Back around 2020 or so I wanted to play old games because I only had an underpowered laptop that could barely play modern games.
One I downloaded off MyAbandonWare was this shooter from 2003 called Devastation. It’s alright, but more I played it when I was younger and always wondered what happened to it.
On my old laptop it always crashed on startup and I just couldn’t get it working. I could open the level editor and that was about it.
Recently I downloaded it again onto a new laptop I put Linux on and tried a few different configurations. I heard how WINE can be better than Windows for old software so I decided to give it a shot.
Eventually I used Bottles with a gaming configuration set to Windows Xp.
I tried Devastation with that setup and it worked. I still have an issue with the game being in the top left corner and not taking up the full screen, but it’s playable.
I have a top spec gaming PC now running Windows 10, but there are things this Thinkpad can do that my big PC can’t.
Great to hear you got it working (somewhat). I bet it will get worse and worse with the backwards compatibility of Windows with each iteration. You are Win10, its probably worse in Win11, because they stray further and further from god. On the other hand you have WINE and Proton that gets better and better every day on Linux.
Your big PC could do the same. ;-)
I plan to now. A friend helped me put it together and that’s where I learnt how to make a bootable drive to install an OS.
I used to use that PC for work on the sneaky so I could do other stuff at home easily, but I’ve changed job and that’s not a concern anymore so it might get PopOs or something on it soon
That’s great to hear. As you have used Linux on your Thinkpad, you know what awaits you. And that not everything is compatible. So no need for a lecture or standard disclaimer from me. I wish you good luck.
Although about PopOS, they are currently working on a completely new desktop environment and have a few betas out. Maybe with their next big release they will ditch Gnome (their current desktop environment) and use their own solution. I thought letting you know if you weren’t following the news. And I don’t know how much you like Gnome.
I like GNOME on the laptop but it feels better suited for laptops and touchscreens. I know plasma is really good now and really customisable, and I’d even consider Mint as I’ve put it on another laptop before but a more gaming centric distro should have some added dependencies included