Games

• Wine
• Steam
• DOSBox
• ScummVM
• OpenRCT2
• OpenTTD
• CorsixTH
• ioquake3
• DXX-Rebirth
• Minecraft
• SimCity 3000 Unlimited
• UT2004 (Atari DVD Release Version)

Wine

Wine is a compatibility layer which translates Windows system calls into comparable Linux equivalents. This allows (most) Windows applications to run on Linux, including many games.

Wine can be installed from the repositories. Recommended additional components:

• wine-gecko: Components for displaying web content
• wine-mono: Components for running .NET applications
• winetricks: Install various tools and libraries in a Wine prefix

sudo pacman -S wine wine-gecko wine-mono winetricks

DXVK

Game performance can be significantly improved by installing DXVK in a Wine prefix. DXVK translates Direct3D calls from the DirectX 8/9/10/11 API to Vulkan to achieve improved 3D performance compared to WineD3D.

DXVK can be installed relatively easily in a Wine prefix using winetricks:

WINEPREFIX=/path/to/your-prefix winetricks dxvk

WARNING: DXVK overrides the DirectX 10 and 11 DLLs, which may be considered cheating in online multiplayer games, and may get your account banned. Use at your own risk!

winetricks dxvk

It's also possible to install a specific DXVK version, if needed:

winetricks dxvk1103

Alternatively, DXVK can also be installed via the AUR:

yay -S dxvk-bin

Install via the included helper program:

WINEPREFIX=/path/to/your-prefix setup_dxvk install --symlink

setup_dxvk install --symlink

This places symbolic links into the Wine prefix, which means when DXVK gets updated during system upgrades, all Wine prefixed are updated along with it.

VKD3D

VKD3D is the translation layer for Direct3D 12 to Vulkan. The latest version is installable through winetricks:

WINEPREFIX=/path/to/your-prefix winetricks vkd3d

winetricks vkd3d

VKD3D is also available from the AUR:

yay -S vkd3d-proton-bin

WINEPREFIX=/path/to/your-prefix setup_vkd3d_proton install --symlink

setup_vkd3d_proton install --symlink

This way when you upgrade to a new version of VKD3D, every prefix automatically gets updated as well.

Synchronization primitives

Games heavily rely on Windows synchronization primitives for multi-threaded workloads. Since Linux kernel version 6.14 the NTSync kernel module is available, which more closely resembles Windows synchronization primitives. Wine 10.16 and later automatically use NTSync when it is detected to improve performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

To load the kernel module at boot create a file in /etc/modules-load.d/ with the content ntsync:

echo ntsync | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/ntsync.conf

MIDI Playback

Some Windows games still use MIDI playback for music. In order for this to work in Wine, a sequencer has to be installed, e.g. fluidsynth:

NOTE: FluidSynth uses soundfonts to render MIDI music.

pacman -S fluidsynth soundfont-fluid

FluidSynth comes with a systemd user unit to run it in daemon mode. Edit the file /etc/conf.d/fluidsynth and uncomment the lines with the environment variables. Point the SOUND_FONT variable to a soundfont file in *.sf2 format (refer to DOSBox for a list of available soundfonts for installation). Furthermore, adjust the OTHER_OPTS variable to use the appropriate audio backend that you are using, e.g. set parameter -a pipewire if you're using PipeWire instead of PulseAudio:

# Mandatory parameters (uncomment and edit)
SOUND_FONT=/usr/share/soundfonts/FluidR3_GM.sf2

# Additional optional parameters (may be useful, see 'man fluidsynth' for further info)
OTHER_OPTS='-a pipewire -m alsa_seq -p FluidSynth\ GM -r 48000'

After you've set everything up, enable/start the systemd user unit with:

ATTENTION: Enable/start the unit as regular user, i.e. do not use sudo!

systemctl --user enable --now fluidsynth

Steam

The popular game distribution platform and library management client from Valve.

