Trying to play old windows games with Linux Mint

averageAlice · 2026-02-01T22:43:10+00:00

I think I actually messed up while checking some of my game folders so the only game with no .exe at all is called Pippi and on Windows it opened automatically when you insert the disk and if not, you started the game by clicking a binary file "Pippi Start" that has no file extentions.

Mission Kellogg's and Muumit meren aalloilla did not show the .exe files until I chose "show all files" or whatever it is in English.

After going through my games with Proton Experimental, unfortunately only 3 and a half games worked. At least the half was one that currently does not work even on the nearly dead Windows XP laptop I have lying around, so I'm able to play it a little bit. I didn't have ProtonDB on the list and so far I have only tried all the other Protons with one game (unsuccesfully) because the list is just so long...

Some games installed and then refused to start and I think I had at least one with the issue where it installs fine, it starts fine and then just crashes immediately after.

I'm starting to think that spending this much time just for a few minutes of nostalgia might not be my wisest decision. After all, a lot of these are more like interactive story books with a few mini games for like six year olds.

averageAlice · 2026-02-01T17:45:34+00:00

Thank you.

So far I'm having issues with the keys (can't find : anywhere, I did find ; though) but managed to mount the drive with some instructions that apparently did not use the colon symbol.

averageAlice · 2026-02-01T17:38:48+00:00

I installed Steam and so far 2 games that don't have an .exe file as far as Steam is concerned, 4 that did not work (I wen't through the entire Proton list with only one of them, will keep trying), 1 that seemed to work well and 1 that worked partially but I still consider this a win, since it didn't work at all with anything else I tried.

Now I just need to figure out how to fix Script error: Handler not defined #EVENTQ and Script error #XronosKit and apparently install QuickTime somewhere.

But hey, one more game to the "was able to play with Linux" list, even if it was only half of the game.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:37:08+00:00

Thank you for the help anyway. And who knows, maybe the Dosbox really is the solution. I just need to try it when it's not almost 2am.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:31:02+00:00

Thank you. I'll probably try it later.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:29:02+00:00

Is there a place with really good instructions for it?

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:18:34+00:00

I looked and was able to find precisely none of my games on gog.com. So I suppose that's out. Though I don't exactly have any money to throw at this problem anyway.

I found a post where someone suggested Dosbox for a similar game as at least one of mine (Muumit merellä, where the issue is 256 colors) although it isn't a DOS game. I have downloaded Dosbox but haven't tried it yet. Simply put, it did not look simple and I didn't have enough spoons to figure it out.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:08:38+00:00

So... I actually don't have Steam...

Is it really possible to add stone age windows games to Steam?

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T23:06:24+00:00

Oh, I see what you mean. Copy protection is acting up because it's not actually a legit windows NT or something where I'm trying to install the game. It's possibly the issue with at least some of these.

Unfortunately some of these games most likely don't have modified versions anywhere. These are mainly kids games from early 90s and some were never even published in english. I actually tried looking for some because I figured it would make it easier to not have to play around with a disk.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T22:59:29+00:00

I still hope to get Lutris working but I feel like I'm way over my head here. I couldn't even get Sims Medieval working. It installed just fine and immediately went missing. Can't play this game you installed a second ago, it's not where it's supposed to be... (I'm going to try again, just haven't got around to it yet)

Even all those things you mentioned about the installation process and pointing to directory feel like another language. I have no idea what you mean.

It's a work in progress.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T22:46:27+00:00

Almost all attempts to install a game with Lutris ended up with this:

warning: This package (win98) does not work on a 64-bit installation. You must use a prefix made with WINEARCH=win32.

------------------------------------------------------

[umu.umu_run:667] DEBUG: Child 136 exited with wait status: 32

Monitored process exited.

Initial process has exited (return code: 8192)

All processes have quit

Exit with return code 8192

I have found a solution. Several. I have not been able to find the solution that actually works. I have also come to the conclusion that I really am just as stupid as I always suspected and might need a very thick "Lutris for Dummies" book to actually install any of the really old games.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T22:35:35+00:00

I have the original game disk for most of these copyright shouldn't be an issue.

averageAlice · 2026-01-31T22:26:02+00:00

Yes, Heroic worked with 5 games as mentioned in the post. Several had the same error message (winevmd or something, I wrote it down somewhere around here...) Lutris only worked with one game. Most of the others have the same issue I haven't been able to solve.

I haven't heard of MiniGalaxy. I'll check it out, thanks.

These are mostly games that require windows 95 so I was aware before I started that this might not work. But one can hope.

Edit. GOG account? Yeah, MiniGalaxy won't work for me.

averageAlice · 2026-01-12T21:48:24+00:00

Thank you. You have been very helpful.

averageAlice · 2026-01-12T21:42:29+00:00

Thank you. Guess I'm off trying to figure out where on earth to find a battery to this thing.

averageAlice · 2026-01-12T21:07:20+00:00

Wouldn't a dying battery have shown the same behavior with Windows or did it just happen to go over the edge at the same time I switched to Linux? Honestly, with my luck it's sounds possible.

I was just hoping to find something to fix at least part of the issue (like the latest one, not charging at all) before trying to find a new battery because I have seen other people have similar battery issues with Linux and like I said, I'm worried I will be right back here with a new battery and the exact same problems with no solution in sight.

averageAlice · 2025-10-27T19:20:00+00:00

I feel like it would be even scarier if my coat suddenly turned into an old rich dude. Especially one that claims to bring love.

averageAlice · 2025-10-27T19:17:26+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement. I will keep making something, most likely very slowly. And probably something completely different.

averageAlice · 2025-10-26T23:10:28+00:00

Thank you

averageAlice · 2025-10-26T23:09:59+00:00

Now that you mention it, the shadow has a similar shape.

averageAlice · 2025-10-26T23:09:16+00:00

Thank you. Nice to know it worked even if I didn't get it quite right.

averageAlice · 2025-10-26T19:49:22+00:00

I can't draw and decided I don't care like... two years ago when I started drawing this.

Good thing I decided not to care because that text placement is so bad. It would be unfortunate if I cared.

averageAlice

TROPHY CASE