Howto: Overseer under Linux w/ WINE

Tex Murphy Overseer can now be played under Linux using WINE! I have had it working for the last couple of days and it works great. I am going to put the basic installation instructions here in case it helps anyone else.

You need a recent development version of Wine, mine is 1.3.36. I think 1.3.34 is the lowest version that will will work as but but I am not positive. I use Ubuntu, so I added the PPA for Wine to my system. If you are using another distribution you will need to do what ever the equivalent is for that distribution or compile from source code.

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sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa 
Then update your package list:

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sudo apt-get update
Finally, install Wine1.3:
sudo apt-get install wine1.3
When that is done locate and run the Configure Wine shortcut that will be on the applications. menu. Click the graphics tab and check off 'Emulate a virtual desktop', in the desktop size boxes put 800 in the first box and 600 in the second box. This will create a windowed wine session that is the same size as maximum size window Tex Murphy can use.

Next. we'll install Tex Murphy. I used the GOG installer and I think its the easiest way, but you can also try installing from the CD's/DVD's this way too. We simply need to run the installer with wine.

Change to where ever your installer is on your system and run the following command:

wine wine setup_overseer.exe
Note, don't sudo the above command as you want it to run in your user profile. The installer will run as per normal. When its done you will see the Tex Murphy Overseer icon in your Applications menu under the Wine group. Run it an you can play Tex right on your desktop!

The only glitches I have found are:

At times I find I can't switch out of the Tex murphy window and back to my desktop by moving my cursor as the cursor would move out of the game window. To get around this I hit Alt-F2 which brings up the Ubuntu run dialog and frees my mouse.

Sometimes when I click back on the window to resume playing it won't take the cursor back. To get around this I use the Alt-Tab sequence to switch to Tex rather than clicking on the window.

I have left Tex running on my desktop in a window for a few days and I just switch back and forth when I want to play without even closing the game. It works perfectly. I even installed it to my SSD and loading between locations is super fast!

Anyways I hope this helps someone else to get Overseer running under Linux. I only joined to post this. I am a big Tex fan from way back and when I stumbled onto GOG and found Overseer I decided it was time to relive my youth playing a gave that absolutely loved. Once I play this one I am going to download the others and play them too.

Simon
Hey there, I know it's been two years since this thread was made, but I find myself trying to make this work.

I tried the most current wine (1.7), which is my system build, and using playonlinux I tried 1.3.36, and plan to tinker around with some others.

I'm using the GOG installer. And seem to be getting an MPEGII error.

I used innoextract to rip the data out of the GOG installer and just plain tried running overseer.exe in wine, but that yielded a sound error in addition to the mpeg error.

I wish I could find a copy of the original dvd to tinker with, but it doesn't seem to exist on this internet anymore. I paid for it a long time ago, but couldn't make it work then either! lol.

dosbox is such a piece of cake. I miss that. lol.
alrighty,

I've tried everything I can think of in an effort to get this to work. It even gave me an issue (although I think its a solvable issue) when I went to run it in a windows xp virtual box (which is a route I didn't want to take because I'm afraid the game will run like it would have on a 386 cpu)

anyway, I intend to put more effort into this. simply got distracted by my playthrough of Pandora Directive.

I'll dual boot for a little while if I have to :( which would be a crying shame because I don't think I've used windows since the time I was playing Tex natively, which would be about a decade and a half now.
I'm still struggling with this.

I've tried both the GOG CD version and the GOG DVD version in numerous different versions of wine.

I noticed that when I installed the library gdiplus through playonlinux it didn't crash during installation, I'm betting the right combinations of libraries could make this work on wine, but I can't figure out what it is. Tinkering with some other settings (installing d3d9, and I'm not even sure what else I did) actually made the GOG setup screen look like it's supposed to.

I've also tried both versions in a windows xp virtual box. Both install just fine, then crash when I try to run them.

I'm thinking about trying a windows 7 virtual box but my computer runs like a turd when I have 7 running in vm, so that's kind of a second to last resort (last resort being dual booting, and honestly, I might just say heck with it at that point).

my current project is installing windows 98 in a virtual box, but I can't have a hard drive bigger than 2 gigs with that, so I'm wondering if I'll be able to run the GOG version from a CD (iso file on my host system). for that I'm thinking I might try innoextract then make an iso of the results and try running the game in windows 98.
Sounds like your trying to get it to run in a virtual environment. It should be dead easy with the CD version. I even had the CD version working in WINE under Linux.

However I am now trying to get the DVD version to work. The only thing not working in is the MPEGII decoder. I am trying to locate one I can install in Wine to see if I can make it work. No Luck so far. Using 1.7.18.

Simon
simonsez,

I'm glad to see I'm not the only linux using tex murphy fan who doesn't want to dual boot.

I'm still trying to get this to work.

I will seek out the CD version and give it another shot, but I'm positive I've tried just about everything and failed, including the CD version in a virtual environment.

the dvd version working in wine would be just fantastic, but I'm not optimistic.

have you had any luck with anything (recently)? I tried you're instructions in the OP step by step but I think they're outdated, at least for the most recent version of Ubuntu.

when you got it to work for the cd version in a virtual environment which OS did you run?
simonsez wrote:Sounds like your trying to get Decaduro here to run in a virtual environment. It should be dead easy with the CD version. I even had the CD version working in WINE under Linux.

However I am now trying to get the DVD version to work.

Simon
Hi Simon, were you able to get the DVD version to work? If so any tips?