Run Win 16-bit Application in Wine

Question

Xubuntu 12.04. HP Compaq nc8430. 2 GB RAM. Wine 1.4.

I'm trying to run Castle of the Winds, an old 16-bit Windows application, in Wine. I've put the application in .wine/drive_c. I've added it as an application in Wine, and I've tried setting the Windows version to 3.1, and I've also tried Win XP. Each time I try to run the app, Xubuntu freezes. I can do a Ctl-Alt-F4, and then a Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot. This application is not a DOS application, so I don't think DOSbox will help.

Any ideas?

Solution

Updated answer for 2020-2021

Here are the steps to run this 16-bit App:

1. sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
2. wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
3. sudo apt-key add winehq.key
4. sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main' I am using 20.04, but change focal to groovy if you are using 20.10.
5. sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel Change winehq-devel to winehq-stable if you would like to use the stable version instead
6. Run winecfg once so it installs all required packages to work correctly like gecko. In some cases as mentioned below, it would be needed to set the Windows version to XP.
7. Visit the Castle in the Wind folder. For me it showed both versions inside of it:

8. Go to Castle1 for example and on the terminal type wine CASTLE1.EXE to begin

For Castle2, type wine CASTLE2.EXE in the terminal, inside this folder to play it

NOTES

• I am playing in Ubuntu 20.04
• I did not install any additional packages via winetricks.
• There are less steps to do now with the latest wine version, which at this time is Wine 6.0-rc3
• There was no need to changing the Window version inside winecfg since it worked with Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 (In my case). The default one was windows 7, which is the one used for this test. But as noted by Adrian, he needed Windows XP (Like the previous version of this answer) to make it work.

Comments

[Adrian Keister]

Ok, the error stream (I figured the stdout was uninteresting) from the sudo apt-get update command is here: pastebin.com/u8jxKTUq.

[Adrian Keister]

Here is the result of the locate *wine* command: pastebin.com/W17iJxFC.

[Luis Alvarado]

For the BADSIG see askubuntu.com/questions/1877/…

[Luis Alvarado]

For the wine files with locate I would first do a apt-get purge then continue with something similar to this askubuntu.com/questions/86702/… to delete all wine files. The files located inside your home folder are never deleted byt apt-get purge for safety reasons. I would delete the "/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/wine/" folder before doing this. Save you some time there. Before doing this however, you need to first remove the wine PPA since it also appears on that locate list.

[Adrian Keister]

I'm happy to report that this basic procedure still works for Linux Mint Xfce 18.3, 64-bit.

[Adrian Keister]

Happen to have any idea which packages would be required for the spell animations to show up? It's a small point, but it would add to the game.

[Adrian Keister]

Unfortunately, this procedure does NOT seem to work for Linux Mint 19. I get Cannot add PPA: ''This PPA does not support bionic''. Is there an update?

[Adrian Keister]

Also tried it with Wine1.6, but no joy. It's complaining about not supporting 64-bit applications.

[Luis Alvarado]

@AdrianKeister Why are you trying it with 1.6 when there is 3.x (either stable 3.0.3 or 3.17 at the time of this writing) and there already a guide for the correct installation at askubuntu.com/questions/316025/… ?

[Adrian Keister]

Well, that might work. The issue is that I'm running a VERY old application here (more than two decades), and I'm not at all sure Wine 3.x is going to be THAT backwards compatible.

[Luis Alvarado]

@adriankeister which app is that?

[Adrian Keister]

The one in the question: Castle of the Winds.

[Adrian Keister]

Well, kudos to @LuisAlvarado: the latest version of Wine with as many of the packages listed above installed, works. It even works better than before, on account of the spell animations working (they didn't before). So, excellent!

[Adrian Keister]

One comment: quite a few of these packages have very buggy installations; I did find icodecs to fail spectacularly - recommend skipping that one.

[Adrian Keister]

Trying this on Pop!_OS 20.04 with no joy. In fact, it freezes my machine regularly and repeatedly. There are several packages you have listed there that are no longer listed in my winetricks, such as mono210, wsh56vb, and xact_june2010. I also have several packages listed that you don't: remove_mono, w_workaround_wine_bug-24013, fontfix, winxp, iertutil, and w_workaround_wine_bug-30718. Do you know if any of these differences could be causing the problem?

[Adrian Keister]

For that matter, an updated answer for 2020 starting from scratch would be super, but I don't know if you have the time.

[Luis Alvarado]

Thank you @AdrianKeister so basically this needs an update. Let me see what I can do.

[Adrian Keister]

Have you had any ideas lately? I realize this is low priority, but as you can see, lots of people have been interested in this question. Thanks for your time!

[Luis Alvarado]

Hi @AdrianKeister sorry for not working on this (kids, work, 2020 stuff). Can you put here a list of apps you wish to test or email me at [email protected] so we can work on this and update the answer for a 2020 version.

[Adrian Keister]

It's still just the Castle of the Winds game. Great game!

[Luis Alvarado]

Hi @AdrianKeister I have updated answer and tested what seems like 2 versions of the game. I uploaded the images to show you and the exact steps.

[Adrian Keister]

Excellent! Only one thing: I had to config Wine to use Windows XP instead of the default Windows 7, and then it ran! Many thanks!

[Henrique de Sousa]

@AdrianKeister thank you! I was trying to run a 16bit app in Wine and your comment saved me! You should create an answer, so I can upvote it! Happy holidays man