I think Descent 1 and Lost Vikings 2 also had Windows versions. Not sure about the differences from the DOS ones.

For MK3 and MKT differences DOS v Windows - I think the following Kombat Kolumns entry is very informative. Essentially, MK3 DOS is its own port, MK3 Windows is an almost direct port of the PSX. As for Trilogy, both port the gameplay of the PSX, but the Windows version provides different (Windows-like) UI options.

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

1(Doom95, was Valves first commercial game, and one of the first DirectX-games)

Valve was not involved. The porters also later did Hexen (and credited as WildTangent, who'd later make browser plugin games). Also it came out many months after the first DirectX games (Locus was 1995 for example).

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

6(GLQuake, WinQuake - these versions were only available through compilation-disks and )

These were very available electronically. id software had them on their public ftp since they existed, and also later Activision rereleases of Quake had bundled them.

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-27, 17:36:

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

1(Doom95, was Valves first commercial game, and one of the first DirectX-games)

Valve was not involved. The porters also later did Hexen (and credited as WildTangent, who'd later make browser plugin games). Also it came out many months after the first DirectX games (Locus was 1995 for example).

WildTangent was Alex St. John who was one of the creators of WinG and later DirectX.

Gabe Newell was a programmer and later technical executive on Windows at Microsoft. So no Valve wasn't involved as it didn't exist yet. Gabe and Mike Harrington would leave Microsoft a year later to found Valve.

Gabe supposedly was the one who contacted iD and convinced them to let Microsoft do a Windows port for free.

The Doom95 port was originally head by Gabe when they were targeting WinG, but Alex took the reigns and completed it when it was finished on DirectX.

Rusel DeMaria's Game of X books are an interesting read going into the history of Microsoft and gaming. The first volume centers around Seamus Blackley and the creation of the original Xbox. And the second volumes goes back futher in time covering the creation of DirectX itself. Alex St. John was a very interesting character.

Here are a couple more entries:

Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Papyrus Design Group
Title: CART Racing
From the CD:

CART Racing for Windows95 […]
Show full quote

CART Racing for Windows95

Papyrus Design Group, 1996.

************************************************************************
CD Contents :

There are three versions of CART Racing on the CD : Rendition, Windows95, and
DOS. The minimum requirements for the DOS version are a 486-33 with 8 mb of
RAM and MS-DOS version 5 or higher. The Windows95 version requires a
Pentium-60 or higher with 16 mb or RAM . Owners of slower machines may
consider installing and running the DOS version.
************************************************************************

Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Title: Afterlife

The CD-ROM has separate setup and executables for DOS and Win95.

Edit: Wing Commander CIC has a description of the DOS and Windows releases of Wing Commander IV: https://www.wcnews.com/background/wing-commander-4.shtml

2nd Edit:
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Dynamix
Title: Aces of the Deep/Command: Aces of the Deep

Aces of the Deep was originally released as a DOS title. Command: Aces of the Deep was a Windows only upgrade of the game. This Subsim review enumerates the additional features of the Windows version.

dr_st wrote on 2025-06-27, 17:17:

I think Descent 1 and Lost Vikings 2 also had Windows versions. Not sure about the differences from the DOS ones.

For MK3 and MKT differences DOS v Windows - I think the following Kombat Kolumns entry is very informative. Essentially, MK3 DOS is its own port, MK3 Windows is an almost direct port of the PSX. As for Trilogy, both port the gameplay of the PSX, but the Windows version provides different (Windows-like) UI options.

Interesting! Big cheers for this info, I will update the list. 😀

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-27, 17:36:

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

1(Doom95, was Valves first commercial game, and one of the first DirectX-games)

Valve was not involved. The porters also later did Hexen (and credited as WildTangent, who'd later make browser plugin games). Also it came out many months after the first DirectX games (Locus was 1995 for example).