NOTE: activate the multilib repository in /etc/pacman.conf to install Steam/Proton.

pacman -S steam

Manage Steam compatibility tools

Apart from Valve's Proton distribution, there are other compatibility tools available with patches and performance improvements for games.

ProtonUp-Qt is a graphical utility to manage many different compatibility tools, not only for Steam but also other launchers like Heroic Games Launcher.

It's available from the AUR:

yay -S protonup-qt

Another management tool that integrates with the look & feel of the GNOME desktop is ProtonPlus, also available in the AUR:

yay -S protonplus

Where are my game saves for Proton-enabled games?

Games that are running via Steam Proton on Linux all use their own Wine prefix. The location of game data is here:

~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/[game ID]/pfx

You can look up a game's ID by accessing its properties in the steam client:

1. Right-click on the game
2. Select "Properties..."
3. Go to "Updates"
4. Note down the "App ID"

Then navigate the directory structure in the drive_c/ subdirectory that replicates a Windows directory structure. Personal files are under the drive_c/users/steamuser/ directory.

DOSBox

Install DOSBox Staging for a more enhanced DOS gaming experience:

yay -S dosbox-staging

General MIDI/Soundfonts

The integrated FluidSynth MIDI sequencer has issues with some soundfont files, resulting in minor to major music playback issues in games. Timidity++ does not have these issues.

To install simply:

pacman -S timidity++

A list of available soundfonts to install from the AUR, sorted by votes:

Configure Timidity++ to use the soundfont of your choosing in its global config file /etc/timidity++/timidity.cfg:

soundfont /usr/share/soundfonts/FluidR3_GM.sf2

Set up timidity++ to run in daemon mode and start with user login:

systemctl --user enable --now timidity

You need to tell DOSBox which MIDI Port to send MIDI data to. Install the alsa-utils package and list the available MIDI ports with aconnect:

pacman -S alsa-utils
aconnect -o

The output might look something like this:

client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=Kernel]
    0 'Midi Through Port-0'
client 128: 'TiMidity' [type=User,pid=89573]
    0 'TiMidity port 0 '
    1 'TiMidity port 1 '
    2 'TiMidity port 2 '
    3 'TiMidity port 3 '

In the configuration file for DOSBox, pass the client ID of the sequencer and the port to use on the midiconfig setting. The mididevice needs to be default. The syntax is [client]:[port]:

[midi]
mpu401     = intelligent
mididevice = default
midiconfig = 128:0

Gravis UltraSound (GUS)

The Gravis UltraSound cards were technically advanced soundcards with sample-based music synthesis ("wavetable") and hardware-mixing. DOSBox can emulate a Gravis UltraSound card for games that support it.

To enable GUS emulation, set the following options in your DOSBox configuration file:

IMPORTANT: The ultradir references a directory within DOSBox, not your local filesystem!

gus      = true
gusbase  = 240
gusirq   = 5
gusdma   = 3
ultradir = C:\ULTRASND

Depending on where you mount your C: drive (e.g. ~/DOS), the ULTRASND directory needs to be placed inside it.

Installing GUS drivers

IMPORTANT: Make sure you turn on GUS emulation in DOSBox before starting the setup procedure!

Preparations

GUS emulation needs the original install disks for the Gravis UltraSound, which can be downloaded here.

Create an autoexec.bat at the root of DOSBox's C: drive:

touch ~/DOS/autoexec.bat

In DOSBox

Extract the contents into a directory and mount it as drive X: in DOSBox:

mount x ~/Downloads/GUS Install

Change directory to the GUS410 directory and start the installer:

X:
cd X:\GUS410
INSTALL.EXE

Setup procedure:

1. Choose Restore, NOT Install
2. When asked what to restore, provide the glob pattern *.*
3. Keep the default target drive letter
4. Keep the default target directory
5. Start the installation process

Back at the main menu:

1. Choose Install (since it is restored, the installation should be quick)
2. Keep the defaults for the drive and directory
   • If it can't find Windows, provide C:\ULTRASND\WINDOWS
3. When the installation completes successfully exit out
   • Don't run Express or Custom Setup

Change directory to the GUS411 directory and start the installer:

cd X:\GUS411
INSTALL.EXE

Repeat the installation steps above.

Testing

To test if setup was successful restart DOSBox, change into C:\ULTRASND and start MIDIDEMO.BAT.

If you hear music being played, the installation was successful.

Games with CD Audio

You can use CBAE to save some space with games that use CD audio tracks by compressing them.

cbae is a NodeJS package that is installed via npm. If you don't have NodeJS already installed:

pacman -S nodejs

Then install the cbae package globally:

npm i cbae --location=global

cbae takes .bin/.cue images as input and uses the information of the .cue file to determine what the CD audio tracks are.

To convert a .bin/.cue image:

cbae e KEEPER.cue -o ./ -enc OPUS:64 -p $(nproc)

This achives the following:

• e KEEPER.cue: encodes CD audio tracks of the image KEEPER.cue
• -o ./: outputs the resulting files into a sub-directory of the current directory, e.g.:

  KEEPER.bin
  KEEPER.cue        <-- input file
  KEEPER [e]        <-- sub-directory
  ├── KEEPER.cue                <-- new .cue file by cbae
  ├── KEEPER - Track 01.bin     <-- binary game data
  ├── KEEPER - Track 02.opus    <-- CD audio track
  ├── KEEPER - Track 03.opus
  ├── KEEPER - Track 04.opus
  ├── KEEPER - Track 05.opus
  ├── KEEPER - Track 06.opus
  └── KEEPER - Track 07.opus
  

• -enc OPUS:64: encodes audio tracks with Opus at 64 kbps (see cbae --help for available codecs)
• -p $(nproc): specifies how many CPU cores are used for encoding ($(nproc) assigns the maximum number of cores available)

Mount the newly created .cue file with DOSBox's imgmount command, e.g. as the D: drive:

imgmount d ~/DOSGAMES/KEEPER [e]/KEEPER.cue -t cdrom

ScummVM

Dabble in some adventure games of yore with ScummVM:

pacman -S scummvm

OpenRCT2

ATTENTION: A legitimate copy of the game is required to play!

OpenRCT2 is an open-source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (RCT2), expanding the game with new features, fixing bugs and raising game limits.

NOTE: OpenRCT2 also supports RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 game files.

pacman -S openrct2 innoextract

For the development version install the AUR package:

yay -S openrct2-git

If you have the Steam version install RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 before launching OpenRCT2. OpenRCT2 will automatically search your Steam library for any existing installation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Deluxe (RCT1) or "Classic" and start right up.

If you have the GOG version, go to your library, hover over the RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 entry and click on the arrow that appears. Select Download offline backup game installers and download the installer EXE. Upon first start, OpenRCT2 will prompt you to tell it where to find the GOG installer and it will install game files for you.

For other installation methods refer to the OpenRCT2 docs.

OpenTTD

OpenTTD is an open source simulation game based upon the popular Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.

OpenTTD is available from the repositories:

pacman -S openttd

While a retail version of the game is not necessary to play, OpenTTD can make use of original game files for graphics, sound and music. Simply place the game files into the ~/.local/share/openttd/baseset directory and the game will pick them up.

Additionally, there's open source graphics, sounds and music available from the repositories and the AUR:

yay -S openttd-open{gfx,sfx,msx}

Music

OpenTTD's music is in MIDI format, which requires a software synthesizer to listen to it. By default, OpenTTD will use FluidSynth with the FluidR3 soundfont. Since this soundfont is neither required explicitly nor optionally by either OpenTTD or FluidSynth it needs to be installed manually:

pacman -S soundfont-fluid

If you want to use a different soundfont you can set up the OpenTTD music driver in the config file to use a non-default one, e.g. a soundfont that mimics the sound of the popular OPL3 chip from the 90s:

yay -S soundfont-opl3-fm-128m

Open ~/.config/openttd/openttd.cfg and modify the musicdriver setting in the [misc] section:

[misc]
...
musicdriver = "fluidsynth:soundfont=/usr/share/soundfonts/OPL-3_FM_128M.sf2"

High Resolution Graphics

OpenTTD has support for high resolution graphic packs. One such pack is OpenGFX2, which comes in both standard and high resolution variants. The high resolution pack is still a work in progress but already shows nice improvements at 4x zoom.

