[Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!

VictimRLSH

@edmaul69 GIven the effort it takes, I'll stick to using Dosbox for DOS games. It is amusing getting Win95 running, but it isn't really that useful. I'll stick to Exagear/Wine for WIndows 9x +. Considering installing 3.11 just to play Fleet. Incredible game.

mediamogul

@victimrlsh said in [Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!:

It is amusing getting Win95 running, but it isn't really that useful.

Progress peaked with 'Microsoft BOB' anyway. ;)

VictimRLSH

@mediamogul Then there was that stupid paper clip... CLIPPY!!!

Spiky

@backstander both kind of slashes obviously work. I think it's clear now :)
alt text

@edmaul69 sorry I am not answering, I am really busy these days, no time for RetroPieing

cyperghost

@mediamogul said in [Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!:

Progress peaked with 'Microsoft BOB' anyway. ;)

Bill met Melinda in his company - she was the lead project manager at this time for BOB.

About security:

Signing In To Microsoft Bob With A Password-"Protected" Account.

„But instead of requiring you to perform some kind of authentication first -- answer a question
("What is your mother's maiden name?"), etc., you can enter any new password and
it will replace the original one! Anyone can do this to any password "protected" Microsoft Bob account. 
There is absolutely no prior authentication required whatsoever. 
This means User1 could change their own password just by mistyping their password three times and 
entering a different password the fourth time -- and not have to bother with Microsoft Bob's Change password option. 
It also means that User1 could change the passwords of User2, User3, User4, etc. in exactly the same way. 
Consequently, any user could change any other user's password simply by mistyping it three times 
then entering a new password when prompted -- and then enter their account.“

Nothing changed this time :D

Annother security check at this time were the install keys.
So a typical key to activate MS products like xxx-xxxxxxx, last 7 digits must be Mod 7, the leading 3 numbers did not matter as for as I know.

mediamogul

@cyperghost said in [Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!:

This means User1 could change their own password just by mistyping their password three times and
entering a different password the fourth time...

Wow! Such an innocent and naive time for Microsoft. That's the operating system equivalent of leaving a key under the mat for a door you never bothered to lock when you went out. Still can't get in? Just knock three times and try the knob again. I actually really like messing around with 'Bob'. It's adorably awful.

VictimRLSH

I was always of the opinion that Microsoft should have destroyed Apple when they had the chance. They decided not to because it gave the appearance that Microsoft had some 'competition' to avoid antitrust suits. I think they are kicking themselves over that one now...

mattfeeder18

@Spiky said in [Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!:

2. Creating HDD file

Run bximage.exe (this is part of Bochs x86 package)

enter following input:
1
hd
flat
2048
c.img

file c.img was created in the directory where bximage.exe is placed

move c.img to your working directory, let's say D:\Win95

Just to help with 2 lines of step 2 as to me they were a little unclear. I am using Bochs 2.6.9, so if you're using a different version, change all of the version references below to your version:

Run bximage.exe (this is part of Bochs x86 package)

If using Windows 10 (probably similar on other OSs), this can easily be found in Start > Bochs 2.6.9 > Disk Image Creation Tool.

file c.img was created in the directory where bximage.exe is placed

This image file actually ends up in C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Bochs-2.6.9 (for me, anyway).
Make sure you replace %USERNAME% with your local directory username. For me, in full it was C:\Users\Matthew\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Bochs-2.6.9.
(Credit to Ali Sahan on YouTube for commenting on a somewhat related video with this location.)

VictimRLSH

Since Exagear is now a brick I might go back to seeing what else I can do with this.

hooperre

Why am I seeing a bunch of people successfully installing wine on the Pi 4 and getting things to run? My understanding was that wine didn’t work on arm7v architecture. Pi Labs and NovaSpirit have released some videos running these games.

As a non-Linux user and someone that hasn’t ever used wine... I’m having a bit of trouble understanding this, but didn’t want to start a new thread about it.

mitu

@hooperre said in [Guide] Stable Windows 95 on RetroPie!:

My understanding was that wine didn’t work on arm7v architecture. Pi Labs and NovaSpirit have released some videos running these games.

It does work, but you'll have to re-compile the kernel with different options (Wine requires a 3G/1G user/kernel memory split to work) and - optionally - run qemu to emulate a PC system on an ARM CPU . Not the easiest or performant solution for a regular user.

hooperre

@mitu I see. So the fact that buster has a 3G/1G kernal is allowing these videos to pop up. Am I correct? Thanks for the response.

retropi19

Hello im trying to install win98 following your guide but upon command: copy D:\WIN95*.*

i get a file . not found error

any help?

YFZdude

The syntax of the command is
copy [source] [destination]
If you don't specify a destination, it will assume you want all files copied to the folder you are in now.

Since at this step you have just changed directories to the virtual c:\WIN95 folder, this will be the assumed destination. The 'D:\WIN95*.*' is the source and means you want to copy all files from the WIN95 directory on the CD image. If you are installing from a windows 98 CD there wouldn't be a WIN95 folder on it. You will need to adjust the command based on the contents of the CD.

xNYARLx

@backstander S3 Inc. Trio 32/64 pci

Nereida35

After dozens of attempts to install win95(tried about twenty win95 images ) under dosbox on my laptop - I finaly did it successfully, without any errors. But after transferring it to raspberyPi, ms explorer.exe errors constantly appears on any of my actions in windows (open My Computer or Control Panel, trying to adjust clock etc.). Help me please. Maybe the image of WIN95.iso is not correct. P.S.Sorry for my english.

A Former User

Nice to see this is possible on the RetroPie, thanks.

I'll use this knowledge to my advantage and turn my Pi 4 into a retro juggernaut of a PC.
if Windows 95 works then 98se should work also, and if it will have full sound support that would be awesome. Hopefully when Vulkan comes out for Pi4 it'll work with DOSbox eventually.

retropi19

Hello i installed windows 95 in dosbox but upon the the first boot it crashes all the time with invallid instructions set errors
any idea what to do?

thanks

start_something

Hi,

Is it possible to boot directly into a game, for instance, Full Tilt! Pinball, and have a gamepad configured to key inputs to play the game. And then have some smart way of shutting down the machine from the gamepad?

So that you don't need a keyboard and mouse plugged in?

Good_Punk

So I've changed the desktop colors to 16 to get rid of the graphic glitches and black cursor.
But when I change it back to 256 they are back... I'm not sure if I understand this correctly: but can you use Win95 with more than 16 colors this way? 😅

Ok it seems that he hasn't installed the S3 drivers correctly. When I rightclick and then "install" on the .ini file nothing happens. When I use the "Add Hardware" function and select the S3 Trio 32/64 PCI he tells me that it was installed. But it's not showing up on the device manager.

I deleted the S3 driver that came with windows and tried to install my own S3 drivers again but nothing happens. :/

I'm using these drivers: https://oemdrivers.com/graphics-s3-trio

PS: I've tried drivers from a few other sources but I couldn't install any of them. :(