Lava
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1. The minimum configuration on which "Heroes III" runs is Windows 95, English version. How to install it?
Let's start with the hardware. Due to my carelessness, I didn't bother to keep a 286, 386, 486, etc. back in the day. Back then it seemed that the more powerful, the better. So the weakest thing I have is a half-working Celeron 333. It has no fan on the processor (it broke), cooling is passive, via heatsink.
Memory 128 Mb. Chipset i810e.
2. First, you need a clean IDE HDD 80 Gb. We boot from CD. There's an MS-DOS 6.22 option there. We launch it. We partition the HDD, making each drive 1900 Mb, because the limit of understanding of this DOS version is 2 Gb in the FAT16 system. We make one such drive.
Using the "sys a: c:" command, we install the MS-DOS system. We copy the Windows 95 installer, English version, to the same drive. We reboot in the DOS environment. We install Windows. It's also FAT16.
Then, under Windows 95, we create an additional partition on the HDD and make two more drives of 1900 Mb in it. MS-DOS can't do that; there's some limitation on the size of the additional partition.
3. All we see is a blank screen. We install drivers. Due to glitchiness, the driver can't be installed right away, because it's designed for Windows 98, not Windows 95. Here's what we do. First, we install the SVGA video driver instead of the standard VGA. We get an upgrade from 640 x 480 resolution to 800 x 600. Then we switch to 800 x 600 resolution to activate that very driver and switch to it.
Then we install the sound card driver. We get the ability to play not only under Windows, but also under DOS, for example, "Descent".
After that, we manually launch the video card installation from Windows. We choose the "i810e DC133" option. We set the screen resolution to maximum, 1184 x ???.
Now everything works, and we can not only play, but also create maps.
Any keyboard and mouse work, including USB and PS/2. No difficulties arise.
4. First of all, you need to upgrade the computer. If you just run it, then when developing maps, the important ability to paint areas for adding obstacles is missing. To do this automatically, rather than drawing obstacles cell by cell, you need software. In particular, the "Internet Explorer 5" core. It contains the necessary upgrade.
To install it, we install "Office 2000" on the second drive. We unpack the archive there — it takes 600 Mb on my drive D: 1900 Mb. Then we install, for example, Word 2000 and, along the way, the Internet Explorer 5 core from the same place. That's it, we don't need anything else. Office doesn't need to be run; the main thing is that it's there.
5. We also need to Russify the computer.
We go to the control panel, "Add/Remove Programs" (Windows Setup). We install the "Multilanguage Support" software.
We go to keyboard properties. We add a second "Russian" keyboard and set the input language switching method to <Ctrl> + <Shift>.
We go to the control panel. We launch "Regional Settings". We select the country Russia and Russian date/time settings.
The time zone was set earlier, during the Windows 95 installation process itself.
6. Now we install some Russian font. On one of my CDs, I've kept my favorite Russian font Freeset from the last century.
That's it, now our computer is half Russian, half English. The Russian font displays correctly in most cases where it's selected as the design. For example, on the desktop and in Windows Explorer folders, as well as in file and folder names.
There's one difference. If you want to type something in Russian, you need to switch to the Russian keyboard BEFORE entering some "internal" window, not while you're already in it. Otherwise, it won't work. Forget your habits from the Russified Windows 95 environment.
A pleasant feature. This Windows has no tooltips in cream-colored windows. No one will remind you that this little cross is the window close button.
7. We install "Heroes III: The Restoration of Erathia" from the original CD to drive D:. It takes another 200 Mb. That's where we'll play.
We install "Heroes III: The Shadow of Death" on the same drive D:. That's another 450 Mb. There we need not only the game, but also the map and campaign development environment. It's here that you can paint obstacle areas, as well as create your own campaigns for the game.
In total, on drive D:, out of the available 1900 Mb, we've filled 2/3 of the drive with various software.
8. Installation is complete, but how will we transfer the results of creative work to the "big world"?
Once, long ago, there was a transfer method — the 3.5" floppy disk. Now there isn't. Only one method remains — connect the HDD to some other system unit and copy files from one drive to another.
This motherboard has two USB ports of the first standard with a transfer speed of 1 megabyte per second. We'll use that.
9. Windows 95 doesn't understand USB. So on the third drive E:, 1900 Mb in size, we install Windows 2000 SP4. The size is just enough (937 Mb needed). We get a multiboot system.
Now, using a 1 Gb flash drive through Windows 2000, we can copy maps and campaigns.
There's one collision between these systems — the recycle bin. They're different. Their operation can cause computer malfunctions. Therefore, it's better not to empty the recycle bin from Windows 2000 on drive C:. In each system, you need to empty the recycle bin separately.