The high resolution pack needs to be downloaded manually from the GitHub releases page. Copy the downloaded OpenGFX2_HighDef-x.y.z.tar file to ~/.local/share/openttd/content_download/baseset and select the pack from the in-game options.

Recommended Settings

There are some game settings that make OpenTTD a more enjoyable experience. Go to the game options, select the "Advanced" tab and change the following:

• Graphics
  • Thickness of lines in graphs: 5
• Interface
  • Construction
    • Link landscape toolsbar to rail/road/water/airport toolbars: On
    • Default rail type (after new game/game load): Last available
    • Automatically remove signals during rail construction: On
  • Show the cargoes the vehicles can carry in the list windows: On
• News/Advisors
  • Changes to cargo acceptance: Off
  • Arrival of first vehicle at player's station: Off
  • Arrival of first vehicle at competitor's station: Off
  • Show finances windows at the end of the year: Off
  • Closing of industries: Off
• Limitations
  • Allow level crossings with roads or rails owned by competitors: Off
• Environment
  • Time
    • Automatically pause when starting a new game: On
  • Towns
    • Towns are allowed to build level crossings: Off
    • Road layout for new towns: 3x3 grid
  • Industries
    • Manual primary industry construction method: Prospecting

CorsixTH

ATTENTION: A legitimate copy of the game is required to play!

CorsixTH aims to re-implement the game engine of Theme Hospital with support for modern operating systems and several bug fixes and quality of life improvements to the game.

yay -S corsix-th innoextract

If you have the original retail CD version, copy the HOSP folder to your hard drive. Upon first start, CorsixTH will prompt you to point it to the data file directory

If you have the GOG version, go to your library, hover over the Theme Hospital entry, click the arrow that appears and choose Download offline backup game installers. Extract the installer with innoextract:

innoextract setup_theme_hospital_v3_\(28027\).exe \
  -d ~/Games/HOSP \
  -I ANIMS \
  -I DATA \
  -I DATAM \
  -I INTRO \
  -I LEVELS \
  -I QDATA \
  -I QDATAM \
  -I SOUND \
  -I CONNECT.BAT \
  -I DOS4GW.EXE \
  -I HOSPITAL.CFG \
  -I HOSPITAL.EXE \
  -I manual.pdf \
  -I MODEM.INI \
  -I NETPLAY.TXT \
  -I README.TXT \

This will extract only necessary files (excluding the extra GOG files) to ~/Games/HOSP. Either point the game to this path or move it to somewhere else that's more to your liking.

For more detailed instructions see the CorsixTH Github Wiki.

Music

CorsixTH allows for external high quality music files to play instead of the MIDI soundtrack.

There is a remixed version of the Theme Hospital soundtrack on YouTube by Krytie2X4B with a link to the soundtrack in OGG format on Dropbox.

Extract the files to a location of your choosing and point the game to it from the in-game settings.

ioquake3

ATTENTION: A legitimate copy of the game is required to play!

ioquake3 is a free and open source first person shooter engine based on the Quake III: Arena and Quake III: Team Arena source code.

ioquake3 is available from the AUR:

yay -S ioquake3

If you don't want to compile the game every time there's an update, the Flatpak version is available:

flatpak install org.ioquake3.ioquake3

Game assets

ioquake3 requires the original Quake III: Arena game files in order to function, mainly the file pak0.pk3 from Steam, GOG or the retail CD release.

Navigate to the baseq3 directory of your original game and copy the pak0.pk3 file to the appropriate location for your chosen installation of ioquake3. You can start the game once and it will tell you where it expects the files and create the directory structure for you.

