Are there any Windows 3.1 games worth emulating through a virtual machine?
well, first of all, you shouldn't be using a virtual machine, you should be emulating via 86box or pcemu, there's a big difference
>>10860858There's a list of windows 3.1 games herehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Windows_3.x_gamesI had a quick look through but couldn't really see anything. There's good games in there but they run just fine in dosbox and back in the day you'd usually run them in DOS anyway. I had windows 3.1 for maybe 4 years or something in the 90s and I don't really remember there being any games that only worked in windows other than tiny games like Ski Free or Solitaire or Chips Challenge. Usually you'd exit windows to DOS to run a game. Or some games would have a shortcut in windows but would still actually run in DOS anyway when you clicked on them. I didn't play every game though of course so there might be some good stuff I'm not sure. Maybe Sim City only ran in windows back then ? I can't remember.If you just want to have a quick look at windows 3.1 you can use an online version that runs in the browser. It's good enough to have a look around for a few minutes or whateverhttps://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/windows/3.10/
>>10860858Rodent's RevengeZombie WarsYoda Stories
>>10860918There are a handful of eroges (usually ported from PC-98) who require Win 3.1.
>>10861228okay...and?
>>10861230coomers, 90s coomers
Plenty, and a decent range of genres too.The Win3.1 versions of the Macventure games may not have the music of the NES ports, but the graphics are far better. The Journeyman Project Turbo, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, and some other surprisingly good graphical adventures on the platform. If you want RPG action there's the Castle of the Winds series and Exile series, and a few other obscure titles. Pinball gives you TDK Pinball and the Full Tilt Pinball series that the included pinball game in later versions of windows came from. If you want management sims there's Gazillionare, Capitalism, and more oddball stuff like Re-Elect JFK. Plenty of wargames, strategy games, and stuff that doesn't really fit any category like Alice:An Interactive Museum and Xplora. You can even try living as a fish in Odell Down Under. There's also some multiplayer-oriented releases of games like Civilization and Metal Marines. Even a few platformers like MicroMan.>>10860918The original SimCity was a DOS only game. There was a Win3.1/DOS enhanced version that is superior to the original since it allows you to resize the screen and the minimap as well, along with a number of other added features. In DOS you are stuck with the VGA standard, but in Win3.1 you can use larger resolutions and then resize the window, allowing for a really large overall view of your city at once. There's also a CD version that included some FMV's that pop up during gameplay, but it's DOS only.
>>10861313Were these Windows 3.1 games, or DOS games that could also be opened from Windows 3.1? I seem to remember being able to run Duke Nukem 1 from Windows 3.1 but it was just exiting windows and running the same DOS exe file. Or maybe it was using WinG
>>10861468>Uninvited, Shadowgate, Deja Vu 1 and 2DOS and Win3.1, but DOS is limited to CGA, Win3.1 256 color version looks better than the Amiga port or any other ports.>The Journeyman Project TurboWin3.1 and Mac only.>Ace Ventura Pet DetectiveWin3.1 and Win95.>Castle of the Winds seriesWin3.1 exclusive.>Exile seriesWin3.1 and Mac.>TDK PinballWin3.1 exclusive>Full Tilt! PinballWin3.1, 95, and Mac.>Alice:An Interactive MuseumWin3.1 and Mac.>XploraWin3.1, Mac, and CD-i.>Odell Down UnderWin3.1 and Mac.>multiplayer CivNetWin3.1 exclusive.>multiplayer Metal MarinesWin3.1 exclusive.>MicroManWin3.1 exclusive.
>>10860858You can install windows 3.1 in dosbox
>>10861705>Full Tilt! PinballFinally, Space Cadet as it was meant to be played.
>>10861472What is this? I feel like I've heard of it before.
>>10861761It’s a nonlinear semi-adventure game semi-edutainment where you explore a creepy version of Heian-era Kyoto and learn about the society and Buddhist/Shinto beliefs, sacred and profane and all of that.
>>10861848Weird. Thanks.
>>10861705you could just say yeah. Thought i looked up The Journeyman Project Turbo and people are playing it in DOS. I didn't check the others
>>10862408>people are playing it*some people, i should say
>>10862408That's a neat trick, since the game requires Windows 3.1. Are you sure they aren't just running it in DOSbox with Win3.1 installed?
