Want to rediscover an old favourite game?

Day 1
JPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek MartinJPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek Martin
JPCT 150713 Alan Stainer. Photo by Derek Martin

Dear Diary,

My boy asked to play an old computer game today. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. I used to play it loads when I first got it for my Windows XP PC. It’ll be fun having it running again.

Day 2

Dear Diary,

Well, the game isn’t going so well. It turns out it doesn’t like Windows 7 so much, although reading things online I have been assured it should run. I think Windows updates may be causing the old software some glitches.

Day 3

Dear Diary,

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Despite doing what everyone says, compatibility mode doesn’t appear to make any difference. The game still crashes lots and is basically unplayable. Perhaps I will try running Windows XP as a virtual machine and see if it runs any better that way…

Day 4

Dear Diary,

Well, I have Windows XP running in VirtualBox on both my Windows 7 and Ubuntu PCs. The VMs seem to work, although the graphics are a bit glitchy. The other oddity is I cannot get the XBox 360 controller to work with either of the VMs. There must be something obvious I haven’t done…

Day 5

Dear Diary,

I had a eureka moment today. Desperate times often require desperate measures, so I resorted to a bit of wine. That’s Windows Emulator, not the drink! I installed Wine on my Ubuntu PC and then the game. Perfect! Not a crash in sight and the controller works!

Day 32

Dear Diary,

I need some real wine now. I can’t get my boy off my PC and we only have one controller!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Who would have thought you could run a Windows program on Ubuntu better than on Windows? Well, you really can. It does depend on the program in question, as some may not run at all through Wine, but you do stand a good chance of having success. The story above is a true one by the way and will likely see me investing in a second controller before the year is out.