DOSBox
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You can finally play Maxis' long-lost 'SimRefinery' oil simulator
Thanks to an article published by Ars Technica reporter Sam Machkovech, a piece of video game history has been recovered for all to play.
Windows 95 on a Nintendo 3DS is as strange as you'd think
The trend of putting PC software on wholly impractical devices isn't stopping with the new year, folks. GBATemp fan Shutterbug2000 has managed to get Windows 95 running on a New Nintendo 3DS XL thanks to both DOSbox emulation and some ingenuity. You won't be doing a whole lot with this right now -- Microsoft wasn't designing for touchscreens and analog sticks two decades ago -- but it really does work on a basic level. It looks more than a little odd, too, between the tiny desktop and the emulator status on the second screen.
Good Old Games now offers money back guarantee for games you can't run
For all the convenience digital games sales have brought us, they've come at the cost of the return policy. Buy a downloadable title you don't like? Tough noogies, kid - no take-backs. Well, unless you bought from Good Old Games. To help stem customer concern that a given title might not run on their computer, GOG has implemented a new money back guarantee that promises a full refund for any unplayable game. The caveat, of course, is you have to try: the team's support group pledges to do everything in its power to get its catalog's game running on your computer. If it can't, you get your cash back. Easy. Perhaps more notable, is the 14-day return policy it's attaching to any PC game the user hasn't downloaded. Sure, two weeks of leeway is kind of a standard, but for digital distribution services it's also a little unprecedented. Steam only offers refunds on pre-orders, and only if the request is processed before the game is released. Origin's policy is a little more forgiving, and gives gamers 24 hours (after a game is first launched) to let buyers remorse set in, or up to a week if the game is unplayed. Comparatively, 14 days almost seems generous. It's not a groundbreaking reform of digital purchase refunds, but at least it's a start - check out the company's announcement video after the break.
ULTIMAte hack: Nexus 7 hooks up with external USB storage, floppy drive for retro-gaming
There's only so much kit you can cram into a sub-$200 tablet without pushing past the price ceiling. And for Google's Jelly Bean-blessed Nexus 7, corners were definitely cut, leaving users without a handy microSD slot for expansion and rear-facing camera. But where there's a will, there's the XDA and its community of developers to remedy the situation. As you can glimpse from the photo above, an enterprising forum member by the handle of c0m47053 devised an interesting workaround for the slate's lack of expandable storage and then some. Using the StickMount app available on the Play store, which allows users to mount/dismount mass storage devices, he was able to connect the ASUS-made tab to a USB hub and hook it up to a keyboard, mouse and, most amusingly of all, a floppy drive -- to play Ultima on DOSbox, of course. It goes without saying that a feat of this kind requires root access, but thankfully that's what Mountain View made the Nexuses for.
DOSBox ported to BlackBerry PlayBook, brings MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 to QNX (video)
So, BBM and a native email client for the BlackBerry PlayBook would be nice, but what we have today is a step in a completely different direction. DOSBox, everyone's favorite open-source x86 emulator, has been successfully ported to RIM's QNX-based tablet, bringing with it MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 support. A command-line-based OS can certainly be tiring after spending so many years with a GUI, but those ancient games of yesteryear are timeless -- Wolfenstein 3D, anyone? If you happen to live north of the border, where the Playbook just got a massive price cut, a repurposed DOS tablet could be in your future for a mere $200 -- plus a few extra bucks for a Bluetooth keyboard, which naturally you'll need to navigate DOS. Jump past the break for a tease of the action.
Nexus One runs Windows 3.11, possibly the saddest thing we've seen all day (video)
In a volatile Android ecosystem where bigger and better phones pop up every week, your Nexus One might be feeling a little obsolete. Frankly, there's hardly a better way to cheer it up than by installing an operating system that's a little more its speed. In the finest DOSBox tradition, one gentleman recently imbued his Googlephone with Windows 3.11, by far our favorite 1993 Microsoft OS. Realizing the futility of getting it to do anything -- ah, memories -- he set about crafting a step-by-step guide for you to do the same. If you care to give his misery company, you'll find instructions at our source link; if not, don your rose-tinted glasses and peep the video after the break.
Guy runs Windows 95 on Wii, wonders why
Using a Wii version of the open source DOS emulator DOSbox, a Wii homebrew devotee has managed to get Windows 95 running on the console -- if your definition of "running" is "working, but just barely." In fact, the boot process spans most of two YouTube videos, which the author admits have been edited for brevity. (It takes upwards of 13 minutes just to see the taskbar.)You're probably asking yourself, "What's the point?" and "Why even try?" Well, to prove it can be done, of course. But even the one who did it -- while providing instructions on how to replicate the process -- advises against following in his footsteps, saying, "I did it and now I can move on to more productive things." But, hey, you could be doing worse things with the system. Waste your time with videos of Wiindows 95 in sort-of action after the break!
Windows 3.1 on S60 dude says 'why stop there,' ups the ante with Win95
Hey, look, it's Windows... mobile. Get it? You know, Windows 95 on a mobile device -- ah, never mind. Point is, the S60 port of DOSBox seems to be doing some really crazy, insane, questionably-useful things for Symbian-powered devices around the world, and when running Windows 3.1 on a 320 x 240 display just doesn't do it for you anymore, you can apparently step up to a harder drug like Windows 95. The video shows good ol' 95 getting demoed on an N82, but given the molasses-like pace of absolutely everything, we'd say this is strictly a for-the-hell-of-it sort of experiment. Translation: there are better ways to run your BBS from the road. Follow the break for video. [Thanks, Daniel]
Id and Valve could have been violating GPL
After id Software released their catalog on Steam, some gamers on the Halflife2.net forums noticed a missing General Public License for DOSBox, an emulator used for playing older titles. Not including a GPL, which is a text file legally required to be included with the game to give due credit, violates the license and can lead to lawsuits.It appears, however, that subsequent downloads have fixed the problems, as either Valve or id has added the proper licenses. (Note the picture above, from the same forum thread, showing the licenses present in a recently-downloaded copy of HeXen.) This doesn't in either way affect the gameplay of the titles, but it is important to give credit for those who make your fragging possible in the first place. [Update: Clarified the wording as to the physical description of the GPL itself.][Via /.]
