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Linux Game Preservation

Turn the old game CDs you own into verified disc images and play them full-screen on Linux.

Version 1.0.0AGPL-3.0Linux
Free download · 41 KB
~/linux-game-preservation
$ scripts/rip-disc.sh BW2_Disc1
# images the disc with ddrescue, retries worn spots, verifies the ISO
$ scripts/bw2-apply-fixes.sh
# one-time fix for missing grass/hair and in-game freezes
$ scripts/bw2_fullscreen.sh
# launches full-screen at your native resolution
Games covered
Black & White · Black & White 2 · LOTR: War of the Ring
Includes
Shell scripts + detailed notes
Game files
None. Bring your own discs
Size
41 KB

What it is

A small kit of shell scripts and notes for preserving boxed PC games you own and running them on modern Linux with Wine and gamescope. It images a worn CD into a verified ISO, gives you tuned launchers for Black & White, Black & White 2 and The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, applies a tested stability fix for Black & White 2, and can back your whole setup up to your own NAS.

It is tooling only: no game files, ISOs, cracks or CD keys are included. Bring your own discs and your own legal copy of each game.

Features

  • rip-disc.sh images a CD with ddrescue (fast pass, then 3 retries including reverse reads) and verifies the ISO's size and that 7-Zip reads it cleanly.
  • A self-healing pre-launch check spots a graphics, Wine or kernel update since boot and offers "Reboot now / Play anyway", clears leftover Wine processes and makes each launch single-instance.
  • Black & White launchers: full-screen in gamescope, windowed, or compositor full-screen, on the integrated GPU.
  • Black & White 2 launcher at your native display size, plus a one-command fix for missing grass/hair and in-game freezes.
  • War of the Ring launcher at 4:3 1600×1200, scaled to fill your screen.
  • Diagnostics: debug-log launch, registry trace, frozen-game backtrace, virtual-desktop test.
  • Backups to your own NAS over SMB: ISOs, Wine prefixes, launchers and official patches, with size checks.
  • Detailed per-game notes: what worked, what didn't, and how to restore.

What you need

  • Linux (written and tested on CachyOS/Arch with KDE Plasma; the update check is Arch-specific).
  • Wine 11.x, gamescope, winetricks, ddrescue, p7zip, udisks2, pciutils, xrandr. Optional: wmctrl, kdialog, gdb, smbclient.
  • A CD/DVD drive for imaging.
  • An AMD or Intel integrated GPU is preferred (tested on an AMD 890M laptop).
  • Your own copies of the games. Optional: a NAS with an SMB share.

How to install

  1. Download the zip, check its SHA-256 and unzip it.
  2. mkdir -p ~/bin && cp scripts/game-preflight.sh ~/bin/ && chmod +x ~/bin/game-preflight.sh scripts/*.sh
  3. Install the system tools listed above with your package manager.

How to use it

  1. Image each disc: scripts/rip-disc.sh BW2_Disc1
  2. Install the game into its own Wine prefix from the mounted ISO (see docs/GAMES-SPECS.md).
  3. For Black & White 2, run scripts/bw2-apply-fixes.sh once.
  4. Play: scripts/bw2_fullscreen.sh (or bw_fullscreen.sh, lotr_fullscreen.sh).
  5. Optional backup: set NAS_HOST, create ~/.config/games-backup/smb.creds, run scripts/games-backup.sh.

Outside sites it contacts

  • Your own NAS, only if you run the backup script. The Black & White 2 fix script runs winetricks, which downloads a DirectX file (d3dx9) from Microsoft.

Good to know

  • Verified on one CachyOS laptop, for these three games.
  • The retail Black & White 2 disc uses SecuROM copy protection, which doesn't run under Wine. This kit doesn't provide or describe any way around it; you need a copy that runs lawfully on your machine.
  • Black & White in-game music is silent (DirectMusic).
  • Backups go over SMB without encryption: keep them on your home network.
  • Check the law where you live before imaging copy-protected discs.
  • Not affiliated with the games' publishers or developers.