notice that Strong Bad's eyes are missing. Any way to fix this? There'll likely be other, similar glitches too.

[tremby]

glad you got the sound working! i thought, though that OSS and Pulse were at opposite ends of the scale... Pulse is very new and OSS is very old.

i've seen the eyes disappearing issue mentioned in other threads -- it's probably a common bug with certain hardware, whether you use Wine or Windows. most likely your graphics card. what graphics card do you have, and which driver are you using?

[demonfoo]

I've noticed the same thing sometimes (not always) with my nVidia GeForce 8600GT; sometimes it happens, sometimes not. It definitely is not specific to Wine, and I find saving and reloading the game will fix it. Hopefully Telltale will be able to resolve that issue soon, but it doesn't really affect playability at least.

[The Rob]

Mine is indeed an 8600gt! I'm not messing with it though, it took me several reinstalls to get it working properly on Ubuntu.

[demonfoo]

Could we perhaps get this thread stickied, so that if anyone comes nosing around for this info, they can find it?

[Seg]

Originally Posted by demonfoo

(apparently the sound library used for the game has some Vista-specific features, and if the object for those Vista-specific bits isn't present, it just shuts audio off entirely)

I suspect this is due to Vista removing all hardware sound acceleration support for DirectX. You know, for 'security' reasons.

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by Seg

I suspect this is due to Vista removing all hardware sound acceleration support for DirectX. You know, for 'security' reasons.

But this is in Wine, on Linux... and Sam and Max seasons 1 and 2 worked perfectly for me (in Vista compat mode). But anyway, it's mostly irrelevant, now that we've found the right incantations.

[Seg]

I forgot to also note that we increased the minimum version of DirectX to 9.0c rev 27 - 29. What I suspect is that Wine hasn't been updated to support these later revisions.

Pulling this out of a hat and likely wrong to why Wine is acting different. That is the tech difference with Strong Bad and the rest of the others.

[demonfoo]

Originally Posted by Seg

I forgot to also note that we increased the minimum version of DirectX to 9.0c rev 27 - 29. What I suspect is that Wine hasn't been updated to support these later revisions.

Pulling this out of a hat and likely wrong to why Wine is acting different. That is the tech difference with Strong Bad and the rest of the others.

But then why would audio work fine when pretending to be XP and not Vista? As I mentioned in the previous thread, when running in Vista compat mode, it attempted to access an OLE object that, according to the research I did, was related to volume controls (I *think* per-app volume control, one of the new features in Vista), and after doing that, audio didn't work; it doesn't do that in XP compat mode, and audio plays perfectly. I think it's something in the sound engine you're using in the new game executables - just my own guess based on past experience.

[Seg]

* DOINK *

Dua, I keep forgetting that Strong Bad is also our first Windows release using FMOD. We've done it for Sam & Max Wii, but this is the first publicly consumed Windows release.

That's about all the lead I can give you. This is beyond my realm.

[demonfoo]

Oh well, whatever the case, the problem is solved, and I've played through the whole game successfully - the only problem is with losing the eye texture/decal images on a few characters, but it sounds like that's an issue for some people running Windows as well. So hopefully a fix will be found for that... but otherwise everything seems fine.

[tremby]

yeah, i got that briefly too -- it only lasted one scene for me, though.

[Seg]

In most cases, that "missing eye" bug is due to not having up do date DirectX 9 files, not really a game engine bug.

Just so you know what's going on, we require the 'Aug 2005' DirectX package, but the eyes bug seems to be fixed for most people who have 'Dec 2006' or 'Feb 2006' packages in their installs. If you want the DLL file names:

d3dx9_27.dll - Aug 2005 - Required
d3dx9_28.dll - Dec 2005
d3dx9_29.dll - Feb 2006

I have no idea what Wine allows you to go up to for DirectX 9, but hopefully this information helps. I should also note that no version of DirectX 10 will help as that's a completely different mode to run DirectX.