Combat TanksDare to DreamGravity WellQuenzar's Caverns
win3.1 allowed devs to draw directly on the whole screen so there were a lot of games where you could squish bugs that hid behind your windows or shoot holes through your desktop
>>10861228Naturally that's what catches your attention.
>>10860858>>10860872Just use dosbox-x for windows 3.1 games.Infact, use exowin3x.
>>10864107>exowin3xWould it also work decently with EWJ Special Edition? (The Win9x port, not the DOS port.)
>>10864117Nah exowin3x is like exodos for win3x games, it sets up dosbox with Windows 3.1 installations and everything is pre setup so you can just click on a game in launchbox and play it.EWJ on win9x will probably work with a win9x installation on dosbox-x though. Its 2D and early enough that I don't imagine it will have any problems. Make sure to use the pentium cpu instead of pentium mmx like the guide says to use because that core is far from finished.
>>10864107This
>>10864170>Make sure to use the pentium cpu instead of pentium mmx like the guide says to use because that core is far from finished.Thanks anon, luckily I've got bin/cue files on hand ;)
This is sort of relevant:https://archive.org/details/BestOfWindowsEntertainmentPack64BitNative 32-bit ports of several WEP games that work perfectly well on modern Windows. Sadly missing things like SkiFree or Rodent's Revenge, but still pretty nice.
>>10864198Np anon, another tip is to use differencing vhd images for game you want to install to Windows. That way you can have a fresh install for each game. Then you can use a bat file to launch dosbox with an autoexec that automatically mounts the differencing image. But male sure you setup the parent image properly first because if you change it you'll have to make a new differencing image. Also if you move the parent image you'll have to use powershell to redirect the differencing image. But if you keep your games in the same place and get the parent image right then you'll have a great system for early win9x games.
>>10864375Thanks a bunch, you saved me from having to figure shit out myself!
>>10864381Np enjoy, I spent too long trying to figure this shit out so I'm happy to pass it on.Just be aware that compatibility from 1997 onwards gets a bit spotty because the best GPUs emulated are the S3Trio64 and Voodoo1. I'm trying out XP VMs to see if I can get that working but nothing has been too great so far.I really hope the devs add support for some later GPUs at some point, but I guess its dosbox not winbox so they might never.
>>10864480There's always 86box if all else fails, which I use sometimes.
>>10864482Yeah true, doesn't run too great on my machine unfortunately. But I'll be upgrading in the next year or so, so that'll probably be how I play most win9x games after that.
>>10864495I'd go with a Ryzen 7, Intel's good if you care about single-core performance.
>>10864498Yeah I'm looking at the 14900k, I know its a bit overkill, but I got uses for that sort of power and I want my next upgrade to last me 10+ years like my 4790k has. It served me well, but I'm really start to feel the age of it when it comes to emulators, games and certain apps that I use.I'll almost be sad to upgrade at this point haha.
>>10864498BTW, what hardware configuration do you have on 86box? I'm wondering what sort of settings I can use when I can upgrade. Even a regular pentium with s3trio64 runs slow on my CPU atm. Tried looking online but there aren't any examples with the CPU I'm looking at.
>>10864517I have no idea, it's been a while since I did any fiddling around with 86box. (I only ended up using it a few times to do some web browsing experiments on Win9x OSes.)
>>10864107>dosbox-xliterally the worst possible choice, but hey, you do you
>>10864529Ah fair enough, guess I'll find out soon enough anyway.>>10864535Why? What do you suggest? I like the way you can launch dosbox-x with a batch file and have everything automatically set up.I've got a bunch of win3x and win9x games set up so I just click a batch file and dosbox-x automatically launches into Windows and then automatically launches into the game. Plus for anything of that era dosbox-x works perfectly well, better than PCem or 86box because it can take full advantage of what your cpu is capable of. And especially with dynamic mode in protected mode games you get better framerates than you otherwise would.
Definitely not OP pic relatedYou have that one Halloween Harry Sequel, but after about 1996, most of the Win 3.1 games are edutainment made compatible for 3.1 for the poor saps who don't have windows 95