Oh interesting, reading more closely into it I see that only the shareware-version came out in 1995, the full game wasn't out until 1996. Huh! I assumed that they would have had it be a launch-title for DirectX, what with the big hoopla' they made with the presentation. I will of course correct this.

It seems like I was a bit confused by the fact that this was one of Gabe Newell's first professional game-projects -- he led the initial team that started work on the port, apparently.
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom95#History
But one man does not make a Valve. I will change the note.

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-27, 17:36:

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

6(GLQuake, WinQuake - these versions were only available through compilation-disks and )

These were very available electronically. id software had them on their public ftp since they existed, and also later Activision rereleases of Quake had bundled them.

It seems like I accidentally cut away the part (after "and"), where I wrote that they were available via the internet... :{ But I will fix it! 😀
Are the Activision Re-Releases of Quake actually physical new editions with their own box-art and stuff? 😳 Or do they fall under the compilations and such, that I already wrote originally?

Lemmings for Windows .exe file dates from 04/1995 in the Japanese release and 01/1996 in the european version, copyright date on the game cover is 1995 for both.
It runs in win3.1 with win32s and winG.

Windoom also runs under win3.1 with those add-ons. First beta that was released was dated june 1994, last release was june 1995.

SScorpio wrote on 2025-06-27, 18:00:

WildTangent was Alex St. John who was one of the creators of WinG and later DirectX. […]
Show full quote

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-27, 17:36:

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

1(Doom95, was Valves first commercial game, and one of the first DirectX-games)

Valve was not involved. The porters also later did Hexen (and credited as WildTangent, who'd later make browser plugin games). Also it came out many months after the first DirectX games (Locus was 1995 for example).

WildTangent was Alex St. John who was one of the creators of WinG and later DirectX.

Gabe Newell was a programmer and later technical executive on Windows at Microsoft. So no Valve wasn't involved as it didn't exist yet. Gabe and Mike Harrington would leave Microsoft a year later to found Valve.

Gabe supposedly was the one who contacted iD and convinced them to let Microsoft do a Windows port for free.

The Doom95 port was originally head by Gabe when they were targeting WinG, but Alex took the reigns and completed it when it was finished on DirectX.

Rusel DeMaria's Game of X books are an interesting read going into the history of Microsoft and gaming. The first volume centers around Seamus Blackley and the creation of the original Xbox. And the second volumes goes back futher in time covering the creation of DirectX itself. Alex St. John was a very interesting character.

Ey, cheers for this extra information. It helped explain a lot of things actually -- the "Game of X" books seem like solid resources!

akula65 wrote on 2025-06-27, 19:02:

Here are a couple more entries: […]
Show full quote

Here are a couple more entries:

Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Papyrus Design Group
Title: CART Racing
From the CD:

CART Racing for Windows95 […]
Show full quote

CART Racing for Windows95

Papyrus Design Group, 1996.

************************************************************************
CD Contents :

There are three versions of CART Racing on the CD : Rendition, Windows95, and
DOS. The minimum requirements for the DOS version are a 486-33 with 8 mb of
RAM and MS-DOS version 5 or higher. The Windows95 version requires a
Pentium-60 or higher with 16 mb or RAM . Owners of slower machines may
consider installing and running the DOS version.
************************************************************************

Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Title: Afterlife

The CD-ROM has separate setup and executables for DOS and Win95.

Edit: Wing Commander CIC has a description of the DOS and Windows releases of Wing Commander IV: https://www.wcnews.com/background/wing-commander-4.shtml

2nd Edit:
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Dynamix
Title: Aces of the Deep/Command: Aces of the Deep

Aces of the Deep was originally released as a DOS title. Command: Aces of the Deep was a Windows only upgrade of the game. This Subsim review enumerates the additional features of the Windows version.

Big cheers for this info mate! 😀 I'm adding it to the list ASAP.

Extra sweet with the WC-CIC article btw.

lolo799 wrote on 2025-06-28, 08:52:

Lemmings for Windows .exe file dates from 04/1995 in the Japanese release and 01/1996 in the european version, copyright date on the game cover is 1995 for both.
It runs in win3.1 with win32s and winG.

