http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10988
--- Comment #3 from Stefan Dösinger stefandoesinger@gmx.at 2008-01-02 05:27:42 --- "Press YES if you mean NO and NO if you mean YES" :-P
So, this bug occurs when the X server runs at depth 16, but not when it runs at depth 24? Due to the way X11 works, wine can't change the X11 bit depth, so the game keeps running at 16 bpp. Maybe your game refuses to start up at 16 bpp, and something before that patch fooled it into thinking that it runs at a higher bit depth? (I couldn't explain what this could be, but my patch should be a NOP with X11 running at depth 16.)