Box86 and Wine on RPi4

[ecto]

After spending a considerable amount of time, I wanted to share some insights I gathered for running games with box86/wine:

Almost all games I tried are copied over directories from my windows pc, where I installed the (GOG) games in a first step.

• Fallout 1 & 2 were the most finicky games of the lot. I installed the Restauration Project for FO2 and Fallout et tu for Fallout 1 as mods. On the Pi, the launch of wine needed WINEDLLOVERRIDE=ddraw.dll=n to activate the mod. I also had to change some settings in f2_res.ini for the screen layout, in ddraw.ini the setting singleCore=0 and OverrideArtCacheSize=0and in fallout2.cfgI changed art_cache_size=100. With these settings, Fallout 1 and 2 started and ran nicely in 1920x1080 fullscreen.

• Pro Pinball Series these are quite interesting. At first it looked like that they ran right out of the box, (except for Timeshock!, more to that later). But as I played (in 1280x1024 no less!) the ball movement was erratic, especially around the area of the flippers... So a hunch told me to try the setting BOX86_DYNAREC=0 in the start script. And alas! the ball moved as expected. Although everything was a lot slower, it worked and looked nice. Maybe some graphic settings need to be lowered, but it seems that this is the ultimate way to play Pro Pinball on the pi4 (I tried them all!). Timeshock! needs some more love, as there is a dll that needs to be inofficially updated so that the (cd) audio track can be heard (the GOG forums are of help here). Otherwise it's perfectly playable without the music.

• Dungeon Keeper 2 this one is also quite interesting. If you want to use DX9, you need to run the (GOG-patched) DKII-DX.EXE. But the menu is vvveeeerrrryyyy slow. The registry of wine ($WINEPREFIX/user.reg) has to be edited (probably easier from within wine --> regedit) and a key value has to be entered: HKCU/Software/Wine/Direct3D/csmt=0. See here, and here. With that Dungeon Keeper is at least startable. I don't know, but I think CSMT should be enabled for all the other games, so maybe the value has to be changed dynamically when starting Dungeon Keeper? Then there is another problem: When you start your dungeon, the creatures behave erratic, and BOX86_DYNAREC=0has to be set again for normal play, which then is a lot slower...

• Shivers 2 works well, but I think the WINDOWS.RESfile has to be edited with the patch to the game dir.

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 does not want to start, there seems to be an unknown Opcode...

• Sanitarium is a nice point and click adventure, but so far I have not gotten it to work. There is an Error (MapViewOfFile for file 'RES.104' failed ErrorCode=8 , but the game works on my Windows pc without that file, so idk. In some forum there is talk about that, but their solution is a specific version of wine... I have to get this one to work!! ;) EDIT I got Sanitarium to work, by replacing the three files RES.104, RES.204 and RES.304 from the install CDs. The GOG versions of those files are quite a lot larger, so I don't know, why they did with them and what other problems might arise by replacing them...

So all in all everything is quite good. I wish I hade more space on my SD Card ;)

I'm thinking about making a Issue on Github for Box86 concerning the dynarec and the missing opcode, but I'd like to wait for your input first...

[Troopaking]

@george I copied from your post in this forum directly. I feel the main issue might be hes ssh in the pi not on it.
Was gonna use the github but it doesn't have the emu at the end.
I'm trying on fresh retropie right now . Worked fine.
He was asked for username etc. Made a github entered it said error couldn't resolve host .

Also a few other things I've encountered/figured out.

-I would open pixel desktop download scripts. Then in terminal run emulationstation, then retropie-setup.
The reason is I don't get the mono and gecko installer pop up unless on desktop

-I always use .sh not .conf with mugens .
With mugen I've been able to shorten .ah a lot . I haven't tested with harder games . Works with mugen, skifree, and spooky castle .
I also use it that way all mugens can use qjoypad layout mugen .
With other games I use conf with Russells wine desktop in my github . With his changes it auto looks for a qjoyoad layout with same name as game folder .

Heres my .sh for "mugen1"
#!/bin/bash
cd "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/mugen/games/mugen1/"
qjoyoad "mugen" &
WINDEBUG...........

[Troopaking]

@ecto
Thanks for all that insight and work .

I have found any game that you have to install . I woukd do what you said, install on pc then transfer the game files and folders over .
Unfortunately I don't have a windows pc lol.

So I have to install in wine and works fine to a extent . Worked for baldurs gate, battlefront 2, and half life.
I'd say itd depend on what yourgame needs to run . Battlefront for example setup up directx and something else when installing it .

[George]

@ecto said in Box86 and Wine on RPi4:

I'm thinking about making a Issue on Github for Box86 concerning the dynarec and the missing opcode, but I'd like to wait for your input first...

If you haven't already, edit the scriptmodule for Box86 so that it pulls from master instead of a tag. The issue with an unknown OpCode may have already been resolved. If you join the Box86 Discord, there is a ton of activity every day. People will post up an unkown OpCode and ptitSeb will just add it later in the day. It's pretty cool!

