Infinity Engine games on GOG show up as having Linux native?!

[deuxhero]

I was checking my GOG library by system for Linux native games and I noticed that "Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga" , "Baldur's Gate 2 Complete", and Planescape Torment all have Linux listed. This is separate from the Beamdog versions (the BG1 and BG2 EE that I got free from an Amazon Prime promo are listed separately and I don't have PSTEE at all). I can't find anything on these releases at all. Everything I find suggests Linux support (which is apparently broken for the PSTEE) was a new feature of the EEs. Any idea what's with these? Are they bundled with GemRB or something?

 

[OSK]

I was checking my GOG library by system for Linux native games and I noticed that "Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga" , "Baldur's Gate 2 Complete", and Planescape Torment all have Linux listed. This is separate from the Beamdog versions (the BG1 and BG2 EE that I got free from an Amazon Prime promo are listed separately and I don't have PSTEE at all). I can't find anything on these releases at all. Everything I find suggests Linux support (which is apparently broken for the PSTEE) was a new feature of the EEs. Any idea what's with these? Are they bundled with GemRB or something?

https://af.gog.com/forum/baldurs_ga...aga_and_baldurs_gate_2_complete?as=1649904300

It looks like it was just bundled with (a now ancient version of) Wine.

 

[deuxhero]

Thanks.

 

[Melcar]

They are just the original Windows versions with a wine wrapper. It's a very old wine version too, so no idea if they would still work on current distros.

 

[ds]

Bundling games with Wine is a complete waste of time. If the game really needs Wine-specific workarounds (most don't) they can just include those in the normal installer. This shit just makes it harder to see which games have real Linux ports.

 

[Maxie]

Bundling games with Wine is a complete waste of time. If the game really needs Wine-specific workarounds (most don't) they can just include those in the normal installer. This shit just makes it harder to see which games have real Linux ports.

This Linux thing sounds like a real vile waste of time

 

[ds]

This Linux thing sounds like a real vile waste of time

We already know you got filtered, no need to tell us again.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I run the BG EEs native on Linux. I don't get any WINE dialogue boxes when they load. That could just be my ignorance. While I have been running 100% linux since 2020 I'm still a novice. I'm using Solus 4 OS.

 

[ds]

The EEs are native, classics are not (but work well under Wine/Proton).

 

[Melcar]

Bundling games with Wine is a complete waste of time. If the game really needs Wine-specific workarounds (most don't) they can just include those in the normal installer. This shit just makes it harder to see which games have real Linux ports.

Those were the originals, before the EEs were even a thing. The originals did not have Linux ports, so bundling them with wine was the next best thing. This also avoided the issue of a distro's own wine version not working for whatever reason (a very frequent problem as wine is constantly updating). In those days GOG seemed to be more interested in providing some level of Linux compatibility for their games I guess, because it was pretty nice of them to provided such a build. Nowadays they just provide Linux support as is. If it works ok, if it doesn't too bad, just use the Windows version and figure it out yourself.