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Emulation on MS Windows 3.1x ?

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Reply 120 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

This is a bit off-topic, but here's a nice document with lots of screen shots of various emulators.
Off-topic, because it's not Windows 3.1 centric.

License seems to be Creative Commons, so I suppose I can add a link without worrying..
Source: https://ftp.fau.de/aminet/docs/hard/Simulation-Emulation.pdf

Edit: Speaking of links, here's another one that I feel I should mention for the sake of fairness.
It's a good archive site that mentions old shareware/freeware emulators. Link is in tinyurl form because of web cra.wlers.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 121 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

Found a bunch of small Windows 95 era emulators and utilities from the mid-late 90s.

Overall, they seem to execute on Win32s, but do behave weird.
Funnily, they don't run on Windows NT older than 3.51, also.

Hm. Do you guys think it's okay to include these weird ones?
Maybe in a separate root directory (WINNT)?

They seem to not *require* DirectX, so they are different from the modern day Windows emulators.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 122 of 331, by Jo22

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Okay, so this is QLAY for Windows.. It's a Sinclair QL emulator.

The Sinclair QL was an advanced home computer from circa. 1984*.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL

It ran on QDOS, an early multitasking operating system of the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QDOS

QLAYW executes on Windows 3.1+Win32s, but closes shortly after.
Not sure why, there's no error message.

Edit: Just tried running it on Windows NT 3.51..
Dialog appeared, menu items do work. However, main window closes after confirming settings..

Edit: Got it to execute on OS/2 via ODIN. Hoever, it still "faints" after confirming settings.

Edit: I think I've got it to run on XP in compatibility mode for Win95.
Hm. Strange. Why does it ship with an NT DLL file then? 😕

(*hence the wallpaper from Megazone 23 - a 1985 series).

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Last edited by Jo22 on 2021-05-08, 02:06. Edited 2 times in total.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 123 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

MSX Viewer is not an emulator, but an utility for one.
It's meant to display memory dumps of the MSX screen modes, if I understand correctly.

I tested it while I was checking out QLAY for Windows on Windows NT 3.51.
It also claims to inherent Win32s compatibility, but I haven't tested that yet.

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 124 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick Update.

I tried out good old YAME, a freeware multi system emulator by Kappa.

Back in the early 2000s, I often used it on my Pocket PCs, a HP Jornada with SH3 processor and a Casio Cassiopeia (MIPS)..
It was about the only emulator that archived a satisfying performance at the time. It may used GAPI, not sure anymore.

YAME, the name may stand for "an abbreviation for weather forecast" according to the defunct site.
Or maybe the Yame city in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Not sure.

It supports DirectDraw and DirectSound (DX3), but also has a fall-back for GDI/MCI.
That:s why I hoped it could run on Win32s, still.

Alas, that's not the case. Win32s complains about an invalid EXE file. 🙁
However, it successfully ran on NT 3.51 and OS/2 Warp, which both are below the official requirements:
"Windows 95/98 / Me / NT4 (? SP3 or later) / 2000".

YAME emulates the TurboGrafx 16, NES, SNES and Gameboy.

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 125 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update!

Good news - I've found another C64 emulator for Windows 3.1!
- Looking for physical media paid off! 😁

More information soon.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 126 of 331, by AlaricD

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-05-06, 05:32:

YAME, the name may stand for "an abbreviation for weather forecast" according to the defunct site.
Or maybe the Yame city in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Not sure.

I'd have guessed that it took cues from MAME and YaST:
MAME = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
YaST= Yet another Setup Tool

YAME could be "Yet Another Machine Emulator".

Last edited by AlaricD on 2021-05-10, 19:57. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 127 of 331, by Jo22

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AlaricD wrote on 2021-05-10, 17:21:
MAME = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator YAME could be "Yet Another Machine Emulator" (See "YaST" ("Yet another Setup Tool")) […]
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Jo22 wrote on 2021-05-06, 05:32:

YAME, the name may stand for "an abbreviation for weather forecast" according to the defunct site.
Or maybe the Yame city in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Not sure.

MAME = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
YAME could be "Yet Another Machine Emulator"
(See "YaST" ("Yet another Setup Tool"))

SuSe Linux, yay! 😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 128 of 331, by Jo22

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Update!

Good news! I've just recently gotten a CD-ROM from the 90s in the mail. 😎

And it contains an Atari 2600 emulator for MS Windows! It's Virtual VCS v0.60.
- Okay, I cheated a little bit, that one is an emulator for DOS, actually.. But the helper program is for Windows 3.1! 😁

Enjoy! ^^

Note: I've kept the directory structure, so there's a ROM folder. However, I haven't included the ROMs for obvious reasons.
A text file will mention which files resided in that DIR. Hope that's okay. The emulator is GNU.

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 129 of 331, by Jo22

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Little update.

