Written by: J.P. Hays
Hey there ! My name is J.P. Hays, more commonly known on the net as Amadeus484. I am an avid collector of all things vintage computing and gaming, and I also enjoy studying various topics on the subject of vintage computing. I also enjoy doing experiments on my vintage and modern computers. The following post is one of those experiments, done about 4 months ago. Presenting – “Exactly how compatible IS the PC compatible ?”.
The other day, I was thinking about the AmigaOne X1000. It’s a great computer, but it’s lacking… I mean, it doesn’t have a 680×0-based processor, nor does it have any of the special chips that the original Amiga 1000 had. Because of that, is it REALLY an Amiga, if it can only run classic Amiga games via an emulator? My PC can run classic Amiga games with an emulator. Does that make it an Amiga?
My thoughts then shifted to the modern Macintosh. It, too, can only run vintage Macintosh software through an emulator. Heck, it can’t even run software that’s more than 6 years old without emulation. Is that still a Macintosh, if it can’t do that?
Then my thoughts shifted to the modern Windows machine…
Sure, it uses a processor that evolved from the Intel 8088, but CAN it run software designed for that CPU? I shook my head. “Of course not”, I said to myself. “The processor has had update after update. I am sure it can’t even CONSIDER loading something written for it!”.
Just then, an idea formed. Can it? Maybe, just maybe, the processor hasn’t evolved as much as I thought. I was sure that, even though it won’t be able to run it perfectly, that I could at least get it to maybe attempt to start. Maybe I could get some garbled text, or maybe I can get a title screen to briefly flash before it spits out a confusing error message and/or lock up.
I knew what I would do. Armed with a USB floppy drive, a 3.5” floppy filled with some choice programs I remember running on an IBM 5160 I had in middle school, and my laptop (After all, it had a genuine Intel i5 processor, versus my desktop’s AMD processor), I got to work. After a false start, I had to set up the BIOS to have the floppy drive boot first, I saw a nice, happy command prompt. Fingers crossed, I typed in “VC” and hit enter. My floppy drive chugged to life, and got to work loading VisiCalc. My eyes staring at the screen, I waited for the inevitable error message, lock-up, or brief flash of garbage.
Instead, I saw this:
I was confused! This is software that’s over thirty years old! It shouldn’t run on my modern laptop. Thinking it was a fluke (after all, it is a text-based app. If my laptop can display a command prompt, surely this is easy to run), I did a quick /sqy (command to quit VisiCalc), and proceeded to load Alley Cat.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only did it load, it worked almost perfectly. Not too fast, not jerky, but just like it would have on an XT-class system. I then tried Aldo’s Adventure, Ms. Pac-Man, 8088 Othello, and Pit Stop 2. All of them ran perfectly, with the exception of Pit Stop 2. It ran far too fast to be playable (I did expect at least one game to do that). Still, though, for those programs to load and run perfectly, I was floored. Was it expected? No. Was it a nice surprise? Of course. I didn’t think a modern graphics chip would work with applications and games that used CGA graphics.
Several days later, I decided to install the full version of MS-DOS on a thumb drive and see if I could boot off it. Surprisingly, it did! The 2 gigabyte thumb drive I used was recognized as a hard drive, and it booted almost immediately (Try doing THAT on Windows 7!), with no issues whatsoever.
Then I tried installing Windows 3.11 on it.
I took my (100% legal) install floppies, put disc 1 into the external drive, and ran the installer. Disc 1 copied over perfectly. I ejected it, put disc 2 in, and hit enter. Perfect. Copied over with no problems. Then I inserted disc 3. The drive started up briefly, it looked like it was ready to copy over. Then “Please insert the disc containing thisf.ile, and hit enter to continue”. I ejected the disc, re-inserted it, and hit enter. Nothing.
Afraid the disc failed, I rebooted, and saw if I could read the disc in a different manner. A quick DIR, and I saw the file in question. So I tried again, thinking it was a fluke in the installer. Same thing.
Dejected, I decided to turn off my laptop, unplug the floppy drive from my laptop, plugged it into my desktop, and tried installing Windows 3.11 in a virtual machine. It worked. I then decided to unplug the thumb drive, insert it into my desktop, and just copy the files over that way. After copying it over, I plugged it back into my laptop, booted into it, and typed WIN. After seeing a somewhat distorted Windows 3.11 splash screen and then my laptop locking up, I gave up and thought about what to do next.
Fast forward to the next afternoon – I saw Benj Edwards (Of the blog “Vintage Computing and Gaming: Adventures in Classic Technology”, at http://www.vintagecomputing.com) uploaded a new slideshow on PC World, “The 12 Greatest PC Shareware Games of All Time” (Seen here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248494/the_12_greatest_pc_shareware_games_of_all_time.html) several days earlier. After reading the article for a minute, I noticed, on the first page, the following line: “In almost all cases, you’ll need DOSBox, an MS-DOS emulation program, to run the games correctly in Windows, Linux, or OS X.” I know he specified that those are needed to run correctly on modern operating systems, but I just wanted to see how many of them ran fine on my special setup. Here is the results for the games:
– Adventures of Captain Comic: Works perfectly.
– Kingdom of Kroz II: It ran far, FAR too fast, even in fast mode.
– Raptor: Call of the Shadows: Sadly, the only version I had in my archive was lacking File_ID.diz, and threw a fit when I tried to run it.
– Epic Pinball: Works perfectly.
– Duke Nukem 3D: It ran a bit too fast, but not remotely as fast as Kingdom of Kroz II. It’s definitely playable, if you want things running quickly.
– Duke Nukem: Now this game, had a weird issue. The menus ran too fast, but the game ran at a normal speed. Of course, even though it ran at a normal speed, it had some weird graphics glitches which made it a bit annoying.
– ZZT: Looking at the previous text-based game (Kroz II), you’d think it would run just as fast, and be just as unplayable. Possibly more so, since ZZT doesn’t have a speed selector like Kroz did. You’d be wrong. It ran just as perfectly as it did when it came out.
– Operation: Inner Space: Seeing as this game is Windows-based, it was clearly omitted.
– Wolfenstein 3D: It ran fine. There were a few graphics bugs, but they were very slight. Might have been my eyes playing with me, though. That, or maybe those glitches were there before, and I’m just noticing them now.
– Commander Keen: Once again, due to lacking File_ID.diz, it didn’t want to run.
– Scorched Earth: It ran perfectly. Of course, the game almost demands a mouse, and since my laptop didn’t have a PS/2 port, it was quite annoying trying to play it without a mouse.
– Doom: Works perfectly, even though Duke Nukem 3D didn’t. I’m guessing that’s a problem with the build engine Duke 3D was built with.
Now, even though many of the games ran perfectly, there are no sound drivers for a modern laptop like mine that works in DOS, so there was no audio. Let’s face it: some games, like Doom and Epic Pinball, almost require sound. I would definitely recommend running all the games on DOSBox instead, hands-down. Not only because of the audio, the lack of the mouse, and the bugs, but also because of the stretched screen these games had which was more than a little annoying. At least, with DOSBox, I can turn that off.
This isn’t the end, by the way. Not by a longshot. I will try everything in my power to get Windows 3.1 running, even if it kills me. (or more likely, my laptop….)
