SimCity 4 Deluxe — Linux Install & Modding

Automated installation of SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition on Debian 13+ and Arch Linux using Ansible, Wine, and a curated mod collection.

Supports single-user (game in ~/.wine-sc4/) and multi-user shared (game in /opt/sc4/, auto-initialized per-user prefixes).

Quick Start

Single-user (Debian)

sudo make deps     # Install Wine + 32-bit support
make prefix        # Create Wine prefix + registry tweaks
make game          # Download + extract game from S3
make mods          # Install all mods
make launch        # Play!

Multi-user (Arch Linux)

make deps-shared HOST=archbox
make prefix-shared HOST=archbox
make game-shared HOST=archbox
make launcher-shared HOST=archbox

Any user on the machine runs sc4-launcher — their Wine prefix is auto-created on first launch from a shared template.

Requirements

• Debian 13+ or Arch Linux (x86_64)
• NVIDIA GPU with proprietary driver (recommended)
• Network access to Garage S3 mirror (http://10.32.70.16:3900)
• 4 GB free disk space

Project Structure

├── ansible.cfg
├── inventory/hosts.ini         # Local + archbox (10.32.55.31)
├── dist/                       # Game tarball (for S3 upload / local cache)
├── mods/                       # Committed mod files (~16MB)
├── playbooks/
│   ├── install.yml             # Ansible: system + game + mods
│   ├── vars/{Debian,Archlinux}.yml
│   └── templates/
├── scripts/
│   ├── fetch-game.sh           # Download game tarball from S3
│   ├── package-game.sh         # Build game tarball from working install
│   ├── fetch-mods.sh           # Mod downloader
│   └── launch.sh               # Game launcher
├── Makefile
├── AGENTS.md                   # Full developer docs
└── README.md

OS-Specific Package Management

Debian	Arch Linux
sudo make deps	make deps-shared HOST=archbox
wine, wine32, wine64	wine (monolithic)
dpkg --add-architecture i386	Multilib in pacman.conf
locale-gen sv_SE.UTF-8	/etc/locale.gen + locale-gen

Game Archive Pipeline

The game is distributed as a pre-installed tarball from Garage S3. Build it once on a machine with the game installed, then deploy anywhere:

make package          # dist/sc4-deluxe-installed.tar.gz
make upload           # → s3://la-commerce-storage/sc4-game/

Mods

Mod	Source	Type
SC4Fix	GitHub	Bug fixes, crash prevention
SC4CPUOptions	GitHub	Single-core, priority tweaks
SC4AutoSave	GitHub	Auto-save every 10 min
SC4DBPFLoading	GitHub	90% faster startup
SC4GraphicsOptions	GitHub	DirectX, custom resolution
SC4FullScreen32Bit	GitHub	32-bit color fullscreen
SC4DisableNetworkConstructionSounds	GitHub	Removes jackhammer loop
Gizmo Day-Night Mod v2.0	SC4Evermore	Dark realistic nights
Gizmo Ground Fog	SC4Evermore	Atmospheric ground fog
Gizmo Weather	SC4Evermore	Rain/cloud effects
Gizmo Effect Props	SC4Evermore	50+ LE effects
Fantozzi Audio Essentials	SC4Evermore	Custom query sounds
NAM 49	SC4Evermore	Transportation overhaul
Sudden Valley Terrain	SC4Evermore	HD ground textures
Gobias HD Water	SC4Evermore	HD water colors
CycledoGG Trees	SC4Evermore	Tree controllers
SPAM	Simtropolis	Agricultural overhaul

Language

Swedish locale (sv_SE.UTF-8) is generated on the system. The launcher sets LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8 for Wine locale reporting.

Mod Targets

make mod-sc4fix         # Individual mod
make mod-fog
./scripts/fetch-mods.sh essential   # DLL fixes only
./scripts/fetch-mods.sh polish      # Audio/visual
./scripts/fetch-mods.sh all         # Everything
./scripts/fetch-mods.sh essential --repo  # Download to repo for committing

S3 Mirror (Garage)

Service	Bucket	Endpoint
Game archive	la-commerce-storage/sc4-game/	http://10.32.70.16:3900
Mod cache	la-commerce-storage/sc4-mods/	http://10.32.70.16:3900

See AGENTS.md for full architecture, workflows, and known issues.