Windows 95!

tyreal90 · 4 Mar 2017, 22:36

Good. When I create a 3rd set tonight on my wife's computer I am going to download and try both versions of windows 95 from another source. The only reason why I am pretty sure that 2.1 is non-working, is because on my working windows images it always says missing usb supplemental drivers when I attempt to install certain programs that require them. When I install drivers called the USB supplemental drivers which add USB support, my system completely stops working properly. On my source for windows 95 info (I can't post it because it also hosts the disks as well) it says that the only change from 2 to 2.1 was the addition of USB drivers. So that is why I'm 99% sure but I just wanted to let you know how I am sure and why it is not 100%.

edmaul69 · 3 Apr 2017, 22:19

@tyreal90 my disks are from the same source. i am redownloading 95a osr1 because i got further than the other 2 and i think i know how to fix the issue it had when configuring windows. then if i get it working i am going to install service pack 1. that should give me fat32 support i think.

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 04:02

@edmaul69

when downloaded osr 2.0 it had the same errors you mentioned where it would re-initialize setup. i will try 2.1 tommorow and the other versions if that doesnt work. It makes me feel very lucky that the first image i downloaded happened to work and now i very much realize your frustration and how we have to narrow down what works before creating any documentation.

edmaul69 · 4 Apr 2017, 04:07

@tyreal90 yup i tried with 95a and same old black screen. Changing to any color, resolution and different s3 drivers, its the same old thing. I would love to know which image you used. I have spent enough time to have worked a 40 hour week trying to get this working. I have created about 50 images in my attempt.

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 04:12

@edmaul69

so we have

rtm = unknown
osvr 1 or win95a = no go
osvr 2.0 = no go
osvr 2.1 = unknown
osvr 2.5 = unknown
my unlabeled iso = works

did i miss anything? i may try to pull the image type out of the files on my iso but our other plan would be to try each type. ill check in the morning.

edmaul69 · 4 Apr 2017, 03:20

@tyreal90 2.5 was a no go as well. What you should do on only one of your working sd card images, copy one of the other versions named the same as the version that is working on it. Dosbox is weird how it remembers stuff based on the image you loaded previously using the same name. So if you had a 95b image that you didnt shutdown properly so it would need to do scandisk when windows started booting then if you put a good image on using the same filename, that one would run scandisk on boot.

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 04:27

@edmaul69

ok i can try that. also we have oem and non-oem copies of some of the versions. the one that works for me is oem. i will take the 2.0 image and copy it over a working image on one of my sd cards. i have 3 cards and 2 pis and 3 computers (two laptops and one desktop) that have worked on this project. my wife is getting very tired of my late nights but i am with you on getting this thing solved so we can make a wiki entry on it.

edmaul69 · 4 Apr 2017, 03:31

@tyreal90 yeah all versions i have done are oem. Even the 95a osr1 which uses an oem b,c key. I have not tried the rtm disk yet. And you post the last 4 numbers of the oem key you are using on your good copy since im pretty positive we are getting them from the same location? Also does the good disc have a name or did you change it?

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 12:38

@edmaul69

The last 4 of the key I've exclusively used are 6386. I have been up all morning trying out 2.1. I think it is no-go. There is a chance that a special version of 2.1 may work. It was called windows 95 and Microsoft plus. I only say that because my CD label that created the working images is W95_plus_ar (when I mount it) and it is 609 megabytes in size. I still cannot find version information on the CD. I'm going back to bed now but let me know what you find.

HPK-de · 4 Apr 2017, 16:28

@tyreal90 @edmaul69
Hi Tyreal, i´ll answer your question in this thread, because here it is "on topic".
I´ve tried a lot with Windows 95, i also had it up and running, but failed several times, especially when it came to driver....
My goal was getting Anno 1602 and other titels to work.

Then i read about this Exagear software, which is far from perfect but works....
The software costs 25$ and installs basically a bunch of virtual subsystems (e.g. Ubuntu/Debian Systems) on the pi,
so it needs some space (~3GB).
The usability is quite easy. I installed LXDE on my Pi, because ot needs an GUI to run.
You can start Exagear by clicking on it, or, type "exagear" in terminal window.
It than switches your machine from "ARM v7" to "virtual Intel" CPU.
After that you can install and use "wine" like on normal linux machines.

But.... it is very tricky getting software up and running sometimes. All i can do is run the setup via wine and see whats happening. For some weird reasons some games works instantly (Anno 1602, Unreal Tournament, Porta of Call, Europa Universalis) and others don´t ( Rolleroaster Tycoon 1+2), even when the installation was done.
The working games (like Anno, UT) are running at quite a decent speed (about 200-300 MHz i read) and so i can play the games in scaled size on my 55-inch TV, which is a stunning experience....
Only in-game problem seems to be the sound. In Anno the sound starts normal but then it sounds weird and broken, so i switched it of. The same issue with other games. Sound Effects are ok, but music is a no-go.

