#win31 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #win31, aggregated by home.social.
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an extremely underrated 2 hour interview with robyn miller by [email protected] several years ago
they provide a walking tour through several of cyan's early titles such as the Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx. a live art director's commentary.
what i love the most is how much robyn makes it clear how these games were never built for "gamers" as we understand them now. robyn played very few games, and wasn't familiar with genre expectations.
he and rand just focused on making games that let the player explore a world at their own pace, and all else is secondary to exploration and discovery.
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an extremely underrated 2 hour interview with robyn miller by [email protected] several years ago
they provide a walking tour through several of cyan's early titles such as the Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx. a live art director's commentary.
what i love the most is how much robyn makes it clear how these games were never built for "gamers" as we understand them now. robyn played very few games, and wasn't familiar with genre expectations.
he and rand just focused on making games that let the player explore a world at their own pace, and all else is secondary to exploration and discovery.
-
an extremely underrated 2 hour interview with robyn miller by [email protected] several years ago
they provide a walking tour through several of cyan's early titles such as the Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx. a live art director's commentary.
what i love the most is how much robyn makes it clear how these games were never built for "gamers" as we understand them now. robyn played very few games, and wasn't familiar with genre expectations.
he and rand just focused on making games that let the player explore a world at their own pace, and all else is secondary to exploration and discovery.
-
an extremely underrated 2 hour interview with robyn miller by [email protected] several years ago
they provide a walking tour through several of cyan's early titles such as the Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx. a live art director's commentary.
what i love the most is how much robyn makes it clear how these games were never built for "gamers" as we understand them now. robyn played very few games, and wasn't familiar with genre expectations.
he and rand just focused on making games that let the player explore a world at their own pace, and all else is secondary to exploration and discovery.
-
an extremely underrated 2 hour interview with robyn miller by [email protected] several years ago
they provide a walking tour through several of cyan's early titles such as the Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx. a live art director's commentary.
what i love the most is how much robyn makes it clear how these games were never built for "gamers" as we understand them now. robyn played very few games, and wasn't familiar with genre expectations.
he and rand just focused on making games that let the player explore a world at their own pace, and all else is secondary to exploration and discovery.
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okay so i found something pretty awesome
the 3d scenes in Myst were all built using a mac modeller/renderer called Strata Vision 3D. i bought a boxed copy of this program with the intention of trying to recreate a model or two in the game, using the original renderer.
the box came with an extra disc - a library of shapes and textures. i noticed on the inside flap of the cd that it apparently included textures from Myst!
unfortunately, it turns out the disc was a demo. you browsed through the library until you found something you wanted, and then called a 1-800# to buy a serial number. you could enter the serial number and instantly have access to that texture.
unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to crack Strata Clip 3D, and i couldn't figure it out today either.
fortunately, some creative digging turned up the Myst textures. they've been hiding on a Warez cd from 1996 for the past 30 years.
i just managed to load the program into system 7 and it's all there. these are the original textures used to render some areas of Myst. i still need to install Strata Vision to test them out, but afaik this is the first time these original textures have been seen since.
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okay so i found something pretty awesome
the 3d scenes in Myst were all built using a mac modeller/renderer called Strata Vision 3D. i bought a boxed copy of this program with the intention of trying to recreate a model or two in the game, using the original renderer.
the box came with an extra disc - a library of shapes and textures. i noticed on the inside flap of the cd that it apparently included textures from Myst!
unfortunately, it turns out the disc was a demo. you browsed through the library until you found something you wanted, and then called a 1-800# to buy a serial number. you could enter the serial number and instantly have access to that texture.
unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to crack Strata Clip 3D, and i couldn't figure it out today either.
fortunately, some creative digging turned up the Myst textures. they've been hiding on a Warez cd from 1996 for the past 30 years.
i just managed to load the program into system 7 and it's all there. these are the original textures used to render some areas of Myst. i still need to install Strata Vision to test them out, but afaik this is the first time these original textures have been seen since.
-
okay so i found something pretty awesome
the 3d scenes in Myst were all built using a mac modeller/renderer called Strata Vision 3D. i bought a boxed copy of this program with the intention of trying to recreate a model or two in the game, using the original renderer.
the box came with an extra disc - a library of shapes and textures. i noticed on the inside flap of the cd that it apparently included textures from Myst!
unfortunately, it turns out the disc was a demo. you browsed through the library until you found something you wanted, and then called a 1-800# to buy a serial number. you could enter the serial number and instantly have access to that texture.
unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to crack Strata Clip 3D, and i couldn't figure it out today either.
fortunately, some creative digging turned up the Myst textures. they've been hiding on a Warez cd from 1996 for the past 30 years.
i just managed to load the program into system 7 and it's all there. these are the original textures used to render some areas of Myst. i still need to install Strata Vision to test them out, but afaik this is the first time these original textures have been seen since.
