Warcraft 3 on the AA1

Alright, here's how to run Warcraft 3 on an Aspire One.

First things first, you'll need to create an ISO image of a Warcraft 3 disk. It may work by merely copying the data, but I didn't try it. If you do, simply ignore all the steps involving mounting.

My main machine is a Windows XP box, so I used the free program ImgBurn to create an ISO.

http://www.imgburn.com

You're also going to need the latest patch from Blizzard, which just happens to include a No-CD fix.

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21220

Copy the ISO file and the Patch to a Memory Card or USB Key, and insert it in the AA1.

Next you're going to need Wine. If you don't already have it, from a terminal execute:

yum install wine-devel

This should get Wine version 1.1.9 or better.

Now that we have Wine, lets install the game.

Start by mounting the ISO image.

sudo mount -o loop /media/disk-1/Warcraft3.iso /mnt/mountfolder

/mnt/mountfolder must exist as a folder for this to work. Tweak appropriately.

If you became root by using SU, be sure to exit. Otherwise, you'll install the game in root's account, instead of your user account.

Browse to the mount and run the installer.

cd /mnt/mountfolder

wine install.exe

Follow the instructions. Feel free to place it anywhere on your C drive (it's a fake C drive anyways). C:\Warcraft 3, or under Program Files.

Let the install finish, but DON'T START the game yet.

Application installed by wine can be found in your home folder in a hidden directory ".wine/drive_c/".

cd (this goes back to your home folder)

cd .wine/drive_c

cd wherever_you_installed_Warcraft3

The first thing you must do is rename the Movies folder. This is to avoid a startup bug in Wine.

mv Movies/ _Movies/

Next, browse to the memory card or USB stick and install the patch.

cd /media/disk-1/

wine War3ROC_122a_English.exe

Wait a bit, and the patching process will begin.

The patch may start the game at this point, and it may be slow and have glitchy sound. Just exit, and we'll fix this.

First the sound fix.

From a terminal run the Wine Configuration Tool.

winecfg

Go to the Audio page.

Deselect the ALSA driver and select the OSS Driver instead.

Click Ok.

Next the performance.

We need to add a registry key. From a terminal type:

wine regedit

Browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III

From here, were going to add a new DWORD key. Call the key "Gfx OpenGL" (no quotes), and give it a value of 1.

That's it. Browse to your Warcraft 3 folder and run it by executing:

wine Warcraft\ III.exe

Tada, Warcraft 3. You can play with the graphics settings to improve performance. With everything turned off/low and running 800x600, for me it's a very playable looking 20fps or so.