Linux Mint, Wine, And Games

[JNAProductions]

So, I've been itch.io lately, and got some neat games. One of the games had a demo-I downloaded it, it played fine, and it was fun.

I decide to support the creators and drop some dough on their patreon. I get access to a more updated version of the game, and it doesn't work. I try the old demo, doesn't work now either.

I reinstall Wine-nothing.
I reinstall Linux entirely, then Wine. Nothing.

Anyone able to offer tech support to get it running?

[Whoracle]

Which game? What's the error message? How do you launch the game - CLI or shortcut? Is it supposed to work via wine (officially or via WineDB)?

[JNAProductions]

Which game? What's the error message? How do you launch the game - CLI or shortcut? Is it supposed to work via wine (officially or via WineDB)?

Adventures Of Kincaid. Can't link it, content not appropriate for this board.
I double click the .exe file for the game. (And it is flagged as being able to be executed as a program.)
And I don't know for sure if it's officially supporting Wine, but others have gotten it working with Wine, so...

What is WineDB?

Also, forgot to say, thank you a ton for helping!

[Whoracle]

https://appdb.winehq.org is a user curated database of games and their status running on wine, including some fixes and workarounds on how to get some games working. Always worth to check it.

Now, onto the problem at hand: Please open a terminal, navigate to the folder containing the .exe (you seem like you already know this, but better safe than sorry: type "cd ~/PATH/TO/CONTAINING/FOLDER", then ENTER). Once there, run the exe in the terminal to catch error output via "./NAME_OF_EXE.exe". Once it crashes, paste the last say 20 or 30 lines in a code block in here. We'll go from there.

Always glad to help. However: As a full-time Linux user that loves his fiddly Arch Linux to bits and manages Linux servers professionally: I've long since ditched gaming under Linux, except when the developers or storefronts say they support it, i.e. if it's Linux-capable according to Steam or GOG. Fiddling with Wine was always a pain, and I managed to do my gaming in a VM with my GPU passed through. So we'll see how far we can push this, but no guarantees.

[JNAProductions]

I open the Terminal from the folder containing "kincaid.exe".

I tried several commands, and the only one that seemed to do anything was "./kincaid.exe"

It tells me: "cannot execute binary file: Exec format error"

I'm assuming that's the issue. But how do fix?

And, for reference, I am no good at programming. I just switched to Linux because Windows stopped working on my laptop, so by all means, explain in great detail like I know nothing.

[Whoracle]

OK, that's something to go on with. Basically, what WINE says is: "This Executable is not for me" - Most likely because a mismatch between WINE and the exe. My first guess would be the patreon exe is 64 bit and your WINE is 32 bit or vice versa.

So, again in a terminal, copy and run the following commands and paste the output here, please. I'll explain what the commands do after the copy&paste list, so prolly read that first, because I'm a stranger on the internet and all that...
file -L $(which wine)
file kincaid.exe
sudo dpkg -l | grep wine

Best to literally COPY the lines instead of typing them yourself, especially with the "sudo dpkg" one, due to it containing a lowercase "L" as well as a "Pipe".

And here's what it does:
file lets you know details about a given file - if it's binary data, a text file, a PDF or an executable. In the case of an exe it will tell yout the "bittiness", for lack of a better word, i.e. if it's 32 or 64 bit. Example on my system for the two commands:
file -L $(which wine): /usr/bin/wine: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=e749ad8ab05d6750d60a92693fa5238f6cee44df, for GNU/Linux 4.4.0, stripped
file some_windows_exe_from_my_downloads_folder.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

This tells me that both my WINE and the exe in question are 32 bit - PE32 is what that means on the 2nd line.

Now, the sudo dpkg -l | grep wine stuff does the following:
sudo - run with root privileges
dpkg -l - list all installed packages
| (a "pipe" character) - forward the output of the left command to the input of the right command
grep wine - show only those lines containing the string "wine"

[JNAProductions]

Wine is 32 bit.

The second command didn't do anything-it returned "kincaid.exe: cannot open `kincaid.exe' (No such file or directory)" but I believe Kincaid is 64 bit.

[Whoracle]

Should have told you to run the 2nd "file" command from the directory where kincaid.exe is located, my bad.

Run the check, and then we'll see further, but here's my guess: Your system is configured to launch .exe with the wine 32 bit executable, the pre-patreon kincaid.exe was 32 bit. You _should_ have (maybe) a 64 bit wine executable on your system - the "dpkg" stuff will confirm that. If not, we'll install it and afterwards you can start the kincaid.exe via wine64 or whatever the binary is. But one thing at a time.

Please verify that kinkaid.exe actually IS 64 bit, and if you've got a 64-bit wine installed.

[JNAProductions]

Should have told you to run the 2nd "file" command from the directory where kincaid.exe is located, my bad.

Run the check, and then we'll see further, but here's my guess: Your system is configured to launch .exe with the wine 32 bit executable, the pre-patreon kincaid.exe was 32 bit. You _should_ have (maybe) a 64 bit wine executable on your system - the "dpkg" stuff will confirm that. If not, we'll install it and afterwards you can start the kincaid.exe via wine64 or whatever the binary is. But one thing at a time.

Please verify that kinkaid.exe actually IS 64 bit, and if you've got a 64-bit wine installed.

kincaid.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

That's the response for "file kincaid.exe"

And I do not know if I have 64 bit Wine installed. I used this tutorial to get it.

[Whoracle]

Huh. OK, both are 32 bit then. There goes that theory. OK, lemme dig a bit deeper. I'll be back once I find another angle.

Edit: Just got another Idea. What if you somehow got wine64, and the exe is linked to be started with that? To check, do the following:
Open the Terminal in the folder containing kincaid.exe, and run "wine kincaid.exe" - what does that say?

[factotum]

Suggestion: do you have a Steam account? If so, it might be worth installing Steam, then adding this game as a non-Steam game that launches via the Steam runtime--that way, you can run it via Steam's Proton emulation, which may well work better than vanilla Wine does.

[JNAProductions]

Suggestion: do you have a Steam account? If so, it might be worth installing Steam, then adding this game as a non-Steam game that launches via the Steam runtime--that way, you can run it via Steam's Proton emulation, which may well work better than vanilla Wine does.

I've never tried that.

Luckily, though, I somehow got it working. I'm not clear on what the issue was either, but regardless, it works now.

Thank you all for your assistance! It's very much appreciated. :)