About
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 third-person cover-shooter tie-in to the film of the same name, with players controlling John Connor in the war against Skynet. The campaign runs roughly three hours and can be played solo or in local split-screen co-op as John Connor and Blair Williams.
It was developed by Swedish studio GRIN as that team's final game before closure, and shipped to mostly negative reviews. The game was later delisted from Steam (appid 21080).
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- TerminatorSalvation.exe
- Options
- MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE=fifo %command%
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- proton_experimental
- Winetricks
- vcrun2008
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Pending not enough reports yet
⚙ Setup notes
Game: GRIN's 2009 cover-shooter (John Connor vs Skynet, ~3 hrs), delisted from Steam (appid 21080).
Proton: A community member reports it running on Linux/Deck via Proton — proton_experimental or GE-Proton both work; if the default build misbehaves, GE-Proton bundles extra fixes.
Controller: Native Xbox 360 / XInput gamepad support means the Deck controller works out of the box (no Steam Input layout needed).
Display: The game has no vsync and an uncapped framerate, fixed by the MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE=fifo %command% launch option above.
Audio/PhysX: It uses OpenAL audio and PhysX; if it won't load, the legacy PhysX driver helps.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Delisted movie tie-in — supply your own copy.
DRM: The original used SecuROM DRM that misbehaves on modern systems, so a DRM-free copy is the practical route.
Install: Install the vcrun2008 (VC++ 2008) runtime, OpenAL, and (if it won't load) the legacy PhysX driver.
Display: The MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE=fifo launch option above tames the uncapped framerate on the Deck.
Controller: Native Xbox 360 / XInput controller support means the Deck gamepad works without a custom layout.
Status: ProtonDB tier not yet confirmed (page is JS-gated); community reports indicate it runs via Proton, so status is needs-test pending a hands-on Deck run.
Binary: TerminatorSalvation.exe (the legit Evolved Games executable, ~7 MB, in the install root).
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.