Is there any way to play an old Windows game that requires the disc to be inserted?

[lain11644]

I have an iso file of a very old PC game. The game is not cracked and it requires the disc to be mounted to be played. I read somewhere that I can mount iso files in Linux but there's no way for to emulate this type of DRM, is that true?

[Zef]

Oh for sure, it just needs a little bit more work.

If you don't want to use terminal you can use one of many virtual CD/DVD applications, i used to use CDEMU all the time on my pop os notebook because it not only mounts iso's but also .cue and .bin files.

Check the steam deck app store if CDEMU is available for install, otherwise just search for an alternative application like PowerISO

For anything else you can use Lutris or add the game directly into steam as a nonsteam game.

EDIT: for CDEMU to work you need to disable the read only permissions on steam deck

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/11rtexe/cddrive_emulation_on_the_deck/

[lain11644]

I was able to extract setup.exe from the ISO files and install it in Lutris, but I couldn't figure out how to mount the disc. For some reason PowerISO doesn't have a "mount" button. The other problem is that the game isn't in English so all the text is gibberish. I tried to change Lutris locale but it didn't seem to help.

[Zef]

Originally posted by lain11644:

I was able to extract setup.exe from the ISO files and install it in Lutris, but I couldn't figure out how to mount the disc. For some reason PowerISO doesn't have a "mount" button. The other problem is that the game isn't in English so all the text is gibberish. I tried to change Lutris locale but it didn't seem to help.

You don't need to extract your .ISO's, you mount them.

Either the linux version of PowerISO is outdated or your missing an option, pretty sure there was a GUI mount option in the windows version. You can try Daemon Tools as an other option.

Or try this guide: it's a superbasic tool though, so it won't work with securom and other protection.

https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-mount-iso-steam-deck/

The easiest option by the way would be to get a no cd crack for this game, then you don't need to all this hassle.

Or even better just get a digital copy from "other sources".

For the unreadable text.. if it's anything like japanese visual novels requiring applocale you'll need to edit the etc/locale.gen system file and uncomment the language you need in question.

This is the same on windows though, no way around it, Lutris ain't gonna change the "applocale" for you. Maybe that you can do it with wine or protontricks aswell, it's worth a try.

[lain11644]

You can see here the Linux version of Power ISO doesn't have a mount button. I don't know why. It's supposed to be to the right of the Burn button.
https://www.poweriso.com/download-poweriso-for-linux.htm
I also tried installing CDemu, but I got an error about corrupted package (PGP signature) after entering the installation.

Anyway, the Mount/Unmount tool seemed to work. I got the iso file show up under devices, but I still get the same error when I try to launch the game in Lutris.

There's also the language problem. When I look inside the folders that Lutris created during installation, the names are all gibberish. I think I'll give up here because I could probably finish playing the game on PC by the time I figure this out lol

[@R+5]

Originally posted by lain11644:

I think I'll give up here because I could probably finish playing the game on PC by the time I figure this out lol

have you tried searching if someone else has already checked the exact version of the game you are trying to install?

also, from the little i know, i think that if text is gibberish is probably because you are missing a font file or something else, which means maybe you need to tweak or experiment with wine settings, and or other versions of proton when trying to install the game.

try luck in lutris forums or discord.

[lain11644]

I doubt anyone else has tried to play this game on Steam Deck. It's a niche RPG (Windows version of The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion) only released in Asia around 2000. I managed to find a version that was cracked, and I was able to get into the game by adding it into Steam, but all the texts were question marks. Maybe I'll try Lutris, but I'm not hopeful.

[Zef]

Originally posted by lain11644:

I doubt anyone else has tried to play this game on Steam Deck. It's a niche RPG (Windows version of The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion) only released in Asia around 2000. I managed to find a version that was cracked, and I was able to get into the game by adding it into Steam, but all the texts were question marks. Maybe I'll try Lutris, but I'm not hopeful.

I see that there was a PSP port of this game aswell.

You could save yourself a lot of trouble by running that port on your deck using ppsspp, the resolution and controls already map perfectly to the deck and you can use upscaling and filters aswell.

You can even add it directly into steam with nice cover art using emudeck / steam rom manager.

Unless there are some major differences between the 2 versions.. it's an option.

The "all texts were question marks" is because of missing applocale, you can the following guide (it's a bit outdated but it should still normally work) how to add japanese applocale to steamOS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtiA6GaFIzM

[lain11644]

The PSP version is actually a remake and the reception was not great which is why I'm trying to play the PC version. I'll try the applocale. There are a lot of other Asian games I want to play as well. Thanks!

[RedBaronK™]

I play mostly old games, what I do is install it in windows, apply various patches and whatever, then apply a no-cd crack and copy the entire folder over to steam deck. Then add the exe file as a non steam game and I got multiple games to run this way without issues.

[DankWestern]

There's always the hardest way, buying an external USB physical media drive, burning the ISO file onto a disk, and then inserting the disk into the drive and hoping everything works out.

[Prezidentas]

there were threads about such games already. long story short, you need a nocd crack, which you already found. because you are running a game thru wine, you need wine to fake the disc, mounting it or even plugging a real drive into Linux computer won't do anything. nocd is 0 effort, and gets thing working quick.

[Schorsch Wadschinken]

So unfortunately, there has not been a real solution thus far. Mounting bin/cue doesn't work natively. Mounting isos does work, but after installation games don't believe that a disk is inserted

We were SO CLOSE to having CD Emu on the Steam Deck... it can be installed as a Nix package. I have already done so.

The problem? This: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/154613

If anyone here can tell me (and OP) how I can manually start the Dbus service, which I'm not sure is even installed, then that would finally allow us to play disk-based games on the Steam Deck

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by The Team Fortress 64:

So unfortunately, there has not been a real solution thus far. Mounting bin/cue doesn't work natively. Mounting isos does work, but after installation games don't believe that a disk is inserted

We were SO CLOSE to having CD Emu on the Steam Deck... it can be installed as a Nix package. I have already done so.

The problem? This: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/154613

If anyone here can tell me (and OP) how I can manually start the Dbus service, which I'm not sure is even installed, then that would finally allow us to play disk-based games on the Steam Deck

Okay, you emulate a disc under linux. Then what? Windows games don't care about anything you mount or insert under Linux itself, it needs a fake D: drive that spoonfeeds it cd data.

[Schorsch Wadschinken]

Originally posted by Prezidentas:

Okay, you emulate a disc under linux. Then what? Windows games don't care about anything you mount or insert under Linux itself, it needs a fake D: drive that spoonfeeds it cd data.

Yes, and Proton provides that

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by The Team Fortress 64:

Originally posted by Prezidentas:

Okay, you emulate a disc under linux. Then what? Windows games don't care about anything you mount or insert under Linux itself, it needs a fake D: drive that spoonfeeds it cd data.

Yes, and Proton provides that

You can extract an iso file into a directory, point a fake drive letter to it under wine/proton and it will be the exactly the same thing, since everything is a directory under linux anyways. The problem is that your game has DRM that checks for the disc, it doesn't really care about the files. Have a guess how successful that check will be with a disc mounted in Linux. You need a nocd patch.

Games with bin/cue are in a worse situation, since most likely the reason for this format is included CD audio tracks for music ingame. However, if the game doesn't have any CD audio, you can convert it to iso and just extract it into a directory like a zip file.