You know you have been around when you find Windows 3.1 disks
Posted by LForbesIam@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 62 comments
Cannot attach a photo but found my old Windows 3.1 black floppy disks.
JerryBoBerry38@reddit
Looks at virtual Win 3.11 install with old dos games loaded played just last week.
Yeah, uhm, you're old. heh. *nervously backs away*
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I got Dos box working with my Kings Quest 1 game.
jadraxx@reddit
Totally forgot about dosbox... Time for me to start up another game of OG MOO.
me_myself_and_my_dog@reddit
I have a win 98 vm on virtual box that I play moo2 on.
Darth_Malgus_1701@reddit
I played KQ VII back in the day on the Macintosh Performa. I now emulate the Classic Mac OS just to run all those old games from my childhood. Yes, almost all those games are on Windows too but I need my hit of nostalgia the way I remember it.
Also, sometimes the Mac versions of those old games are better. For example the Mac version of SimCity 2000 has way better music than the Windows version.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I am still looking for a copy of Leisure Suit Larry.
I loved that game but my floppy got damaged.
Funniest game ever.
Atticus_of_Finch@reddit
Here you go.
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Leisure_Suit_Larry_1_-_Land_of_the_Lounge_Lizards_1987
unclesleepover@reddit
I was just talking to my sister about one of the e KQ games. We only had the perils of rosella.
jmbpiano@reddit
I played all of seven of the original 2D games in the series and genuinely loved most of them, but if I had to pick out just one knowing that it was the only King's Quest game someone would ever play, there's no question I'd point to Perils. That game was awesome.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I have them all except Leisure Suit Larry. Cannot find that anywhere.
Igot1forya@reddit
You can play all those classics via the web browser on archive.org's DOS Box integration. It works shockingly well. But I understand the excitement of launching the game from the CLI like the old days.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I have the special editions. They aren’t free online.
Igot1forya@reddit
I see, well, that's certainly a great reason to run locally! I still have quite a few of my DOS games I traded with friends from the early 90s. I dare not erase the high scores (always keep them backed up), too many memories from my after school computer club days. Man those were the best memories.
KingDaveRa@reddit
I've got 3.11 disks I occasionally use. I have various old computers...
I might do modern tech but I've got a lot of vintage stuff 🤓
Wyld_1@reddit
I do have a set. I keep them in a box along with MS-DOS 6.22 in my office. Have it labeled "Disaster Recovery Plan - Step 1"
Weird_Lawfulness_298@reddit
The worst was the Office install floppies. I believe there were 24. It always seemed like if a disc went bad it was no. 23.
Fallingdamage@reddit
I had windows 95 on floppy.
Brilliant-Advisor958@reddit
Office 97 was i think 46 floppies. Last version of office to come on floppy disks.
Dizzy-Ad4584@reddit
I just threw away Lotus 1-2-3 floppies in the original box.
TrippTrappTrinn@reddit
That may have been Office 4.3 or something like that. I actually called Microsoft and asked them to release it on a CD. No such luck. I copied the floppies to a network share which worked fine. Named the folders disk1, disk2 etc. which the installer accessed transparently. First Win95 release wss only(!) 13 disks.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I remember those days. I had my Office Key entirely memorized.
Fallingdamage@reddit
I have a factory-sealed DOS 6.2 License/EULA/Floppy Disk & Manual on my shelf still. The original 'Genuine Microsoft' hologram still nice and shiny on it.
cyclotech@reddit
Mine are white
Pupper_bark@reddit
I have dos 6.22 disks right behind me, and i think a dos 3.0 somewhere behind me also :D
Bodycount9@reddit
not even 3.11 for workgroups.
ConfectionCommon3518@reddit
It's when you go to the back of the store cupboard and find some open reel tapes with a date of 1989 and behind them there's a tape of some financial software from 1974 and you are still using it's distant relative...
phony_sys_admin@reddit
Recently while at my dads house, he asks me if anything in one closet could be thrown away. Low and behold I find a box of floppies containing Win 3.1/95 and Microsoft Money. I knew exactly how these were originally obtained. While she never made a career in it, my mom did take a few computer classes in the '90s. And no, I don't own a floppy drive to read them 😊.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
Was emptying my Dads collection and found all the originals going back 50 years. The man didn’t throw out anything. I could have setup a computer museum.
gamebrigada@reddit
The ultimate question to see if someones been around. "What does the magic boot disk do?"
For some, it'll trigger some memories.
Also: "What does Ghost do?"
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
OMG. Remember the SID rename from after Ghosting before sysprep was a thing?
Goodness I miss Ghost. I could reimagine 1000 machines at once although had to do it overnight because it maxed the 10MB hubs we had.
I started with token ring.
New-Junket5892@reddit
You know you’ve been around when you find DOS disks.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
Have those too. Dos 6.0 still in shrink wrap.
