Looking To Play Exile Trilogy on ChromeOS

[DewdropsOTG]

Hello, Spiderweb friends. I'm looking to play the Exile Trilogy on my Chromebook, as I'm eager for a blast from the past, and I specifically want to play these games and not any newer versions of the games. However, for obvious reasons, it's not entirely clear what I would need to play them on a Chromebook. My current Chromebook is this model
 

HP - 2-in-1 14" Wide Ultra XGA Touch-Screen Chromebook Plus Laptop - Intel Core i3 - 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD

And running the latest version of a 64-bit ChromeOS.

I'm aware I can use DOSBox as a basis, but I also recall that the Exile Trilogy was primarily Windows based, and as such, I'm uncertain which version of Windows I could install onto a VM to run them. Is Windows 3.1 sufficient, or do I need Windows 95? And is it possible to do this in a way that allows me to switch between the game and other activities, allowing me to multitask?

Thanks ahead of time for any assistance.

[Men are from Slars]

Exile was actually written for Mac first.  System requirements from Spiderweb's website (the pages for Exile are still up):

 

Mac: Exile requires System 7, 256 colors, 2 MB free memory, 3 MB disk space, and a 13" monitor.

PC: Exile requires Windows 3.1 or 95, 256 colors, 2 MB free memory, 5 MB disk
space, and a 13" monitor.

[DewdropsOTG]

59 minutes ago, ex post slarto said:

Exile was actually written for Mac first.  System requirements from Spiderweb's website (the pages for Exile are still up):

 

Mac: Exile requires System 7, 256 colors, 2 MB free memory, 3 MB disk space, and a 13" monitor.

PC: Exile requires Windows 3.1 or 95, 256 colors, 2 MB free memory, 5 MB disk
space, and a 13" monitor.

Ah, right, yes. Perfect, thank you. I was trying to find that information somewhere and couldn't. Much appreciated.

[Celtic Minstrel]

I've managed to get the Exile trilogy to run using Windows 3.1 on DOSBox. The only slightly tricky part was setting up sound drivers, and unlike when I tried it under WINE, it runs really well. I imagine you could get Windows 95 or 98 to work in DOSBox too, but I haven't tried it.

 

I've also managed to get the Mac version running in Basilisk II, but I imagine that would be a tougher sell, especially when your host OS is Windows. I'm not sure if Basilisk II even has a Windows version… and you need to find a ROM somehow, which is quite difficult.

[DewdropsOTG]

5 hours ago, Celtic Minstrel said:

I've managed to get the Exile trilogy to run using Windows 3.1 on DOSBox. The only slightly tricky part was setting up sound drivers, and unlike when I tried it under WINE, it runs really well. I imagine you could get Windows 95 or 98 to work in DOSBox too, but I haven't tried it.

 

I've also managed to get the Mac version running in Basilisk II, but I imagine that would be a tougher sell, especially when your host OS is Windows. I'm not sure if Basilisk II even has a Windows version… and you need to find a ROM somehow, which is quite difficult.

Is there a good version of DOSBox for ChromeOS though? I know there's the Chrome browser version, but that doesn't seem like it would be capable of managing to run Windows 3.1. I'm expecting at this point to have to use a VM of some sort, unless there's a version of DOSBox that works natively on Chromebook, in which case I can just use that.

[Celtic Minstrel]

I honestly have no idea, but it would surprise me if there wasn't a version of DOSBox for whatever OS you can name; and ChromeOS is apparently Linux-based so I'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find a DOSBox that works on it. I'd be less certain that it would be easy to make it work though.

 

I'm also not sure why you'd assume that the browser version wouldn't be able to run Windows 3.1. I'm not saying it definitely would, but I don't think it's completely out of the question.

[DewdropsOTG]

2 hours ago, Celtic Minstrel said:

I honestly have no idea, but it would surprise me if there wasn't a version of DOSBox for whatever OS you can name; and ChromeOS is apparently Linux-based so I'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find a DOSBox that works on it. I'd be less certain that it would be easy to make it work though.

 

I'm also not sure why you'd assume that the browser version wouldn't be able to run Windows 3.1. I'm not saying it definitely would, but I don't think it's completely out of the question.

Well, I know that making Windows 3.1 work in a browser has been done as there's a website out there with a ton of browser-based VMs that I found during my search for stuff. But I'm unsure if it could run on top of DOSBox. 

Still, I'll look into this as it may be my best option. I would certainly prefer it, at least.

[Celtic Minstrel]

12 hours ago, DewdropsOTG said:

Well, I know that making Windows 3.1 work in a browser has been done as there's a website out there with a ton of browser-based VMs that I found during my search for stuff. But I'm unsure if it could run on top of DOSBox.

If it's been done, I would expect it to have been done with DOSBox. The only other alternative would be to install real DOS in a bare emulator. You can't run Windows 3.1 without DOS after all – it's not an operating system, only a desktop environment.

[Misc Staple]

On 5/21/2024 at 10:30 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

I've managed to get the Exile trilogy to run using Windows 3.1 on DOSBox. The only slightly tricky part was setting up sound drivers, and unlike when I tried it under WINE, it runs really well. I imagine you could get Windows 95 or 98 to work in DOSBox too, but I haven't tried it.

 

I've also managed to get the Mac version running in Basilisk II, but I imagine that would be a tougher sell, especially when your host OS is Windows. I'm not sure if Basilisk II even has a Windows version… and you need to find a ROM somehow, which is quite difficult.

Basilisk II has a WIndows version. And it's possible to run Windows 95 in DOSBox, but it's not the best experience.