(jazzy jazz music)
(Model M keyboard typing)
- [LGR] Greetings, and welcome
to another LGR Woodgrain 486 upgrade video,
and the last time I did one of these,
we got Windows 3.0 installed on here,
which I just wanted to do because I was not as familiar
with this version of Windows.
I started at 3.1 when I was a kid,
but this one, it just always intrigued me
because it's a little more primitive,
but definitely laid a lot of groundwork
for 3.1 and later versions of Windows,
and I don't know, it's been a curious experience
messing with it for the past however many months.
However, there were some things
that were notably disappointing about it.
The fact that it didn't have any sound support,
unless you were to get some of the media extensions
and install those, which I haven't done,
so you don't get things like Media Player,
Sound Recorder or anything,
and Solitaire and Reversi were the only two games
that it came with.
We did install Best of Entertainment Pack,
so we had those in there, but again,
no sound, video support's really limited
in terms of things like SVGA and all that,
and I also wanted to try the original SimCity
for Windows 3, and the one that I had
in the last video didn't work,
and it turns out that because I actually had a later version
of SimCity Classic, it doesn't support Windows 3 anymore.
Well, this one does, so thank you very much
to all of you in the comments and those who sent emails
and such, letting me know that there were older versions
of SimCity for Windows that work with Windows 3.
This is pretty cool, (laughing) I did not know
that this version existed, and now I have it in the box,
so yay, another one added to the collection.
So while there are more Windows 3 games than I thought,
it's still not exactly like a gaming operating system.
In fact, it wasn't even on the market for too long
before Windows 3.1 came out, and really stole the show.
And yeah, that's what we're gonna be doing today,
is looking at Windows 3.1.
Yes, indeed, the classic, makes your PC easier to use.
Yeah, let's just uh, do this uh, you know what I mean-uh?
(PLONK) We're going to install it, get it unboxed,
and just talk about the Windows 3.1 experience,
'cause this is just, it's a comfy space for me.
This was my first graphical operating system.
I had MS-DOS 5 and then 3.1 installed on top of that,
and ahh it's just... it brings back interesting memories.
It was also a massive improvement over 3.0,
which was already a pretty big improvement
over versions two and one of Windows and all that,
but this is the one that put Microsoft Windows on the map
in terms of something being very popular,
and this was something that came out in 1992,
less than two years after 3.0 was introduced.
So three didn't even have a whole lot of time on the market
before this came out and completely supplanted it
on April 6th, 1992, when it was released to manufacturing,
and it was sold in two different versions, primarily,
a $49 upgrade,
and a $99 full product edition, which is this one right here.
So you don't need a previous version of Windows
to install it from this release.
But yeah, it added so many things,
not just extra game and software support,
but things like TrueType fonts,
which was a first for Windows,
at least without third party software,
so it made it a viable desktop publishing solution.
Of course, one of the biggest additions were multimedia
and audio support, so no longer have to worry
about adding media extensions.
You could just get sound and MIDI music
right out of the box, if you had the hardware for it.
It also came with screensavers out of the box.
Before this, you were limited to getting packages
like After Dark if you wanted screensavers,
and of course, it was backwards compatible
with Windows version three, to a degree, anyway.
3.0 software worked, but not the Windows 2 and one software
that may have worked under three,
so it depends on what you were trying to use,
and it also dropped real mode support,
so that meant that Windows 3.1 required a 286 or better CPU
with protected mode, in order to function.
And yeah, 3.1 ended up being extremely popular.
It was really the first Windows environment
to see wide software support, and major commercial success,
selling three million units
in its first few months on the market.
Really signaling a huge shift in the mainstream PC market
away from DOS and towards graphical operating environments,
especially towards Windows.
There were several alternatives, notably OS/2 2.0,
but Windows 3.1 really became kind of the standard
and then 95 took it up from there, but yeah.
Let's just go ahead and take a look at this right here,
and see what's inside.
I don't know if this is exactly gonna have everything,
'cause I found this box at Goodwill years ago
and I don't know, it seemed pretty complete.
Well, kind of, there's no manual, is there? Ha!
I guess it wasn't as complete as I thought.
So, at least we have a guide of some kind.
We have the disks.
I hope this is all of them!
If not, that's okay, I have many, many more copies
of Windows 3.1, this is just the only one
that I have the box for, so yeah.
It comes with seven 5 ¼ inch,
high-density disks right here,
and we also get the guide to support.
We also got this hardware compatibility list.
They had one of these for Windows 3.0 as well.
Yeah, this is pretty much just a list of all the computers
and things that they had tested it with.
Okay, so there's no manual in here, hm.
I was kind of hoping there would be,
but that's, well, that's how it goes.
And lastly, (laughs) well, you know,
we're upgrading Windows,
we may as well upgrade the mouse as well.
This is the Microsoft "ergonomic" Mouse,
the serial version that they released
for use with Windows 3.1 back in the day.
And yeah, check it out, it's getting that design down
that was pretty popular with mouse designs from Microsoft
in the mid to late '90s.
Breakthrough ergonomic research and innovative features
make the new Microsoft Mouse the ultimate pointing device
for the Windows operating system, yes indeed.
And yeah, you can see right there,
it'll work with all sorts of things right there,
but they kind of built it to work with Windows 3.1 and 3.11.
(light jazz music) (box unboxing)
(chuckles) Interesting packaging here.
Oh, I see how they did that.
Clever, using the artwork on the back of the manual here
as the background for that, that's cool.
Oh, it's so pink!
We have the Microsoft Mouse setup disk.
I've come across so many of these disks just on their own,
but I've never actually had the original mouse
like in the package to go with it.
You know, obviously pretty much any mouse
is gonna be Microsoft compatible from this time period,
but something about having this original one,
no scroll wheel and serial.
The only other one like this I had was PS/2 compatible,
so yeah, see what we got here.
Bus interface board and bus mouse, yes, an InPort mouse.
I've got one of these interfaces,
but don't actually have the mouse to go with it.
Anyway, I mean, it's pretty simple stuff.
You have that bloated mouse driver for MS-DOS.
Using the mouse and moving the mouse, how do we do this?
How do we use a mouse, guys?
The mouse controls a pointer on your screen.
That pointer can have a number of shapes.
The rubber-coated ball in your mouse rolls within its socket
when you move the mouse across a smooth surface.
It translates the movement of the ball into signals
that tell the computer how to move the pointer.
Fantastic.
Clicking, double-clicking, dragging.
(laughs) I love how in-depth this is.
I mean, it's just a mouse, and yet,
there are almost 50 pages.
Ah, the times when a mouse was still pretty fresh
in people's minds.
Like, you always hear that story
about them including Solitaire with Windows
to try to help people use a mouse.
It's not exactly true, but, you know.
(sniff!) Whew! (laughs)
It's a really good smell, I don't know why, but it is.
So, yeah, this is when they didn't have
that matte finish surface on the mouse.
It's very glossy.
I didn't know that it was actually glossy
from the factory like this.
The one of these that I had, like I said,
it was a PS/2 port on the end instead of serial,
it was all glossy like this, but in kind of uneven ways,
so I assumed that it had been worn down over years of use.
But no, it's actually glossy.
Oh man, that is one clean ball bay!
That's good stuff, I'm excited to use this.
(more jazz music) (more unwrapping)
Well, we got a serial adapter here
to go from nine-pin to 25-pin, not gonna be using that,
'cause I've got the 9-pin on the back of the Woodgrain 486.
All right, it is actually time to get things going now,
so let us install Windows.
All right, I've got the Woodgrain 486 turned on,
and plugged into this Packard Bell CRT.
It's smaller than the other one that I normally use here,
but, (laughs) this is just, this is the monitor
that I used with Windows 3.1 back in the day,
so it's extremely nostalgic, it just feels right to me.
Microsoft Mouse plugged in, we got disks ready to go,
so let's start here with Windows 3.1, disk one.
(smooth jazz music) (clicky keyboard typing)
Ah, that familiar Windows setup.
They used this for so friggin' long.
All right, yeah, so it has detected version 3.0
of Windows on there, so we'll upgrade that.
To keep your previous version and add 3.1 to your system,
press Escape. (hums warily)
No, we're just gonna override it and get that upgrade going.
MS-DOS, VGA, mouse and keyboard and all that.
I do want 256-color VGA at some point.
I may have to get some drivers and install them myself,
though, we'll just go with normal VGA for now.
And at this point, it's just, (laughs)
hoping that all these disks are functional
and that I actually have all of them,
and yeah, it's just copying things over, so.
Well, that was quick.
It only needed the first three disks,
and even then, it didn't look like it used much
from that third one, so, cool.
(light jazz music) (typity-type-type)
Yeah, all these optional things, install everything!
So at this point, it starts asking
for the other disks, so, all right.
On to disk six.
So far, so good.
Disk seven does not seem to be needed at the moment anyway.
To set up Windows correctly,
it needs to modify all the things.
Go ahead and do that.
Oh, we got Program Manager.
Reboot? Mm-hmm.
(disk drives buzzing like a disk drive)
Let's see what we got!
Oh-ho, and there it is!
Classic Windows 3.1 startup,
(chuckle) followed by the startup... window.
And yeah, well, it looks pretty much just like 3.0
at this point, because it's kept our old settings,
but yeah, we have version 3.1, 386 enhanced mode.
So, yeah, there we go.
Oh, this looks much better, got all the color in the icons,
we've got Control Panel
filled with all sorts of good things.
We've got the option for other types
of backgrounds, and such.
Oh, cars!
Man, I remember that one.
Oh, and man, I (laughs) completely forgot that existed!
You know what else exists?
Many more color schemes,
including the legendary Hotdog Stand, oh yeah.
(laughs) Had a bunch of people asking, like,
oh, why didn't you enable Hotdog Stand on Windows 3?
It's 'cause it didn't come with it.
This does, though, that's where this was introduced,
and of course, all of these fantastic TrueType fonts.
Got some sound, maybe.
Oh yeah. (turns on speakers)
(Windows chord plays) (laughs)
Yeah. (chiming, dinging)
(tada!) That is exactly as it should be.
So yeah, it sees it as the Sound Blaster Pro,
which we do have installed.
Typically, what I do is install the actual Sound Blaster Pro
like Windows 3.1 software disks,
but yeah, at the moment, I'm just happy
looking at all of the things that we can do! (giggles)
It brings me such joy, I don't know.
There's something about the 3.1 experience.
Oh yeah, good old Flying Windows.
Mystify. (cackles)
That was the one we always had,
pretty much constantly on our Packard Bell 486 with 3.1.
Of course, the Starfield Simulation,
I always liked this one, too.
Let's put more stars in there.
Let's do, like, a hundred stars.
Yeah, aw man.
Well, let me go ahead and get the sound working.
I don't know where my disks are for the Sound Blaster,
but I'll just -- actually, they're probably right back there,
aren't they?
I lied, I knew exactly where they were. (laughs)
Right behind me, 'cause I've got all sorts
of stuff behind me.
So yeah, this should have the, yeah,
that's got the Windows 3.1 drivers
and software included in here.
Oh yeah, okay, so this is a DOS installer,
at least on this disk.
Yeah, installing the Windows applications there,
which is what I'm looking for. (tada! sound plays again)
Nice, so, hopefully at this point, that means we have,
yep, there we go, Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, Basic FM.
We can switch to some different things here.
Let's do Extended FM.
(George Stone's "Trip Through The Grand Canyon" MIDI plays)
And this is why you ended up installing
something like a Wave Blaster in here,
which I plan to do in the future,
now that we have Windows 3.1 installed.
But yeah, all right, so sound is going.
(laughs)
I mean, yeah. (screeching)
(clicking) (screeching)
Creative Mosaic is a little... a little excessive.
All right, we got the mixer here.
Microphone is turned all the way down,
but I don't have one plugged in right now, so that's okay.
Huh, Talking Scheduler.
Oh dear.
- [Simon] This is the pitch and speed of Simon's voice.
- [LGR] Oh-ho-ho!
- [Perkins] This is the pitch and speed of Perkins's voice.
- [Igor] This is the pitch and speed of Igor's voice.
- [LGR] Igor!
Well, as much as I could play around
with those sound things all day, it's time for some coffee.
And, I wrote a disk with the drivers for the video card.
I have a Diamond Speedster, SpeedSTAR?
One megabyte FLB that's installed in there,
so, hopefully, this will be the driver for it.
So yeah, SpeedSTAR. (laughs)
I always wanna call it Speedster, like it's a car.
SpeedStarPRO, 640 by 480, and 256 colors.
We'll go with the small font version.
(trilling) Yay!
Presumably, this means we have 256 color support now,
and we do, and also have
a nice little SpeedStarPRO configuration thing here.
Look at that, goes all the way up to 1280 by 1024,
if you really wanted to.
That would probably not be the best on this monitor.
(laughing) This is really geared towards 640 by 480,
so we're gonna leave it there.
But yeah, we can try out that 256 color background
that it came with.
Not the best demonstration of 256 colors,
but, I appreciate the effort, Microsoft.
