Space Quest 1: The Sarien Encounter

What works

Installing, running, playing.  I did not need to change dosbox.conf to make this run perfectly.

What does not

Nothing tested.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Sound sometimes plays a wrong note; however, cannot tell if this is the game or Wine.  Other apps sound fine in Wine.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Problems after install have to do with an old DOSBox version - NOT the game itself. See HOWTO below.

The Space Quest Collection "works under Windows XP" by using Windows DOSBox.  However, the CD installer installs an old version of DOSBox which is not compatible with Wine.  These are instructions for how to fix that, plus a slowdown issue caused by a setting in the default .conf file.

1.  Install Space Quest via the autorun.exe file in the Space Quest Collection CD.  This installer SHOULD complete without any issues.

PLEASE NOTE:  After installing the collection, you can actually opt to play the games themselves with native Linux DOSBox via their SCIDHUV.EXE files in the respective folders.  However, I found that patching and configuring Wine ended up being easier overall.

2.  Install the Space Quest Collection patch found at the bottom of this page.  It is recommended that you simply let the installer download and install the latest version of Windows DOSBox.  ScummVM is not technically required but it is recommended, as the Space Quest II ScummVM version's music is superior to its DOSBox counterpart.

3.  Feel free to test out the game at this point, as it should work.  However, for me there was a massive amount of lag in playing the game.  If you also experience it, you can fix it by changing one line in the dosbox.conf file in the Space Quest 1 folder. (path should look like: /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Sierra/Space Quest Collection(TM)/sq1vga/dosbox.conf)  Simply find the line:

aspect=true

And change it to:

aspect=false

You can also find other settings here and you are free to change them as you please.  As always, it is recommended you make a backup file before implementing drastic changes.