For the issue on Sanitarium, maybe try to rename the RES.104 file to all caps or all lowercase. See if that helps.

Also, if you need different settings for different applications, you may be better off creating completely new Wine Prefixes for each. That way all the required settings you have will be contained with the game they are related to.

Cool progress and thanks for all the notes!

- George

[Troopaking]

So I resolved issues of most recent install.
Honestly no clue how though.
Must have been ssh and sd card issue . He changed those and also opening everything in pixel made the difference .

[George]

@troopaking That's strange. Glad he got it working though!

- George

[George]

@shavecat said in Box86 and Wine on RPi4:

Hey all im trying to get hunter hunted , but with no luck .

I've been trying to make my way down the list of games people are working on and I took a look at Hunter Hunted. I have a feeling that it's not going to work for the time being. Even though it seems to be for Windows 95/98, it looks like it's still using some 16 bit instructions. It doesn't look like Box86 is compatible with it yet. Hopefully 16-bit compatibility will be on the near horizon. But even on my Windows XP Virtual Machine it acted a little funky.

- George

[shavecat]

@george
That's really a shame to hear :\ , cause its working on my laptop (windows 10).
Thanks hope it will get a fix or so soon :)

[ecto]

I got some other great games to run:

• Warblade is an Amiga Deluxe Galaga reimagination by the same developer (who sadly passed away). Although the game is just a Galaga clone, there is much do do and discover (secrets!!). I bought the game probably 15 years ago, so I don't know if the shop page still works, but it looks like it. The game works out of the box (you have to change some settings ingame, like fullscreen and D3D support). I have the feeling that that game runs a bit different (faster rate of fire), I have to confirm this on native Windows...

• MDK which I had installed on Dosbox runs so much faster, it's a bit scary! (Of course since Dosbox has to work with software rendering.) I can't remember, but I think the GOG version works right out of the box.

Many hours went into The Sims (doesn't work because of some 16-bit code?) and The Sims 2 (Doesn't work because I can't (so far) get a NoCD Version, and I certainly won't connect a CDRom drive to the pi...

What I will try next is Ultima IX Ascention. It's supposed to work well in wine. Not that this is the height of Ultima gaming but me being a completionist...
Also I'm wondering about some "Old School Shooters" like Unreal, Kingpin (somewhat bad game that has a spot in my heart), Undying, XIII or Deus Ex.

Damn it! I need a 1Tb Card ;) EDIT Argh... too expensive ;)

[Folly]

@ecto said in Box86 and Wine on RPi4:

Damn it! I need a 1Tb Card ;) EDIT Argh... too expensive ;)

Just use an old fashioned hard-drive on your usb. :-)

[shavecat]

Hey ,
got a few more games working -
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Postal 1
Bip Blop balls of steel .

Maybe i can get help with -
Diablo 2 - its working but in the game so many glitches its not really playable.
And Heroes of might and magic 3 - but still always getting stuck after playing 10 min or so...
Thanks ! <3

[George]

@shavecat said in Box86 and Wine on RPi4:

Maybe i can get help with -
Diablo 2 - its working but in the game so many glitches its not really playable.
And Heroes of might and magic 3 - but still always getting stuck after playing 10 min or so...

Awesome work @shavecat!

Are you on the Box86 Discord? There have been several conversations about Diablo and Might and Magic. Many people there use boards like RK3399 vs. Raspberry Pi, but some of the techniques they use might apply. I did a search for Diablo 2, one of the users mentioned trying to play the game with the option -w. Also, someone posted this video (

), where it looks like a program is required to convert NGlide to OpenGL.

- George

[shavecat]

@george
thanks !
im using it with wine from ports retropie with sh file like this (/opt/retropie/ports/diablo2) -

#!/bin/bash
xset -dpms s off s noblank
cd "/media/usb0/roms/wine/diablo2/"
matchbox-window-manager &
WINEDEBUG=-all LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/retropie/supplementary/mesa/lib/" setarch linux32 -L /opt/retropie/ports/wine/bin/wine '/media/usb0/roms/wine/diablo2/Game.exe' -fullscreen

[ExarKunIv]

@shavecat i dont know if this will help or not. i have not played with Box86/Wine yet.

Pigamer has a decent step by step for diablo 2
https://thepigamer.blogspot.com/2021/03/case-study-diablo-ii-on-raspberry-pi.html

[dodonpachi]

I've attempted to get the following games running, and none of them worked with either .sh or .conf method:

• Vanguard Princess (freeware, English patched)
• Dodonpachi Resurrection (didn't expect this to run but I tried anyways lol)
• Freedom Planet demo
• Freedom Planet 2 demo
• Rosenkreuzstilette
• Street Fighter X Megaman (V2, official from Capcom)

The closest I've gotten is the white loading screen from Street Fighter x Megaman to load before closing, and the window for Rosenkreuzstilette to appear before closing. I must be doing something wrong, because I've seen a video of someone running at least Freedom Planet on Pi 4 using Box86 and Wine. Perhaps I need to install directX somehow?