DamienTheUnbeliever@reddit
I still remember the bad habit of Windows (3.11) sending garbage out to an attached printer if you didn't remove the 5 preinstalled printer drivers.
BloodFeastMan@reddit
Which one?
DamienTheUnbeliever@reddit
Can't remember the specifics. All I remember is that this was after the standard 8 disk install of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and there would always be 5 printers in the installed printers section (possibly only 4 were defaulted in and the fifth was for the actual attached printer)
VA_Network_Nerd@reddit
One of my last support memories of Windows 3.11:
"Just about all printers from that era support the HP LasterJet IIP as an emulation for whatever they actually are."
You might lose some dpi resolution, but basic print functionality should work fine.
BloodFeastMan@reddit
I've got my OS/2 Warp 3 install set still in the original box, there's like ten or fifteen install disks, plus some extras like works or whatever they called it, stuff like that. I kept everything back then! Still have a shoebox with a 5-1/4" floppies of shareware "Remote Access" (a fidonet BBS) and Binkley and Frontdoor, a couple of front ends along with mail tossing software!
sagewah@reddit
I just installed a copy on our vm cluster. Having a lot of trouble finding a way to get the networking working though :(
ipsirc@reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/icewm/comments/1j7ybeb/windows_31_colour_theme/
sagewah@reddit
I got windows 3.12 non workgroup installation discs somewhere. Be really handy if I need to install windows again.
mini4x@reddit
I have a set too.. one of these days I'll find a 5.25" floppy and try to install it.
Darth_Malgus_1701@reddit
I suspect my nostalgia for old OSs is only going to increase with all the AI bullshit being shoved into modern tech.
CKtravel@reddit
Fortunately I never had those. I always had the installer right there on the HDD :)
Sovey_@reddit
I found an 8" floppy disk laying around in a classroom once. I didn't plug it in, you never know what could be on that thing!
2FalseSteps@reddit
Dust.
IdiosyncraticBond@reddit
Win 3.0 was a disaster, win 3.11 was a big improvement . At the time I much preferred plain Dos
ThatBCHGuy@reddit
I remember 95 came on 21 floppies. Was always fun when disk 19 couldn't be read for some reason or another.
theOtherJT@reddit
Still got my 5.25" DOS floppies somewhere... not that I've seen a 5.25" floppy drive in a couple of decades. I think the last one I owned got thrown out by my parents in the late 90 when I went to uni.
naasei@reddit
how many disks to install windows? I think it was 35
SugarWong@reddit
I have some XP floppy disks i kept from work, suprised they still had them.
TrippTrappTrinn@reddit
...but you have no floppy drives to read them...
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
I found my old computer with the 5.25 drive although correct it won’t load.
hurkwurk@reddit
i keep a usb floppy drive and Zip drive floating around because i work in an industry where that shit comes up from time to time.
2FalseSteps@reddit
I have a parallel port Zip drive in my garage. Not sure if I have an adapter, though.
Got an LS120 drive, as well. I use my IDE to USB adapter fairly often, so I can still read my Winderz 3.1 & DOS 6.22 floppies. Assuming my several boxes of floppies haven't turned to dust, by now.
Lost-Droids@reddit
LS120.. I rmeeber getting one after years of many 1.6mb disks and thinking ai will never need to carry more than this . This is the future, it's here..
Now 128gb on micro sd card smaller than my thumb nail.. progress..
Also fuck I'm old.
2FalseSteps@reddit
Reminds me of fdformat, I think it was. It let you format 1.44Meg floppies up to 1.7Megs, but you had to run a tsr to read/write to them. That was pretty sweet!
Technology can be kinda depressing. I remember my first IDE hard drive was 640Megs, and I thought I'd never fill that up. Nowadays? Just... damn.
We're not "old", we're "experienced".
Ok, ok. We're fucking old.
Lost-Droids@reddit
1.6mb was for the RISC OS..
I also remeber doing a install of 95 on 1.44mb floppies , and getting paid for a day of just changing disks happy times
jmbpiano@reddit
I've still got my registered Winzip 6(?) floppy.
Y'know... just in case I ever need to reinstall Winzip.
It's in a box next to The Print Shop, Oregon Trail, and a driver for a Plextor CD-ROM drive.
LForbesIam@reddit (OP)
Love the Oregon Trail!
VA_Network_Nerd@reddit
I did throw away all of my 3.5" Floppies maybe a decade ago.
But I still have my Windows 95 Retail CD(s), and Windows NT 3.51 Workstation and Server, just in case...
1a2b3c4d_1a2b3c4d@reddit
Me too, me too. I keep my copy on my desk. I like to look at my collection of antiquated systems and software while I work in the modern age in something less tangible called "the cloud".
https://imgur.com/G94eNdd
Noobmode@reddit
Theres medicine to help with that.