Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

ProtonDB Tier & Deck Status
ProtonDB reports a Silver/Gold-leaning tier (app 47790). The game runs but needs the
launch-option workaround below to avoid a gray-screen freeze. It is not Valve "Verified";
treat it as Playable with the fix applied. Reports note it launches reliably from Desktop
mode and that Gaming Mode can be finicky on first launch.

Main Executable
The game launches via MOHAA.exe (the OpenGL/Quake III "id Tech 3" client). Steam,
GOG ("Medal of Honor - Allied Assault War Chest"), and Origin/EA installs all ship the
same MOHAA.exe. Note: Steam app 47790 is now listed simply as "Medal of Honor™" — it is
the same Allied Assault War Chest package.

CRITICAL: Required Launch Option
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault uses older OpenGL extensions that conflict with modern
Mesa drivers on Linux, causing a completely gray or frozen screen on launch without
the workaround. You MUST add the following launch option in Steam:

MESA_EXTENSION_MAX_YEAR=2002 %command%

To set it: Right-click the game in Steam → Properties → General → Launch Options.
Paste the above line exactly. This caps Mesa's advertised OpenGL extension year and
prevents the gray-screen freeze.

Proton Version
Proton Experimental is the recommended build. Proton 7.0-3 also works well if you
prefer a stable fixed version. Avoid Proton 8 on this title — some users report
audio crackling; Proton 9+ or Experimental resolves this.

The GOG version installed via Heroic Launcher also works with the same Mesa workaround
applied inside Heroic's per-game environment variable settings.

Resolution & Widescreen
The game natively supports only 4:3 resolutions. For widescreen on the Deck's 1280x800
screen, the community recommends the widescreen patch from PCGamingWiki. Without it,
set in-game resolution to 1024x768 and accept letterboxing.

Performance
Allied Assault is a very light load on the Deck. Expect rock-solid 60fps even at
maximum settings. TDP can be locked as low as 5–6W. Excellent battery life, well
above 4 hours.

Steam Deck OLED Setup (July 2024 Guide)
A dedicated YouTube guide covering Steam Deck OLED-specific setup (brightness, color
profile, launch option verification) was published in July 2024. Search YouTube for
"Medal of Honor Allied Assault Steam Deck OLED" for the most current walkthrough.

Multiplayer
Original EA servers are offline. Community servers still exist — the game's multiplayer
scene has a small but active community running their own dedicated servers accessible
via the in-game server browser. Master-server lists (e.g. the 333networks project) keep
the browser populated.

Controller / Steam Input
There is no native gamepad support — Allied Assault is keyboard + mouse only. On the Deck,
apply a Steam Input "FPS / Gamepad with Mouse-Trackpad" layout: right trackpad as mouse
look, triggers for fire/aim, and map WASD + reload/jump/use/lean/sprint to the face and
grip buttons. Several community templates are shared in the Steam controller-config browser.

Open-Source Engine Reimplementation (OpenMoHAA)
For the smoothest modern experience, the community-maintained OpenMoHAA project is an
open re-implementation of the Allied Assault engine (built on ioquake3 + the F.A.K.K. SDK,
covering Allied Assault plus the Spearhead and Breakthrough expansions). It runs natively
on Linux (so no Proton or Mesa workaround needed), adds widescreen, higher resolutions,
and bug fixes. It requires you to own and copy the original game's data files (pak files)
from your legitimate Steam/GOG install; it ships no game content of its own. Still pre-1.0
but the single-player campaign is reported working end to end. See the guide links below.

Install Method
Easiest path: install through Steam and run with Proton + the Mesa launch option. The GOG
"War Chest" build works equally well via Heroic Launcher (set the Mesa env var per-game) or
via the official Lutris installer. For a native Linux client, install OpenMoHAA and point it
at your purchased game's data files.