Play SimCity 4 in Linux!

[doorknob60 11]

Ever wanted to play the best game in the world using the best operating system in the world? Here's how!

Step 1:

Make sure you have the latest Wine (or at least 0.9.54)

In Ubuntu Hardy:

Run each command one by one in a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)

sudo apt-get remove wine

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wine

And for Gusty:

Run each command one by one in a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)

sudo apt-get remove wine

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/gusty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wine

Other Distros:

Install wine using the appropriate directions from here.

Step 2:

Install

1. Insert the first disc for SimCity 4 Deluxe (If you have original+rush hour this should work too)

2. Copy all of it's contents to a folder on your desktop (If you have 2 cd drives, insert both CDs into seperate drives, and skip to step 4, opening disc one instead of the desktop folder)

3. After it's done copying, remove the first disc and insert the second disc

4. Try 4a first, and if it doesn't work, try 4b

4a. Open the folder you created on your desktop and double click setup.exe

4b. Open a terminal and navigate to the folder you created ( cd ~/Desktop/foldername ), and run " wine setup.exe " (no quotes) in the terminal

5. Allow installation to go, and it should copy the files from both discs, and it will sshould start the game. We're not quite done yet, exit the game

(If you have Rush Hour, install it now)

Step 3:

Tweak your settings for best performance

1. Create/edit your SimCity launcher to this:

WINEDEBUG=-all wine C:\\Program\ Files\\Maxis\\SimCity\ 4\ Deluxe\\Apps\\SimCity\ 4.exe -d:software -intro:off

You can also try replacing -d:software with -d:opengl It might work better for you, it might not.

2. Registry edits! Open registry editor with the following command in a terminal or Alt-F2

wine regedit

Apply the following registry edits:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]

"VideoMemorySize"="NNN"

Replace NNN with the amount of VRAM your card has.

 

By default wine guess you have only 64.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]

"DirectDrawRenderer"=""

gdi - Use GDI to draw on the screen (slow but reliable) (default) 

opengl - Use OpenGL (recommended) (fast but not all programs work correctly)]

Step 4:

Update your game

1. Download the appropriate update from here. Then run the file by double clicking or with the terminal.

2. Download the BAT night fix and run the exe from here.

Step 5:

Get your cities and plugins etc.

1. Copy your SimCity 4 folder from your Windows partition, DVD, flash drive, wherever i

[doorknob60 11]

Yay, this guide actually helped me today, because I installed a new distro (Debian) and wiped out Ubuntu, so I needed to install, and this guide made things much less tedious, because everything I need is all in one place

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

Good job keeping this alive. I kind of gave up on trying to get it to run on linux, but I'm sure there's some people out there who need the help. I'm gonna be trying Debian in the near future, already dual booting with Kubuntu

[doorknob60 11]

Yeah, Debian just seems so much faster. I dual booted it with Ubuntu to see if an annoying bug in Java was Ubuntu specific, but it wasn't. But, after installing Debian, things went so much faster. The time it takes from grub to KDE desktop is about half of what it was in Ubuntu. Also, I gave KDE another shot because I was getting tired of Gnome's simplicity, just not enough customization, so now I'm gonna stick with KDE. SimCity seems to run slightly faster too. ONly thing I'm dissapointed about is that the Java bug (which only affects the computer I'm using right now) is present in all Linux distros Maybe I'll try switching to another computer I have laying in my closet (similar motherboard, but a little newer).

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

KDE is the way to go. :-] I didn't know Debian's KDE was that good.

[RaccoonFox 1]

while this does help... i cannot get SimCity 4 Deluxe to initialize or show the bridge splash screen or anything. are those strings or DWORD registry values? my configuration is SimCity 4 Deluxe v 1.1.640, using Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring, with Wine 1.0-rc1 and KDE 3.5.9. I found a no-cd patched EXE that works, but it's of 1.1.638, and i don't want to go that route. I want to get my game to work properly.

[doorknob60 11]

From what I've heard, it seems like some people need a no cd crack for it to work. Do you have the new box (Like a DVD case) or the original big box with the jewel case inside it from when Deluxe came out. I have the original one and it works, the newer one might use a different protection or something, and if it only works with the nocd crack, you'll need to stick with 1.1.638, which wouldn't be a big deal for me, because I never use night mode, but if you use night mode and download lots of buildings from the STEX it might get annoying. Can you post if you're using the DVD case style box or the Jewel case/big bbox from when deluxe cam out so I can add it to my guide?

