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Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

win3mu.com

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Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#11

Post by mmastrac »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #9
mmastrac wrote: post #6

This is an awesome project. I highly recommend reading through his series on Medium (eg https://medium.com/@CantabileApp/implementing-window-messagi... ) That being said, I think he is overestimating the market that would pay for this. This seems like it could attract at least a small community as an open source project, however. Unfortunately effort in development is not always rewarded with monetary gain. Perhaps h…

Also, Wine already exists. If Wine is ported to run on Windows, this project is redundant, I'd assume? (In fact, it strikes me now that if you're on Windows 10, you could probably run Wine on the WSL.)

His approach is a bit different as he is shimming 16 bit APIs to their 64-bit equivalent. Wine reimplemented them to run on top of a POSIX environment.

His approach will result in higher fidelity for apps as they are basically running on Win64, just with a 16-bit virtual machine driving it.

Wine apps running on Windows would likely feel non-native as the UI components are reimplemented from scratch.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#12

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

mmastrac wrote: post #11
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Wine already exists. If Wine is ported to run on Windows, this project is redundant, I'd assume? (In fact, it strikes me now that if you're on Windows 10, you could probably run Wine on the WSL.)

His approach is a bit different as he is shimming 16 bit APIs to their 64-bit equivalent. Wine reimplemented them to run on top of a POSIX environment. His approach will result in higher fidelity for apps as they are basically running on Win64, just with a 16-bit virtual machine driving it. Wine apps running on Windows would likely feel non-native as the UI components are reimplemented from scratch.

Well, the UI components in Wine feel like Windows, just not like Windows 10.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#13

Post by leonatan »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #12
mmastrac wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His approach is a bit different as he is shimming 16 bit APIs to their 64-bit equivalent. Wine reimplemented them to run on top of a POSIX environment. His approach will result in higher fidelity for apps as they are basically running on Win64, just with a 16-bit virtual machine driving it. Wine apps running on Windows would likely feel non-native as the UI components are reimplemented from scratch.

Well, the UI components in Wine feel like Windows, just not like Windows 10.

Windows 98 perhaps. 2000 if generous.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#16

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

mrpippy wrote: post #10

I was a Mac user and didn't play PC games until the Win32 era, but were there very many games for Win16? I thought that targeting DOS was still common well into the Win95 years.

Most games quit windows to gain the extra RAM, AFAIK. It wasn't until Windows 95, DirectX, and Windoom that Windows gaming caught on.

Or am I wrong?

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#17

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

So, it's a closed source implementation of an API for an old OS/Windowing system atop DOS. Despite the fact that both DOSBox and Wine will run them fine.

And it's aimed at gaming, but most games quit windows and just ran on straight dos, so DOSBox is a better option anyways, especially considering that you're expecting me to pay for this, even though you've already said the compatability isn't great, and Wine and DOSBox are free and both have excellent compatability.

Sorry, not interested.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#18

Post by phs318u »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #16
mrpippy wrote: post #10

I was a Mac user and didn't play PC games until the Win32 era, but were there very many games for Win16? I thought that targeting DOS was still common well into the Win95 years.

Most games quit windows to gain the extra RAM, AFAIK. It wasn't until Windows 95, DirectX, and Windoom that Windows gaming caught on. Or am I wrong?

You are correct.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#19

Post by lifeisstillgood »

This seems ... insane. Good insane, learn-me-a-lot in-the-weeds insane but insane nonetheless

In the "why?" Section he mentions how a lot of programs don't run due to the quirks of the Windows API, and he is twiddling things to fix them.

Raymond Chen in "the old new thing" (#) documents his job at Microsoft which was to basically ensure windows handled crappy API calls that third party secs would make and any upgrades or alterations would break. They explicitly added code to windows like "if running adobe XXX then make our API call YYY perform differently and not return a Null"

This was a huge Microsoft department working over many years.

You flat out cannot emulate the Windows API. You just can't.

And all to run games that people today will find amusing for less time than it takes a Venti latte to get cold.

I wish him luck and happiness :-)

(#) http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#20

Post by skissane »

I use Windows 3.1 a lot, mostly to play Solitaire. (Yeah, I could play a newer Solitaire implementation, but I like the nostalgia.) Also, my 3 year old son uses it for Paintbrush and Write - again, I get some nostalgia watching him using Windows 3.1 (although I myself didn't start using Windows until I was 9 or 10).

This is a cool idea, but running the real thing under VirtualBox appeals to me more. (Although it is slightly screwy - full-screen mode DOS boxes corrupt the display - due to using svgaptch to patch svga256.drv to support higher resolutions and colour.)

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