-
okay so i found something pretty awesome
the 3d scenes in Myst were all built using a mac modeller/renderer called Strata Vision 3D. i bought a boxed copy of this program with the intention of trying to recreate a model or two in the game, using the original renderer.
the box came with an extra disc - a library of shapes and textures. i noticed on the inside flap of the cd that it apparently included textures from Myst!
unfortunately, it turns out the disc was a demo. you browsed through the library until you found something you wanted, and then called a 1-800# to buy a serial number. you could enter the serial number and instantly have access to that texture.
unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to crack Strata Clip 3D, and i couldn't figure it out today either.
fortunately, some creative digging turned up the Myst textures. they've been hiding on a Warez cd from 1996 for the past 30 years.
i just managed to load the program into system 7 and it's all there. these are the original textures used to render some areas of Myst. i still need to install Strata Vision to test them out, but afaik this is the first time these original textures have been seen since.
-
okay so i found something pretty awesome
the 3d scenes in Myst were all built using a mac modeller/renderer called Strata Vision 3D. i bought a boxed copy of this program with the intention of trying to recreate a model or two in the game, using the original renderer.
the box came with an extra disc - a library of shapes and textures. i noticed on the inside flap of the cd that it apparently included textures from Myst!
unfortunately, it turns out the disc was a demo. you browsed through the library until you found something you wanted, and then called a 1-800# to buy a serial number. you could enter the serial number and instantly have access to that texture.
unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to crack Strata Clip 3D, and i couldn't figure it out today either.
fortunately, some creative digging turned up the Myst textures. they've been hiding on a Warez cd from 1996 for the past 30 years.
i just managed to load the program into system 7 and it's all there. these are the original textures used to render some areas of Myst. i still need to install Strata Vision to test them out, but afaik this is the first time these original textures have been seen since.
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this is insanely impressive work, and i don’t think i’ve ever seen people talk about it.
lots of us remember Broderbund’s Living Books series from the 90s - like Just Grandma & Me or Arthur’s Teacher Trouble. the cartooning was exquisitely well done, and the voice work was top notch.
they completely disappeared in the late 90s because they were built for 16-bit Win 3.1, and compatibility problems only got worse with every revision of Windows into the 32-bit era
apparently back in 2010, one of the original managers from the Living Books team hired several programmers who had built the runtime. they either had access to the source (likely) or reversed it, bought the rights back from the holders, and released 32 and 64 bit iOS and Android editions of the Living Books titles with tap support and a nice launcher.
this is really, really well done. the art and sound have aged very well despite not having any remastering.
it’s called Wanderful Interactive Storybooks on the play and apple stores. there is a free version with samples from 7 books.
#android #ios #retrogaming #macintosh #win31 #kids #edutainment #multimedia
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Eine grüne Schlange auf blauem Grund und insgesamt exakt 52.224 Bytes groß. "MAMBA.EXE" war eines der Spiele meiner Kindheit. Einfach, ohne Story und ohne Ton. Damals für Windows 3.1. Ein Klassiker von Data Becker! 😉
Link: https://archive.org/details/mamba_de
#RetroGaming #Windows #Win31 #PCGaming #Retro #Gaming #RetroGaming #90er #90s
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Eine grüne Schlange auf blauem Grund und insgesamt exakt 52.224 Bytes groß. "MAMBA.EXE" war eines der Spiele meiner Kindheit. Einfach, ohne Story und ohne Ton. Damals für Windows 3.1. Ein Klassiker von Data Becker! 😉
Link: https://archive.org/details/mamba_de
#RetroGaming #Windows #Win31 #PCGaming #Retro #Gaming #RetroGaming #90er #90s
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Eine grüne Schlange auf blauem Grund und insgesamt exakt 52.224 Bytes groß. "MAMBA.EXE" war eines der Spiele meiner Kindheit. Einfach, ohne Story und ohne Ton. Damals für Windows 3.1. Ein Klassiker von Data Becker! 😉
Link: https://archive.org/details/mamba_de
#RetroGaming #Windows #Win31 #PCGaming #Retro #Gaming #RetroGaming #90er #90s
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Eine grüne Schlange auf blauem Grund und insgesamt exakt 52.224 Bytes groß. "MAMBA.EXE" war eines der Spiele meiner Kindheit. Einfach, ohne Story und ohne Ton. Damals für Windows 3.1. Ein Klassiker von Data Becker! 😉
Link: https://archive.org/details/mamba_de
#RetroGaming #Windows #Win31 #PCGaming #Retro #Gaming #RetroGaming #90er #90s
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when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.
all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.
one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.
holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.
the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.
MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.
i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com -
when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.
all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.
one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.
holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.
the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.
MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.
i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com -
when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.
all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.
one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.
holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.
the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.
MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.
i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com -
when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.
all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.
one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.
holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.
the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.
MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.
i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com -
when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.
all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.
one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.
holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.
the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.
MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.
i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com -
it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia
their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.
i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.
you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.
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it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia
their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.
i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.
you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.
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it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia
their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.
i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.
you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.
-
it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia
their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.
i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.
you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.
-
it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia
their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.
i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.
you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.
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several years ago I began archiving educational software. Dangerous Creatures had the BEST Win95 Plus! Pack theme. 😻
edit: I totally misremembered. The dangerous creatures theme with the cougar deskop was sorta ok. the BEST theme was called Jungle. it came with the Plus! For Kids Pack
for @david_bardos
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MS Dinosaurs and Encarta are often fondly remembered, but i personally think that Oceans had some of the best multimedia design. it's very book-like in presentation, with zero scrolling. every page is carefully written to exploit the limited space, and the sheer amount of hyperlinking between pages makes exploration *fun*.
here's a 2 minute quick tour of Oceans. i'm not sure how many people ever saw it back in the day. top-tier edutainment imo.
one of the most painful aspects of wikipedia is that due to its layout and allergy to brevity/density, it's about as fun to explore as a phone book. i'd love to some day see a redesign focused on the joy of exploration.
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When installing Windows 3.1 as a retro system, you should never forget to update the file manager to its Y2K-compatible version from 1999. The old, original WINFILE.EXE should not be allowed to touch your files in 2026. 😉
#Y2K #Winfile #Win31 #RetroComputing #Emulation #Windows #90s #2000s #FileManager
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Hier noch ein weiteres, eher spezielles Retro-Sammlerstück, diesmal aus dem Jahre 1992: Ein OEM Diskettensatz von Windows 3.1 mit Dienstprogrammen und Branding des PC-Herstellers COMPAQ.
Eine Installation dieser Disketten ist - sofern man keine Fehlermeldung auslösen möchte - nur auf Computern mit COMPAQ BIOS möglich. Ansonsten wird beim ersten Start ein "Segment-Lade-Fehler" durch das Programm CPQINST.EXE ausgelöst. Um dies zu vermeiden, genügt allerdings auch schon ein emuliertes COMPAQ System, wie z.B. der "Compaq Deskpro 386" in 86Box.
https://archive.org/details/mswin_3.1_de_compaq-branded
Viel Spaß beim Austesten! 😉
#Win31 #Windows #Microsoft #COMPAQ #Diskette #FloppyDisk #Branding #86Box #Emulation #RetroComputing #90er #90s
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Nach längerer Recherche konnte ich heute endlich meine Diskettenfassung von Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 upgraden. Zu den IMG Disk Images kommen nun auch schöne Scans in 300dpi, sowie ein kompletter Satz an KryoFlux Streams.
https://archive.org/details/ms-powerpoint_40a_de
Viel Spaß damit! 😜
#RetroComputing #Microsoft #PowerPoint #Office #Win31 #Win311 #90er #90s #Diskette #FloppyDisk #KryoFlux
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Hier ein weiterer Satz von Windows 3.1 OEM Disketten, diesmal von COMPAQ. Es handelt sich um 7 x 1.44MB HD Datenträger aus dem Jahr 1992.
https://archive.org/details/mswin_3.1_de_compaq
Viel Spaß! 😉
#MSDOS #Windows #Win31 #Microsoft #RetroComputing #Oldschool #90er #90s #Disketten #FloppyDisk #IBMPC
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TIL a toy company released a line of Independence Day toys in the late 90s; each toy included a different "mission disk" floppy with a multimedia program on it for windows 3.1
toy collector @eisnerguy1 managed to collect all 11 of the toys and uploaded disk images to IA 🙏
https://archive.org/details/iD4_Independence_Day_Mission_Disks
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Es überrascht mich immer wieder, was man so alles noch spät Nachts im Netz findet, was man bisher doch noch gar nicht im Blick hatte!
