Generally runs well in Wine (Geneforge 1 / Ubuntu 11.10 / Gnome classic). However, either the font is too large or the viewport for text is too small (probably the former, though). This causes text to be clipped on the right, and sometimes at the bottom. The right-clipping means that you lose about 15% of the dialog. The bottom clipping maybe prevents you from selling goods? At a minimum, it causes items at the bottom of sales dialogs to be hidden.

A similar problem was reported for GF4 on the Spiderweb forum. I don't know if this problem is present outside of Wine. Any thoughts for solving appreciated.

I have the same problem. Tried a couple of versions of Wine, and it's always the same. I'm stuck too.

But the funny thing is, the font clipping happens only after your character moves. If you copy a dialog in your journal, save the game, exit and start it again, the text will be complete in the journal. Until you move the character. Likewise, if you die and start another character, the intro text will be clipped.

So I don't think the size of the font is the principal problem here. Some kind of transparency something-something, maybe ?

*EDIT* - Oh, and I didn't tried it on my Windows partition yet, but I did on my VirtualBox, and aside from a crazy mouse problem, everything is fine. So I assume the text clipping is completely Wine related.

Oh I wish I'd get it working that far in wine. When I start it I have only a black screen with a green rectangle, an a version number with registered copy in the bottom right corner. Which version of wine do you use to get it running, and does it need some winetricks stuff like DirectX?
I tried it on my Debian testing, so it should be wine version 1.4.1.

Running Wine 1.2.3, completely vanilla, standard apt install for my release. I normally like using a 1024x768 virtual desktop, but that was impossible (mouse X,Y registration was shot; mouse weirdness seems a common report in this series) so I am running full screen.

I figured out the selling (the partially obscured inventory shows little coins next to objects when you interact with a merchant). This was mentioned in the nice always-available help, but in my defense the font issue makes reading the help a chore.

I played a couple more hours with my son, so far only the font is an issue (though sound cut out after saving in three instances, but that was rectified by quitting and reloading). The clipping is really annoying. The game is renowned for it's deep plot, but I have to guess a good chunk of it. I have no idea what my character's resistances are, since they lurk on the far right of the screen, past the Clip Box of Doom. The centerpiece, creature shaping, involves a fair bit of guesswork, since independent text boxes all have their own Doom Zone, and the shaping menu has lots of little text boxes. I lose 30-40% of the creature's description, 70-90% of each attributes description, and all of the creation cost (screen shot attached). Oh, I also lose tab-text for the buttons, so I have to just try them to see what they do.

The lack of voice acting was actually appealing, as I was going to use this to have my son practice reading more advanced vocabulary (you never know when "immolate" or "fetid" could come in handy in first grade), but I think I need to fall back to some of the DosBox games.

I'm getting this same bug and searched the developers' tech support forum thoroughly, but no luck. The various workarounds I found don't work on Linux with Wine. I have posted to their forum asking about it.
http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/278937#Post278937

Hopefully they'll work it out.

Geneforge 2 has the same bug. Geneforge 3 runs better in Wine, with only the first letter of roughly every other line of text disappearing. Loading screen tips are 75% missing, but those aren't too important. Haven't tried 4 or 5 yet.

Glad to know I am not alone in this problem. Running in Ubuntu 12.04 with Wine version 1.4.

I am pretty good at reading in context and such, so I don't miss a lot with the clipping. What is frustrating to me is in the character stats screen. Like above, I have no idea what my resistance is nor can see what the last two magic stats are to know if I want to raise them.

I have been experimenting and will post back if I find a solution.