But... why ?

I wanted to run RPG Maker in its original glory.

Unfortunately, since VirtualBox 6.1 there is no 3D Acceleration available.

That means no Direct3D and most of the games does not run without that...

There may be other solutions but... #laziness.

Pre-requisites

Specific to my setup:

Setup English MS-DOS 6.22

MS-DOS Setup

Insert first MS-DOS floppy disk in drive, boot it.

Quit loaded setup with F3, confirm with F3.

Fix MBR if required with fdisk /mbr (useful on harddrives having bootloader remnants like GRUB)

Run fdisk.

  • Delete old partition
  • Create new partition

Reboot.

Quit loaded setup with F3, confirm with F3.

Run format c:.

Run setup.

Install MS-DOS.

Reboot into DOS.

CD-ROM driver Setup

Insert a floppy with your CD-ROM drivers on it.

a:
cd cdrom
install.exe

Remove floppy and reboot.

Setup Japanese Windows 95

Starting the setup

Okay so, now that we have a running DOS with CD-ROM capabilities we can start to setup Windows.

d:
setup.exe

Be patient. The installation may seems to hang after accepting the licence. It does not! It's probing the floppy drive like mad. Just wait a few minutes.

Run the setup as you would usually.

Windows protection error?

なに?

You may run into the infamous Japanese version of the following error:

When initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

when the second part of the Windows setup starts.

This is due to 2.1GHz CPU limit of Windows 95 and yours appear to run faster than that, sorry. Insert the Fix 95 CPU floppy and boot to it. Let it do it's magic, then reboot again and select Normal mode to finish Windows 95 setup.

Setup Windows Drivers

USB support

Once Windows 95 setup ends, there is not support for USB. Lets add that.

In the file explorer, go to Windows OSR 2.5 drive in the D:¥other¥updates¥usb directory.

Run usbsupp.exe first.

When asked to keep ntkern.vxd select はい Yes, or you will need to run the Fix 95 CPU again.

Windows will reboot.

Run usbupd2.exe next.

When asked to keep vfwwdm.drv and vfwwdm32.dll select はい Yes.

Reboot.

  • Right-clic on マイ コンピュータ My Computer.
  • Select プロパティ Properties.
  • Select the デバイスマネージャ Device Manager tab.
  • Under その他のデバイス Other Devices:
    • Select each PCI Universal Serial Bus and 削除 Delete them.
  • Clic on 更新 Update
  • Let the device manager do its job.

Reboot.

Mass Storage Generic Driver

You will probably be prompted for a driver when you plug an USB Key.

Windows 95 is lacking the mass storage drivers by default.

If you are not prompted again for the driver:

  • Right-clic on マイ コンピュータ My Computer.
  • Select プロパティ Properties.
  • Select the デバイスマネージャ Device Manager tab.
  • Under その他のデバイス Other Devices:
    • Select 不明なデバイス Unknown Device and 削除 Delete it.
  • Clic on 更新 Update

Then:

  • When prompted for the driver, select your SanDisk USB Drivers location.
  • When prompted for USBIMW95.SYS, select again your SanDisk USB Drivers location.
  • Let the device manager do its job.
  • Now you can access your USB key content.

Graphic Card drivers

Install NVIDIA drivers, restart.

If you have the following error:

While initializing device NTKERN:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

Check this section and fix your CPU again.

Upon restart, some issues are displayed for C:¥WINDOWS¥SYSTEM¥NvCpl.dll, they are safe to ignore.

  • Right clic on the Desktop
  • Select プロパティ Properties.
  • Select the ディスプレーの詳細 Display Details tab.
  • Select True Color profile and set your display resolution to 1024x768.
  • Do not reboot at apply.
  • Then reboot. (It may hang on restarting, force restart.)

Sound Card Drivers

  • Remove any USB Key.
  • Insert the Windows 95 CD-ROM into your CD drive.
  • Install Crystal CS4281 drivers through setup.exe
  • Reboot.
  • When prompted for driver files, select your Crystal CS4281 Drivers location.
  • Let the device manager do its job.

Did it work?

Windows 95 is delivered with Microsoft DirectX 2.0 (4.03.00.1096).

Unfortunately, even with the latest DirectX version available for Windows 95 , I could not run RPG Maker 95 in game mode (Editor is okay though). The textures does not show up, games are pitch black but the UI is okay, even in 256 colors mode.

Guess it is maybe a Windows 95 OSR2 compatibility issue? :(