EDIT:

Originally posted by: northsider1983 KDE is the way to go. :-] I didn't know Debian's KDE was that good.quote>

Well, compared to the KDE that I installed onto my Ubuntu Gnome installation, it's noticably better, and I have no complaints, although I haven't used many other KDE distros much.

[RaccoonFox 1]

i have the jewel-case two-CD set. i have around 1.5 GB of plugins from STEX... will that cause problems for me?

[doorknob60 11]

Try temporarily moving your entire SimCity 4 folder somewhere else, and starting SimCity 4 from the terminal, and see what happens. Also to mods: Would it be possible to get this pinned or in the omnibus or something? Would make it a lot easier for Linux users to find it.

[RaccoonFox 1]

alright. when i ran SimCity 4 in Konsole (my KDE terminal), it said this in reply:

[johncoonfox@localhost Apps]$ wine SimCity\ 4.exe

err:rpc:I_RpcReceive we got fault packet with status 0x3e6

What on earth does that mean?

[doorknob60 11]

No clue I'd just stick with using the nocd crack I guess.

[RaccoonFox 1]

that was with the no-cd crack. if i *have* to dual-boot windows 2000 pro and linux, that's fine. i'll just make a 10 GB partition for simcity and windows 2000 Pro. besides, i need the ability to run my scanner-printer

[doorknob60 11]

Whats the output without the crack?

[Modine 0]

Ok, this has been the best info I've read/tried so far - Sc4 actually launched. =) But of course, having only just loaded Linux yesterday (the first experience I've had with it... BTW) I of course need you to hold my hand on just a few things:

1) RE:

Create/edit your SimCity launcher to this:

WINEDEBUG=-all wine C:\\Program\ Files\\Maxis\\SimCity\ 4\ Deluxe\\Apps\\SimCity\ 4.exe -d:software -introff

is this in the terminal??? because I don't know if it is in the terminal that I enter that, or if I am supposed to include your smiley face/ff or not... ? Gosh, it certainly did not work for me - it couldn't find the folder.

2) RE: Registry edits. Where do I locate my video memory size??

I did the updates. So if you can answer my 1) & 2), perhaps I can get through the rest of your list. Hopefully I can locate the game after that because I don't know how to launch it LOL.

Toni

[Modine 0]

You can scratch off my 2) question - I found my video memory size using: lspci

Steep learning curve, but like having a sick child who needs more care, you sure learn to love Linux

[TV-VCR 15]

Modine, I recommend you just read my guide, which is on the Omnibus.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=147&threadid=100866&enterthread=y

[CheshireDragon 13]

I still cannot believe this is not a sticky, yet. What does it take?

[tungston 19]

Every good topic can't be stickied, submit it to the Omnibus committee for the Omnibus.

[CheshireDragon 13]

I agree, every good topic can't be sticky but, this is a topic for running Sim City on an alternate OS that is making great strides to the average desktop user.

[tungston 19]

There probably isn't 1 in a thousand of our members running SC4 on Linux, so it would only benefit a very small percentage of the membership.

As I have said, submit it to the Omnibus commettee.

[simmaster07 1,221]

I always thought Ian (scififan68) and I were the only ones who actually have Linux.

[TV-VCR 15]

Having this submitted to the omnibus or stickied. Is pointless. My guide is already up, and has been up for quite a while now.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=147&threadid=100866&enterthread=y

Can a moderator please lock this? It's pointless.

[doorknob60 11]

Yeah, TV-VCRs guide is good, no need to bump this old (and purposefully abandonned) thread

[Darth Apple 54]

I knew about wine... (I am a heavy linux user - it is easy to program) but I thought it is crazy to think that sc4 would work on it!so I only went up to simcity 3000 and didn't try sc4.I thought I was going to have to get crossover linux to run sc4.

thank you very much... I find this very usefull because I hate windows... the only reason I use it is because SC4 is on it.

oh... and GNOME rocks!!! it is very simple and easy to use and wont take up 300 megabytes of ram.

I used kde for a while but know I am kinda using the terminal in full-screen a lot.("Joe" is a text editor - gcc is a c compiler etc... its really not that hard.)

[Chris_k0818 0]

Dorknob60's post was far more helpful then TV-VCR's. Far less complicated and easier to understand. TV-VCR didn't have to freak out and demand it be locked. This should be made into a sticky because it's hard to find and I'm one of those few Simcity users that are running from Linux and needed it.

[Chris_k0818 0]

The only thing now is that it won't work. I'm running from Mint 6 and for some reason windows programs won't open in the archives manager because it thinks they are zipfiles. I try opening it with wine and it just displays, "????1???" and then if I hit cancel it just displays "??????????" and I have to hit "yes" and then nothing...