Hello everyone!

Today I like to present you EDSAC Simulator, a main frame emulator.
It seems to run just fine on Win 3.1+Win32s.
Tested successfully on real hardware.

Photo attached.

Edit: For those of you who may wonder what this all about..
The Electronic delay storage automatic calculator (EDSAC) was a British computer from ca. 1949.
That machine was the one which ran OXO aka Noughts and Crosses (Tic-tac-toe) in 1952!
Where a rotary dial served as a game controller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDSAC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OXO

Edit: There 's a video of OXO running on an EDSAC emulator.
https://youtu.be/iGe_brmoopc

Quick update.

The Win32s error that occurs on DOSBox sometimes (DOS 21 error) likely can be fixed by changing cputype = to cputype=pentium_slow.

I was about to say it, in fact.

I have a lot of experience about trying to run games inside Windows 3.11 inside DOSBox.

cputype=pentium_slow fixes a lot of bugs, when they happen.
core=normal can help sometimes too (but it's way more rare).
99% of games want 8 BPP, some want 24 BPP (but it's very rare).
DOSBox SVN sometimes fixes games that won't work with v0.74.

That's all on the the top of my head.

Oh, and sometimes the installation won't work in DOSBox, but you can install it in PCem (or real hardware), and then put the installation inside DOSBox and it runs.

Thank you so much for all those emulators. The Mac one is very interesting to me...

Edit: fixed missing words.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-08-09, 12:07:

I was about to say it, in fact. […]
Show full quote

I was about to say it, in fact.

I have a lot of trying to run games inside Windows 3.11 inside DOSBox.

cputype=pentium_slow fixes a lot of bugs, when they happen.
core=normal can help sometimes too (but it's way more rare).
99% of games want 8 BPP, some want 24 BPP (but it's very rare).
DOSBox SVN sometimes fixes games that won't work with v0.74.

That's all on the the top of my head.

Thanks a lot! I tried it and it improved compatibility a little bit. Most of the later Win32 emulators do still crash, though.
Originally, I even tried core=full , but it was not accepted for some reason.
Anyway, I'm going to check the Windows installation. Maybe other releases of Win32s work.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-08-09, 12:07:

Oh, and sometimes the installation won't work in DOSBox, but you can install it in PCem (or real hardware), and then put the installation inside DOSBox and it runs.

Thanks for the tip! I know of PCem - in fact, I kinda teased the author for not emulating V20's 8080 emulation mode
and for not allowing 704KB of conventional memory in XT machine modes.. See the PCem thread. 😁
Problem with PCem/86Bo is, that I have no access to a "normal computer". All I do is done on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM and a Smartphone (+Camcorder).
Even my hobby videos are made with them. Not because I'm a big fan of that tech (-Pi is fine, though-), but because I couldn't decide where to go to after Windows 7 went EOL. 🙁
Technically, using PCem and DOSBox CVS would be possible, but I would need to compile that stuff on my own. Which is quite a work, from what I remember.
That's why I went the physical route and used my modded Surfstation JNT. It has a MediaGX (comp. to Pentium MMX), SCART output, SB16 clone and a CF card.
DOS 6.2x and Windows 3.10 (non WfW) run quite fine on it. Even added a NIC and patched the BIOS. And soldered in an SMD UART chip for serial support.
An additional micro switch allows for switching between PAL50 (720x576) and NTSC60 (640x480).. A patched SVGA driver (the one by Japeth ?) allows 256c.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-08-09, 12:07:

Thank you so much for all those emulators. The Mac one is very interesting to me...

You're welcome. I'll have a more detailed look at the Mac emulator then. 😀
Since it is a predecessor of Mini vMac, chances are good that I can get it to work somehow, I believe. 😉

Quick Update.

Found another Japanese emulator..
It seems to be useful to assist programming/debugging.
"CPUSIM" seems to have graphical issues (overlay seems to fail) .
Maybe, in part, also because it was made for Japanese Windows (does it try to write in Kanji or load Japanese DLLs ?)..
Tested on real hardware.

Photo attached.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-08-09, 12:07:

Thank you so much for all those emulators. The Mac one is very interesting to me...

Quick update.. I'm on it.
The Mini vMac firmware seems to be good and known to vMac (detects "Harmony" type).

It's just the HDD image that causes little trouble..
Work is done once the "System" is up and running (pun intended).

So far, I'm doing most testing on Windows NT and later OSes with a real Win32 subsystem.
Once the emulator is running as it should, I'll move back to Win 3.1+Win32s. 😀

Good news!

I found another NES emulator called "Famicom".
It's a 16-Bit exectuable (Win16) and seems to work.

The fileformat(*.FAM) is obscure by todays standards, though. Gratefully, Cajones and Famconv can help.
Even if that means translating to Paso format first, in some cases. I wonder if everything also runs on a 286..

Screenshot attached.

Edit: Just checked - Famicom doesn't run on my Schneider Tower AT with 286 CPU.
Perhaps 1MB of RAM is not enough? 😉
Anyway, maybe it's also missing WinG, which requires a 386 or higher. And 386 Enhanced Mode.
I wished I could decipher the error message.

Edit: I did further testing with the early release of Famicom.
Seems the emulator als runs with Standard VGA driver in 16c (also tested 16m colours).
And it can play actual games, not just demos.

Edit: I did a few more tests and it seems converting to Famicom format is tricky,
as TetaNES confirms.
So it's really nice that v4 can import other formats, too.
Try experimenting what works best in each case.
Alternatively, you can try to use Cajones to convert to the Paso format first, which uses separate files for NES program code, character rom etc. Then use Famiconv to convert to Famicom's native format. Good luck! 😀

Edit: Seems there was a fan site in the 90s..

