QFG2 on Steam Deck

[veggiesama]

Hello! It's 2024 and time to replay the entire Quest for Glory series again (including AGD's QFG2), this time on my Steam Deck. Running old games on Linux can be challenging but I wanted to share what I figured out. Maybe others will benefit.

Requirements

• Windows PC (I'm on Win-11)
• Steam Deck
• SD Card (maybe)
• I'm not using ScummVM

Prepare the installation folder
These steps are necessary to update the game engine and fix certain speed-related issues (see this thread) :

1. Install QFG2 (AGD) to Windows PC - https://www.agdinteractive.com/games/qf ... loads.html
2. Install Adventure Game Studio 3.6.1 - https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/ags/
3. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Adventure Game Studio 3.6.1\
4. Copy acwin.exe and SDL2.dll
5. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\AGD Interactive\Quest for Glory II\
6. Paste acwin.exe and SDL2.dll
7. Rename Qfg2vga.exe to Qfg2vga(backup).exe
8. Rename acwin.exe to Qfg2vga.exe

Copy to Steam Deck
Copy the contents of this folder to your Steam Deck. There are a million ways to do this: I use a network shared folder, but you could also use an SD card or simply zip it and dump it on Google Drive.

Add to Steam

1. On your Steam Deck, press the Steam button.
2. Select Power > Switch to Desktop.
3. Open Dolphin (file browser app).
4. Navigate to the folder you copied over. My folder is: /home/deck/Games/QFG2 (AGD)/
5. Right-click on Launcher.exe and select Add to Steam.
6. Open Steam and go to your Library.
7. Find the entry for Launcher.exe. Right click and select Properties.
8. On the Shortcut tab, rename it to QFG2 (and fix icons/art as you need).
9. On the Compatibility tab, select "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool." Select Proton Experimental.
10. While in desktop mode, launch the game from Steam.

Adjust Settings
I use these settings on the Steam Deck so that the pixels are clean without anti-aliasing/interpolating:

1. On the launcher, select Settings.
2. Set Driver to Direct3D 9.
3. Check Start in a windowed mode.
4. Set Fullscreen mode to 1280x800.
5. Uncheck Fullscreen as a borderless window.
6. Set Fullscreen scale to Max round multiplier.
7. Set Windowed scale to Max round multiplier.
8. Set Scaling method to Nearest-neighbor.
9. Click Save and Run. (Playing the game now will build the folders that Proton needs to store saved games.)
10. Close the game after it gets to the main menu.

Import your QFG1 hero
You could start playing now, but I assume you want to import your hero first:

1. On the launcher, select Settings.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Check Custom games saves path.
4. Check Custom game shared data path.
5. For BOTH paths, click ... to select a location. Locate C: > users > steamuser > Saved Games > Quest for Glory II, select it, and click OK.
6. Open a new Dolphin window. Navigate to /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata
7. Sort the folder by Modified so that the most recently modified folders appear at the top. For me, the folder name has the ID number "4109750996," but for you it is probably different. This is the folder that represents the virtual file system for your install of QFG2.
8. Navigate to /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/<the ID number>/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Saved Games/Quest for Glory II/
9. Copy the address bar so we can paste it later.
10. Return to Dolphin and open the QFG2 folder you created (for me, it's still /home/deck/Games/QFG2 (AGD)/).
11. Right click and select Create New > Link to File or Directory.
12. Set the name to "Saved Games".
13. Paste the file path you copied earlier into the 2nd field and click OK.
14. You now have a convenient link to the QFG2 saved games folder.
15. Copy your QFG1 hero save ("GLORY.SAV") to the Saved Games folder. It will now appear in-game.

Fix the Performance

1. Return to Game Mode.
2. Launch the game.
3. Press the ... button and open the Performance tab.
4. Check Disable Frame Limit or you will be locked to 60 FPS. Now you can control the Game Speed with the in-game slider. The Game Speed acts like a frame limiter already, and the slider allows the game to run between 20 and 160 FPS. However, during combat, the FPS locks to 135 no matter what the Game Speed is. The Combat Difficulty slider has no effect on FPS but it does add more delay between animations.
5. I played at 80-90% Game Speed and 50% Combat Difficulty. On top of that, I used a Steam Controller to simulate the Numpad. I found the combat challenging at first but slowly got better as my character's skills rose. Your mileage may vary.
6. If the game is still too fast/difficult even on the lowest Combat Difficulty, you can uncheck Disable Frame Limit (locking you to 60 FPS) or find some other way to limit the FPS (Maybe 90-120 would feel better than 135?). Unfortunately, that will also slow down the rest of the game.

Set up your controls
This is going to highly depend on your comfort level with the Steam Deck touchpads or whatever other controller you plan to use. I started with the Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse template and customized it as I played. Use the game manual to discover all the keys and map them to your preference.

Here's my basic setup:

• L2/R2 - Mouse clicks
• L1/R1 - Unused
• D-Pad - Arrow keys
• Joysticks - Unused
• A - Enter
• B - Escape
• X - Space
• Y - Control + H (compass)
• R5 Grip - Control + R (map)
• Right Trackpad - As Mouse with Left Mouse Click
• Left trackpad - I set this up using Virtual Touch Menus. I created two menus: Physical and Magic. The left trackpad behavior is set to open the Physical menu with the Magic menu only loading on a mode shift (L5 Grip).
• Physical menu - 9 buttons in a 3x3 grid, matching the numpad exactly.
• Magic menu - I got lazy and only put 2 buttons here (Q dagger toss and E special attack). You could set up a similar Touch Menu with all the spells laid out. I am playing a Fighter so I rarely use this menu anyway.

I hope that helps someone!