Battlefield 1942 & Mods Guide

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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.

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

Downloading Wine
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Extracting

Downloading Gecko
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Installed
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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
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PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install
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Click "Install a non-listed program"
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Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next
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Name the virtual drive: battlefield1942
Click Next
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Check all three options:
  • Use another versions of Wine
  • Configure Wine
  • Install some libraries
Click Next
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Select Wine 1.8.4
Click Next
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Select "32-bits windows installation"
Click Next
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Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows version: Windows 7
Click Apply
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Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Click OK
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PlayOnLinux Packages (DLL's, Components, Libraries)

Check the following:
  • POL_Install_corefonts
  • POL_Install_d3dx9
  • POL_Install_tahoma
Click Next
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Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Battlefield 1942

Select "Select another file"
Click Next
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Navigate to the folder on your Desktop
Select "Setup.exe"
Click Open
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Click Next again

Click OK
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Click Next
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Check the features you want to install
Click Next
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Enter KEY
Click OK
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Click OK
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Check "No, install GameSpyArace later"
Click Next
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Click Next
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Uncheck "Create shortcut to Battlefield 1942 on desktop"
Uncheck "View the readme file"
Click Finish
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Click Register Later
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Click OK
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PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "BF1942.exe"
Click Next
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Name the shortcut: Battlefield 1942
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make anothe shortcut"
Click Next
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PlayOnLinux Configure

Select "Battlefield 1942"
Click Configure
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General Tab
Wine Version: 1.8.4
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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
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Close Configure

Launching Battlefield 1942

Select Battlefield 1942
Click Run
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Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Optimization

Click Options
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Click Video
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Adjust:
  • Display Mode
  • Graphics Quality
  • Effects Quality
  • Environment Mapping
  • Lightmaps
  • Shadows
  • Texture Quality
  • View Distance
Click Save
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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
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Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
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Navigate to the Battlefield 1942 1.6.19 patch
Click Open
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Click OK

Click Next

Select "Install Punkbuster"
Click Next

Click Yes

Click Finish

Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
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Navigate to the Battlefield 1942 1.61b patch
Click Open
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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"
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Navigate to the Desert Combat installer
Click Open
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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"
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Click Browse
Click Next
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Click Browse
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Navigate to:
Code:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/battlefield1942/drive_c/Program Files/EA GAMES/Battlefield 1942
Select BF1942.exe
Click Open

Click Next again
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Name the shortcut: Desert Combat
Click Next
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Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next
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General Tab
Select "Desert Combat"
Arguments: +restart 1 +game DesertCombat
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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:
 
Thanks! Battlefield 1942 is a classic and should live on in any operating system. I'm happy that it runs in PlayOnLinux/Wine without any issues
 
BF1942 work well Debian 8, but not good Debian 9 also Linuxmint 18
sometimes freeze 1 sec or less...
 
Welcome to our humble forum someone!
I tested BF1942 recently with newer "stable" versions of Wine: 2.0.2
You should also try 2.0.3 as well. If necessary, try creating a whole new virtual drive and install the game from scratch again.
 
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