Bueno, parece ser que algunos juegos, que funcionaban perfectamente en Windows XP, ahora no son compatibles con Windows Vista… pero resulta que con WinE, una implementación libre de la API de windows para linux, estos juegos resulta que si funcionan…
Test #1 Soldat:
Soldat is a free indy game that has been described as Worms + Counter Strike, its supposed to be fun. I wouldn’t know. I tried to play it and it didn’t work.
Its a game that is still being actively developed, the version I used was from Aug 2007, well after Vista’s release. Even still, I couldn’t get it work on Vista, regardless of the configuration.
On Vista:
I get a grey screen with some red boxes, and some green boxes. Then the screen goes black and the entire machine freezes. I need to reboot. There is absolutely no reason for anything but drivers written by a retarded monkey to take down any operating system. The fact that a very simple game can take Vista down completely is pretty pathetic.
On Wine in Linux (not Cedega):
The default configuration does not work, but unlike in Vista, when Soldat crashes, it doesn’t bring the entire operating system down with it – the process just terminates. To get it to work, I have to turn all the settings way down, but it works… slowly.
Test #2 Darwinia:
So we’ve found one game still under active development. That didn’t work. Whats next? How about one published while Vista was being developed? If compatibility problems came up during Vista development, they should be able to catch and fix the problem. I had exactly the game that fit the bill – I recently bought a title named Darwinia from Circuit City for a whopping $1.40. This game was completed in 2005, but is still patched occasionally.
On Vista:
Similar to Soldat, this game froze Vista cold. The screen goes completely black and its time for a reboot. Patching the game to the most recent version fixed the problem, but the performance is so bad (10 fps) that even when it works its unplayable.
On Wine in Linux (not Cedega):
Again, its shocking to see better application compatibility on Wine than in an actual version of Windows. Although Darwinia fails to run in Vista unpatched, it runs fine under Wine (even at a tolerable speed)
Test #3 Blackthorne in DOSBox:
Blackthorne is one of Blizzard’s first game titles, and its a real classic. In order to play most games from the DOS era (pre Windows 95), its necessary run them on a program called DOSBox, which is a program that fakes being an old computer, which allows old games to run. To read more about either check out my Best Abandonware Games post.
On DOSBox in Vista:
Blackthorne doesn’t run by itself, but this isn’t bad or surprising. DOSBox not working is the problem. In DOSbox, the Blackthorne hangs after outputting a message about the music composer of the game. I try turning off all sound in the game configuration. Still no dice. The DOSBox window hangs, I need to go to Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete) to kill the window. Hey, this is an improvement. At least I didn’t have to shut off the machine.
On DosBOX in Linux:
Doesn’t run under Wine, also not surprising. In DOSBox there is the same message about the music, but then Blackthorne fails in the way it was supposed to. It prints an error message about the sound card, exits, and puts me back at the prompt. I don’t have to go to Task Manager to kill anything. I don’t have to reboot. Changing SoundBlaster Pro to SoundBlaster solves the issue – the game works with sound.
Test #4 Civilization 4:
Listen, I’ve been playing thee Civilization series for something like 17 years. I love all of them. When I get Vista installed on my computer I’m just praying to myself that everything works ok. PLEASE don’t take this away from me. I might loose it.
On Vista:
Put the CD in and install it. So far so good. When I run it, I get this delightful message:
Motherf#&!!! This is more than I can handle. If you [Microsoft] know something is wrong, fix it. Don’t pass the blame onto the game author. You are the one who broke it.
To add insult to injury, actually running the game does what? I’ll give you a guess. If you need a hint, look at what happened with the first two games. Thats right, it hung my computer.
When you mess with Civilization, its personal. I can handle some indy games that are only played by a few thousand people not working, but this is a HUGE title, one of the best sellers in 2005. How can you knowingly break this and claim that with Vista you get “Simply Great Gaming“? I’d have a better time playing with a steaming pool of diarrhea.
Update: With the 1.61 patch, Civ4 no longer freezes, but it like in WineX, it does not recognize the cd labeled “Play / Disc 2″ when in the drive. An improvement, but still not good enough.
On Wine in Linux (not Cedega):
DirectX fails to install. This isn’t cool, but at least it doesn’t hang my machine.
On WineX / Cedega in Linux:
Install works fine. I fire it up, but the game can’t locate the CD so it won’t run. This isn’t cool, but at least it doesn’t require a reboot. Still, a better result than in Vista. This failure was experienced by someone else as well.
This post is clearly a bit biased. What shocked me though was how easy it was to find games that didn’t run under Vista but did in Linux by using Wine or DOSBox. I’m not a huge gamer, so I don’t have a huge collection of games to try out, but even still with just a few hours of frustrating work, I have been able to show that not only is Linux a reasonable alternative to Vista for gaming (XP is still king though), but also that Linux handles application failures more gracefully than Vista. Every game but Blackthorne crashed my Vista box, this didn’t happen a single time under Linux.
