The game exits at once with code 0 and no message on a modern or emulated CPU

Symptoms

The game starts and quits within a second, exit code 0, nothing on screen. A +relay trace (RelayFromInclude=winpod) ends with the display queries (GetDeviceCaps) and then ExitProcess(0).

Cause

POD Gold's CPU check (FUN_004a3dfc) sets a CPU kind from CPUID: Intel family 5 or 6, AMD K5 or K6, Cyrix family 5 or 6. Any other CPU keeps the initial 0xff, and the start-up code (FUN_004a1460) switches on the kind and calls the exit for anything not listed (observed). QEMU's emulated CPU reports AuthenticAMD family 6, an Athlon, which did not exist in 1997. The first edition's check did not quit.

Evidence

The relay trace's last calls; the start-up function's switch with a default that exits; the VM's /proc/cpuinfo.

What to do

Change the check's default instead of its branches: POD Gold's patch turns the initial 0xff into 4 (Intel P6), so any CPU the game does not know is treated as one it does (run/wine/patch_winpod.py). Mark it as a deviation. Before patching, try reading what each kind selects (here: two sets of drawing routines) and pick the most common one.

Tried

• Nothing else: the trace pointed straight at it.