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Linux - 12/18/2005 8:39:39 PM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Ok, ok, I know that it is not commercially viable but someone (a better man than I) really needs to make a SPWAW version that runs on Linux. Assuming, of course, that Matrix's liscence permits it. This need not be a Matrix member, just give the code to some diehard Linux weenie and let him run with it. The free nature of SPWAW is so in keeping with the Linux philosophy that I think it is a shame not to do this.

I mention this because I am just starting to play around with Fedora Core 4 that I installed on an inherited machine as a sort of hobby and, frankly, I'm impressed. I am writing you now from that box. And, yes, I know about Wine (and as a matter of fact I am about to try installing it) but it's not the same. SPWAW could live on essentially forever if it could be included packaged in future Fedora releases,and thus perhaps create a (small) market for the megacampaigns.

Thoughts, criticisms, complaints?

Post #: 1

RE: Linux - 12/19/2005 1:55:02 AM

FlashfyreSP

Posts: 1193
Joined: 7/6/2002
From: Combat Information Center
Status: offline

As I understand it, licensing agreements prevent the SPWAW code form ever being made public, so a 'port' to Linux is just not possible at this time.

However, I am able to run the game without a problem by using Transgaming's Cedega emulator program on my Linux box (SuSe 9.2). See this: http://spwaw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2641

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Post #: 2

RE: Linux - 12/19/2005 2:17:01 AM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Hmm, Shippensburg, eh? Isn't that near Letterkenny? I'm originally from Elizabeth, south of Pittsburgh.

Yeah, as I mentioned I'm working on Wine. I am, however, running into the usual beginners problems with Linux- mainly that there is a steep initial learning curve. Also, although everything comes with huge documentation and help files, no matter how hard the Linux weenies try to write something a normal human can understand they still end up with a treatise only another Linux weenies has a hope in hell of following. God bless them, you can tell there trying incredibly hard to drag this operating system into the mainstream, but it's still like a monkey (me) trying to understand some doctoral thesis in astophysics (them).

(in reply to FlashfyreSP)

Post #: 3

RE: Linux - 12/20/2005 4:44:09 AM

Jeff Norton

Posts: 2054
Joined: 8/8/2000
From: MD, USA (You're not cleared for specifics...)
Status: offline

Sinner from the Prarrie was a linux user also. He was one of the first ones who found out how to make WAW work on that OS.

Sinner's site... give it a look....

BTW - I'm from Beaver Co, Goblin is from Erie...

< Message edited by Jeff Norton -- 12/20/2005 4:46:29 AM >

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-Jeff
Veritas Vos Liberabit
"Hate America - love their movies" -Foos Babaganoosh - Anchor - Jihad Tonite

(in reply to acrosome)

Post #: 4

RE: Linux - 12/27/2005 5:54:04 AM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Been away from my computer for a while on business.

My dad's side of the family used to have a little communal hunting cabin up near Titusville. They have since sold it and rebuilt in the Allegheny Mountains outside Uniontown. I haven't been back east in 3 years or so, but I keep running into Pennsylvanians in the damnedest places...

Oh, and as fate would have it I had already found Sinner's site by googling "SPWAW linux", but his directions are for an old version of Wine. (Or, more accurately, the older versions of Wine require more computer savvy than I possess.) I have since installed the latest version of Wine and have puttered around in my usual semi-incompetent manner, and I can get the game menu to fire up (the one that has options to start SPWAW in large letters with several other options like fourms, manuals, etc. in smaller letters) but I get a freeze when I try to actually start the game. I also tried just starting straight from mech.exe via Wine- no dice, same freeze.

This is a disappointment because SPWAW is the ONLY thing computing-wise that still ties me to Micro$oft. The only other things I do are word processing, spreadsheets, internet, and email (all of which OpenOffice.org does better than anything else out there) so if I could just get SPWAW working I would repartition XP off my hard drive and cut the apronstrings forever. Mind you, I think Micro$oft makes some great software (and I wish I had bought stock in the 80's, too) but I have read too much about the shady stuff they pull and have just a little too much of that little streak of anarchism that is the birthright of all Americans to want to have anything to do with them. I've been playing SP since SP-I and tactical scale and level of detail and PBEM capability are exactly what I want. Shame.

So, if anyone has some ideas, I'm running Fedora Core 4 with Wine v0.9.2. I've got a 1GHz Pentium-3 processor (and, yes, I used the i386 version of Wine) with 512MB RAM and Intel 82810E DC-133 graphics controller, so this should all be working. I mean, I know Core 4 is optimized for Pentium-4, but all the documentation I've found says it still works 100% on Pentium-3.

Thanks.

PS
Goblin is from Erie, eh? Explains a lot...

< Message edited by acrosome -- 12/27/2005 5:55:36 AM >

(in reply to Jeff Norton)

Post #: 5

RE: Linux - 12/27/2005 6:38:47 AM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Here's an example of trying to run SPWAW with Wine as I have it configured:

[dean@localhost ~]$ wine c:\\MatrixGames\\SPWAW\\mech.exe
The instruction at 0x0054f7eb referenced memory at 0x00000010.
The memory could not be read.
[dean@localhost ~]$

So my question is :"What the hell does THAT mean?"

For those of you not familiar, the double-backslash is used in Wine because a single-backslash has a different purpose in Linux systems, or something. Normal Linux pathnames use forward-slashes.

