Win95 Virtual Box on Linux?

[brains ironically]

Trying to set up and run a Win 95 Virtual Box on Mint. Setup is fine, but when I try to run the machine, it crashes and tells me I need to recompile the kernel. Wut???

Just wondered if anyone else has been successful without a recompile. That's way to involved.

All I want to do is play Jezzball! (and kbounce is too... "quirky" to fill the void.)

 

[Alexzee]

Make sure your Linux Mint is up-to-date.

I haven't had to do a recompile. Let's see what others say.

Maybe @wizardfromoz or @Condobloke may know a way around this?

 

[wizardfromoz]

Not me - my use of VB is about one Linux at a time, and they have worked fine.

Good luck.

Wizard

 

[KGIII]

All I want to do is play Jezzball! (and kbounce is too... "quirky" to fill the void.)

DOSBox, perhaps?

Also, I tried to spin up a 95 VM some time ago (though, not that long ago) and had no end of troubles. It crashed during the installation process, as I recall. I gave up after just a few tries.

 

[Brickwizard]

Windows 95/98 were 32 bit systems, you will need to enable 32 bit codecs I haven't done this for a long time, my notes say for Debian run sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386, instead of using a vm you could try boxes [in most repositories] once you have added i386 [32 bit]

 

[f33dm3bits]

You can just buy it on Steam and then play in through Proton on Linux.

Jezzball Classic Deluxe Edition on Steam

In JezzBall, your goal is to contain bouncing Jezz atoms by building walls. Complete levels by converting over 75% of the chamber into walls, adding a new atom each time. Left-click to deploy walls and right-click for direction.

store.steampowered.com

JezzBall Atomic on Steam

Welcome back! JezzBall Atomic is a remake of the classic Windows game JezzBall. You’re tasked with capturing the Jezz atoms bouncing around inside the chambers by building new walls and trapping them in smaller spaces. But be careful, incomplete walls can’t withstand the impact of a Jezz atom!

store.steampowered.com

Jezzball Classic Deluxe Edition on Steam

In JezzBall, your goal is to contain bouncing Jezz atoms by building walls. Complete levels by converting over 75% of the chamber into walls, adding a new atom each time. Left-click to deploy walls and right-click for direction.

store.steampowered.com

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I have all original Windows ISO's, from Windows 7 trough Windows 11, both 32 and 64 bit including multiple versions of each edition and including Windows server, SQL server as well as ADK and SDK packages all downloaded from MS domains.

This all together takes a lot of space and only reason still keep it is because there is no way to download these anywhere on the internet any more so this is a historical matter, a rare gem that's impossible to get.

But I'm thinking about deleting all this stuff at some point, it just wastes space and I don't use it nor have any plans to use it.

You may want to do the same with Win 95, there don't exist drivers and software for these ancient OS's, only reason it to show someone you have something that no longer exists and can't be obtained any more.

But then in the end we will die and won't get vintage MS OS's into our graves, so why keep it?

 

[Brickwizard]

I have all original Windows ISO's, from Windows

I too have an archive but in hard form a full set of dos and wind 3.1 in diskette, w95, 98, office 2000 + last updates, XP SP3, W7,W8,W10 all on CD/DVD, having been a beta tester on W2000 and Millennium, I skipped those two, all for the sake of fixing friends/family computers [I dont know why but i also have macos10.4 and macos 15.2]

 

[brains ironically]

You can just buy it on Steam and then play in through Proton on Linux.

Jezzball Classic Deluxe Edition on Steam

In JezzBall, your goal is to contain bouncing Jezz atoms by building walls. Complete levels by converting over 75% of the chamber into walls, adding a new atom each time. Left-click to deploy walls and right-click for direction.

store.steampowered.com

JezzBall Atomic on Steam

Welcome back! JezzBall Atomic is a remake of the classic Windows game JezzBall. You’re tasked with capturing the Jezz atoms bouncing around inside the chambers by building new walls and trapping them in smaller spaces. But be careful, incomplete walls can’t withstand the impact of a Jezz atom!

store.steampowered.com

Jezzball Classic Deluxe Edition on Steam

In JezzBall, your goal is to contain bouncing Jezz atoms by building walls. Complete levels by converting over 75% of the chamber into walls, adding a new atom each time. Left-click to deploy walls and right-click for direction.

store.steampowered.com

classic ≠ original

which is why I want to run the original.

 

[KGIII]

I just did some digging. VBox doesn't work well with 16 bit OSes. The OS itself may need to be patched to run.

I haven't tried this. I just tried searching.

https://www.reddit.com/r/windows95/comments/8uoefs/windows_95_for_virtualbox

But your games should run just fine with DOSBox.

 

[f33dm3bits]

classic ≠ original

which is why I want to run the original.

If you have the install files you can just run it through Lutris or Heroic Games Launcher.

 

[KGIII]

I have all original Windows ISO's, from Windows 7 trough Windows 11, both 32 and 64 bit including multiple versions of each edition and including Windows server, SQL server as well as ADK and SDK packages all downloaded from MS domains.

You'll likely be able to find them on archive.org.

For example:

Windows 7 ISO : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The following has Windows 7 PRO 64/32 bit and Windows 7 ultimate.

archive.org

Windows 10 22H2 64 bit : Microsoft : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

File Contents: Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home N Windows 10 Core Single Language Windows 10 Pro Windows 10 Pro N ...

archive.org

There are many, many more.

The trick is not not use the archive.org search engine. Instead, use Google and add 'archive.org' to your search terms. Well, you can be more precise and add site:archive.org.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

You'll likely be able to find them on archive.org.

For example:

Yeah, I have few sites that host Windows and claim it to be originals, there is very little reason this not to be true, but if you're paranoid and want to be 100% sure you want ISO to download directly from MS domain.

There are also links that redirect you to MS domain for download but the domain is otherwise not searchable.
I suspect MS purportedly keeps these domain online, but they're rare and mostly for latest stuff, there is no domain for Win 7 for instance but there is for latest Office.

 

[osprey]

I have all original Windows ISO's, from Windows 7 trough Windows 11, both 32 and 64 bit including multiple versions of each edition and including Windows server, SQL server as well as ADK and SDK packages all downloaded from MS domains.

This all together takes a lot of space and only reason still keep it is because there is no way to download these anywhere on the internet any more so this is a historical matter, a rare gem that's impossible to get.

But I'm thinking about deleting all this stuff at some point, it just wastes space and I don't use it nor have any plans to use it.

You may want to do the same with Win 95, there don't exist drivers and software for these ancient OS's, only reason it to show someone you have something that no longer exists and can't be obtained any more.

But then in the end we will die and won't get vintage MS OS's into our graves, so why keep it?

One can go directly here: https://archive.org/details/operatingsystemcds, and navigate down, or use the search function on that page to find MS as well as linux and other isofiles.

 

[KGIII]

One can go directly here: https://archive.org/details/operatingsystemcds, and navigate down, or use the search function on that page to find MS as well as linux and other isofiles.

The great thing is that Archive.org is a registered 'depository' (library) in the United States. They're actually sanctioned by our congresscritters and recognized as a library.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

They're pretty awesome. They have so much archived and have done a great deal to preserve our digital history. I have it set up so that I can send them regular donations, because I think that what they're doing is important.

if you're paranoid and want to be 100% sure you want ISO to download directly from MS domain.

I used to get all of MSFT's software on disk (with a physical MSDN subscription). They'd send out binders full of disks every year, so I'd have a ton of duplicates.

Anyhow, if you're too paranoid, just look for downloads that have been downloaded a bunch of times. In those instances, if there had been any issues with the download, then someone would probably have mentioned it.

However, Archive.org does regularly scan its files for malware, especially when they are uploaded.

Man, can you imagine how long it must take to scan their entire library of software?!?

I can't find any more recent numbers with a quick search, but they had 212 PB of data in 2021. That's petabytes. (Obviously, that is 212 million gigabytes.

Man, there was a time when I bragged about working with data sets as large as a terabyte...

 

[osprey]

They're pretty awesome. They have so much archived and have done a great deal to preserve our digital history. I have it set up so that I can send them regular donations, because I think that what they're doing is important.
..

Also a donor

 

[KGIII]

Also a donor

This is off-topic, but I just shared this link in a private message, and it relates to a comment you made in the recent past. (It's well worth watching, even just for idle curiosity.)

I've offered pretty good money to be able to play an ancient pipe organ for a few hours. In the process, I've emailed all sorts of organizations. Nobody has ever invited me to play one. (I went on a kick where I was really interested in playing one.)

I don't have a clue how to play one, and they're all wildly different, but that doesn't bother me. I'm 100% certain that I don't need to know how to play one in order to have fun while playing one.

Anyhow, back on topic...

OP should be able to download a clean version of Windows 95. There are also different bits of software for virtualization. They might have better luck with VMware's offerings. They might try things like QEMU. If they want to dig around, they might find a patched version of 95, and that patch will work with current VBox.

But, if it was something I was doing, I'd look into DOSBox. Skip the fuss and muss, and just use DOSBox.

 

[f33dm3bits]

If you have the install files you can just run it through Lutris or Heroic Games Launcher.

I actually found it on archive.org and was able to play it using Heroic Games Launcher.

jezzball : dark sniper : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

the classic game jezzball that was in the 1995 microsoft entertainment pack NOTE: THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GAME NOT MODIFIED AT ALL!!!!

archive.org

JezzBall : Dima Pavlovsky : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

PlatformWindows 3.xReleased1992Published byMicrosoft CorporationPerspectiveTop-downGenreAction, PuzzleGameplayArcadeVisualFixed /...

archive.org

 

[Alexzee]

If you have the install files you can just run it through Lutris or Heroic Games Launcher.

Heroic works, I've tried it.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Heroic works, I've tried it.

Lutris an anyother Launcher like them should work as well.