Windows 95 now runs on the 3DS
Developer shutterbug2000 demoed Windows 95 running on a 3DS, yesterday. This is achieved by running a windows 95 image file from the DOS Emulator DosBox, on the 3DS.
Windows 95 on the 3DS – compatible with N3DS only?
The port takes a while to start for now and doesn’t do let you do much for now. But once things are shaping up and a proper on-screen-keyboard is added to the build, this could be used to run old windows 95 games. Anybody who’s old enough to have used windows 95 though will remember that most games from this era actually ran on DOS itself rather than Windows 95. It’s also likely that the layers of emulation involved here could mean no game will ever be playable through this.
Nonetheless, this is great to see such boiling activity on the 3DS scene.
People have mentioned that the Dosbox port used here does not run on the O3DS, only on he N3DS. Some people have claimed this could be because of lack of RAM on the O3DS: these claims are complete BS. Windows 95 used to run on the PSP (through dosbox again. update: the DOS emulator running on the PSP was actually Bochs, thanks to everyone who corrected me on this) with its 24MB of Ram, and the minimum RAM requirements for Windows 95 is 4MB. The reason this does not run on O3DS has nothing to do with available RAM, and people are already looking into fixing this.
Win 95 on 3DS – How it was achieved
Windows 95 booting on the 3DS
To achieve this magic, Shutterbug2000 ported the libretro dosbox core to the 3DS. Confused? To sum it up, the 3DS is running Retroarch (a popular meta-emulator), itself running the DosBox module (a popular DOS emulator) which then starts windows 95 (a popular GUI for DOS :P).
So, in other words, Shutterbug2000 made Dosbox compatible with the 3DS by tweaking the dosbox Retroarch module, and added a startup script to automatically run windows 95.
The sources for shutterbug2000’s changes can be found here. The actual code changes (the diff) from the original libretro dosbox core can be found here.
Windows 95 for 3DS – Download
You can download the files to run Win 95 on the 3DS here. Keep in mind that this is an early build, and more recent files might be found in the days to come on the original thread. you’ll also need an image of Windows 95, which is not provided in the release build for copyright reasons.
Windows 95 on the 3DS – Screenshot by @RetroRampage37
Source: Shutterbug2000 on GBATemp. Thanks @Neosabin for the heads up!
FIRST
Second
Third
files not available to download from dropbox
It can run games it just needs some more optimizing for higher end games of the time. Anyways I had POP1 running just fine on it. it seemes like its as powerfull as the psp dosbox.
Maybe Starcraft on the 3DS.?
With huge lag maybe. You’d have more luck running that StarCraft HTML5 version that was released a while back I’m guessing.
PSP also ran W95 back in the day, through Bosch build, not Dosbox.
*Bochs
I ran it through DosBox. It’s a shame that the 3DS is also lacking the MMU.
Oops, you’re right, it was Bochs
Yep, and I remember it was taking 20min+ to boot 😀 with high probability being stuck. No idea if it’s faster on 3ds.
Not bad… 3ds look like old age notebook computer with dos. Maybe I can run warcraft2 at dos as well. Better than linux.
You are not seriously comparing a “system” like windows 95 to Linux, do you Oo? If so, you got no idea what you are talking about. Performance wise, you are also likely better off running Warcraft (2) under a native Linux than under an emulated windows … again. I don’t think you know what you are talking about 😛
Hey, nice article! Thanks for using my video. I appreciate it! I agree about your RAM comment, Win95 only requires 4mb minimum. It’s most likely something else. Could be that the processor isn’t fast enough, as when Win95 is running, RetroArch has to run + the payload runs in the background as well. The N3DS processor is more or less 4 times faster than the O3DS in terms of clock speed.
I’mrunning xp on mine
You need a CD/Floppy Installation Image to run it?
windows xp? pleeeease thats oldskool, i have windows 10 running on mine and it even plays downscaled ps4 games on the 3d screen!
yeah im sure you are running ps4 games on windows 10 os used on your 3ds
sure
I’m sure you have a windows 10 emulator on your 3ds that can run ps4 games
because that is just so easy to do and so possible
sometimes I just look at people and think maybe evolution is possible
and they have just never evolved high enough to process these sorts of things
That’s fantastic! Really cool..
Yeah, that’s what I want to do is run a 20 year old OS
this wasn’t made for you smartass it was made to show potential of the system among other things but the people involved in this at no point in their lives thought about you or what you wanted to do
His hands are so beautiful 😛
“ported” lol. He literally said he only compiled the core with 3DS profile. And it just randomly worked on N3DS.
Dropbox still isn’t working. Can someone fix the download
It’s a fantastic
What is that program for psp
Windows 3DS? Why not. Microsoft could charge 20$ for it.