Use WINE to Play Windows Games on Linux

When it comes to games, most people are playing games on-line via their tablet or smartphone rather than buying a CD or DVD of the latest electronic game.  Yes, I know there are still board games and sports but those type of games are not going to be covered on this site.  However, for those of you who would like to preserve the legacy of your past favorite games on other non-Linux operating systems, there is a potential solution for you using the WINE Emulator program.  This program will enable you to play a Windows game on your Linux PC.  For this post, I will be using a Hoyle Board game as an example.



Before you can install the Windows game, you need to install the WINE Emulator program.  The WINE Emulator program enables you to run Windows applications on a non-Windows PC.  This program creates a virtual Windows directory on your Linux PC using the Windows File system.  This means that if you download (*.EXE) files, you can use the WINE program to emulate Windows by installing and running Windows programs in your new Windows directory.

Although WINE is available in the Software Manager for Linux Mint and the Software Center for Ubuntu, I recommend following the instructions directly from the WINE website to download the package appropriate for your Linux distribution and to install the WINE program correctly.  The reason why I recommend this is I went through the Software Manager on Linux Mint to install PlayonLinux, which automatically installed both PlayonLinux and WINE but I was unable to get it working without additional steps.  Incidentally, PlayonLinux is the front-end UI for WINE.  I detailed this experience on my Blog post.  To make a long story short, I ended up removing PlayonLinux and WINE, then re-installing WINE from Software Manager and executing additional steps to get it working properly.  "Why did this happen?"  You are probably asking.  Well, it's because the version of WINE I had downloaded from Software Manager was obsolete and there were areas specific to my Laptop hardware that needed to be addressed.  So to save you from enduring my situation, just go straight to the source, the WINE website and follow THEIR instructions.

Once you get WINE working properly, installing a Windows game is a piece of cake.  Make sure you configure WINE for the Windows version your game is designed to run on, locate the Window game Executable file (*.EXE), right click on it and select 'WINE Configuration loader'.   The game will execute the installation process as if you were using a Windows PC.  Here's my Blog post with a Youtube tutorial on the process.