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>  Win3xO - The Win 3.x Collection
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NickTheGreek
post Aug 10 2015, 12:39 AM
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What is Win3xO?
Welcome to Win3xO Version 1.0!

Win3xO is my attempt to catalog, obtain, and make playable (nearly) every game developed for the Windows 3.x platform. This primarily covers 16 bit games, however due to many late games capable of running on the Win32s extender it does include early 32bit games as well. I strive to find original media rather than using scene rips. This collection uses Windows 3.1 installed within various DosBox versions in order to emulate the OS. All required files are included in the package and all games are preconfigured to run with no configuration required by the user.

Win3xO is cross compatible with eXoDOS 2.0 (previous versions of eXoDOS will run into problems). Certain functionality within MEAGRE is enabled when both packs are detected. For example, if a game was released for both platforms, then you will see the game only listed once on your game list. However under "Platforms" you will see both DOS and Win 3.x listed. Clicking on either platform will display the box art, manual, screen shots and other info that pertains to that particular version. Both versions can be played be simply selecting the platform you want prior to launching the game. This allows users to experience both versions of a game, which is especially useful with games such as King's Quest 6 which had a different interface and high-res character portraits in the Windows 3.1 release.

MEAGRE also allows the user to browse via 'Nostalgia' mode, which is a more graphical way of browsing through the games. Try it out by selecting Nostalgia Mode from the File menu in MEAGRE. Examples and screenshots of Meagre and Nostalgia mode are below.

This pack includes 1,089 Windows 3.x games. This covers all genres and includes both commercial and shareware/freeware release games as well as a handful of apps.

All games have been pre-setup and are immediately playable with no configuration required. A one-time setup is required by the front end.

The games included were identified by scanning Mobygames, Legends World, Eli's Software, my own collection, and many searches on eBay. Unfortunately the Win 3.x era is highly undocumented. The primary hurdle in adding games to this collection is simply identifying them. Many games are simply listed as "Windows" games, which does not specify whether they are Win 3.x compatible. Sites such as Mobygames are notoriously wrong when it comes to listing platform. Often contributors have added Win 3.x as a platform to all Windows games before 1998 simply to get extra contribution points. If a game is listed for Win 3.x at Mobygames and is not in this package, then either the entry is wrong or it is one of a handful of games that are currently missing. A constantly updated list of all missing titles can be find below.

In the Bonus directory you can find the following apps:

eXoCrunch - Compression software
DBGL 079e + Converter - Conversion software for use with Dosbox game Launcher

More details about each of these can be found in their respective archives.

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Win3xO can be run from any directory, as all launch files are designed to use relative paths to each other. Cyrillic characters can cause problems however if they are in the path, and some usres have reported that spaces in the path name have caused them problems as well. The front-end however does require knowledge of what directory it is sitting in. Simply running the "Setup Win3xO.bat" file will automatically setup Win3xO to run from your current directory.

Running the Setup file also decompresses the GamesWIN.zip file, which contains all of the manuals, art, and game information for each title. This will take some time to decompress as it is approx. 1gb in size.

To merge eXoDOS and Win3xO (allowing you to browse both in the same menu), simply place both collections in the same folder structure and run the Win3xO setup. It will detect the eXoDOS files and add them to the frotn end.

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eXoDOS is compatible with Win3xO and spans 5 volumes.
Released:
eXoDOS Vol I: Adventure Version 2.0
eXoDOS Vol II: RPG Version 2.0
eXoDOS Vol III: Strategy Version 2.0
eXoDOS Vol IV: Sim/Sports/Racing/Edu Version 2.0
eXoDOS Vol V: Action Version 2.0

Upcoming:
??? Who Knows ???


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Standard view for Myst

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Edit game details from the front end

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Browse by Game Cover

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Nostalgia Mode

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Nostalgia Mode Details


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NickTheGreek
post Aug 10 2015, 12:39 AM
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eXo has done an amazing job with these collections !!!


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Boostage
post May 1 2020, 11:35 PM
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Where is the Download link?
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PimClieff
post Jan 26 2022, 02:31 PM
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I remember such a Windows, on which even games like Daggerfall were not always launched through a DOS emulator. It's funny that you can't play CS 1.6 on such an operating system either.
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