Mastodawn

Due to lack of funds and a need to edit #video (#Kdenlive), I #hacked my old non-#TPM #PC to run #Win11 (boo, hiss!)

And (#DOScember) to run even more ancient #MSDOS progs like they are #Win64 native (and because #NTVDMx86 is sterling, but can be a faff), I use #DosBox with this #commandline:

start /min DOSBox.exe z:\EXAMPLE.EXE -exit

More #wizardry (actually mostly #DoctorWho/#SFFH) at #CRRRRS: https://roymathur.com/podcast.html

#RemembranceoftheDaleks next.

Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show: THE UK Geek Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Doctor Who Podcast

The podcast of Roy Mathur, author, podcaster, journalist, and banjoleleist, wherein the terribly geeky chap discusses science fiction, fantasy, and horror books, comics, movies, TV, games, and toys.

ARGVMI~1.PIF Sep 6, 2025

Cooperative multitasking, like in #Windows 3, is messy. If your #Win16 app needed to do anything that takes a long time, it would need to divide the long-running task into chunks small enough that each one takes only a few tens of milliseconds. Between each chunk, it would need to save the state of the long-running task, return to Windows, and wait its turn to run the next chunk. I never wrote Win16 code myself, but that couldn't have been easy.

#retrocomputing

Maximum Lobdegg Oct 29, 2024

Does anyone out there know of a gaming podcast like @dosgameclub but for #win9x and even late #win16 games? Like every month take a look at forgotten games from the pre-always-online era/ pre-Steam era of Windows gaming?

Talking about stuff like Heretic II and Dark Colony or whatever?

Maximum Lobdegg Oct 2, 2024

Does anyone have any good resources / documentation for writing winsock/tcpip code in VB3?
#winsock #visualbasic #vb3 #win16 #win16programming

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Kevin Karhan

Jul 23, 2024

@SleepyCatten I really wish for #Windows to be canned by #Microsoft and in turn them just #FLOSS'ing the entire #Win16, #Win32 & #Win64 specs (pretty shure they can't #OpenSource any code post #MSDOS 4.0 due to #licensing issues aka. not owning the necessary rights to do so!) including #undocumented #API|s and #ABI|s so that #Wine can handle shite like #MicrosoftOffice that is purposefully designed to not run under Wine...

In fact, it may only a matter of time when the shrinking #ROI on OTP Software makes Microsoft Board Members cancel those in favour of more profitable parts like #Xbox / #GamesPublishing, #Azure & #Microsoft365 / #Office365.

The few "Flagship Products" they care about have already been ported to #macOS (#VScode) and #docker / #Linux (#MSSQL / #SQLserver)...

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Kevin Karhan

May 29, 2024

@koko Reminds me that @fuchsiii works on improving #compatibility with what I call #2000s Games that fall in between a compatibility hole left between #DosDox + simple #Wine emulation on one hand and modern #Proton / #DXVK on the other side.

It's basically a lot of games that run #DirectX 7-9.0c and require disc access or rather patching to just run because garbage like #SecuROM and #StarForce was allowed to exist!

Sometimes even cursed stuff with #Win16 installers but #Win32 game executeables.

SecuROM - The PC CD-ROM DRM that broke games | MVG

YouTube

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Kevin Karhan

May 11, 2024

@Szwendacz if it were so easy then @fuchsiii wouldn't go through all the effort to version-manage and dynamically switch between different #wine versions.

Because there's a lot of #Oddware and old, clasic games between #98SE and #Vista that doesn't run in either #VMs nor #DosBox nor #Proton & #DXVK well.

Also being dependent on #Valve isn't a good idea for #RetroGaming because to get Proton running one's kinda forced to have #Steam up and running.

And don't even get her started on #cringe architecture like #Win32 games that have a #Win16 #InstallShield, which if #Microsoft hadn't specifically accounted for that scenario, whoudn't even install on #Win64.

Right now she's contemplating on what workaround for the "#WorksOnMyMachine" / "#WorksOnBareMetal" problem can be used and having setup some #BareMetal to do some testing and reverse-engineering / debugging stuff with a clear "is" vs. "should" compareable setup.

Cuz as much as she's a #classic #ThinkPad #fangirl, do you think she'd collect hard-to-maintain legacy stuff like #T60's jist for lulz?

Sorry if this seem a bit vent-ish...
I've just seen a lot more behind the scenes development re: her wine hacks and found your post quite #demotivating...

But I can't spoil that much more as of now...

sofia ☮️🏴Sep 26, 2023

i've been building a little Windows 3 VM with #DOSBox-X recently. originally to play with #LotusImprov but i ended up installing all ✨productivity✨ software i could think of. this website proved pretty useful: https://winworldpc.com/ it's got tons of old software, including some things missing from archive.org.

got any recommendations of what i can try? perhaps some open-source programs still have #win16 builds?

WinWorld: Welcome

WinWorld is an online museum dedicated to providing free and open access to one of the largest archives of abandonware software and information on the web.

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Bits&Terminal Jeff Jun 27, 2023

It feels so weird to be able to run Windows 3.1 on top of FreeDOS on actual modern hardware - it's not perfect - can't do more than 640x480 at the moment, but it should be able to do more with some tweaking. Used that GUI daily about three decades ago - didn't love it, but it was good enough and ran fine on my 286.

#FreeDOS #Windows3 #Win16 #retroComputing