Proton Experimental fixes up classic EA games and fixes more regressions

By Liam Dawe - 21 March 2024 at 11:44 am UTC

A really fun release of Proton Experimental has landed for Linux and Steam Deck, fixing up some issues with a bunch of classic EA games that recently hit Steam.

For the release dated March 20th the changelog is listed below.

Now Playable:

SimCity 3000 Unlimited.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge.
Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun and Firestorm.

Pictured - Red Alert 2 now running fine.

At last, I can re-live some fond memories with the C&C classics. I grew up playing through all of them, it's so nice that Valve fix up everything possible in Proton to make them all work on Linux. The power of open source in action once again to play what you want on your favourite platform.

Other Fixes and Improvements in this release:

Fixed Proton Experimental regression that made Total War: Three Kingdoms unplayable.
Fixed new prefix failing to initialize on filesystem that do not support copy_file_range systemcall.
Added support for Steamworks SDK 1.59.
Fixed a few 9.0 regressions:
- Carmageddon: Max Damage is playable again.

Proton Hotfix was also just updated but Valve don't seem to keep a formal changelog anywhere, so we'll have to wait for someone at Valve to announce what specific game was needed this time. I suspect it's probable it's for either Dragon's Dogma 2 or Horizon Forbidden West.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Proton, Steam Deck, Misc, Open Source, Steam, Valve

8 Likes

About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
See more from me

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4 comments

d10sfan Mar 21

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Many of these games are now supported in luxtorpeda as well

3 Likes, Who?

ToddL Mar 21

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I'll have to check it out because I tried playing Total War: Three Kingdoms on the Steam Deck and it was a horrible experience but maybe it might be better now.

0 Likes

Anza Mar 21

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Did quick testing and first Command & Conquer doesn't work. It didn't work with previous experimental either and game is unstable with most of the previous Proton versions. Same was with Red Alert which I didn't retest. However, remasters are the same games, but better, so these ones don't matter that much.

Tiberian Sun stars, though starting campaign causes screen to go black. I think it should show a menu, at least I managed to click something that sounded like a button.

Red Alert 2 worked nicely. Played the tutorial without issues.

0 Likes

Marlock Mar 22

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FWIW: if the official game engines refuse to work, then OpenRA (alternative game engine for early C&C series games) seems like it might be a really nice way to play them too

2 Likes, Who?

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