Next, grab the patch data from the ioquake3 website and copy the contents into the baseq3 directory as well, so it has pak0.pk3 through pak8.pk3.

Settings

Once the game files are installed, start the game once, accept an empty CD key and exit out again. This will make the game create a config file in your home directory that you can edit to enable higher resolutions.

Open baseq3/q3config.cfg and edit the following values:

seta cg_fov         "120"  // Field of view
seta com_maxfps     "125"  // Optimal `125`, `200` or `333`
seta cl_maxpackets  "125"  // Same as `com_maxfps` or half
seta r_mode         "-1"   // Resolution mode, `-1` = custom
seta r_customwidth  "2560" // Custom resolution width
seta r_customheight "1440" // Custom resolution height

A lot more configuration options are explained here (optional).

High resolution textures & widescreen fix (optional, but recommended)

There exist mods to enhance a few aspects of the game:

• Widescreen fix
• High resolution fonts and HUD
• High resolution texture pack

Put the .pk3 files from these downloads next to the others in your baseq3 directory.

These will make the game play nicely with modern graphics and updates the settings menu to allow you to set proper resolutions for HD displays.

DXX-Rebirth

DXX-Rebirth is a source port of the Descent and Descent 2 Engines so you won’t need DOSBox to play the games. Additionally, it offers OpenGL graphics and effects, advanced Multiplayer, many improvements and new features.

yay -S d1x-rebirth d2x-rebirth innoextract

Copy the Descent 1 game files:

# single user
cp descent.(hog|pig) ~/.d1x-rebirth/

# system-wide
cp descent.(hog|pig) /usr/share/d1x-rebirth/

Copy the Descent 2 game files:

# single user
cp *.(ham|hog|pig|s11|s22) ~/.d2x-rebirth/

# system-wide
cp *.(ham|hog|pig|s11|s22) /usr/share/d2x-rebirth/

Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox game originally released by Mojang. It lets players explore, build, and survive in a procedurally generated world made up of blocks. The game is open ended with no set goals. It can be played in single player or enjoyed with friends in online multiplayer mode.

The most straightforward way to install Minecraft is to use the official launcher from the AUR:

yay -S minecraft-launcher

You will need a Microsoft Account to log into the launcher. Game updates will be handled automatically throught the launcher.

Modding

A vibrant community has formed around Minecraft, developing mods and enhancements for the game. However, installing these mods manually can sometimes be a tedious process. That’s why there are special launchers designed to greatly simplify this process.

One of these is Prism Launcher. It has native integration with Modrinth and CurseForge to install and keep individual mods or entire modpacks up to date alongside the game itself. Prism Launcher also allows you to run multiple instances of Minecraft simultaneously, for example, to use different modpacks at the same time for online multiplayer servers that require this.

Prism Launcher is available from the repositories:

sudo pacman -S prismlauncher

flatpak install org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher

Click "Add Instance" in the toolbar to get started. Choose a vanilla version of Minecraft or install a pre-defined modpack from the mod provider of your choice. Instances can be further customized after installation.

In the edit window of an instance you can add mods, resource and shader packs, pre-populate the server list, manage screenshots and override global settings, such as game configuration, Java runtime and other advanced settings.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited

Widescreen hack

SimCity 3000 does only support a set amount of resolutions, widescreen resolutions are not natively supported. You can work around that by editing the main executable file in a hex editor.

Open the main executable file SC3U.exe in a hex editor and search for the following byte sequence:

8b 4c 24 04 8b 44 24 08 53

Overwrite the first four bytes with:

c2 08 00 90

Next search for the byte sequence:

8b 4c 24 04 8b 54 24 08 81 f9

Overwrite the first four bytes with:

c2 08 00 90

The game will now allow much higher resolutions. Keep in mind, however, that the interface will not scale with the resolution and on really high resolutions the UI of the game might be displayed really small and might get hard to read.

