@lynnesbian god it's fucking true :blobcat_headache:

@lynnesbian@fedi.lynnesbian.space getting the Splinter Cell :Pandora Tomorrow PC port to work properly feels like this ​:neofox_googly_shocked:​

@lynnesbian Creating Lutris install scripts to automate all of this is quite cathartic.

@lynnesbian It's not funny, because it's true 😢

@lynnesbian buying prostreet and finding out i should have pirated it in the first place because the fix that fixes the continue bug gets blocked by the drm

@lynnesbian can confirm this still works as of June '24

@lynnesbian

If this began with, "Here's the first thing I got when I Googled 'dynaratio scringlegreg linguini':'" and ended with, "I don't even know why a person would ask this," it could be a StackOverflow answer.

@lynnesbian I wish this was limited to old games. A similar thing happened to me when I tried to play Forza Horizon 4 (legit copy). Got a crash on launch that required a .dll to be replaced. Then it got fixed, but the MS login screen displayed cropped no matter what res/aspect ratio, so I had to find instructions to blind-type my username and pw counting tabs on the keyboard to switch focus and then press enter. Took 2h to start the bloody thing.

@lynnesbian And then you head over to the Wine AppDB or ProtonDB and find that some dedicated soul has coded in almost all of the workarounds necessary to play it fine on modern Linux systems. Almost. Except even on the lowest graphics settings and modern hardware, it runs at like 30fps, and crashes if you Alt-Tab away for any reason.

@lynnesbian I feel this. I swear that Proton runs old windows games better than actual windows in some cases. I've had good luck getting a lot of old games running on my steam deck.

@lynnesbian I wouldn’t have it any other way ❤️

@lynnesbian this is literally why I'm grateful that GOG exists. 😂

@lynnesbian yet somehow it works perfectly under wine

@lynnesbian https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Game_engine_recreations_and_source_ports

@lynnesbian "Cropping to 16:9" caused permanent damage to gaming culture that may never be fully healed, and is blamed by some for the death of first person games because "you can't see where you're walking unless you aim at the ground all the time what the hell did they even test this?"

@lynnesbian inb4 someone chimes in with "...and Proton runs it perfectly right out of the box :)"

@lynnesbian and the game will still be more fun than anything AAA

@lynnesbian wtaf

download GregFix.dll from the GregUtils website (no link provided - Greg will send DMCA takedowns to any websites besides Google that provide his website's URL)

That’s so utterly hostile it deserves to be burnt in obsolescence and obliviousness, not promoted on Fedi.

@lynnesbian Now you're gonna get a BUNCH of warnings about 32-bit systems not being supported, just ignore those until the end of time, but if you don't see the warning for some reason contact poison control and leave your house.

@lynnesbian or just use a windows xp desktop with a 4:3 or 5:4 monitor like the gods intended

@lynnesbian I'm still not sure how we convinced Greg to set up a website. Back in the day you could only get GregUtils on CD, so you had to meet up at a conference or send him a self-addressed stamped envelope.

@lynnesbian@fedi.lynnesbian.space but gaming on Linux is "too hard." :')

I was actually just thinking about this the other day, about how there are some Windows games that take just as much effort to get running on Windows, but everyone's already used to that version of the Hokey Pokey, so it barely registers in their mind.

@lynnesbian painfully accurate

@lynnesbian distressingly similar to actual SimCity 4 instructions…

@lynnesbian I can't remember the name of the game, but it stopped working due to the copy protection. ..hang on...

Yeah, Ubisoft issue a patch to fix a DRM issue in Rainbow Six Vegas 2. All they did was go to a crack site and downloaded RELOADED's no CD crack for the game!!

https://youtu.be/VLmZOFCgMEc?si=odUizffUCjuXnN3h&t=454

makes using Proton on Linux a walk in the park.

@lynnesbian

i was in an IRC channel with Greg for a while. apparently he got really into making custom levels for games on the Scringle engine but to this day has never played any of them. he's actually a nice guy, in a manifestly unpleasant and not actually nice way.

@lynnesbian Yeah this is why I gave up and just re-bought Sims 3 when it was on sale on Steam. Felt bad but I couldn't deal with ^^^that any more.

@lynnesbian greg is a dick

@lynnesbian this exactly how people play Skyrim

@lynnesbian TFW running all games through Proton Linux is easier and better than running through either Windows or Linux :blobfoxthinkgoogly:

@lynnesbian reasons why I keep an old PC running 98 around. Even has a Voodoo 3 AGP ❤️

@lynnesbian @eilonwy What would life be like if gaming companies made cars or refrigerators?

@lynnesbian getting the games to run is half the fun

@lynnesbian GOG are lowkey heroes for selling old games prepatched and confirmed to work

@lynnesbian I have wrestled enough with the Windows (and Linux) API to know why these are true. A lot of things in the API are poorly documented, because
1. You were supposed to just copy the code, and not adjust it to get OpenGL working.
2. You were supposed to use "Johnny's janky and overbloated middleware" instead, which also includes some standard library functionality, because Johnny's favorite obscure system's devkit doesn't by default.

@lynnesbian Dammit, Greg.

@lynnesbian

what weirds me out is that figuring out how to get the game running is sometimes even more fun than the game itself lol

@lynnesbian I can't tell if these are actual instructions for an actual game or not 🤔

🤨

@lynnesbian oh right and thanks for remembering my whi i have a 4:3 screen on my wish list

@lynnesbian @chaotin Throwback to even a decade before that when you made boot floppies so you had only the bare minimum DOS booting in order for the game to run.
Good times, learnt a lot.

@lynnesbian this sounds exactly like my most recent attempt to run cs 1.6 in 64bit Debian, minus the additional work in getting a recent version of wine running.

Man, and to think that things were so simple back then...

@lynnesbian lol !

@lynnesbian I went back to 16:9. Had 21:9 for years but games were not ready and it was so annoying. Now they are ready but I don't care anymore

@lynnesbian This makes me nostalgic 😢

@lynnesbian@fedi.lynnesbian.space

valve games are funny about this because they are always playable, the visual effects, minor bugs, and default settings just come and go as they please in updates.

@lynnesbian This was exactly my experience trying to run Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013).

@lynnesbian Kinda stoked that soldat was released as Free Software for that reason.

Fix the problems at the root. It just works.

@lynnesbian Oh and good luck setting up 256 color mode on wine!

@lynnesbian ✨ReactOS Virtual Machine✨

@lynnesbian I loved Ban Me Thout in 67-68. Lush, clean, beautiful countryside and good people.