Running Windows 3.1 Games

[Strubdog]

Been awhile since I asked this. Is there an easier way to play Windows 3.1 games. I know you can install windows 3.1 in dosbox and install the game within there. I just hoping there was a better way to play these types of games without that many steps (like sone sort of desktop icon or even launch the specific games from launchbox). Just wanted to see if there any any good solutions out there.

Thanks

[Lordmonkus]

The best suggestion I can think of (might be better ways) is to setup a DOSBox + Win 3.1 install and then edit the startup file to boot straight into the game.

[Strubdog]

I don't mind doing that. Do you have a link on how to create the startup file?

Thanks

Edited August 15, 2022 by Strubdog

[Lordmonkus]

Sorry, I forget how to do it exactly but I think @Zombeaver knows and can hopefully point you in the right direction.

[Zombeaver]

You just add the path to the .exe that you want to start in the run= field of WIN.INI (located in C:\Windows):

Whatever .exe you specify will run on startup.

[SqHd]

@Lordmonkus @Zombeaver Thanks for the info, guys!

I've been looking into this recently as well with a bit of a twist. I'm trying to get this to work with DOSBox Pure via Retroarch.

Edited August 16, 2022 by SqHd

[lino11]

On 8/15/2022 at 8:23 AM, Zombeaver said:

You just add the path to the .exe that you want to start in the run= field of WIN.INI (located in C:\Windows):

Whatever .exe you specify will run on startup.

Thanks for this info!

I now have only one issue with Myst, since it must require the CD, i guess.

So how do I write the Run= part...?

I thought it was -- C:\cd\AUTORUN\AUTORUN.EXE

But that didn't work.

Here's the game's folders...

[Zombeaver]

You can't just dump the contents of a CD in like that. You would have to have the CD mounted as an actual disc using the imgmount function in DOSBox (in drive D for example), install it in the OS, and then direct the run field to the installed .exe.

[viritys]

BTW https://www.retro-exo.com/win3x.html has every Windows 3.x game ever published preinstalled AND it uses LaunchBox as its launcher. Can't get easier than that

[Sandroace]

On 10/13/2022 at 7:14 PM, viritys said:

BTW https://www.retro-exo.com/win3x.html has every Windows 3.x game ever published preinstalled AND it uses LaunchBox as its launcher. Can't get easier than that

Curious on how this will interact with my current LB setup. I downloaded the exowin3x all 345GB of it lol. Now it comes with a setup.bat file to set it up. My concern is that this will create a separate LB file that will conflict with my current setup. Basically I'm asking if you know a way to integrate this with my current setup?

[viritys]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:29 PM, Sandroace said:

Curious on how this will interact with my current LB setup. I downloaded the exowin3x all 345GB of it lol. Now it comes with a setup.bat file to set it up. My concern is that this will create a separate LB file that will conflict with my current setup. Basically I'm asking if you know a way to integrate this with my current setup?

Yeah it's a big one  And yes, migration is a bitch, at work and at home. It will require some manual labor unless you're better than me in scripting. It's been awhile, but I was having the exact same nightmare and I avoided it successfully by doing the following (I think you don't have previously installed Win3x games on your existing LB installation, but I'm typing those instructions in as well for future googlers ie who are trying to migrate two existing platforms inside LB. The steps are more or less the same anyway):

To avoid confusion, let's call your existing LB LB and the new LB LB-exo. Let's also call your existing platform Win3x (if you already had it) and the platform we're about to create Win3x-exo.

1) Install LB-exo to a new directory ie creating a separate Launchbox installation.

2) After LB-exo installation, go to its LaunchBox\Data\Platforms to make sure the new platform ({name}.xml) is named something else than your existing LB's \Data\Platforms\ Windows 3.x's xml-file so LB considers it a new platform after migration. I can't remember what the name was, but I'm going to call it "win3x-exo" from this point. 

2a) If the name is different or you didn't have pre-existing win3x games, you're done! Wheee!

2b) If the name is the same, rename one of the platforms to something else from GUI ie open LB, right click the platform and change the title ("Win3x -> Win3x_old" or whatever). This makes LB rename all the necessary files.

3) Open LB and create a new platform "win3x-exo" with a single game in it. This creates all the necessary files to your LB. Tools->Import->Rom Files, point to some random file, when it asks "what platform", be sure to name it "win3x-exo" ie the name that you found from LB-exo's \Data\Platforms\{name}.xml

4) Close LB and manually override the files of your newly created platform by manually copying them from LB-exo to LB. At least Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml, Images\Win3x-exo & Manuals\Win3x-exo have the good stuff.

Congratulations, you now have a new platform populated with plethora of games on your LB! Depending on where you installed or want to install the games, you might have one more annoying step ahead of you:

5) I don't keep my games inside Launchbox\games or even on the same drive where my LB is installed. If, like me, you keep your games elsewhere, we're going to do some file editing! Fun! I use Notepad++, you use what you want. As long as it has "replace all" function, you're fine. 