Update.

MagiC PC, an emulator of the TOS compatible OS of the same name (MagiC) , runs on Win32s.
Tested on real hardware.

Photo attached.

Edit: Just checked the program on a faster machine running XP.
MagiC runs rather well. Can emulate a floppy controller and some ports, but has a nag screen also.
It displays a "Have fun with our demo" pop-up window once in a while (but program is still up).

Quick update.

Here's another one - XM7, a multi-platform FM-7 emulator.

The package contains a Win16 binary, as well.
However, it requires files found in the Japanese Windows 3.1x (besides the FM7 firmware).

Namely, the files related to the Input Method Editor (IME).
You'll fine some of them at Otaku World (great site!):

https://otakuworld.com/index.html?/toys/utils.html
http://www.otakuworld.com/toys/howto/installsavers.html

More information:
http://www.nausicaa.net/~lgreenf/fm7page.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM-7

Screenshot attached.

Edit: I made a little progress with this emu (v0.81). Seems F12 triggers an internal menu. Another key (°^ on my keyboard) functions as "confirm".
More information here -> https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12538/xm7 … -not-working/14
http://retropc.net/ryu/xm7/xm7.shtml

Edit: Ran XM7 on my Surfstation JNT and voila, BASIC came up. Very slowly.
The JNT has a MediaGX @180MHz and the readme file wasn't lying - a 200MHz MMX CPU is minimum.
Perhaps that's because the platform uses vector graphics in most games.
Or because it has to use old GDI for drawing on WfW (higher end ports use DirectDraw 3)..
Anyway, this emulator has modern requirements essentially. A 686 or higher CPU (Pentium II/III) should do.
New screenshot attached, also. Sorry for the sample game, it's not my taste.
Simply picked one random single floppy game since my Kanji isn't best. 😅
Game was chosen via F12 menu, not the Windows GUI..

Heureka! 🙃

I found a way to boot up that old vMac build!
Turned out that System 5 is compatible!

See photo!

Next step: Windows 3.1x and Win32s.

Update.

Tested vMac with System 5 on Windows 3.1+Win32s 1.30c..
Well.. Technically, vMac 0.18b runs on that, but..

There's a heavy graphical glitch, maybe related to my graphics drivers.
Since they are patched SVGA drivers, they don't do support DCI etcetera..

Anyway, the Mac mouse pointer moves and the Mac GUI behaves perfectly fine.
Even the drop-down menu of vMac draws correctly. It's just the "overlay" that's glitchy.

Photo attached.

Hi everyone!

Here's another emulator : BBC 6502 Emulator.
Not sure what to do with it, but it runs fine on Windows 3.1x! ^_^

Photo attached.

Quick Update.

Found Level 9, an interpreter for old interactive fiction (text adventures)..

Screenshot attached.

Hi again! Quick update!

Found a newer version of "Famicom"..
Among other improvemens (mapper support), it will also import common image formats.
From what I can tell, it still is a Win16 binary and runs on Windows 3.1x.

Screenshot attached.

Edit: Tested a few more games.
Including the obligatory "Bubble Bath Babes", haha! 😂
Crystalis seems quite playable, haven't noticed any issues so far. Haven't expected this, it's kinda cool.

Good news!

I found another IF interpreter.. Windows AGT Player. From 1993!

See screenshot.

Hello everyone!

Found another calculator emulator that runs on Windows 3.1x.
It's ttcalc and it comes in English and German.

Screenshot attached.

.. and another IF interpreter, WinTADS, running on Win32s (tested in Pentium 133).

Photo attached.

Interested in gaming on Windows NT 3.x? 😉

http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php? … age=en&style=30

Edit: Some links are gone. You can find some files hier .

Hi! Another update.

Discovered an emulator for the NEC PC-6000 series, "IP6".
It seems to run just fine on Win32s, but asks for firmware/monitor files.
Tested on a Pentium 133.

More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-6000_series

Photo attached.

Edit: Some more background information (source: intern. archive):

=== Overview ===
The PC-6001 was NEC's second line of personal computers after the PC-8001 series.
Nicknamed the "Papicom", the PC-6001 was a family-oriented computer at a budget price,
with bright orange keyboard buttons and a built-in cartridge slot for plug-and-play simplicity.

For a certain generation of Japanese geeks, the PC-6001 was their first computer growing up, and the nostalgia factor is high.
Even today, there is still a community of Papicom fans making homebrew software for their beloved machine.

Models:
- PC-6001 (1981). 4-color graphics and 3-voice PSG. Extra RAM, extended BASIC, voice synthesis, and external floppy disk drive available as add-ons.
- PC-6001mkII (1983). More RAM, better graphics (up to 15 colors), and built-in voice synthesis.
- PC-6601 (1983) - Basically identical to the PC-6001mkII, but with singing voice synth and a 3.5" floppy disk drive. Bundled with the game Colony Odyssey Bouken-hen.
- PC-6001mkIISR (1984). "SR" stands for "Super Revision". Added higher resolution support and 3-voice FM synthesis.
- PC-6601SR (1984) - Nicknamed "Mr. PC". Released roughly at the same time with the PC-6001mkIISR.
Basically a PC-6601 plus 3-voice FM synth and TV superimpose functions. Also a completely shameless ripoff of the Sharp X1 in design and looks.

Update.

The Z-Machine emulator, Winfocom, runs on Windows 3.1x.
It's a 1994 release and seems not to require Win32s.
Unfortunately, I had no matching game files at hand, haha. 😅

Photo attached.