A return to Linux Tech Support

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am trying to install an old favorite game of mine, Sim Coaster, onto my Linux test machine, Derpy Chips. Let’s get started.

As a note, while trying to get this game to play again, I have come across documentation calling it Theme Park Inc. I believe it’s the same game except just outside the US, so in my research, I am paying attention to both titles of the name. On the other hand, this game is not Sim Theme Park.

I believe I have talked about Wine before, but since it’s been a while, Wine is a compatibility layer between Linux and programs meant for Windows; meaning when writing software for a particular OS, you can expect certain chunks of code to be there. Linux would lack any of those “libraries” of code written for Windows, but if something were there to provide the same functionality, the CPU could still run the program.

Now, this all sounds great, but due to the branching version nature of Linux, it is really hard to find the correct, decent help. You might stumble across some workable instruction set right away, or you might goof something badly by following advice meant for the next game or Linux version over.

That’s about where I am with getting Sim Coaster to run right now. WineHQ says it should install and run perfectly (all be it based on a single, old report). I have it installed, but it isn’t working. Apparently, my old favorite has a number of similar enough (and more popular) competing games from the same era that Coaster doesn’t have a dedicated support section.

In an unrelated incident, my Derpy Chips computer lived up to its name, but not the way it earned it. While getting ready to set up a modded MineCraft server for use my my family on Sabbath, the screen zoomed way in, the Unity interface’s side bar taking up a quarter of the screen. The graphical interface was useless; I ended up opening up a terminal and tried to use my Windows machine to look up a fix, the xrandr command. Nothing seemed to come of that, but I swapped around my monitors until I seemingly fixed it, but I ended up giving up in defeat and putting it on the server machine when I put the screens back to their respective computers. (Normally the Windows machine has the HDMI and a smaller screen on DVI, but Derpy Chips gets the DVI when I’m using it.)

After Sabbath, I came back to the Derpy Chips problem to unscramble it, and it was all fixed. NOTHING is more frustrating than an evasive solution that comes on its own, at least for now.

Final Question: Have you ever gotten something working on you when it shouldn’t?

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GAAAA! Zoomed in interface is back!

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