Outcast is a PC video game from 1999 by the now bankrupt Appeal, and was distributed by Infrogrames. At the time it was Windows-only, but today you can get your retro-fix on Linux thanks to developments with WINE.

Here are instructions on how to get Outcast working in Ubuntu Hardy Heron, although you will not have too much trouble transferring them to other distros:

Installing WINE: You will need a patched version of WINE 1.1.0 in order to fix the mouse-look problem. This problem affects other games, too. Fortunately, the patch adds an optional ENV flag, so you will not affect your other WINE applications with it.

1. Install the build-dependencies and patching utility:

2. Download the WINE 1.1.0 source to your HOME directory "~/" and extract it:

3. Download this patch (original post) to your HOME directory and apply it:

4. Compile WINE. This will take a long time!

5. Configure WINE:

Installing Outcast: The following guide presumes you own a genuine copy of the game. You should be able to pick it up in most bargain-bins for about £5 these days.

1. Insert Disc 1.

2. Preparation: There exists a bug in the installer on the CD-ROM which, on a modern Windows system and even through WINE, will cause the game to be immediately uninstalled after completing DirectX tests. Appeal released a new installer to fix this, but it is not necessary to use it.

To get around the bug you simply need to delete the Uninst.isu file that is created during installation. You should keep a second terminal-window open so you can do this easily:



3. After installation you will need to modify the shortcuts that start the game. The default shortcuts run this command:

Change them to this:

The WINEFORCEMOUSEWARP option was introduced in the WINE-patch you applied earlier. You can use it to fix other games that have problems with mouse-look (there are many!)

4. Download the Zip-file outcast_loader.zip from this page. Extract the contents to "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Outcast/oc"

5. That's it! Insert Disc 2 and run the game!

Post-installation notes:

1. The winecfg option "Graphics > Allow the window manager to control the windows" prevents you from using the Escape-key to stop the credits when you want to exit the game. You can disable this option to allow you to exit the game quickly, but this will affect other in-game buttons (the save-game button F2 will no longer work, for example.) The workaround is to wait for the credits to finish, or ALT+Escape back to your desktop, open a terminal-window and run wineserver -k to kill the game. Unfortunately this will leave your desktop in a low-resolution, and it is tricky to change it back.

2. It is written elsewhere that you will need to use a native amstream.dll file to run the game properly. I found this was not necessary, but you do need to make sure you configure WINE to emulate Windows 98.