(in reply to acrosome)

Post #: 6

RE: Linux - 12/28/2005 8:46:48 AM

FlashfyreSP

Posts: 1193
Joined: 7/6/2002
From: Combat Information Center
Status: offline

acrosome

Have you looked at the Transgaming Cedega program? It is an improved WINE program, with GUI support, that can be used to install older DOS and Windows programs. I used it on my SuSE 9.1 build, and it worked fine. SPWAW installed and ran with no problems, once the Cedega program was working.

Using basic WINE won't do it...it has something to do with the .dll files that Windows uses. Also, some of the older bits in the SPWAW game (like the video files and sound codecs) are not supported by WINE, but Cedega will handle them.

< Message edited by FlashfyreSP -- 12/29/2005 5:46:25 PM >

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Post #: 7

RE: Linux - 12/29/2005 4:34:13 AM

Captain Cruft

Posts: 3652
Joined: 3/17/2004
From: England
Status: offline

quote:

Here's an example of trying to run SPWAW with Wine as I have it configured:

[dean@localhost ~]$ wine c:\\MatrixGames\\SPWAW\\mech.exe
The instruction at 0x0054f7eb referenced memory at 0x00000010.
The memory could not be read.
[dean@localhost ~]$

So my question is :"What the hell does THAT mean?"

Practically speaking it means that the Windows/DirectX emulation for running mech.exe failed. This may be due to the emulation code itself or maybe incorrect Wine configuration or perhaps incorrect DLL->shared library mapping issues or who knows what.

Flashfyre gives good advice. Cedega is an optimised derivative of Wine which for most games will get better results. The company behind it (Transgaming) has a commercial incentive to get games to work.

Regardless of that, to my mind emulation is too much of a pain - native versions would be much better. However, unless someone steps up and offers mondo bucks to do a Linux port of SPWaW it's not going to happen.

As an aside, I did discover what looks like an abandoned attempt to create an open-source SP type of game. You can find it at kursk.sourceforge.net. Or at least some screenshots. The library dependencies make it a troublesome proposition to actually get working (I haven't).

--
Perhaps the solution to this sort of problem is "virtualisation", or running multiple operating systems concurrently (i.e being able to switch between them without a re-boot). There's a lot of industry buzz about this at the moment but right now we are lacking a free or cheap simultaneous Windows/Linux product. VMWare (vmware.com) works it but it's expensive. Xen (xensource.com) looks like better technology (and is open-source/free) but it doesn't yet support Windows.

I live in hope ... ;)

(in reply to FlashfyreSP)

Post #: 8

RE: Linux - 12/31/2005 10:41:53 PM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Hi, I'm back in town again.

I looked into Cedega a while ago, and yes I see that they list SPWAW as supported, but isn't it a monthly fee service? I'm not thrilled about paying $5 per month just to play an otherwise free game. Ot\r can I just buy it once?

(in reply to FlashfyreSP)

Post #: 9

RE: Linux - 1/1/2006 12:35:44 AM

acrosome

Posts: 91
Joined: 8/8/2001
From: Tacoma, WA
Status: offline

Well, I can't get the damn thing to run in Cedega, either, even though they list it as a supported program. I keep doing everything the (very anemic) help file says to do and all that happens is my screen goes black for a couple of seconds. I have a support request in to them, but from reading the other support posts I get the impression that they aren't very good about such things. It seems that among the Linux community even with software that is supposedly "supported" they really expect you to have hours and hours to sit and read manuals and puzzle things out yourself. Well, yes, if I was a true hacker or had a 40 hour per week IT job I could do that, but I am a surgery resident, work about 80 hours a week (and spend another 10-20 studying) and thus don't have the time, and why the hell am I paying for support anyway? If they want to make a buck they should work for it. I do (see above).

Obviously I am getting very frustrated. (Another victim of that damned Linux learning-curve.) I think I need to walk away from this for a while.

Thanks for your help so far, guys.

And by the way, why would it cost so much to do a Linux port of SPWAW? I understand Matrix has permission from SSI to develop the software, even if they have to keep the source code secret. So, find a random Linux weenie (it should be pretty easy to find a willing weenie), pay him one dollar and have him sign a nondisclosure agreement, and have him do the port. Why the "mondo bucks"? Is there some liscensing thing here I'm not aware of?

< Message edited by acrosome -- 1/1/2006 12:37:19 AM >

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Post #: 10

RE: Linux - 1/2/2006 5:03:01 AM

Captain Cruft

Posts: 3652
Joined: 3/17/2004
From: England
Status: offline

I know absolutely nothing about the licensing agreements for SPWaW. My "mondo bucks" comment was just saying that Matrix have no reason to make a Linux version so therefore would need to be paid to do it. It doesn't matter how much it would cost.

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Post #: 11

RE: Linux - 1/20/2006 8:17:18 PM

visitor

Posts: 5
Joined: 1/20/2006
Status: offline

I have both Win Xp and Suse 10 installed. I installed wine with Yast on Suse, and haven't done any configuration to wine. I couldn't get the install to work with wine, but I intalled the game with Xp to FAT32 partition. Wine runs the game perfectly, loading, saving, everything work. The speed is just as good as it's with xp. I'm not sure how you can get the install to work with wine, but the game definately runs with wine once installed. Wine doesn't cost anything either. I hope this helps someone out, it's great to be able to play this with linux.

(in reply to Captain Cruft)

Post #: 12

RE: Linux - 10/19/2009 2:27:11 AM

junk2drive

Posts: 12907
Joined: 6/27/2002
From: Arizona West Coast
Status: offline

I installed ubuntu 9.04 as dual boot with XP. Installed wine and navigated to the installer exe in XP. No problems installing or playing.

Has anyone ever downloaded the Kursk game linked above? (Operation Citadel) Looks good.

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Post #: 13