NovaLogic F-16 Multirole Fighter Playable Demo Linux Wrapper 🔸 🍷

Copy the game distribution's self-extracting InstallShield installation executable from a CD to the hard drive:

$ sudo mount /dev/cdrom ./mnt
mount: /home/<username>/mnt: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only.
$
$ mount
...
/dev/sr0 on /home/<username>/mnt type iso9660 (ro,relatime,norock,check=r,map=n,blocksize=2048)
$
$ cp -vR ./mnt/novalogic .
'./mnt/novalogic' -> './novalogic'
'./mnt/novalogic/f16demo' -> './novalogic/f16demo'
'./mnt/novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe' -> './novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe'
$
$ sudo umount ./mnt
$
$ eject

---

• Wrapper-Launcher

1. Download the wine package along with all its necessary dependencies as Pacman proposes to do that, but do not install any of them including Wine itself (supposing the host OS is Arch Linux):

$ sudo pacman -Syw wine
:: Synchronizing package databases...
...
resolving dependencies...

Packages (6) lib32-gettext-0.22.5-1  lib32-libnl-3.11.0-1  lib32-libpcap-1.10.5-2  lib32-libxkbcommon-1.8.0-1  lib32-libxrandr-1.5.4-1
             wine-10.1-1

Total Download Size:  218.34 MiB

:: Proceed with download? [Y/n]
...
$
$ ls -al /var/cache/pacman/pkg/wine-10.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 227293025 Feb  8 12:33 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/wine-10.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

2. Create a directory where to extract the wine package and do extract it there:

$ mkdir wine && cd wine && tar -xf /var/cache/pacman/pkg/wine-10.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
$
$ ls -al
total 252
drwxr-xr-x  3 <username> <usergroup>   4096 Feb 15 18:20 .
drwx------ 11 <username> <usergroup>  12288 Feb 15 18:20 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 <username> <usergroup>  14401 Feb  8 12:25 .BUILDINFO
-rw-r--r--  1 <username> <usergroup>    202 Feb  8 12:25 .INSTALL
-rw-r--r--  1 <username> <usergroup> 212048 Feb  8 12:25 .MTREE
-rw-r--r--  1 <username> <usergroup>   3529 Feb  8 12:25 .PKGINFO
drwxr-xr-x  7 <username> <usergroup>   4096 Feb  8 12:25 usr

It is possible trying to run the game distribution's self-extracting InstallShield installation executable as is and check it out using the file command to make sure it is in fact a Windows PE32 executable:

$ ls -al ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup> 25469793 Dec  3  2019 ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe
$
$ ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe
bash: ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error
$
$ file ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe
../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows, InstallShield self-extracting archive, 5 sections

3. From now on the use of Wine is required to launch the installation. During launching of Wine it may probably ask to install Wine Mono and Wine Gecko support libraries — discard them anyway and ignore any errors like the following ones, printed out to the console:

$ ./usr/bin/wine ../novalogic/f16demo/f16demo.exe
003c:err:service:process_send_start_message service L"PlugPlay" failed to start
003c:fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"PlugPlay" failed to start: 1053
0188:fixme:msg:pack_message msg 14 (WM_ERASEBKGND) not supported yet
0188:err:winediag:gnutls_process_attach failed to load libgnutls, no support for encryption
0188:err:winediag:process_attach failed to load libgnutls, no support for pfx import/export
002c:err:setupapi:do_file_copyW Unsupported style(s) 0x10
002c:err:setupapi:do_file_copyW Unsupported style(s) 0x10
0068:err:setupapi:do_file_copyW Unsupported style(s) 0x10
002c:err:setupapi:do_file_copyW Unsupported style(s) 0x10
0068:err:setupapi:do_file_copyW Unsupported style(s) 0x10
01d0:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
01d0:err:sync:RtlpWaitForCriticalSection section 781439E0 "../wine/dlls/krnl386.exe16/syslevel.c: Win16Mutex" wait timed out in thread 01d0, blocked by 01d4, retrying (60 sec)
01dc:err:seh:dispatch_user_callback ignoring exception c0000005
01dc:err:seh:dispatch_user_callback ignoring exception c0000005
01dc:err:seh:dispatch_user_callback ignoring exception c0000005

The game will be installed into the ~/.wine/drive_c/f16/ directory (which can be manually specified in one of the installer GUI dialogs):

$ cd ~/.wine/drive_c/f16/
$
$ ls -al
total 45232
drwxr-xr-x 2 <username> <usergroup>     4096 Feb 15 19:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 8 <username> <usergroup>     4096 Jul 26  2019 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      193 Jul 26  2019 APP.INI
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>     5285 Sep 15  1998 Appstr.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      264 Sep 28  1998 Browser.htm
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       50 Sep 14  1998 Censor.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       28 Sep 17  1998 checkftp.bat
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup> 30861914 Sep 29  1998 Common.pff
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      234 Aug  5  1998 F16.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>  1627136 Sep 29  1998 f16demo.exe
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>  1317600 Sep 23  1998 F16demo.sbf
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       17 Aug 20  2019 F16.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>    17194 Sep 28  1998 F16.inp
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       16 Sep 28  1998 F16.key
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup> 10639469 Sep 29  1998 F16.pff
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      652 Sep 28  1998 F16.sav
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>     4133 Aug 18  1998 F16.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       84 Sep 29  1998 F16.wiz
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>    97280 Sep 16  1998 Hw_3dfx.dll
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>   921656 Aug 31  1998 Init.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>     3508 Sep  8  2019 _inptmap.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>   277776 Nov  3  1997 Msvcrt.dll
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>    17920 Aug 24  1998 Netsock.dll
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      584 Aug 20  2019 novaftp.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>   102912 Sep  8  1998 Novawrld.exe
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>    11897 Apr 15  1998 Nwlogo.pcx
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>    74240 Sep 23  1998 Pack.exe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>    31744 Feb 19  1998 Respack.exe
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>    29696 Apr  2  1998 Revupdat.exe
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      264 Sep 28  1998 Startup.htm
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>      961 Apr 15  1998 Texture.pcx
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>     5320 Feb 15 19:07 Uninst.isu
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       20 Sep 14  1998 Updated.pff
-rwxr-xr-x 1 <username> <usergroup>   160256 Sep 11  1998 Update.exe
-rw-r--r-- 1 <username> <usergroup>       84 Sep 29  1998 Update.wiz

4. Since the main game executable f16demo.exe is in fact a Windows PE32 executable...

$ file f16demo.exe
f16demo.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows, 6 sections

...it needs to be launched using Wine:

$ ~/wine/usr/bin/wine f16demo.exe
001c:err:plugplay:load_function_driver AddDevice failed for driver L"winebus", status 0xc0000002.
0016:err:ntoskrnl:ZwLoadDriver failed to create driver L"\\Registry\\Machine\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\nsiproxy": c0000142
000f:fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"nsiproxy" failed to start: 1114
0016:err:ntoskrnl:ZwLoadDriver failed to create driver L"\\Registry\\Machine\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\NDIS": 00000001
000f:fixme:service:scmdatabase_autostart_services Auto-start service L"NDIS" failed to start: 731

Wrapper-Launcher

There is a special helper script in the utils/ directory that launches the installed game in the background redirecting all the possible execution errors to /dev/null. It might be considered handy since it suppresses unwanted output to the console:

$ ./utils/f-16-game-launch
=== Launching the NovaLogic F-16 Multirole Fighter Playable Demo...
$

Selective screenshots from installation to playing to exiting the game can be observed in the static/img/screenshots/ directory.

Playing Well — Flying Smart ! ✈️