i-War Defiance: (1997) a old but genious scifi space ship game

[SpaceCowboy]

Dear Wine makers,

trying to get this i-War Defiance: (1997) a old but genious scifi space ship game working (of course best would be with nGlide/3DFx/Vodoo support.

1) managed to install wine & the game like shown here: https://dwaves.de/2022/04/21/gnu-linux- ... t-working/

2) no matter if game is started via "wine explorer" (sound not working, no Windows 98 settings?) or via "PlayOnLinux" (sound working, WIndows 98 mode available)

the game can not detect the "CD (image) change"

not sure if this helps:

"Although it doesn't need a CD, the games' programming prevents it from starting up if there is no drive. If you have a netbook without a CD drive, you can use WinCDEmu to install a virtual drive.

Starting with Windows 8 you can load up ISO files directly - for example, you can download a Puppy Linux ISO file, load it up and run the game. "

https://web.archive.org/web/20180604013 ... -technical

help would be appreciated

[jkfloris]

The installation instructions you describe also work with Linux.
- Download and install CDEmu
https://cdemu.sourceforge.io
(For Debian, the packages are on https://deb-multimedia.org)

- Create a 32 bit Wineprefix and set the prefix to Windows 98
I also recommend that you turn on the virtual desktop

Code: Select all

WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar WINEARCH=win32 winecfg
# Applications → Windows Version → Windows 98
# Graphics → Emulate a virtual desktop → Desktop size: 1024x786

- Mount the first iso with CDEmu

- Install the game in the prefix

Code: Select all

WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar wine /media/cdrom0/SETUP.EXE

- Unmount the first iso and mount the second iso

- Play the game

Code: Select all

cd "${HOME}/iwar/drive_c/Program Files/Particle Systems/Independence War"
WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar wine IWar.exe

[SpaceCowboy]

thanks for fast reply

Code: Select all

lsb_release -a; # tested on
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Release:	11
Codename:	bullseye

1) prior to this, mounted the iso image like this, can confirm that wine explorer has access to this "virtual cdrom drive" aka mount point

Code: Select all

su - root
umount /media/user/cdrom;
mount -o uid=1000 -o gid=1000 -t iso9660 -r -o loop /path/to/the/file.iso /media/user/cdrom

2) on the host system, added # https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/mai ... a-keyring/

Code: Select all

su - root
wget https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/deb-multimedia-keyring/deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb
dpkg -i deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb
echo "deb https://www.deb-multimedia.org bullseye main non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt update

apt search cdemu;
cdemu-client/stable,stable 3.2.5-dmo1 all
  Command-line client to control CDEmu daemon

cdemu-daemon/stable 3.2.5-dmo2+deb11u1 amd64
  daemon for CDEmu

the game does not have any fancy copy protection, what difference does it make, if the iso is mounted with GNU Linux board tools, or cdemu?

(dos cdemu read the CD Label? maybe that's what the game is looking at as a "CD Change" (not content, but CD Label?)

[SpaceCowboy]

HOLY CRAP! IT WORKS THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!

(no need to fiddle with cdemu)

[SpaceCowboy]

actually also managed to get 3DFx / Voodoo / nGlide to work:

tried to install https://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide

https://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/d-1.html

the way to do this is like this:

Code: Select all

    mkdir /home/user/iwar/drive_c/software/
    cd /home/user/iwar/drive_c/software/
    wget https://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide/d-1.html

then:

Code: Select all

    cd "${HOME}/iwar/drive_c/Program Files/Particle Systems/Independence War"
    WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar wine explorer

then:

then: start the game like this:

Code: Select all

    cd "${HOME}/iwar/drive_c/Program Files/Particle Systems/Independence War"

    WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar wine "IWar.exe" -b -16 800x600 -english

PS: last question: any ideas how to get this fullscreen?

[jkfloris]

PS: last question: any ideas how to get this fullscreen?

Open nglide_config.exe in ${HOME}/iwar/drive_c/windows/system32
- Screen resolution: By desktop

Disable "Emulate a virtual desktop" in winecfg

Run the game with:

Code: Select all

WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/iwar wine "IWar.exe" -b -16 -english

[SpaceCowboy]

check it out i-war running in GNU Linux! (Debian 11)

thanks all involved!

https://dwaves.de/wp-content/uploads/20 ... ses-up.mp4

this game is genius ... the docking ai has to be taken with a pinch of space salt X-D (sometimes knocking things over X-D)

the sound of this game is incredible too, there is actually some sound in space X-D https://youtu.be/lDzBe0_SLVo

[SpaceCowboy]

Hello,

first off, it is so cool that this old windows 98 based game, now runs on GNU Linux Debian 11 + wine, without any windoze in between

for 1997 it is STILL a beauty in ship & game design...

right after the start of the game... a menu is display (or in this case not displayed)... (the items are still clickable, so no problem there)

but when it comes to menus DURING missions... the player might get stuck... (e.g. "the morgan mission") depend on the player giving answers to the evil pirate in the in-game menu...

"usually" there is a "sidearm" menu popping up, that displays possible answer the player can chose from...

PS: can not even cheat around that mission... because the game crashes as soon as cheats get active...

any ideas how to fix the in game menus?

[jkfloris]

I can solve the invisible main menu in the following way:
- Copy all smk files from "disk 3/video" to "Program Files/Particle Systems/Independence War/psg/resource/video/"
- uncomment the VIDEODIR line in dreadnaught.ini

Code: Select all

;Initialization script for Dreadnaught

	ROOTDIR "."
	VIDEODIR "psg\resource\video"
;	DIALOGUEDIR "psg\resource\audio"
;	SAVESCREENDIR "e:\screens"
	END

iwar_menu.png (99.47 KiB) Viewed 6343 times

nglide_config has these settings:

nglide.png (11.17 KiB) Viewed 6343 times

Maybe this will also solve the "sidearm" menu problem as well.