This is old news, but there's both a Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 edition of the Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack trilogy.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/activisions-at … 600-action-pack

https://www.mobygames.com/game/activisions-at … 0-action-pack-2

https://www.mobygames.com/game/activisions-at … 0-action-pack-3

- Of course, these are not available here, because they were sold originally.
So please don't link to them in this thread.
It's not needed, anyway, because they are easy to find online.. on eBay. 😀

Fun fact: Each of the game executables does include a A2600 emulator.
It's possible to patch them to accept your own game. Cool isn't it? 😎
Also, the Win 3.1 version uses WinG. Which may not work properly on Windows 9x.
The colour tones will be messed up, in best case.
If you need to run Windows 9x, using a Windows 3.1 graphics driver *might* fix it.
Re: Uses for Each Windows

Here are some youtube clips of the Action Pack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBCbODDCPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPGA9a0SOo

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 130 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

I'm currently browsing the emu france site!
It has tons of emulators, both old and new. Including DOS versions..

There's a good chance that we can find one or two more emulators for Windows 3.1 there! 😉

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 132 of 331, by Jo22

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xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-05-14, 09:43:

emu france is a huge resource indeed !

+1

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 133 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

Found another emulator for our beloved Windows 3.1! 😄

It's "KC EMU" and it emulates a Soviet era home computer from East Germany: The KC85 (Klein Computer '85?).
The emulator is surprisingly feature-rich and supports many models, WinG and comes with a tape utility, even!

From what I've read (and heard), the country it originates from was so poor that FM radio stations took the role of
distributing KC85 programs. Or more precisely, the programme (radio show) that was meant for the young people.

That way, the users at home could sit in front of the radio and wait until a new program was announced.
Then, they did hit the record button on their cassette recorders and saved the programs they were interested in.

Of course, this was not really supported/encouraged by the goverment (but tolerated).
After all, students and kids weren't meant to use computers.
They didn't want to wake sleeping lions, so to say.

In their minds, computers apparently were expensive and meant for the higher-society only. And for export.
You need to know, that all the "Mikroelektronik" (micro electronics) were a "Hochtechnologie" (High Technology) in the DDR (GDR)..

Nevertheless, East Germans also sometimes got "real" computers from their relatives in West Germany.
The C64 and Amiga were quite popular gifts or so I heard**. If memory serves, both goverments tolerated this silently,
despite that east-west technology embargo of the time. The GDR even wanted money (taxes) if more than one computer was sent to GDR. 😉

In the public, I heard, computers were some abstract construct which the citizens rarely had heard of.
And if they did, mainly in conjunction with espionage and the collection of personal data.
Their goverment often tapped phone lines and documented about everything.
Long story short: After the wall fell / after reunion, facilities like Robotron/VEB etc.
were invaded by angry citizens that took apart the machinery.

(All information is supplied without guarantee)
(** At some point, I read, the GDR also encouraged the production of ZX Spectrum clones.
Much to the dismay of GDR engineers at the time.)

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 134 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

There's an emulator/player for the SPC 700 sound module of the Super NES that may run on Win32s. 😀
- It complains a lot (**missing .DEU and .DE components; w32skrnl.dll), but the GUI finally comes up.
On real hardware (Cyrix MediaGX CPU). No chance on DOSBox so far. It's called "KuroNeko LSPC".

Maybe we will see the day Win32s got revamped (by enthusiasts) to fully support these things? 😁
- The main issue seems to be missing DirectDraw 2.0/DirectSound support. Once there's a wrapper to WinG/MCI..

(** .DEU might refer to a language resource -> DEUtsch -> German. Maybe related to Delphi or Visual Studio compilers.)

Edit: Update. It executes as well (or as bad) on DOSBox-X (I compiled it for my Pi 4)..

Edit: Typos fixed, screenshots sadded.

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 135 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

In case you missed it, I do use some updated, Win32s compatible, system DLLs.. 😉

You can get them here: http://stephan.win31.de/w32slist.htm

Edit: I did forget to mention - I'm not affiliated with this person/site.
I think the result is/was impressive, though! 😎
Gives me hope that Win32s could technically be altered further, someday..

Edit: Here's a diagram of Win32s' architecture (source).

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Last edited by Jo22 on 2021-05-21, 10:41. Edited 1 time in total.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 136 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

There's a Win32s port of PuTTY, the famous terminal emulator..

https://github.com/Toyoyo/putty-win32s

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 137 of 331, by Jo22

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Quick update.

There seems to be another potential Win32s compatible emulator.
It's "The Cinematronics Emulator" (early release).

It plays the Star Castle game for the old vector graphics based Cinematronics system..

I'm having trouble finding suitable game files, though. 🙁

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 138 of 331, by Jo22

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

The Mac one is very interesting to me...

I know, it's been a while, but I've just found two web ports of the PCE emulators.
One emulates Win 3.x, the other one System.

http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ibmpc-win/

http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/

No idea if this helpful, but I felt like I should mention them. 🙂

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//