Battlefield 1942 is the original WWII vehicular combat first person shooter featureing maps from Europe and Japan. Select from several classes on foot or hop in a tank, plane, boat or jeep and flank the enemy. There are also literally hundreds of mods and total conversions.



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Battlefield 1942 in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Retail version of Battlefield 1942. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 17.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.10
Wine: 1.8.4

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.8.4
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.8.4 is installed and you can close this window

Copy Disk Data

Before you install Battlefield 1942
Create a new folder on your Desktop
Enter Disk1 and copy every into the new folder
Then copy all of the .cab files from the remaining Disks


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name the virtual drive: battlefield1942
Click Next


Check all three options:

• Use another versions of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine 1.8.4
Click Next


Select "32-bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Click OK


PlayOnLinux Packages (DLL's, Components, Libraries)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Battlefield 1942

Select "Select another file"
Click Next


Navigate to the folder on your Desktop
Select "Setup.exe"
Click Open


Click Next again

Click OK


Click Next


Check the features you want to install
Click Next


Enter KEY
Click OK


Click OK


Check "No, install GameSpyArace later"
Click Next


Click Next


Uncheck "Create shortcut to Battlefield 1942 on desktop"
Uncheck "View the readme file"
Click Finish


Click Register Later


Click OK


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "BF1942.exe"
Click Next


Name the shortcut: Battlefield 1942
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make anothe shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Battlefield 1942"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine Version: 1.8.4


Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Battlefield 1942

Select Battlefield 1942
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click Options


Click Video


Adjust:

• Display Mode
• Graphics Quality
• Effects Quality
• Environment Mapping
• Lightmaps
• Shadows
• Texture Quality
• View Distance

Click Save


Note: The changes will not be immediately applied until you load a map

Patches and Mods

At this point you can play Vanilla Battlefield 1942 without any patches.
If you want to play any mods, the official patches need to be applied.

Battlefield 1942 1.6.19 Patch
http://www.fileplanet.com/112888/110000/fileinfo/Battlefield:-1942-v1.6.19-Patch-
or
http://www.moddb.com/games/battlefield-1942/downloads/battlefield-1942-v16-patch

Battlefield 1942 1.61b Patch
http://www.fileplanet.com/148134/140000/fileinfo/Battlefield:-1942-v1.6---v1.61b-Patch
or
http://www.moddb.com/games/battlefield-1942/downloads/battlefield-1942-v161-patch

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Battlefield 1942
Click Configure


Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"


Navigate to the Battlefield 1942 1.6.19 patch
Click Open


Click OK

Click Next

Select "Install Punkbuster"
Click Next

Click Yes

Click Finish

Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"


Navigate to the Battlefield 1942 1.61b patch
Click Open


Click OK

Click Next

Click Finish

Desert Combat Installation

Download the installer
http://www.moddb.com/mods/desert-combat-07/downloads/desert-combat-07
or
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5060.shtml

Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"


Navigate to the Desert Combat installer
Click Open


Click Next

Select "I agree to the terms..."
Click Next

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 1942
Click Next

Shortcut Folder
Click Next

Summary
Click Next

Shortcut on Desktop?
Click No

Click Finish

PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Back to Configure
General Tab
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"


Click Browse
Click Next


Click Browse


Navigate to:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/battlefield1942/drive_c/Program Files/EA GAMES/Battlefield 1942

Select BF1942.exe
Click Open

Click Next again


Name the shortcut: Desert Combat
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


General Tab
Select "Desert Combat"
Arguments: +restart 1 +game DesertCombat


Now you can launch Desert Combat Mod

Conclusion:
Both Battlefield 1942 and Desert Combat ran GREAT. The only issues I had was changing maps because the menu is 800x600, the game had a hard time changing resolution back to 1280x960 and would crash. The solution is to use the Virtual Desktop in Wine Configuration and set it to 1280x960. Unfortunately you can only play multi-player on a Local LAN configuration.

Gameplay Video: