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Love the test case "but can you run Doom on it?" Great work! Personally I'd like to see a homebrew OS that attempts some kind of compatibility with 16-bit Wind

Love the test case "but can you run Doom on it?" Great work! Personally I'd like to see a homebrew OS that attempts some kind of compatibility with 16-bit Windows, with some modern design/conveniences (sortof a ReactOS for the 3.11 world). It seems like people make either 8 bit or 32 bit OSes. Maybe I'm not searching the right terms. Anyone know of anything, or a starting point?

oso2k 7y ago
HX DOS Extender can run some 16-bit and 32-bit Windows apps in a MS-DOS or even FreeDOS environment. https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/HX https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/HX https://web.archive.org/web/20141003032346/http://www.japheth.de/ https://web.archive.org/web/20141003032346/http://www.japhet...
ryacko 7y ago
There is no copy protection for 16-bit Windows. And 16-bit emulators exist.
- mysterydip 7y ago
  I wasn't asking about an emulator or how to pirate Windows. I was asking if there are any 16 bit homebrew OSes (with Windows compatibility a plus). Emulation might be a starting point, though. Do you have a link to any?
  - ryacko 7y ago
    https://github.com/otya128/winevdm https://github.com/otya128/winevdm
cbluth 7y ago
Doesn't dosbox do this?
- jacobush 7y ago
  Nope
  - benj111 7y ago
    You can run Windows 3.x in Dosbox, Dosbox can't run Windows 3.x compatible binaries directly though.
  - pushpop 7y ago
    DOSbox will run Windows 3.x. I’ve seen people running classic Windows games (pre-directX stuff) on a Raspberry Pi using this trick.
jacobush 7y ago
AFAIK you can run 16 bit Windows programs in Wine.
- tsukurimashou 7y ago
  Yes I was about to give that advice, Wine handles 16 bit games pretty well
- mysterydip 7y ago
  Thanks, I'll check it out for some ideas!
ozkl 7y ago
Thanks! I was going to go similar path you mentioned. Not 16-bit but in a way that is exe-like binaries and development with Visual Studio. But it seemed to me that it is easier to support ELF binaries. And OSDev has great articles about elf files, binutils, cross-compilers, etc..
- mysterydip 7y ago
  can't believe I never checked OSDev before... what a trove of info! I'll spend a while digesting there, thanks!
  - unixhero 7y ago
    And deeper down the rabbithole: http://wikichip.org http://wikichip.org
jackvalentine 7y ago
Doesn't really address any of your questions, but may serve as a starting point: https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im-writing-a-16-bit-windows-emulator-2eae946c935d https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im-writing-a-16-bit...
- mysterydip 7y ago
  That's an interesting approach and might work, thanks!
  - jackvalentine 7y ago
    I personally couldn't get it to run, which was quite a disappointment!
taneq 7y ago
It's a pretty traditional "Hell, O World" program these days. ;)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

oso2k 7y ago

HX DOS Extender can run some 16-bit and 32-bit Windows apps in a MS-DOS or even FreeDOS environment. https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/HX https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/HX https://web.archive.org/web/20141003032346/http://www.japheth.de/ https://web.archive.org/web/20141003032346/http://www.japhet...

ryacko 7y ago

There is no copy protection for 16-bit Windows. And 16-bit emulators exist.

mysterydip 7y ago
I wasn't asking about an emulator or how to pirate Windows. I was asking if there are any 16 bit homebrew OSes (with Windows compatibility a plus). Emulation might be a starting point, though. Do you have a link to any?
- ryacko 7y ago
  https://github.com/otya128/winevdm https://github.com/otya128/winevdm

cbluth 7y ago

Doesn't dosbox do this?

jacobush 7y ago
Nope
- benj111 7y ago
  You can run Windows 3.x in Dosbox, Dosbox can't run Windows 3.x compatible binaries directly though.
- pushpop 7y ago
  DOSbox will run Windows 3.x. I’ve seen people running classic Windows games (pre-directX stuff) on a Raspberry Pi using this trick.

jacobush 7y ago

AFAIK you can run 16 bit Windows programs in Wine.

tsukurimashou 7y ago
Yes I was about to give that advice, Wine handles 16 bit games pretty well
mysterydip 7y ago
Thanks, I'll check it out for some ideas!

ozkl 7y ago

Thanks! I was going to go similar path you mentioned. Not 16-bit but in a way that is exe-like binaries and development with Visual Studio. But it seemed to me that it is easier to support ELF binaries. And OSDev has great articles about elf files, binutils, cross-compilers, etc..

mysterydip 7y ago
can't believe I never checked OSDev before... what a trove of info! I'll spend a while digesting there, thanks!
- unixhero 7y ago
  And deeper down the rabbithole: http://wikichip.org http://wikichip.org

jackvalentine 7y ago

Doesn't really address any of your questions, but may serve as a starting point: https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im-writing-a-16-bit-windows-emulator-2eae946c935d https://hackernoon.com/win3mu-part-1-why-im-writing-a-16-bit...

mysterydip 7y ago
That's an interesting approach and might work, thanks!
- jackvalentine 7y ago
  I personally couldn't get it to run, which was quite a disappointment!

taneq 7y ago

It's a pretty traditional "Hell, O World" program these days. ;)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]