UPDATE: Street Fighter X Megaman worked for a little bit. I simply loaded it again and I got into the title screen and Ryu's stage before it closed out automatically. It played kinda slowly and there was no sound. Better than nothing, I guess.

[ecto]

I've also hit a wall with my latest game installs...

• Resident Evil 1-3 and Dino Crisis: There are REbirth patches for those games which allow for higher resolutions and much more, but so far I've not seen any in-game graphics :(
• Ultima 9 I thought taht such an old game would put up no fight, but I was wrong... :( I can't get any glide wrapper to work, and D3D mode is glitched (text overlays). :(
• The Sims 1 or 2 was already hard to get running on my PC without a CD, but on my Retropie they simply refuded to work. :(
• Diablo 2 with QoL patches are working phantastically on my PC, but I get a lot of rendering errors on Retropie. Vanilla D2 with widescreen patch was working well before (ddraw mode), so I would think this has to work, too. But I can't get either of the 3 (!)modes suggested in the QoL patch to work. Has cost me many hours so far ^_^;
• Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri: Game starts, I can hear sound but there is ony a black screen. ;_; None of the suggested fixes have worked so far...

So all in all I'm very frustrated right now. Lots of Time, and no further running games...

EDIT

• Diablo 2 with QoL patches works. I had to start over, probably some setting was wrong. After that it (almost) worked out of the box. Almost, because I had to change the renderer from its default (DX11, which works great on real Windows 10) to DirectDraw. I also tried glide, which looks cooler (as it has some quasi 3D rendering and working cinematics) but is much slower and has a lot of rendering errors (everyhing is in rainbow-colors until I change the resolution). I wish I could get Gl4ES to work as it seems to work for others without those rendering errors.

[ecto]

New running games. Behold:

• Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith: This one was hard. But the results are perfect. For the GOG version you need to install the unofficial patches. Next, JKgfxMod needs to be installed, but most of it's options have to be turned off (things like bloom, AA, etc) and the resolution (I'm running it at 1280x720) has to be set. In the wine startup-line, I had to insert the variable MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.0. With that I got the game and the mod running and most importantly the videos and menus are scaled to fit the screen. For CD music to work, a different version of winmm.dll is needed. To make it work I renamed the alternative winmm.dll to winmx.dll and modified JK.exe and some dlls to load winmx.dll(just load the files in an hexeditor and search for winmm.dll and rename that to winmx.dll). Additionally other mods and fixes can be installed to somewhat prettify the game. The same procedures are needed for Mysteries of the Sith (sigh).

• Alpha Centauri suddenly worked, too. Idk. I used different unofficial patches and then installed the graphics patch PRACX for widescreen resoultions. No dll overrides/wrappers are needed. That one has cost me so much time. I don't know if I canged something else, but I don't think so.

[ecto]

Another small update with new games:

• Deus Ex with Community Update Patch works, as the Unreal Engine renders with OpenGL. With all other renderers I had some problems. In 1280x720 the framerate is ok'isch. Lower would be better, but then I'm losing 16:9. Also, the game is very dark and I haven't found a way to increase gamma. Steam and GOG versions should both work, as the Update Patch is called by it's own executable without DRM.

• Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 works nicely and looks nicely. I can remember that I had fun playing that game (so many years ago). It has an arcade feeling and an interesting mechanic where you can fight akimbo-style with different weapons in each hand. The game uses the Quake (3?) engine and also renders in OpenGL. 1280x720 is somewhat slow but probably playable. I only tried the first level.

• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 with HD Patch works very well, when the correct renderer in the MOD settings is selected (plain ddraw without stretching, no gl, gdi or others). I might have the CNC ddraw wrapper installed. I don't remember. Problem was that the game crashed in the quick battle screen (where a small video with the outcome is displayed). With plain ddraw it works fine. Best here, too, is 1280x720 as the UI gets very small in full HD.

EDIT I just browsed though the thread again. There seems to be stability problems with HoMM3 (@shavecat ). I haven't played the game over any longer period than 1-2 mins because it crashed reproducible at the quick battle screen of the HD patch. This crash is resolved, but I don't know how stable to game is overall... Sorry.
I also deinstalled Deus Ex as the framerate together with the dark screen were just too much to be enjoyable.
Instead I will try to get Outcast to run. It was mentioned on the discord that it runs, so here is hoping for the best.

[shavecat]

@ecto said in Box86 and Wine on RPi4:

Heroes of Might and Magic 3

Yes i agree
but i did play with it like 10 min' then it crush no matter what i try .
If u will have any news about it somehow will love to know ;)
I myself give up on it for now cause no matter what i did nothing help's.

great work by the way ;)

[ecto]

@shavecat Have you tried running it with the HD mod?