Do you miss the days of being able to run a simpler operating system such as Windows 95 and to use it to run some popular games like Doom, Wolfensteing 3D, and Grand Prix Circuit? Even better do you want to run it on newer operating systems like Linux, macOS, and Windows 10?
Now you can, with the release of Windows 95 being distributed as an Electron application.
Electron is a open source framework that allows developers to create self-contained applications using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a web browser. These Electron packages contain all of the required programs and support files that an application needs to run so that they are easily distributed.
In August 2018, Electron developer Felix Rieseberg released a new Electron project on GitHub called Windows 95 that uses the v86 X86 virtualization library to load a Windows 95 image using JavaScript. When launched, the application will display a working Windows 95 desktop environment with some built in apps as can be seen below.
With the release of Windows95 version 2 this month, Rieseberg added some new features such as the ability to reset a machine and play sound. In addition, the developer added some popular games such as Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, A10 Tank Killer, and Grand Prix Circuit.
The full list of changes are:
Updated to Electron v4.0.4
A completely new Windows 95 disk image
Installed Microsoft FrontPage, Netscape 2.0, and FrontPage Server
Installed Doom, Wolfenstein3D, A10 Tank Killer, and Grand Prix Circuit.
Added ability to "Reset" a machine
Better support for High-DPI devices
Support for sound
As stated by Rieseberg, this project is built entirely in JavaScript so some strange behavior may occur.
"Yes! Quite well, actually - on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Bear in mind that this is written entirely in JavaScript, so please adjust your expectations."
In BleepingComputer's tests, the actual operating system ran really well and we did not encounter too many issues other than having synchronization issues with the mouse cursor a few times. The games still need a bit of work, though, as they were not able to run in a full screen as shown by DOOM below.
For those who want to play with Windows 95, get a sense of nostalgia, and play some free games, it is worth giving a try.
Comments
Winterland - 5 years ago
SBJ, this is awesome. I played away hours....nope, make that "played away *days* of my life" on DOOM and Wolfenstein. Thanks for posting this.
GT500 - 5 years ago
There's always GZDoom:
https://www.zdoom.org/downloads
Granted it's just an engine, and requires you to have the WAD files from one or more of the DOOM games to be able to play them, but it runs on modern systems and has updated graphics and proper mouse support. It also supports DOOM mods, like Brutal Doom.
Chris Cosgrove - 5 years ago
This I will have to try ! I never used 95 - I jumped from 3.x to 98SE - but I have fond memories of Doom (v1) from college. The beauty of it was you didn't have to wait ages for it to launch, click on the icon and within about 30 seconds you could be blasting away ! Great for working off aggressions and frustrations !
Chris Cosgrove
TsVk! - 5 years ago
For you nixers out there you can run Doom natively. The WAD's are abandonware as well, so all you need is the source files which you can find here.
**link redacted**
Much fun and nostalgia. These games still hold up surprisingly well in playability despite their retro graphics.
Green223 - 5 years ago
The WADs are not abandonware as they are still commercially available from several sources. I mean, none of the original id guys will see a dime from those sales so do what you want but it's improper to say the original IWADs are legal to download. The engine itself is open source and free via many source ports but only the shareware IWAD is legally free.
Dominique1 - 5 years ago
A running Java app? That's slow! My vote also goes to a VirtualBox VM running under any old Windows version you like. Careful of all those nasty virus that could invade your old UNSUPPORTED Windows, then crawl into your actual OS host. Mouhahahahaha!
Nighthawke1701a - 5 years ago
Be mindful if you are running AMD CPU systems, the X64 spat a cog at me when i tried to run it , duh!