De Blob was a college project http://blob.oogst3d.net created by Joost van Dongen and 8 students where the goal was to make the city of Utrecht in 10 years. Play as an alient blob who can absorb colorful residents and paint this grey city. Collect coins, find secret areas and earn points by painting various popular locations in Utrecht. Just be careful to avoid the ink police!



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing De Blob (Free) in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Tips & Specs:

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

Mint 18.2 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.12
Wine: 2.0.2

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 2.0.2
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 2.0.2 is installed and you can close this window

Download De Blob

Go to:
https://de-blob.en.softonic.com/

http://www.download-free-games.com/freeware_games/the_blob.htm

Download "The Blob (English).exe"
Save it to your Desktop

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Select "New virtual drive"
Click Next


Name the virtual drive: deblob
Click Next


Check all three options:

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

Click Next


Select Wine 2.0.2
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply


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


PlayOnLinux Packages (DLL's, Libraries, Components)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next


Click Browse


Navigate to your Desktop
Select "The Blob (English).exe"
Click Open


Click Next again

Click Install


Click Close


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "De Blob.exe"
Click Next


Name the shortcut: De Blob
Click Next


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


PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "De Blob"
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 2.0.2
Arguments: EN


Note: Make sure to enter EN otherwise it will default to the Dutch version. Also 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


Crash Hack

Blob will crash every time unless you edit the following files

Navigate to the Blob Menus directory
Path:

Code:

/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/deblob/drive_c/Program Files/De Blob/Blob EN/Assets/Menus

Copy/paste "CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"


Now you should have a "CreditsMenu_EN(copy).overlay"


Rename it to "00_CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"


Open the original "CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"
Cut the three lines at the top that starts with "Template element TextArea"
Save "CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"


Open "00_CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"
Delete everything in the file and paste those three lines
Save "00_CreditsMenu_EN.overlay"


Done!
The goal is to move the template element TextArea code to the new 00_ file which will fix the crashing error.

Launching Blob
Select "De Blob"
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Video Options

Click Options


Adjust:

• Sound
• Music
• Resolution
• Graphic Quality

Conclusion:
Once I learned about the menu text area hack from WineHQ.org the game ran perfectly. I didn't have any futhur problems or crashes. It ran in 1920x1080 on my GTX 1060 and GTX 950 without any issues. Its actually a really fun and challenging game for all ages.

Gameplay Video:


Screenshots: