Running Windows on the PCjr.

[jmetal88]

I found a website with several old Windows versions for download, and I tried a couple of them out out of curiosity. The interesting thing is Windows 2.0 crashes and won't run at all on the PCjr, but Windows 3.0 runs fine, albeit too slowly to be of use.

OK, yeah, this post might seem a little pointless, but I thought it was interesting.

[Tempest]

Yeah there was a page that showed the PCjr running Windows 3.0 (gone now I think), but like you said it was too slow to be useful. I wonder if it would run faster with a V20 chip? I assume 3.1.1 is out of the question?

Tempest

[jmetal88]

Yeah there was a page that showed the PCjr running Windows 3.0 (gone now I think), but like you said it was too slow to be useful. I wonder if it would run faster with a V20 chip? I assume 3.1.1 is out of the question?

Tempest

I have a V20 and I've done the speed up mod to run it at 8mhz. It's still too slow to be useful.

As for 3.11, I'm very tempted to give it a try since the V20 has some 286 compatibility, but I'm very doubtful that it would be a pleasant experience.

[Vorticon]

How about GEOS? I may want to give it a try and see

[jmetal88]

How about GEOS? I may want to give it a try and see

I had trouble finding a working copy of GEOS. I tried the free version of Breadbox Ensemble, but it wouldn't accept my Zip drive as a valid medium for installation.

GEM, by contrast, works great! Yeah, there's no multitasking, but at least it is a GUI!

All versions of GEM I've tried (including OpenGEM and FreeGEM) worked on the PCjr, but OpenGEM and FreeGEM had readability issues with the CGA display. Luckily, all the OpenGEM and FreeGEM apps (including the Desktop app) seem to run fine on GEM/3, so you can get all the functionality of OpenGEM or FreeGEM if you replace the app binaries.

[Vorticon]

I actually own a copy of Geoworks Ensemble and I installed it on the C: partition of the parallel zip drive of my PCjr. However, when I try to run it, it gives me a system error stating that GEOS cannot run from a write protected disk Obviously the zip disk is not write protected, so I'm not sure why I'm getting this error. It's kind of a bummer because GEOS should be able to run quite well on the Jr...

[MattCarp]

I have a V20 and I've done the speed up mod to run it at 8mhz. It's still too slow to be useful.

As for 3.11, I'm very tempted to give it a try since the V20 has some 286 compatibility, but I'm very doubtful that it would be a pleasant experience.

Strangely, my 4GB 2.5 GHz i5 quad-core laptop provides a similar experience!

[Vorticon]

How about GEOS? I may want to give it a try and see

I had trouble finding a working copy of GEOS. I tried the free version of Breadbox Ensemble, but it wouldn't accept my Zip drive as a valid medium for installation.

GEM, by contrast, works great! Yeah, there's no multitasking, but at least it is a GUI!

All versions of GEM I've tried (including OpenGEM and FreeGEM) worked on the PCjr, but OpenGEM and FreeGEM had readability issues with the CGA display. Luckily, all the OpenGEM and FreeGEM apps (including the Desktop app) seem to run fine on GEM/3, so you can get all the functionality of OpenGEM or FreeGEM if you replace the app binaries.

Yes, I managed to get GEM to work on my Jr and it's definitely usable. Fun to have a GUI on it Was there some kind of spreadsheet program available for it? I only found word processing and graphics apps on the web. How about games?
As for GEOS, it definitely seems to take issue with the zip drive. While it installs fine on it, it thinks it's write protected and refuses to run...

[jmetal88]

I just played Windows 3.0 Solitaire on the PCjr. The cascading cards are SLOW. I think they've been going for over half an hour, now.

[AnonymousFreak]

I used to run Windows 3.0 on my HP 200LX, "just because." Yeah, Solitaire card cascading was *PAINFULLY* slow.

The 200LX has a 7.9 MHz 80186 (so roughly analogous to a V20 - which the original 95LX used,) up to 4 MB of RAM that is shared between memory and a battery-backed RAM drive, and CGA with a 640x200 4-shade grayscale display. (Runs just fine in CGA 640x200 mono mode in Windows.)

Edit: D-oh! And of course now I notice this thread wasn't two days old, it was a YEAR and two days old! Sorry for dredging up an old thread!