Published
When trying to start it Wine tells me "The game crashed" and references a log file which says "Alcatraz.exe caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005) in module Alcatraz.exe at 0023:00479229". I was able to run the GOG version, but it doesn't show texts on some buttons / options, and crashes when I exit it (have to enter Ctrl+Alt+F2 and kill Alcatraz.exe from htop to be able to get back to my desktop)
When launching it says Wine is not responding, but if I just wait it out it works. Dialogs and fights are slow in 1080p, but plays fine in 720p (my ultrabook is certainly no "gaming" computer, but should be able to handle games from this era).
Software mode ran flawlessly. Direct 3D caused Wine to stop responding initially, but if I just wait it out it works.
For some reason, two-finger tap on a touchpad (to right click) doesn't work in this game. Instead tapping on the bottom right does it. It may not be the game's "fault", since it happened in at least one other game I tried.
It works when I disable videos. Both Direct3D and OpenGL works, but OpenGL only plays in windowed mode, and on some aspect ratios the lower part of the screen won't fit my screen, making it impossible to exit
Jim's eyes and other textures are black and text is not showing (I ran the GOG version in both Wine and Proton with the same result). Alt-tabbing breaks the game too. When you change the focus back it's just black.
Works perfectly after copying/renaming fallout2HR.exe to Fallout2Launcher.exe
After configuring (see below) videos play well, BUT switching window (alt+tab) or changing the screen brightness, volume or something similar which shows an OSD (notification drawn on top of active windows) completely breaks the game window (it stops responding to clicks or keypresses). If you can completely disable and OSDs I guess it may be safe enough.
CONFIGURATION (As previously mentioned): Replace TacticsLauncher.exe with BOS_HR.exe (BOS.exe works too, but you can only use this on old screens with low resolutions). Then launch and skip and videos (press Esc). Go to Options -> Display and pick your native resolution and 32bit (these options are not in order, but my native resolution was the first one).
Works flawlessly with default settings (OpenGL 3.0). Direct Draw didn't work, but there's no reason to use it.
The game itself has some critical bugs (I'm assuming this was worse before the current maintainer started patching it): The Russian campaign intro doesn't work, and it has crashed for me once after completing a mission and not choosing to continue to the next. Both of these issues and others have been reported by Windows users: https://www.bugs.owsupport.com/originalwar/issues/222 https://www.bugs.owsupport.com/originalwar/issues/171 (though this issue is marked as fixed and was supposed to happen only in directdraw mode). Direct Draw is apparently mostly unmaintained and 16 bit, and kept only for backwards compatibility with older hardware. Original War runs in OpenGL (either 2.1 or 3.0 with "Single resolution" disabled).
Update about the Russian intro: It's an ASCII art demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpp054kbCLM), not a normal video. Videos work, but not this. But if I run in Wine with no configuration this intro works too, so I guess it's related to proton and/or proton config after all (I'm the same person who wrote the last 2 reports on this game).
It played without modifications, and I was able to play it through. Switching window with alt+tab did break it unfortunately (on Gnome/x11). Even then autosave worked, and once I killed the process and restarted I was back with no progress lost. I did encounter a couple of glitches with character sprites appearing/disappearing for a second when they shouldn't. This only happened 3 times (all before or after an animation), and didn't break anything. It seem more like a game bug than an issue with Proton.
It didn't start the first few times I tried, but worked every time after reinstalling. It starts in windowed mode. Pressing Alt + Enter enters fullscreen. I also got the graphical glitch previously mentioned, but if I close it and open again it opens in fullscreen the next time without the glitch. It crashed a few times when switching between windowed and fullscreen, so I recommend using ScummVM instead.
Only started when I disabled D3d11. This worked for me: PROTON_NO_D3D11=1 STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/299110 ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton\ 3.16\ Beta/proton run ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Theatre\ Of\ The\ Absurd/Theatre\ of\ the\ Absurd\ CE.exe
As has been mentioned by others, it doesn't start with Proton, and the Linux/Mono version is no longer working.
