Original War on Linux

Modding, patches, etc., for anyone who speaks neither Polish nor Czech.
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Enguzrad
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Original War on Linux

Post por Enguzrad »

So I recently made a jump on Linux Mint (thanks to microsoft pissing me off) and of course, I had to try install Original War on it. At the end it wasn't really that hard, but I decided to write here a little guide since for people new to linux even the simplest of issues can take hours to solve.


Install PlayOnLinux
Original War can't run natively on linux, so you will need Wine to run it. But for inexperienced people I would recommend getting PlayOnLinux over using Wine only, since it makes the basic process of setting up windows program easier.
  1. Install Wine
    PlayOnLinux uses Wine so install that first. Go to https://wiki.winehq.org/Download and follow the instructions for installing binary packages for your linux distribution (Mint is based on Ubuntu).
    You might also install Wine from your Software Manager instead but it might be an outdated version.
  2. Install PlayOnLinux
    Go to https://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html. Follow the instructions for your distribution. For Linux Mint you would get the .deb file for Ubuntu and install it from that.
    You might also install PlayOnLinux from your Software Manager instead but it might be an outdated version.

Install Original War
There are three ways one could install Original War:
  • From GOG installer
    For a while, Original War was available on GOG but it was taken down. Of course the installer can still be found on the internet. PlayOnLinux knows how to install it but uses an old verison of Wine in 32 bit for it which I had issues with on my 64bit Mint. I would recommend installing it manually on current version of Wine.
  • From CD/ISO
  • From Steam
Install from GOG installer
  1. Open PlayOnLinux. Press Install and select "Install a non-listed program".
  2. Go through the Wizard, select Install a program in a new virtual drive.
  3. Name the drive something. Next. Don't select anything here. Next.
  4. Select 64-bit version. (assuming you have 64-bit OS of course)
  5. It will create the virtual drive for you. If it asks you, you don't need the Gecko browser.
  6. Now browse to the GOG installation file, Wine will launch it and you can install it as normal. No need to change anything just accept EULA and don't launch the game from the installer, just close it. You won't need desktop shortcut either. If it throws some errors at the end, just click Ok, it still installed fine.
  7. When it asks you to select file to make shortcut, select the original war executable you want to use (Owar.exe and OwarOGL.exe work fine for me).
  8. Thats done. Now you should be able to launch Original War from PlayOnLinux or using desktop shortcut.
Install from CD/ISO
Didn't try but should be basically the same as for the GOG installer. You just need to mount an ISO image first and browse to setup.exe in the ISO. You should probably make a full installation so you won't need the discs for running the game.

Install from Steam
Steam has a linux version but it won't allow you to install non native games. You will have to install it to Wine virtual drive. PlayOnLinux has Steam in its components, so during creation of new virtual drive you can select install some libraries and select POL_Install_steam.
You go through Steam installation, but don't run it, just click finish and when the Wizard gets to browsing to installation file just click cancel.
Then you will just need to launch Steam through PlayOnLinux and install Original War normally.
Don't know any details, since I didn't try to install non-native Steam game yet.


Things to know
  • In PlayOnLinux you can select Original War and press Configure. It will open configuration for that virtual drive.
  • In configuration/general/arguments you can write arguments which will be fed to Original War (stuff like Skip for skipping intro or #CZE for selecting czech language).
  • If you have problem with czech characters like I had, I managed to fix it by adding command "LANG=cs_CZ.utf8" to configuration/Miscellaneous/command to exec before running the program.
  • You can install patches using configuration/Miscellaneous/Run .exe in this virtual drive. But first you should move the patch.exe file into the Original War directory. You can find the directory using configuration/Miscellaneous/Open program's directory. It works the same with installing Throwback.
Last edited by zoNE on Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Enguzrad
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Re: Original War on Linux

Post por Enguzrad »

Update:

I would now recommend using Lutris over PlayOnLinux (at least when it comes to 4.x version of PlayOnLinux).

I find Lutris interface to be less confusing, and easier to use. It is also not focused only on Wine but you can use it to manage native games, dosbox games etc. And it has installation script for Original War on steam.
Also, community around Lutris looks more active, which increases the odds of getting help.

You should install Wine as well, not just Lutris. Don't be afraid to use the staging version of Wine over the stable one.
Lutris has an account system but you can use it fine without it, since you can download installation scripts and run them manually, or just manually add installation file to lutris as you would add a game and install it yourself.
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