9X Emulation

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Coviti
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9X Emulation

Post by Coviti »

I think that it would be a good idea to include a Windows 9X "compatibility mode", similar to the one in Windows XP. Now I know this is years away, and low priority, but I have several programs that require 95/98/ME, and don't run on NT-based OS's. I think that this, in addition to the proposed UNIX subsystem, would give ReactOS the greatest compatibility of any Operating System in the world.
GreatLord
Developer
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Post by GreatLord »

We will not include win 9x in ros
we are doing NT arch (win nt, 2k, xp and higher)
9x is dos kernel
loki1985
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Post by loki1985 »

the compatibility mode in XP is nothing more but faking a few env variables / registry settings AFAIR.

this should be possible, since it would allow lots of applications originally for 9x to work.
Coviti
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Post by Coviti »

GreatLord wrote:We will not include win 9x in ros
we are doing NT arch (win nt, 2k, xp and higher)
9x is dos kernel
I'm simply saying, include a 9X compatibility mode. I'm not saying to build an entire 9X-clone Operating System!
Mrkaras
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Post by Mrkaras »

Wasn't the idea originaly to include sub-systems, like a win95 sub-system. to get fairly good (not 100%) win9x compatability shouldn't be too hard should it. not things like direct hardware access (unless it is faked) but there must be a lot of little things that can be easily faked.
MadRat
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Post by MadRat »

You will largely have a Win9x system when you run DOS with a shell and then tack on a wine subsystem, no? Now that would be quite interesting, Windows dethroned by a DOS-based GUI and wine packed together...
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florian
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Post by florian »

An easy to use Win 9x emulation within ROS would be really a nice gimmick, for instance for very old games etc.
Not now, but maybe in the future...
Wierd
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Post by Wierd »

Including VDMsound along with a more complete NTVDM would satisfy many old dos games. Connecting to the emulated hardware that VDMSound provides could allow persnickety win9x games that do direct sound hardware communication to function too.

A person wanting to work on such a thing should give the VDMSound people a ring.
Phalanx
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Post by Phalanx »

florian wrote:An easy to use Win 9x emulation within ROS would be really a nice gimmick, for instance for very old games etc.
Not now, but maybe in the future...
That is a very very small audience.
gplgeek
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Post by gplgeek »

Some of my games that will not run in xp do run in reactos.... Not all of them.
Coviti
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Post by Coviti »

Phalanx wrote:
florian wrote:An easy to use Win 9x emulation within ROS would be really a nice gimmick, for instance for very old games etc.
Not now, but maybe in the future...
That is a very very small audience.
Actually not. There are very many of us who use games only compatible with 9x, and thus want a 9x compatibility mode.

I wonder...will anyone ever try to FOSS clone 9x for even greater compatibility??
Phalanx
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Post by Phalanx »

Coviti wrote:
Phalanx wrote:
florian wrote:An easy to use Win 9x emulation within ROS would be really a nice gimmick, for instance for very old games etc.
Not now, but maybe in the future...
That is a very very small audience.
Actually not. There are very many of us who use games only compatible with 9x, and thus want a 9x compatibility mode.

I wonder...will anyone ever try to FOSS clone 9x for even greater compatibility??
Yes, that was FreeWin. And also where ReactOS came from a long time ago.

How many is "very many", 0.1% of windows users? If you can't answer that, then maybe you will see my point.
Cristan
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Post by Cristan »

I don't know any Windows game which can be played at Windows 95, but not at Windows XP. However, I do know many DOS games who can run at '95 but not with XP. I still play them using DOSBox (which already runs in ReactOS), so I don't have any reason to add a Windows 95 compatibility mode.
Coviti
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Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:26 am

Post by Coviti »

I'm sorry, but I don't make it a habit of polling gamers to see how many use 9x only games. The first game that comes to mind is RollerCoaster Tycoon. This game was extremely popular, but when run on XP, (Without Windows 98 compatibility) it would produce an "Unknown Windows Driver" error. There is a patch that supposedly works, but I've tried it and it doesn't. Anyone who plays this game is in my situation.

Also, FreeWin95 is dead and will never live again. Someone should try again...sure 9x is unstable, but for these programs it would be even better than a compatibility mode.
Wierd
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Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:12 am

Post by Wierd »

Another battery of windows games that do not work on NT flavor OSes are the classic King's Quest series (5, 6 and 7). They make silly assumptions about the video and sound hardware/drivers, and dont work, ow wont work properly on an NT flavor OS.

KQ7 in fact, will display corrupt colors, and have no sound when run under an NT flavor OS. KQ5 has recurring heap size errors, in addition to the above.

I suggest a crawl through a website called "NT Compatible" (http://www.ntcompatible.com/). It has a very large application compatibility database listing compatibility issues with NT flavor OSes.

The nay-sayers might find it of interest, since they seem to have swallowed the propoganda spun by MS that nobody cares about backward compatability anymore. The truth is that most people dont have a say in the matter, and so seem small.
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