Windoom also runs under win3.1 with those add-ons. First beta that was released was dated june 1994, last release was june 1995.

Yoo, Lemmings was real all along! You actually did a really cool thing here, because information on this port is pretty scarce. Thank you for helping out.

Lemmings for Windows had file dates of the 90s, but I can't remember who released it

Check the Lemmings covers below.

The Win9x versions of Xwing and Tie Fighter use the Xwing vs Tie Fighter engine which supports 3d accelerated textured models and redbook audio instead of the Imuse midi system of the Dos games.

Call of Cthulhu Prisoner of Ice came in two versions, the Dos one has two executables, one for svga 640*480 and one for 320*200.
The Windows version has the 640*480 Dos .exe on the disc.

lolo799 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:34:

Check the Lemmings covers below. […]
Show full quote

Check the Lemmings covers below.

The Win9x versions of Xwing and Tie Fighter use the Xwing vs Tie Fighter engine which supports 3d accelerated textured models and redbook audio instead of the Imuse midi system of the Dos games.

Call of Cthulhu Prisoner of Ice came in two versions, the Dos one has two executables, one for svga 640*480 and one for 320*200.
The Windows version has the 640*480 Dos .exe on the disc.

Thank you! 😀 This is some good info, and I'm updating the list as we speak.

Just for clarification -- you're saying that CoC: PoI Windows-version DOESN'T run in 640*480, but in the lower resolution? And it just so happens to include the high-rez DOS-exe as an extra. So the Win-version can't actually *itself* run in SVGA modes?

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-29, 14:48:

Thank you! 😀 This is some good info, and I'm updating the list as we speak.

Just for clarification -- you're saying that CoC: PoI Windows-version DOESN'T run in 640*480, but in the lower resolution? And it just so happens to include the high-rez DOS-exe as an extra. So the Win-version can't actually *itself* run in SVGA modes?

The Windows version runs in 640*480 or 960*720, and only in a window, not fullscreen.

It uses the WinG32.dll, so pre directx but it checks the Windows version and won't run on anything earlier than Win95.
It works fine in Windows 10.

And it has the dos 640*480 exe on disc, also printed on the disc it says "designed for Win95" and "Dos compatible".
The copyright date on the disc is 1997.

The Dos version has both 640 and 320 executables along with svga and vga resource files.

The Even More! Incredible Machine
Sid & Al's Incredible Toons / The Incredible Toon Machine

Command & Conquer Gold (1997)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Dos is locked at 320 x 200
Win allows 640 x 480 ( or higher if you manually modify the ini file)
Windows cutscenes are interlaced
Minimap in Windows can show more. (Very useful on RA's Mega maps)
Sidebar icons match units profile from the manual.

GTA1
Now includes TCP/IP for network play

Warcraft 2
Fixes scroll speed issue on faster PC's
Now includes TCP/IP for network play
Other UI enhnacments https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Warcraft_II: … tle.net_Edition

Raptor: Call of the Shadows
"Slightly improved graphics and audio"
Force feedback support
Windows version has a major bug where keyboard control is half the speed vs Dos and mouse control doesnt allow you to go to the edge of the screen

Simcity 2000
Improved UI and Higher screen resolutions

I forgot to mention the differences between the Dos and Windows native version of Prisoner of Ice:
-the Dos version uses a proprietary .mux format for the videos while the Windows version uses videos converted into SmackPlay .smk format, with a bad dither effect noticeable on some of them.

-there is a full screen colour shifting effect present in the Dos version in the first act of the game when the submarine is in red alert, it shows during gameplay and in non interactive character's face close-ups scenes.
In the Windows version, the red alert bulb is shown as shifting on and off but the rest of the screen is not affected by it.

-you can choose between midi and digital audio music in the Dos version, the Windows version only offers midi music.