Let's start with the hardware. Due to my carelessness, I didn't bother to keep a 286, 386, 486, etc. back in the day. Back then it seemed that the more powerful, the better. So the weakest thing I have is a half-working Celeron 333. It has no fan on the processor (it broke), cooling is passive, via heatsink.
Memory 128 Mb. Chipset i810e.
2. First, you need a clean IDE HDD 80 Gb. We boot from CD. There's an MS-DOS 6.22 option there. We launch it. We partition the HDD, making each drive 1900 Mb, because the limit of understanding of this DOS version is 2 Gb in the FAT16 system. We make one such drive.
Using the "sys a: c:" command, we install the MS-DOS system. We copy the Windows 95 installer, English version, to the same drive. We reboot in the DOS environment. We install Windows. It's also FAT16.
Then, under Windows 95, we create an additional partition on the HDD and make two more drives of 1900 Mb in it. MS-DOS can't do that; there's some limitation on the size of the additional partition.
3. All we see is a blank screen. We install drivers. Due to glitchiness, the driver can't be installed right away, because it's designed for Windows 98, not Windows 95. Here's what we do. First, we install the SVGA video driver instead of the standard VGA. We get an upgrade from 640 x 480 resolution to 800 x 600. Then we switch to 800 x 600 resolution to activate that very driver and switch to it.
Then we install the sound card driver. We get the ability to play not only under Windows, but also under DOS, for example, "Descent".
After that, we manually launch the video card installation from Windows. We choose the "i810e DC133" option. We set the screen resolution to maximum, 1184 x ???.
Now everything works, and we can not only play, but also create maps.
Any keyboard and mouse work, including USB and PS/2. No difficulties arise.
4. First of all, you need to upgrade the computer. If you just run it, then when developing maps, the important ability to paint areas for adding obstacles is missing. To do this automatically, rather than drawing obstacles cell by cell, you need software. In particular, the "Internet Explorer 5" core. It contains the necessary upgrade.
To install it, we install "Office 2000" on the second drive. We unpack the archive there — it takes 600 Mb on my drive D: 1900 Mb. Then we install, for example, Word 2000 and, along the way, the Internet Explorer 5 core from the same place. That's it, we don't need anything else. Office doesn't need to be run; the main thing is that it's there.
5. We also need to Russify the computer.
We go to the control panel, "Add/Remove Programs" (Windows Setup). We install the "Multilanguage Support" software.
We go to keyboard properties. We add a second "Russian" keyboard and set the input language switching method to <Ctrl> + <Shift>.
We go to the control panel. We launch "Regional Settings". We select the country Russia and Russian date/time settings.
The time zone was set earlier, during the Windows 95 installation process itself.
6. Now we install some Russian font. On one of my CDs, I've kept my favorite Russian font Freeset from the last century.
That's it, now our computer is half Russian, half English. The Russian font displays correctly in most cases where it's selected as the design. For example, on the desktop and in Windows Explorer folders, as well as in file and folder names.
There's one difference. If you want to type something in Russian, you need to switch to the Russian keyboard BEFORE entering some "internal" window, not while you're already in it. Otherwise, it won't work. Forget your habits from the Russified Windows 95 environment.
A pleasant feature. This Windows has no tooltips in cream-colored windows. No one will remind you that this little cross is the window close button.
7. We install "Heroes III: The Restoration of Erathia" from the original CD to drive D:. It takes another 200 Mb. That's where we'll play.
We install "Heroes III: The Shadow of Death" on the same drive D:. That's another 450 Mb. There we need not only the game, but also the map and campaign development environment. It's here that you can paint obstacle areas, as well as create your own campaigns for the game.
In total, on drive D:, out of the available 1900 Mb, we've filled 2/3 of the drive with various software.
8. Installation is complete, but how will we transfer the results of creative work to the "big world"?
Once, long ago, there was a transfer method — the 3.5" floppy disk. Now there isn't. Only one method remains — connect the HDD to some other system unit and copy files from one drive to another.
This motherboard has two USB ports of the first standard with a transfer speed of 1 megabyte per second. We'll use that.
9. Windows 95 doesn't understand USB. So on the third drive E:, 1900 Mb in size, we install Windows 2000 SP4. The size is just enough (937 Mb needed). We get a multiboot system.
Now, using a 1 Gb flash drive through Windows 2000, we can copy maps and campaigns.
There's one collision between these systems — the recycle bin. They're different. Their operation can cause computer malfunctions. Therefore, it's better not to empty the recycle bin from Windows 2000 on drive C:. In each system, you need to empty the recycle bin separately.