Im Jahre 2023 wurden sämtliche ältere Versionen von SpeedCommander komplett als Freeware veröffentlicht, inkl. der 16-Bit Versionen 1,2 und III+ für Windows 3.1. Ich war jetzt nie der größte Fan dieses Datei-Managers, aber ich beschwere mich nicht über offiziell kostenlose Retro-Software.
Kommt in die Sammlung! Nice! 😃
https://www.speedproject.de/download/jubilaeumsversionen/
#RetroComputing #FileManager #Windows #Win31 #Win311 #WfW311 #DateiManager #SpeedCommander #90er
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I finally managed to install a working graphics driver for the TRIDENT 8900D within my new 86Box VM. This is running in a beautiful 800x600 resolution with 256 colors. Classic!
In case you're wondering about this file manager: Yes, it doesn't have toolbars. No, it's not broken. This is normal. You're looking at the good old Windows 3.1, not WfW 3.11! I just love these subtle differences!
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back in the early and mid-90s, getting on the net meant you were a university student, or had corporate access through a big company. getting online wasn't easy.
worse, even if you had a dialup number and login, there was no such thing as a tcp/ip stack built-in to Windows 3.1.
even if you *did* have a winsock stack, you'd still need a file downloading protocol, gopher client, world wide web client, ftp client, email client. just getting your machine off the ground was nearly impossible unless you could grab these from a local BBS
to make things simpler, universities began offering dial-up internet software packages to their students and staff.
in 1994, my mom was an undergrad student at the University of Alberta. our family had just bought an IBM PS/1 with a 2400 baud modem, and i was abusing the hell out of our single phone line at night visiting local BBSes.
she somehow found out that the university was selling internet dial-up software for $10 to students, and brought home the diskette pack with her. along with a USR Sportster 14.4k modem, she gave me the install diskettes as a valentine's day gift.
it had a slick setup program that enabled SLIP using Trumpet Winsock, and provided a local (free!) dial-up number for access.
after 25 years, i finally tracked down a few versions of those diskettes. i've imaged them and uploaded them all to IA.
the first version of the dial-up package in 1994 was called WinSLIP. it had no PPP support yet, but contained some really cool shareware internet utilities like HGopher and NCSA Mosaic. this would have been the earliest programs offered for Windows 3.1
WinSLIP/MSKermit 1994/95:
https://archive.org/details/ua_winslipThe second version of the software was renamed to NetSurf. It stripped out most of the obscure shareware sadly, and replaced them with Netscape 2 and Eudora Light. The new version of Trumpet Winsock offered PPP which was a huge improvement:
NetSurf 1996/97:
https://archive.org/details/ua_netsurf_96Now well into the Windows 95 era, the 1997/98 software was shipped on a CD with a hilarious "multimedia" installer/help program designed in Macromedia Director:
NetSurf 1997/98:
https://archive.org/details/netsurf-97-starter-kitI hope this brings back some memories for fellow U of A alumni :)
#softwarePreservation #webPreservation #win31 #worldWideWeb #yeg #bbs #alberta
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My Chessmaster 3000 standalone version, using PC-DOS 2000, "MINI.CAB" (You can find it on the Windows 95/98 installation CDs) and 86Box, using these ingredients I created an environment to just run this game. Why? Because I have fun!
Download here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/xflg2r80vl82235/CM3000.7z
You will need the 86Box executable from here: https://github.com/86Box/86Box/releases
⚠️ Put the executable file (.exe or .AppImage) inside the "CM3000" folder.
#86Box #Game #Chess #Chessmaster3000 #Win31 #Windows31 #PCDOS
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i've been posting a lot of my shareware research lately, because i've been working on a project for the past few months with a blend of Windows 3.1 & GeoWorks Ensemble used as inspiration.
Exigy is a tile-based game creation kit that lets you make windows 3.1/95-styled games, like spiderweb software's Exile or rick saada's Castle of the Winds. hell, you could remake the Microsoft Entertainment Pack if you wanted to :)
the editor is very intentionally built to work like MS Visual Basic: you can drag and drop any GUI element into the game editor window and script in your own actions with lua. it even comes with its own built-in sprite editor, so you can create your art while you work.
games are modified in real-time with no compiling. the entire thing is built in Love2D.
think of it as ZZT for windows 3.1 if that had ever existed. 😆
#zzt #shareware #dosgaming #windows95 #win31 #exigy #gamedev #geoworks
