Dune 2000
This one was a little bit surprising for me, since this game not only has some very nice effects, lots of explosions and bullet effects and such, but it also offers full motion videos (FMV) which tell the background story.
Once again, get the zip, or install from CD, although this time I really recommend using the .zip file. I actually had a hard time getting the CD to work, especially with all the music and videos, so you would need a NoCD patch with this. The zip file worked right out of the box, and everything was already included. Nothing extra should be needed except for the dsound component. Originally the game was designed to only run in 640×480, which is rather tiny for ODROIDs. Luckily, there is a high-resolution patcher, which allows for many different resolutions for the game to run on, except that the videos which will still be 640×480. You can download the high-resolution patch from http:// bit.ly/2rVGqIy.
Use the option to run an .exe file in the “Miscellaneous” tab of the configuration menu and select the high-resolution patcher. 800×600 or 1024×768 should work fine, and I played the game in 1024×768 since the game does not have much text to read anyway. It’s fun to play, although it feels slightly too slow.
Anno 1602
Anno 1602 really made me fear the words “endless game”, after I played it as a teenager with some friends in multiplayer mode. After endless hours we completely eradicated all enemy parties, all pirates and had all of the islands to ourselves, but, as expected, the endless game did not end!
This game is a little bit more tricky to get to work. I used my CD from the original German version (not even the Kings Edition). I made an image from my CD and mounted it on the ODROID using cdemu with the following command:
$ cdemu load 0 ANNO1602.cue |
I then used the predefined script inside PlayOnLinux to install the game automatically. I changed the Wine version to system and installed dsound as usual. I also set the virtual desktop to 1024×768 and started the game. It seemed to work fine, since I saw the introduction and heard the sound, but the introduction froze at some point, and I needed to use the escape key to skip it. Reading through the information about this game under Wine, I found that the SMACKER32.DLL is not working correctly and needs to be replaced to fix the video issue. I copied the SMACKER32. DLL from Caesar III, and ever since the movies worked fine. When I tried to start the game, I was told I need the CD to play it.
This was troublesome, since the guides I found regarding that topic did not work. Although the introduction video was played from the CD, the game itself wouldn’t start. I ended up using a “NoCD” patch, which still required the use of the CD for music and video, but this allowed me to play the game. Even without the CD mounted, the game will still work, just without music and videos
