Game: Cultures
Installer MD5: 8c85d975824e5df43f3e9e657eb158dd setup_cultures_2.1.0.12.exe
WineHQ AppDB link: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=4280
CodeWeavers link: https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/cultures

Distro: Arch Linux 64-bit
Kernel version: 4.9.6-1 Zen
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GT 240M
Graphics driver & version: Proprietary 340.101-10
Wine version(s) tested: Wine 2.1-1 via PlayOnLinux

Install notes: It may show error at the end of GOG installation but ignore it. In order to get the music to work, just add winmm to the Library as (Native, built-in)

How well does it run: Perfectly

Details:
*The game will not save the resolution settings once you quit the game

I find that surprising, as I've used the /debug flag to get around instances where the GOG installer would hang, because it would try to run a .dll installer for something like .NET 4.x (that would itself get stuck because the dependencies it needed wouldn't be there). Perhaps something has changed in the recent revisions of GOG's installers.

At least you got it to work, though. :) And yes, the .NET/Mono requirement seems to be true for all of Paradox's PDS Grand Strategy titles. They aren't strictly necessary to run the game, but may be necessary to run things like mods (as in the case of Sengoku).

I ran this game with Wine today, and was somewhat surprised it didn't have a post yet:

Game: Geneforge 1
Installer MD5: 99143f9144e083bf8d207f92f5182dd7 setup_geneforge_2.1.0.7.exe
WineHQAppDB link: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=2083

Distro: Linux MInt 18.1 (based on Ubuntu 16.04) 64-bit
Kernel version: 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Graphics card: Intel Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics
Graphics driver: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Broadwell GT1
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
Wine version tested: 2.0-staging(x86) via PlayOnLinux 4.2.10


Additional notes: Launch from geneforge.exe. When the game runs, it asks whether to change the resolution, as the original game had a small resolution (the dialog it shows looks like a Wine one, so it probably shows the same under Windows too). Clicking "Change Resolution (Recommended)" works as desired, as the game fullscreens seamlessly and when quitting it returns to desktop seamlessly as well - I presume "Always change resolution" will have this desired result as well. It doesn't have widescreen of course, but that's to be expected, and at any rate it scales pretty well so the letters aren't small at all.

How well does it run: Perfect so far (played for about half an hour, not as a single session). Save/loads as expected, graphics/sound e.t.c all work great.
Sidenote: When I initially tried with Wine 1.8, the right side of text in the popup boxes was cut off slightly, but version 2.0 doesn't present that problem.

Game: Cultures 2 - The Gates of Asgard
Installer MD5: aa8702c2287bd187bf5610c010231b19 setup_cultures2_2.1.0.10.exe
WineHQ AppDB link: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=3871
CodeWeavers link: https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/cultures-2-the-gates-of-asgard

Distro: Arch Linux 64-bit
Kernel version: 4.9.6-1 Zen
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GT 240M
Graphics driver & version: Proprietary 340.101-10
Wine version(s) tested: Wine 2.1-1 via PlayOnLinux

Install notes: It may show error at the end of GOG installation but ignore it. DirectPlay is required in order to join a multiplayer game

How well does it run: Almost Perfectly

Details:

* While the game uses DirectMusic for playing music. It does not work despite having directmusic component installed. Checked other ones and so far the music does not work.
* You can't create a multiplayer game as it will result with an error about "Problems with hosting the game". You can however join the lobby and play.

Oh, oh. Your mesa is really ancient. I recommend switching to the release version.

Game: Bad Mojo Redux
Installer MD5:
aedcb9e57bf5c6e692b889d3c21c4d12 setup_badmojo_2.0.0.3.exe
WineHQ AppDB link: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=3127

Distro: Arch Linux 64 bits
Kernel version: 4.9.7-1
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
Graphics driver & version: Proprietary, v375.26
Wine version tested: Wine v2.0 Staging

Installation: Ran the installer on a clean 64-bit prefix. At the end of the game installation, a pop-up QuickTime installation window appears. Just choose the default options for the 'Typical' installation and you're good to go. (This step could potentially fail on a non-clean prefix with a different version of QuickTime already installed)

How well does it run: Seemingly perfect (only played for 10 minutes, though). Executing the BADMOJO.exe binary will go into full screen mode but the game will only occupy a 800x600px region at the center of the screen. Conversely, executing the launcher.exe binary will change the screen resolution to 800x600px so the game occupies the whole screen, but upon quitting the desktop will remain at that resolution.

It's still ancient. It's really not good that distro doesn't keep Mesa up to date. But I suppose if it doesn't break your games - it's OK. But if you'll encounter some game that doesn't work - consider finding a way to keep Mesa up to date.

You can also build it from source for optional use.

For the reference, it can affect Wine too, not just native games.

I had to "upgrade" mesa a while back (due to ubuntu's mesa being broken) and get updates everday, since I'm now running mesa-git (17.1) and haven't had any problems and the performance is better with the git version than the one Ubuntu Mate comes with.

ubuntu 16.04.2 is scheduled to come out soon (early February iirc). it will have a newer mesa & kernel.
don't know if or how fast that will show up in Mint though.

Just being curious, but what problem did Ubuntu Mate's Mesa had for you? I'm personally using Linux Mint Mate, and I didn't see any problems. Of course our hardware is probably different (I mentioned above both my graphics card and GLX version), but at any rate, if the hardware was similar, there shouldn't be any reason for 2 distros both derived from Ubuntu to behave differently.

It is early February right now, so I guess 16.04.2 will come in mid-February, so the update might come to Mint in early to mid-March at the earliest, judging from the release of new LM versions as opposed to Ubuntu ones (iirc,16.04 was released in April, but LM 18 in July for example)- but that isn't necessarily bad, as they might just be taking their time to ensure that other updates that will come along work correctly...

Hey, nice! I gave up on this a couple of years ago because a part of the text on the right was always cut off. Glad to see that it works now.

On certain games (mostly those I tried on steam), and emulators, the driver that shipped with Ubuntu Mate would only draw part of the screen, I can't remember the precise problem, but was told to upgrade to the newest mesa

If I understand correctly what you say is that it e.g. only showed the center of the game screen and not the edges for example? Such a thing never happened to me then, probably because I don't have steam installed and seldom use emulators other than dosbox and scummvm, but when I last used zsnes and Kega Fusion nothing like this happened as well. Maybe you were just unlucky or I was lucky or something...

Glad this was helpful to you. :-) I was kind of wondering if I should post it in the 1st place, because I hadn't posted on this thread before, and was a bit hesitant as all that info needed made the post a bit more complicated than simply reporting that the game worked with wine 2.0, but your response shows that it was worth it.