So, let's try something that takes advantage
of our new palette of colors.
I'm gonna start with Lode Runner: The Legend Returns,
by Sierra and Jeff Tunnell Productions.
Four floppy disks, mm, good old File Manager.
We got some options here for MIDI music.
We'll just go with the Sound Blaster option,
and here we go.
(stomping) - Phew!
Sierra!
- [LGR] Oh yeah.
(upbeat digital music)
Wow, that is some very different music.
(adventurous digital music)
(laughing) That's just nuts.
Hearing with with FM synthesis, instead of the normal,
general MIDI and such is fascinating.
(tense digital music)
(laughing)
(tense digital music)
Yeah, that is a different interpretation, all right.
I kind of like it.
All right, time to get eaten.
(munching)
Yay, Lode Runner.
Okay, let's try something else, that worked.
All right, another Windows 3.1 classic to try here
is Microsoft Arcade, released in 1993
in conjunction with Atari, I believe.
Yeah, it's got Asteroids, Centipede.
All right, one disk. (disk drive buzzing)
One disk that doesn't want to read.
All things considered, though, that's not bad.
It's the first disk we've had today
that doesn't read properly.
All right, wrote my own disk with blackjack and hookers.
(whooshing)
Much better, and this is why
I always make backups of my disks.
All right, here we go, gonna try some Missile Command.
(alarm blaring)
(booming)
I have very vivid memories of playing this
for the first time at an Office Depot,
sometime in the mid '90s, but I specifically remember
seeing Battlezone and being like, whoa!
It was not that it's even hard to run, exactly.
It's just the fact that you could!
So yeah, this is the very first time that I had seen
proper arcade ports on a PC.
Of course, there were like a million arcade conversions
and stuff in the '80s, and into the '90s,
and all sorts of things, I don't know.
I just hadn't seen anything that wasn't, like, garbage.
(laughs) This actually looked and played
as close to the arcade version as I'd ever seen,
honestly, so, eh, you know, it's just one of those things.
Go fullscreen on Centipede here.
(beeping)
(booming) Whoops, that was pretty dumb.
Oh, that was dumber! (laughs) (growls)
Well, I'll never claim to be an expert at Centipede.
All right, so one more thing I wanna try here,
and that is, Print Shop Deluxe.
For me, oh, dang it, how does this open up?
For me, there was an odd period in time
where just seeing any of these kind of manipulatable,
manip, whatever.
Graphics that I could move around on a screen like this,
was just absolutely charming.
I mean, I would look through this booklet,
over and over and over, and of course,
it was all black and white here,
but, you know, they were full color
when you put them on the software on the screen,
and you print them out, and that wasted so much ink!
I had a ton of fun with Print Shop Deluxe for Windows 3.1,
back in the day.
It's just something I always have to install,
on every version of 3.1 that I have.
I always like watching this little gear thing go by.
It's just, ah, simple pleasures.
Success.
Oh yes.
This screen right here, it really does it for me.
Backdrops and templates, of course, this was my favorite.
Pretty much everyone's favorite, I don't know.
You just have to do coastal scene thing with the crab.
Love seeing everything draw in, bit by bit.
No, I don't want any text to write down there.
We need an object, square graphic.
All of the clip art, (laughing) effectively.
Oh, man.
But the one I'm looking for is, of course, cool crab.
He's got the soda, he's chilling on the beach, right there.
I do wish I could print, but then, yeah.
Maybe another day.
Well, that is it for this episode on Windows 3.1.
I had planned on installing the 3.11 upgrade,
maybe even putting on Windows for Workgroups 3.11,
but obviously didn't.
(laughing) Turns out, I don't own that!
Thought for sure that I did.
Turns out I have another version of Windows for Workgroups,
and there's other things that might be interesting
to cover in the future as well, like Windows NT 3.1,
and there's all sorts of things
from the early to mid '90s
in terms of Microsoft operating systems and all that,
and you know, related stuff that I'm sure I'm gonna cover
in the future, so stick around if you'd like to see
some of those things, and of course,
I'm just gonna be continuing to use this Woodgrain 486
whenever I'm covering games or software
or anything that happens to use DOS 6.22 or Windows 3.1.
I mean, that's why I put this together.
It's just kind of an ongoing project PC,
so I hope you enjoyed seeing it be upgraded
in this particular fashion, in this particular video.
If you did, stick around, there are new videos
every single week on various related computery
and tech things.
And as always, thank you very much for watching LGR!