I know very well that those other games (like Rollercoaster Tycoon and others i tried) are working fine with wine on other machines, all of them have gold or platin status at wines AppDB. The problem is to figure out, what the problem is, because sometimes you don´t get an error message, and you can try all these configuration stuff in wine.
So it is a game of luck, if you get your favourite game up and running.
But, and thats a big point, wine supports Direct X stuff (up to some version)....

But there is also another problem.... After you started a game (e.g. Anno 1602) and you end your game, you need to reboot the system. For some reason it is not possible starting another windows game....
So trying out the correct wine configuration is annoying, because you have to reboot your pi very often.....

After all i have, besides the normal retropie stuff, Windows 3.11 via Dosbox, LXDE for Linux games and Exagear for (at least) some Windows games runnig on the pi, which is amazing in my opinion. Windows would be the ultimate goal, but not at every price....

edmaul69 · 4 Apr 2017, 17:06

@tyreal90 i believe i saw the disk you are talking about. I will have to test it out now. And that is the first key on the list from the site i am on so i think we are getting them from the same place.

edmaul69 · 4 Apr 2017, 18:01

@tyreal90 so i tried that disk and nothing again. It is a 2.1 disc. Can you go through the steps you go through in detail and which program you are doing what in.

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 17:39

@edmaul69

I am keeping track of every step I am making on a word document. Other than the one place I've found this working disk, I am now running into the issues that you were having with every other disk image that is available out there. One of the reasons that I posted my image's size (above) is that may be the only way for us to match up. The original working image that I have was not something that can just be googled for, an example of how differently it was come by.

My goal is to find the working image another way from methods our users would use to find them. I've said it before but it really opens my eyes to how frustrating this has been for you the last few weeks.

tyreal90 · 4 Apr 2017, 18:51

@HPK-de

You said you had it up and running but failed when it came to the driver. Do you know what version of the windows install disk you were using to get it up and running? I am using a version without description that works up to the point where you install video drivers but @edmaul69 and I are looking for that disk's version so he can replicate the success that I accidentally fell into. The other Win95 install disks we've used either boot to a black screen or keep going through the final install step and then crash.

HPK-de · 4 Apr 2017, 17:55

@tyreal90 Sorry, i don't know anymore. I think it was the oldest version "A", because it was told me in an guide on the internet to use this one.
But i have deleted everything and can't figure it out anymore

hokagekurei · 9 May 2017, 05:10

Hey guys. I got windows 95 working nicely in the pi thanks to your tutorial. Installing all additional addons in daum also successfully transferred to windows 95 in dosbox thru retropie including dx8. Increasing resolution to 800x600 allowed me to operate in true color settings. Using trio 32/64 pci drivers and dx8 installed via daum I have been able to emulate starcraft at somewhat laggy but acceptable speed with no graphical abnormalities or crashes.

hooperre · 5 Oct 2017, 15:13

@hokagekurei said in Windows 95!:

Hey guys. I got windows 95 working nicely in the pi thanks to your tutorial. Installing all additional addons in daum also successfully transferred to windows 95 in dosbox thru retropie including dx8. Increasing resolution to 800x600 allowed me to operate in true color settings. Using trio 32/64 pci drivers and dx8 installed via daum I have been able to emulate starcraft at somewhat laggy but acceptable speed with no graphical abnormalities or crashes.

Curious how Age of Empires/Diablo would run for you... Kind of been the 'deciding factor' for me whether I go for it or not. I think I've read Rollercoaster Tycoon is a no go. If you don't mind, have the time/interest in these, I'd be excited to know what your experience would be.

tyreal90 · 14 May 2017, 00:58

@hokagekurei said in Windows 95!:

Hey guys. I got windows 95 working nicely in the pi thanks to your tutorial. Installing all additional addons in daum also successfully transferred to windows 95 in dosbox thru retropie including dx8. Increasing resolution to 800x600 allowed me to operate in true color settings. Using trio 32/64 pci drivers and dx8 installed via daum I have been able to emulate starcraft at somewhat laggy but acceptable speed with no graphical abnormalities or crashes.

That is awesome!!! What is the location of the trio drivers you are using? There are several versions out there. I have never gotten starcraft to work on PI so you have taken it one step further in my view.

edmaul69 · 14 May 2017, 02:32

@hokagekurei what version of starcraft are you using? I have two versions on disc but not sure if i had tried getting them to work or not.

Semper 5 · 14 Mar 2018, 14:52

So I was able to create a beautiful and fully stable Win95 environment - and now I'm wondering how do I get my ISOs of all my games mounted?
I have Virtual Clone Drive installed on my Win95. I just need to be able to access my ISOs sitting in my RPi.

Also, ANY games I have installed on the Win95 image, run perfect when the image is on the PC, but fail miserably on the Pi. I copied the conf mentioned in previous posts. What am I doing wrong?

So far I see this Win95 as nice to look at but completely useless.