These steps allowed me to play Anno 1404 on Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon. I assume they work on other Debian or Ubuntu based distros. If anything doesn't work for you, let me know in the comments.

Steam Play allows you to run Windows games on Linux.

To enable Steam Play, go to the upper left corner of your Steam window, then click on Steam -> Settings -> Steam Play. Check Enable Steam Play for supported titles and Enable Steam Play for all other titles.

You can probably leave the Proton version at the default value of Proton Experimental. If Proton Experimental should no longer work in the future, try Proton 7.

Now that Steam Play is enabled, you should be able to download the game in Steam.
After downloading, start the game. You need to start it once so it will generate some files.

However, the screen will be black and you will only be able to see your mouse cursor and hear the intro cinematics and main menu music.

Press Alt + F4 (repeatedly if necessary) to quit the game.

The game's screen is black because we need to install DirectX 9. We do this with a tool called winetricks. In this step, we'll just install winetricks; DirectX will be installed in step 5.

Open a Terminal. If you've never opened the Terminal before, search for it in your distribution's menu. Most likely you'll also be able to open it by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.

If you are using a Debian/Ubuntu based distro, paste the code into the Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Shift+V or by using the right click context menu.


If you aren't using a Debian/Ubuntu based distro, change the installation command (apt install) to the correct one for your distro's package manager.

Confirm with Enter. Confirm any questions that might pop up by pressing Enter again. Wait for the setup to finish. Keep the Terminal open and read on.

We need to make a modification in one of the game's config files to force the game to use DirectX 9, which we will install in step 5.

First, we need to find a folder called compatdata. Go to your user folder (/home/YourUserName). You should see a folder called .steam somewhere. If you don't, you need to show hidden folders first. Most file managers allow showing hidden files and folders by pressing Ctrl+H.

Open the .steam folder once you've found it. Inside it, you should now see a folder called root. Open the "root" folder and then the following subfolders:

For the main game:


For the Venice addon:


If you want to play the main game and the addon, you have to perform the changes in both the Anno1404 and the Anno1404Addon folders.

You'll find a file called Engine.ini. If there is no such file, create one instead.

Open the file with a text editor. If the file already existed, search for the following line:


Replace the 0 with a 9, like so:


If you did need to create the file yourself, simply add the following line:


Save and close the file, but keep the folder open.

Assuming you still have the folder with the Engine.ini file open, go a couple of folders back up until you are back in the pfx folder. Copy the full path of the pfx's folder from your file manager's navigation bar. It should look something like this:


Go back to the Terminal and write the following code if you want to install DirectX 9 for the main game:


Or for the Venice addon (only the number is different; 33350 instead of 33250)


Make sure to adjust YourUserName according to the paths on your own system! Then press Enter to confirm. Close the Terminal when the process has finished.

You should now be able to run the game from Steam. If not, let me know and we'll figure it out.