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Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

win3mu.com

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Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#61

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

Jaruzel wrote: post #55
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #17

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 DOS…

It's specifically aimed at old Windows Games, of which there are many. It's not for old 16bit DOS games like Monkey Island or Elite for example. So people out there have stacks of old CDs with freeware Windows Games on them (popular on the covers of the Magazines of the time) - this project would nicely re-open the use of these games. Additionally, if he completes this, then there is a also a LOT of old 16 bit produc…

...But DOSBox and wine play all of this software better than this thing does. It had well-established, free, more compatable competition.

This would be inconsequential if this was a free utility which wasn't being sold as a commercial product, but it's not. It's a full commercial product, and if it's not better than freeware in it's main focus area, that's a problem.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#62

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

voltagex_ wrote: post #51
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #17

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 DOS…

Or, a really interesting project plus a great series of blog posts. From the FAQ on the author's site: >Is it open source, can I contribute? >>Thanks, but no thanks. This project was started as a personal challenge/learning exercise. To have others contribute would defeat the purpose right now. Which I don't quite agree with (why not just not accept pull requests?), but it's fair enough.

That would be fine, but he's charging for it. If you're charging for something, it has to be better than free offerings. But this isn't.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#64

Post by Jaruzel »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #61
Jaruzel wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's specifically aimed at old Windows Games, of which there are many. It's not for old 16bit DOS games like Monkey Island or Elite for example. So people out there have stacks of old CDs with freeware Windows Games on them (popular on the covers of the Magazines of the time) - this project would nicely re-open the use of these games. Additionally, if he completes this, then there is a also a LOT of old 16 bit produc…

...But DOSBox and wine play all of this software better than this thing does. It had well-established, free, more compatable competition. This would be inconsequential if this was a free utility which wasn't being sold as a commercial product, but it's not. It's a full commercial product, and if it's not better than freeware in it's main focus area, that's a problem.

Yeah, I agree that trying to sell it is a bad idea. Unless you are a large company, selling software is a mugs game.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#65

Post by WorldMaker »

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?

Also, there was a transitionary predecessor to DirectX that some (primarily edutainment) games released for Windows 3.1 (and for a short while into early Windows 95) called WinG. So far as I know most of the WinG games also relied on Win32s to get access to 32-bit code, but I don't know if Win32s was a requirement to build a WinG game or if there were 16-bit games for that platform too.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#66

Post by degenerate »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #60

I've been following the blog posts with great interest but I don't understand the move to turn it into a commercial project. I just don't think there's enough demand, especially for games (how many Win31-specific games were there?) Where this would be incredibly useful would be for a lot of industrial automation, POS and other commercial software still stuck on Win31. Seems like it would make more sense to release an…

I'd be fine if it stayed closed source and cost a few bucks to start, and then went open source after the initial revenue stream dried up.

Right now I run a WinXP virtual machine to play SimAnt and SimTower... I know nothing about VMs and was able to get everything installed and working in about 2 hours. So "messing with" virtual machines is not too much time, other than downloading and installing them.

Seeing as the Windows 3.1 crowd would be very niche, they'd most likely have no problem paying a small fee. I just hope it does go open source afterward.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#67

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

rhabarba wrote: post #59
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.)

Win3mu seems to be an emulator, Wine does not.

Wine is an emulator if you're running 16-bit apps.

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#68

Post by rasz_pl »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #19

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 upgrade…

>job at Microsoft which was

hot patching and shims is still a thing in W10

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#69

Post by rasz_pl »

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…

One source of revenue might be GOG? Shipping Windows 3.11 wrapped in dosbox is impractical :). https://www.gog.com/forum/general/16bit_era_windows_31_mpc_c...

Re: Win3mu – Windows 3 Emulator

#70

Post by lbenes »

voltagex_ wrote: post #42
lbenes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Wine implements the Win16 API. I just tried tetris and ski and the both worked fine in wine-1.9.22 (Staging). Didn't even need to even create a 32-bit profile.

What distro are you on? I always find it difficult to use newer Wine versions on Debian.

I use a flavor of Ubuntu, but Debian also has an update system for wine. Just follow the instructions here:

https://github.com/wine-compholio/wine-staging/wiki/Installa...

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