This involves running the game through ResidualVM[www.residualvm.org] -- an open-source reimplementation of the game engine for several old-school adventure games. At the time of writing the latest stable release 0.3.1 does not include support for The Longest Journey, so you will have to compile the engine from source.

Other than that, the game is perfectly playable in ResidualVM, supports proper fullscreen, native resolutions, and is compatible with modern systems.

Here is the game in the glorious 3200x1800 resolution, and all its pixelated ugliness:

ResidualVM supports Linux, Windows, and macOS, but this guide is specifically aimed at deb-based distributions such as Debian or Ubuntu. If you are using something else, the exact commands and package names may differ.

You will need to get the sources for ResidualVM from GitHub[github.com] either via git, or download and extract a zip file:


Install the build dependencies:


Prepare the build, and enable the Stark engine, which is used to run The Longest Journey:


Compile the engine, and build a deb package:


If everything went well, you should have a binary called residualvm in the source directory. Run it:


If that works, then you can install ResidualVM system-wide:


Install the game through Steam Play compatibility layer in Steam. It will not run, but you will need the data files. They are located at ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/The\ Longest\ Journey/ or similar, depending on where and how exactly Steam is installed.

Read the ResidualVM documentation[github.com] on running The Longest Journey. You don't need to copy the data files. Just point to the game directory in the "Add Game" dialog in ResidualVM.

You are now ready to start the game.

The Steam version lacks the fonts directory. The game will run without it, but the fonts will not look nice, especially on higher resolutions.

With fonts:



Without fonts:



Unfortunately you will need to obtain a hard or digital copy of the retail version of game to get the fonts.