About
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down is a 2003 tactical first-person shooter from NovaLogic, set during the U.S. military's operations in Somalia and the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu depicted in the film of the same name. It runs on NovaLogic's Voxel Space / Comanche-derived engine and emphasizes large open environments and squad-based combat across a single-player campaign, later expanded by the Team Sabre add-on. The PC release was followed by Mac, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions, and the series is remembered as a long-running rival to the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon tactical shooters. Its original NovaWorld online multiplayer servers have since been shut down, leaving the campaign as the primary way to play.
Screenshots
Official store screenshots from Steam — deckport links them, never rehosts. Hover to pause; click to preview.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- dfbhd.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Gold runs perfectly after tweaks
⚙ Setup notes
Game: Classic 2003 NovaLogic single-player tactical shooter (delisted Steam appid 32670) — NOT the 2024 free-to-play Delta Force (appid 2507950), which uses ACE anti-cheat.
DRM: No DRM/GFWL, no anti-cheat, so it runs cleanly under Proton.
Install: Main exe is dfbhd.exe (the Team Sabre expansion ships dfts.exe).
Proton: ProtonDB rates it gold. Use GE-Proton (or proton_experimental) — both get into the game on SteamOS.
Multiplayer: The old multiplayer relied on NovaWorld servers (gone), so treat this as single-player/campaign only.
Display: Engine renders 4:3 natively; for widescreen on the Deck's 16:10 panel use a DFBHD widescreen/FOV wrapper byte-edit dropped next to dfbhd.exe, otherwise expect pillarboxing or stretching.
Note: deckport only configures the prefix; it never bundles or links the game files.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy. deckport links nothing.
Status: Community reports the delisted 2003 NovaLogic game running on Linux/Proton at gold; this specific recipe still needs a Deck confirmation.
Don't confuse: Not the 2024 free-to-play Delta Force (appid 2507950, ACE anti-cheat) — that's a different game and still for sale.
Multiplayer: NovaWorld multiplayer servers are dead, so this is effectively single-player/campaign only.
Controller: No native controller support — bind a Steam Input keyboard/mouse layout (community DFBHD Deck layouts exist) to play with the gamepad.
Display: Engine is 4:3 native — apply a widescreen/FOV wrapper byte-edit for proper 16:10 output.
DirectPlay: On Windows this game needs Legacy DirectPlay; under Proton wine provides that, so no extra step.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.