VOGONS


First post, by Ultrax

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Windows 3.1 was/is not an ideal OS for games, but 3.x games are one of the many reasons I own a 486.
Does anyone else here have a love for 3.x games as well?

My personal favorites are:
Chip's Challenge
Rodent's Revenge
JezzBall
Rattler Race
Monopoly Deluxe
and, of course, SkiFree 😀

What are your favorites? There are may games I wish to play, such as The Even More Incredible Machine, that I haven't played yet because either I haven't got myself up to install them, or I can't because they require CD-ROM. Seeing as I'm getting a NIC soon, that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Ultrax
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Reply 1 of 18, by TheMLGladiator

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The Windows 3.1 version of Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
There is also a version of Myst for Win 3.1 (uses a 16 bit executable instead of 32 bit), but I have never actually played it.

Reply 2 of 18, by Bruninho

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Currently it's SimTower.

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READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 3 of 18, by Standard Def Steve

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I remember playing a 3.1 game where you had to guide a paper plane through a house. I'm sure I tried others, but none of them really held my interest.

I even remember wondering: if this Windows thing is supposed to be the future, why do its games seem so simple and boring compared to DOS games?

That was all during the early days of Windows though. I'm not sure if 3.1 gaming ever got more exciting, as I didn't pay much attention to Windows games until Win98 and DirectX came along. Suddenly, DOS games seemed old fashioned. 😜

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Reply 4 of 18, by akula65

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Ultrax wrote:
My personal favorites are: Chip's Challenge Rodent's Revenge JezzBall Rattler Race Monopoly Deluxe and, of course, SkiFree :-) […]
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My personal favorites are:
Chip's Challenge
Rodent's Revenge
JezzBall
Rattler Race
Monopoly Deluxe
and, of course, SkiFree 😀

Others who are interested in your choices should be aware that three of those Microsoft Entertainment Pack games (Rattler Race, Rodent's Revenge and SkiFree) are available from Microsoft or the original developer's web site:

OLD NOT NEW List of Free Games

Some vendors released parallel packages where you got both Win 3.1 and Win 95 versions on the same disk. I recall Sierra/Impression Games' Civil War Generals II: Grant, Lee, Sherman was such a game. Game AI and single player were poor, but it had and still has a good reputation in the multiplayer community.

Reply 5 of 18, by Ultrax

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Standard Def Steve wrote:

I even remember wondering: if this Windows thing is supposed to be the future, why do its games seem so simple and boring compared to DOS games?

DOS games were more standard and had way more time to mature. I think it took until 95 for Microsoft to fully realize that people also want Windows for games, not just office work.

As simple, boring and potentially stupid as they are, holy crap are they hooking! 😜

Ultrax
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Presario 425|DX2-50|8MB|SB V16S|D622/WFW3.11 😎
Deskpro XE 450|DX2-50|32 MB|NT4.0/95
SR2038X|Athlon 64 X2 3800|2G|GT710 WINXP
Dimension 4400|P4 NW 2 GHz|256M|R128U AGP|WINXP
HPMini311|N270|2G|9400M|WINXP
Libretto50CT|P75|16MB|YMF711|WIN95 😎

Reply 6 of 18, by Zup

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- Operation: Inner Space
- Yoda Stories / Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures
- Minesweeper

Apart from these, I really liked a Risk clone that I used to play with my friends... I don't remember much from it, except that it allowed up to 6 players and could chose from six maps (one was "traditional" risk, other had the shape of a turtle). Does anybody remember the name or some useful data to get it?

Also, not a game, but can be classified as a toy... the sound driver for PC Speaker. It hardly can be useful (because windows stopped every time it had to sound), but we used it to get some fun in school computers.

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Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 7 of 18, by Dominus

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Operation: Inner Space is my favorite and while you can still play it in later 32bit Windows versions, the Joystick controls only worked (correctly) in Windows 3.x and Windows 9x.
Another great series is Spiderweb Software's Exiles series (shareware back then)

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 8 of 18, by Whiskey

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I have a epically long running game of CIV II on Windows 3.11, I highly recommend it if you enjoy that kind of turn based game. It being a CD-ROM release means you get some nice music and some cheesy FMVs.

I stream retro games every wednesday here & I dump the recordings here

Reply 9 of 18, by root42

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Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth. I liked the wacky Gobliiins games, and this is another game from that universe. I was impressed that it ran on Windows 3.1 back in the day. I think a few other Sierra adventures were also available for Windows 3.x. There was a small window before Windows 95 was released where there were some games for Windows 3.1, maybe with Win32s support and/or WinG (iirc).

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Reply 12 of 18, by GrampaGotTheKeys

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I'm shocked no ones mentioned Sink Sub Pro yet

Dominus wrote:

Operation: Inner Space is my favorite

Great pick, I must admit I couldnt help but doodle a Star Trek vessel to play with a few months back (file attached)
Talking of custom ships though, are there sites that still host any?

Attachments

  • Filename
    NGE.zip
    File size
    472 Bytes
    Downloads
    54 downloads
    File comment
    Star Trek TNG Ship for InnerSpace
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 13 of 18, by akula65

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GrampaGotTheKeys wrote:
Dominus wrote:

Operation: Inner Space is my favorite

Great pick, I must admit I couldnt help but doodle a Star Trek vessel to play with a few months back (file attached)
Talking of custom ships though, are there sites that still host any?

Did you get these before Software Dynamics went away?:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120513175147/ht … nt/shiplist.htm

Reply 14 of 18, by Dominus

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They are now at http://www.sdispace.com/

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 17 of 18, by Dhigan

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The freeware Sokoban 2.2.5 from Allan B. Liss Sokoban_1020.gif
https://archive.org/details/Sokoban_1020

Last edited by Dhigan on 2020-03-21, 09:29. Edited 1 time in total.

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Win 9x : Dell Latitude Cpx H500GT + Dell GX1
Win XP64 : Asus P5B Xeon

Reply 18 of 18, by red_avatar

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Well I'll go with my most memorable games since I haven't played many of these in years:

Castle of Winds - It was my first contact with a MUD or rogue game and I recall playing it for many hours and even completing it

To go the more "raunchy" route, I bought this warez CD back in 1994 and it had this erotic game called Virtual Vallerie 2 that ran under Windows 3.1. For 14 year old me that was quite an experience as well with its early 3D rendered graphics 🤣

And probably the best Win 3.1 game: Civilization II. It's amazing how they decide to make it a Windows game - no big AAA games were really Windows exclusives that I recall before that.

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