Scrolling speed fix

On modern systems, SimCity 3000 exhibits a scrolling bug in which the game scrolls way too fast.

To fix this, a mod can be installed, called cnc-ddraw. It limits the game's tickrate and adds a couple more neat features.

Download cnc-ddraw from the project's GitHub releases page. Drop the files ddraw.dll and ddraw.ini into the installation directory of the game, next to the SC3U.exe file. Then, start the game with the environment variable WINEDLLOVERRIDES=ddraw=n,b. If you have the game on Steam, this can be easily achieved by opening the game's settings and adding the following line to the launch options:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES=ddraw=n,b %command%

Shaders for upscaling

cnc-ddraw supports scaling with GLSL shaders. Download them from the libretro GitHub (Code → Download ZIP) and extract it into a sub-directory in the same folder as the ddraw.dll file you copied earlier, e.g. ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SimCity 3000 Unlimited/Apps/Shaders.

Then edit ddraw.ini and set the following options (shortened, Ctrl-F the setting keys):

[ddraw]
shader=Shaders/interpolation/pixellate.glsl
renderer=opengl

UT2004 (Atari DVD Release Version)

Install from the DVD. Navigate to the location the DVD was mounted at and run:

sudo sh ./linux-installer.sh

Follow the installation steps.

After installation completes do not run the game immediately after install. Patch first!

Patch to latest version

The patch can be downloaded here: ⬇️ UT2004 Mega Pack Linux + LinuxPatch 3369.2 - utzone.de

Extract contents from the archive and copy them to the install location, overwriting all the files:

NOTE: If cp is asking for confirmation on every file, it is likely there is an alias to cp -i. Prepend a \ before the cp command to temporarily ignore this alias. Alternatively, unalias cp to undefine the alias.

tar -xf ut2004megapack-linux -C /tmp/
cp -R /tmp/UT2004MegaPack/* /usr/local/games/ut2004

Launch in 64-bit

By default, the ut2004 command will launch the 32-bit version of the game. To make it launch the 64-bit version, edit the start script /usr/local/games/ut2004/ut2004 and change line 49 from

	exec "./ut2004-bin" $*

to

	exec "./ut2004-bin-linux-amd64" $*

Missing libraries

The game tries to load quite some old libraries, e.g. it will complain about libSDL-1.2.so.0 or libstdc++.so.5 missing.

In the case of libSDL-1.2.so.0 simply install the SDL 1.2 compatability package:

pacman -S sdl12-compat

Then, remove the libSDL-1.2.so.0 the game came with and put a symbolic link to your system's libSDL-1.2.so.0

sudo rm /usr/local/games/ut2004/System/libSDL-1.2.so.0
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0 /usr/local/games/ut2004/System/libSDL-1.2.so.0 

To fix the error about libstdc++.so.5, an AUR package with the files is available:

yay -S libstdc++5

No sound

UT2004 expects there to be a /dev/dsp sound device to access the sound card directly. This goes back to OSS (Open Sound System) which has long been deprecated in favor of ALSA and contemporaries.

This can easily be fixed in one of two ways:

1. Further edit the start script of ut2004, prepending the execution of the game binary with padsp to route all audio through PulseAudio:

   	exec padsp "./ut2004-bin-linux-amd64" $*
   

2. Edit your user's UT2004 config file ~/.ut2004/System/UT2004.ini, go to the section [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] and change the value of UseDefaultDriver=True to UseDefaultDriver=False

Screen resolution

Some higher resolutions might not show up in the game's configuration screen. To set a resolution manually, edit your user's UT2004 config file, go to section [SDLDrv.SDLClient] and set the following parameters, e.g.:

ATTENTION: The config file contains two sections for various graphical settings, one for Windows and one for Linux. The one for Linux comes after the one for Windows.

[SDLDrv.SDLClient]
FullscreenViewportX=2560
FullscreenViewportY=1440

Proper wide-screen support

A mod is available that expands UT2004's wide-screen support: foxWSFix-UT2k4