I finally managed to install a working graphics driver for the TRIDENT 8900D within my new 86Box VM. This is running in a beautiful 800x600 resolution with 256 colors. Classic!
In case you're wondering about this file manager: Yes, it doesn't have toolbars. No, it's not broken. This is normal. You're looking at the good old Windows 3.1, not WfW 3.11! I just love these subtle differences!
it's 2025. how have we not yet reverse-engineered the After Dark module engine?
back in the early and mid-90s, getting on the net meant you were a university student, or had corporate access through a big company. getting online wasn't easy.
worse, even if you had a dialup number and login, there was no such thing as a tcp/ip stack built-in to Windows 3.1.
even if you *did* have a winsock stack, you'd still need a file downloading protocol, gopher client, world wide web client, ftp client, email client. just getting your machine off the ground was nearly impossible unless you could grab these from a local BBS
to make things simpler, universities began offering dial-up internet software packages to their students and staff.
in 1994, my mom was an undergrad student at the University of Alberta. our family had just bought an IBM PS/1 with a 2400 baud modem, and i was abusing the hell out of our single phone line at night visiting local BBSes.
she somehow found out that the university was selling internet dial-up software for $10 to students, and brought home the diskette pack with her. along with a USR Sportster 14.4k modem, she gave me the install diskettes as a valentine's day gift.
it had a slick setup program that enabled SLIP using Trumpet Winsock, and provided a local (free!) dial-up number for access.
after 25 years, i finally tracked down a few versions of those diskettes. i've imaged them and uploaded them all to IA.
the first version of the dial-up package in 1994 was called WinSLIP. it had no PPP support yet, but contained some really cool shareware internet utilities like HGopher and NCSA Mosaic. this would have been the earliest programs offered for Windows 3.1
WinSLIP/MSKermit 1994/95:
https://archive.org/details/ua_winslip
The second version of the software was renamed to NetSurf. It stripped out most of the obscure shareware sadly, and replaced them with Netscape 2 and Eudora Light. The new version of Trumpet Winsock offered PPP which was a huge improvement:
NetSurf 1996/97:
https://archive.org/details/ua_netsurf_96
Now well into the Windows 95 era, the 1997/98 software was shipped on a CD with a hilarious "multimedia" installer/help program designed in Macromedia Director:
NetSurf 1997/98:
https://archive.org/details/netsurf-97-starter-kit
I hope this brings back some memories for fellow U of A alumni :)
it took 20 years of ebay searches but i finally found them: the internet software diskettes i got from the U of A in the mid 90s!
looking forward to imaging these when i get home tonight and uploading them to IA
My Chessmaster 3000 standalone version, using PC-DOS 2000, "MINI.CAB" (You can find it on the Windows 95/98 installation CDs) and 86Box, using these ingredients I created an environment to just run this game. Why? Because I have fun!
Download here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/xflg2r80vl82235/CM3000.7z
You will need the 86Box executable from here: https://github.com/86Box/86Box/releases
Put the executable file (.exe or .AppImage) inside the "CM3000" folder.
@NanoRaptor
Those icons look ancient, they seems to be from the #win31 era
#Microsoft: Warum das Setup für #Windows 95 drei #Betriebssysteme brauchte
If you're one of those crazy individuals, who actually enjoys oldschool games for Windows 3.1, you might also like tonight's latest uploads to The Internet Archive! I just added "Bubble & Quaak", as well as the "Fun Collection for Windows". From DATA BECKER. Complete and pristine KryoFlux disk images!
Have fun!
https://archive.org/details/bubble_quaak
https://archive.org/details/fun_collection
I have a CRT in the basement and decided to make a dedicated DOS box to play win 3.1 games on their natural display #dos #win31 #retrogaming
today’s pickup of old software. i am just as excited about new programs as i was when these were originally released 
that z-nix windows 3.1 is fascinating
this week's expenditures on shareware preservation:
$4 for this canadian craptacular assortment of public domain and shareware games for Windows 3.1 and 95! admittedly, i was only interested in it because it featured a cockroach carrying a bindle on the front cover:
https://dialup.cafe/@vga256/112758835666872769
as it turns out, blessed were the many who got to witness this incredible Visual Basic 3 interface in its day. 
although that has to be the most ominous sounding splash screen for a CD i've ever seen, like you're going to meet certain doom if you click through.
i've archived the CD image, and scans of the jewel case over at IA:
https://archive.org/details/bestofwin95_2
enjoy!
i've been posting a lot of my shareware research lately, because i've been working on a project for the past few months with a blend of Windows 3.1 & GeoWorks Ensemble used as inspiration.
Exigy is a tile-based game creation kit that lets you make windows 3.1/95-styled games, like spiderweb software's Exile or rick saada's Castle of the Winds. hell, you could remake the Microsoft Entertainment Pack if you wanted to :)
the editor is very intentionally built to work like MS Visual Basic: you can drag and drop any GUI element into the game editor window and script in your own actions with lua. it even comes with its own built-in sprite editor, so you can create your art while you work.
games are modified in real-time with no compiling. the entire thing is built in Love2D.
think of it as ZZT for windows 3.1 if that had ever existed. 
norton disk doctor 8.0 for windows 3.1 let you play midis in the background while it scanned/repaired your drive 
peak shareware 1998: Fisherman's Delight for windows 3.1
stink bait has stink lines
It would be nice if #recall was like the 1990s Magellan (PERSONAL) search tool (#msdos and #WIN31 era)
I make my own screenshots of some these Mastodon posts and use Android #Firefox to save some webpages as a PDF. If I want to 
recall some text or images, I need to search by date and or the human eye, that's why having a dumb #recall (Android, please) would be great. ️Only search my saved screenshots
I have expanded my brief notes on installing fonts for Windows 3.1 into a brief blog post: https://home.octetfont.com/blog/field-notes-win31.html
@riley
Installing "modern" TTF fonts on Windows 3.1. The first two screenshots are my font Ranalina and its charmap; and the charmap of Courier New for comparison. Ranalina's charmap is disabled after 0x7E despite the fact it has many of those characters. Must be something to do with the `cmap` tables; I suspected a Windows codepage was necessary, but no. Ubuntu Regular (from the googlefonts github repo) installs fine, and shows a more or less complete Windows charmap. @riley
#Win31 #ttf
I know that all those who are into #RetroComputing already know this excellent, excellent site, but maybe one or two of you don't, so to close this huge knowledge gap of yours:
I am really a huge fan of #Neozeed, the author of this site.
