Recommend some 16-bit Windows/Win16 apps

[xpclient]

If your Windows journey started from Windows 95 like mine did, or even some whose first was Windows XP, and missed out on some of the best or great 16-bit/Win16 API software, what are some of these must-try/must-have/must-own old Windows apps? They can be games, or productivity software, or educational/reference titles, The BetaArchive FTP is full of these amazing apps. I could not find any list anywhere on the web, so let's make a topic? Will be ok even if you post/list 1 great app with its screenshot. There are dozens of them on the FTP but there must be a few top apps.

Let me start. My favorite Win16 apps are the Microsoft Entertainment Pack games and a chess game called Software Toolworks Star Wars Chess and others from the same company - Battle Chess and Chessmaster. Also was another program suite for WAV and MIDI music called Willow Pond Audio.

And of course, the entire Microsoft Home series of programs/titles were amazing.

So what are your favorite Win16 apps or hybrid Win32-Win16 apps? (but not pure Win32 or DOS applications)

[computebrute]

There's all the cool afterdark themes and screensavers

[xpclient]

Had no idea until I googled and found its Wikipedia article. Cool.

[carlospc]

These are the ones that I used:

• Aldus PhotoStyler was a favorite. The way it handled big photos (> 2MB) was great. I spent a lot of time learning how to use it before it was bought and killed by Adobe.

• Paint Shop Pro, it was a great photo editor with no complications.

• HP Dashboard was a great Program Manager replacement. It gave you 3 virtual desktops to organize your windows and many shortcuts to make everything faster and your desktop clutter free.

• Locoscript was a great word processor with a very clean interface, nice fonts for screen and printer and great WYSIWYG.

• There was an utility that let you use any animated screensaver as a wallpaper. It was fantastic having an animation in the background while you were typing a letter or something. I don't have the name but I will look for it and report back.

• Visual Basic 1. It is a nice way to make little programs with native windows.

• Civilization 1 for Windows. It has taken many hours of my life. I still play it from time to time. It is simple, fast and hard to master.

Note: you can play many Win16 apps in the archive.org website: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_win3

[xpclient]

Nice! I know Visual Basic, Paint Shop Pro and Aldus apps (many of which became Adobe apps) since all these continued into the Win32 era. Have only heard of Civilization game when I first saw a demo of Age of Empires. Rest are new to me. That archive.org link also contains lots of goodies.

[Meow]

Calmira and Mask98. Those two combined make a very Windows 95-like shell.
And if you add win32s you will get 32 bit app support.

[ia2115]

Johnny Castaway Screen Antics for sure is a must have as a screen saver, if you did know him / forgot

[xpclient]

Had no idea of this either. Will check it out. Thanks. I am installing these as an experiment under WineVDM/OTVDM to see if these gold 16-bit titles run on 64-bit Windows. The project is actively being developed and compatibility with a LOT of titles has improved in last few months.

[Sabina16bit.]

Sure my favorite 16bit Windows app is Sheep screenmate,U can found it on laurascelebration.com with many other screenmates,most of them is 32bit,but Sheep is 16bit & is the best.
...
& my favorite 16bit DOS app is Windows 3.11 .

[oldsoft]

Hello,

Microsoft access 2 with the development kit.
Foxpro 2.6 database creation
Borland Delphi 2
Norton and pctools software (50% dos and 50% windows)
the games were under back.

Bye

[msdos6000]

Uh, I think...

Visual Basic 1
Office 4.3

And that's about it. Some games for 16-bit Windows, but I don't know many.

[Crosma]

Fauve Matisse is a nice Win16 painting program. I'm not aware of any modern equivalents.

[msdos6000]

Oh wait... I got one:

16-bit MS-Paint

[Lollipop]

I think mine is:

Visual Basic to the last one to support Win16 apps
Office to the last one to support Win16
Some good painting software to support Win16
Microsoft Entertainment Pack, most notably SkiFree
Others I can not remember or forgot ...

[CSmeds99]

The original Civilization II game was a great Win16 game that I played in high school back in the late 1990s. When I had no homework or studying to do, I would play for hours.

[mrpijey]

Thread is locked because it's too generic and pointless since it all depends on what genre or what kind of app you happen to be interested in and anything between some homemade shareware title to a major title will be "recommended" in the end to no good use. This is just a thread filler without substance. Be more specific.

Locked