Open the LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml with your favorite editor. See the rows

<ApplicationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\Aliens (1993).bat</ApplicationPath>
<ConfigurationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\install.bat</ConfigurationPath>
<RootFolder>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x</RootFolder>

Replace "[somepath]" with wherever you put your games into. ie open your favorite editor and

 

Note that as I can't remember what [somepath] was, so if it's like "..\", please don't replace that but instead add stuff from its surroundings so you don't replace something you don't want to. ie you could always replace ">[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x" with ">e:\games\Win3x\eXoWin3X\!win3x" to make sure it's unique enough not to break stuff.

And now you're done! Well, unless you're like me and already had plenty of Win3x games installed. In that case you now have two Windows 3x platforms on your LB and you're about to start the slow and painful migration process by copying your existing metadata over the new platform wherever applicable. The pain depends on how many games you already had inside LB and how much custom work you've done as Exo has done a great job with images, descriptions and other metadata. For me, I use "Series" creatively (think tags; if a game exists that features "Ninja", "Civil War", "Politics" & "motorcycles", I think I'm the only person in the universe that can check it faster than one can type "mobygames"   and don't want to lose them, so I had to copy the series tags over each game. Anyway, always think positive: when you're done and feel confident enough to delete the old platform, it feels like you've accomplished something! I know from the experience.

Anyway, I know I was somewhat late to the party but decided to write this anyway because  a) it might help the next person googling in b) for retrogamers, month is nothing

Cheers!  

Edited March 15, 2023 by viritys
Typos and stuff

[Sandroace]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:15 AM, viritys said:

Yeah it's a big one  And yes, migration is a bitch, at work and at home. It will require some manual labor unless you're better than me in scripting. It's been awhile, but I was having the exact same nightmare and I avoided it successfully by doing the following (I think you don't have previously installed Win3x games on your existing LB installation, but I'm typing those instructions in as well for future googlers ie who are trying to migrate two existing platforms inside LB. The steps are more or less the same anyway):

To avoid confusion, let's call your existing LB LB and the new LB LB-exo. Let's also call your existing platform Win3x (if you already had it) and the platform we're about to create Win3x-exo.

1) Install LB-exo to a new directory ie creating a separate Launchbox installation.

2) After LB-exo installation, go to its LaunchBox\Data\Platforms to make sure the new platform ({name}.xml) is named something else than your existing LB's \Data\Platforms\ Windows 3.x's xml-file so LB considers it a new platform after migration. I can't remember what the name was, but I'm going to call it "win3x-exo" from this point. 

2a) If the name is different or you didn't have pre-existing win3x games, you're done! Wheee!

2b) If the name is the same, rename one of the platforms to something else from GUI ie open LB, right click the platform and change the title ("Win3x -> Win3x_old" or whatever). This makes LB rename all the necessary files.

3) Open LB and create a new platform "win3x-exo" with a single game in it. This creates all the necessary files to your LB. Tools->Import->Rom Files, point to some random file, when it asks "what platform", be sure to name it "win3x-exo" ie the name that you found from LB-exo's \Data\Platforms\{name}.xml

4) Close LB and manually override the files of your newly created platform by manually copying them from LB-exo to LB. At least Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml, Images\Win3x-exo & Manuals\Win3x-exo have the good stuff.

Congratulations, you now have a new platform populated with plethora of games on your LB! Depending on where you installed or want to install the games, you might have one more annoying step ahead of you:

5) I don't keep my games inside Launchbox\games or even on the same drive where my LB is installed. If, like me, you keep your games elsewhere, we're going to do some file editing! Fun! I use Notepad++, you use what you want. As long as it has "replace all" function, you're fine. 

Open the LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml with your favorite editor. See the rows

<ApplicationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\Aliens (1993).bat</ApplicationPath>
<ConfigurationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\install.bat</ConfigurationPath>
<RootFolder>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x</RootFolder>

Replace "[somepath]" with wherever you put your games into. ie open your favorite editor and

 

Note that as I can't remember what [somepath] was, so if it's like "..\", please don't replace that but instead add stuff from its surroundings so you don't replace something you don't want to. ie you could always replace ">[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x" with ">e:\games\Win3x\eXoWin3X\!win3x" to make sure it's unique enough not to break stuff.

And now you're done! Well, unless you're like me and already had plenty of Win3x games installed. In that case you now have two Windows 3x platforms on your LB and you're about to start the slow and painful migration process by copying your existing metadata over the new platform wherever applicable. The pain depends on how many games you already had inside LB and how much custom work you've done as Exo has done a great job with images, descriptions and other metadata. For me, I use "Series" creatively (think tags; if a game exists that features "Ninja", "Civil War", "Politics" & "motorcycles", I think I'm the only person in the universe that can check it faster than one can type "mobygames"   and don't want to lose them, so I had to copy the series tags over each game. Anyway, always think positive: when you're done and feel confident enough to delete the old platform, it feels like you've accomplished something! I know from the experience.

Anyway, I know I was somewhat late to the party but decided to write this anyway because  a) it might help the next person googling in b) for retrogamers, month is nothing

Cheers!  

Thank You very much for the reply. I will give this a try when I have time. Thanks Again. If I run into any difficulties I will post it here.

[CapJS]

Buonasera, ho provato ad eseguire ogni passaggio e modifica con notepad++, ma quando provo a fare doppio clic per installare, non succede nulla… siamo sicuri che non bisogna modificare anche i file bat presenti in ogni cartella di gioco? È come se il file install.bat non sappia cosa fare