Softwindows 2 68k

[Grex]

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for posting a software-request here as a newbie, but I really ran out of ideas where else to search.

I already spent several WEEKS (of course with breaks) in searching for it on google, ftp, hotline... No success. Softwindows 2 seems to be the last version of Softwindows for 68k-Macs, and it would really be helpful to me (featuring faster emulation and higher compatibility than Softwindows 1 (at least that's what I heard about it)). I don't know if there is a standalone 68k-version or if there is only one FAT version, but I know from several sources on the net, that it basically does run on 68k (one way or the other). This one really seems to be a rare gem, as Softwindows 1 (68k) and Softwindows 3/Softwindows 95 (PPC only) and several other later versions are available on so many places in the net (not even famous HL-server retromac68k had it, when it was still online). Softwindows 2 seems to be impossible to find...

Thankful for any clues on this topic, and if someone has an original copy I would also consider buying it for a reasonable price,

Grex

 

[joshc]

I have SoftWindows 1.0.2 and 3:

http://www.valleyofthelights.com/jcoventry/machut/files/emulation/

Couldn't find version 2 I'm afraid. :'(

 

[Grex]

As I already said, earlier and later version are quite as common as mud, but from Softwindows 3 on it's PPC only. I 've spent weeks searching for Version 2 in all terms, pronounciations and abbreviations I could think off, nothing, that's why I'm trying it here at the forum.

In fact I once found a canadian mac-user via google, who obviously ownes a copy of it, but I couldn't bother him to search his CD for me.

But thanks anyway, wackymacs!

 

[Bunsen]

Stick it in ebay saved searches, with email notification set for the next 12 months. That's how I've managed to find a lot of my rarer acquisitions.

 

[Grex]

@Bunsen:

Sorry, but that's NOT very helpful. Of course I searched the forum before posting, as any decent forum-user would. And naming some internetsites is also quite useless, considering that I already spent several weeks, clicking through tons of google-search-results, using any related searchterm I could think of. Google is a SEARCHENGINE, its job is to store the contents of webpages, so you can search them all at once, not one by one as you suggested. If softwindows would have been mentioned on any of the named webpages, I would already have found them via google.

Nevertheless I went through the list you proposed, no success.

Ebay would still be an option, yes, but I would of course prefer to get it free, unless there is really no other way. In fact I even once found an US-american online-store, which sold Softwindows 2. However all the costs for ordering it from the USA (bank-transfer-fees, shipping costs, custom...) would most likely be significantly higher than the price of the program itself (I am from Austria (Central Europe)). Apart from that, the shop-owner, whom I contacted via email, couldn't tell me the exact system-requirements of Softwindows 2.0, so I can't order it, because I still don't know, if the 68k-Version is a standalone version or not. If it turned out, I ordered a PPC-only version, this would mean I completely wasted my money, because I don't have any PPC-machine here.

 

[joshc]

Grex, that's just part of Bunsen's signature - it appears in every single one of his posts, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. I was actually thinking the same as Bunsen, it looks like eBay is the only way you're going to get it, if a copy ever shows up. Good luck!

 

[MrMacPlus]

I'll PM you if I find it.

 

[nlp]

i have found softwindows2 on a 12-year-old cd, and the cd is still readable.

but: the installation is in german.

if you can't find an english installer, you can use this one.

UPDATE:

now i have tested softwindows2.

the installer runs on 68k but it says: "you can install this software, but it needs a PowerPC to run".

then i read the manual, it starts with this line:

"Herzlich willkommen bei SoftWindows, der Software, die das Betreiben von PC-Anwendungen auf dem Power-Macintosh ermöglicht."

which translates to:

"welcome to softwindows, a software that allows running pc-applications on a Power Macintosh".

i could not find any indication that i "only" got the ppc-version, it very much seems that there is no version for 68k Mac.

 

[Grex]

@nlp:

Thanks for searching and testing it for me! German is not a problem for me, as it is my mother tongue (I couldn't find any german 68k-Mac-Forums on the web).

I am not sure if the PPC-thing you mentioned means something, because I checked insignia's former webpage:

http://web.archive.org/web/19971012233415/www.insignia.com/Corporate/TechDocs/1002.html

They don't mention that there ever was a 68k-version of SoftWindows 1 with a single word! There are no links at all to Softwindows-1-68k (not to talk about SoftWindows 2 68k):

http://web.archive.org/web/19971012230503/www.insignia.com/Corporate/NoLongerShipping.html

So it seems that now at least I know what I am searching for: SoftWindows 2 68k must be a standalone Version. However to be 100% sure: Nlp, could you please test, if your version (despite the install-message) really doesn't work on 68k?

@MrMacPlus: Pleeease find it! Hopefully it is the 68k-version.

By the way: I don't know if I am the only German-speeking member of this forum (in which country is 68KMLA actually located?), but if someone here should have troubles with german installers/programs I can surely help translating.

 

[nlp]

i have installed it, installation with the pre defined partition size takes only about 39.6 MB.

but no luck, it doesn't run on 68k.

 

[Grex]

@nlp:

Thanks for trying!

 

[Bunsen]

@Grex: I've edited my sig file to take out the blank line. Hopefully that makes it a little clearer.

 

[tyrannis]

I have a complete copy of SoftWindows 2.0. I don't believe a 68k version was produced. Neither the manual/documentation, nor the sales literature displaying the entire Insignia offering mention a 68k product.

 

[porter]

Hopefully that makes it a little clearer.

Search/google THEN ask DrBunsen.

 

[Bunsen]

LOL, yeah, I see what you mean. How's this?

 

[Grex]

@Travis Hunt:

As already mentioned, I'm not sure if this necessarily means something (see my web.archive-links). Probably SoftWindows-1-68k also wasn't mentioned in the docs of SoftWindows-1-PPC - could anyone who ownes SoftWindows-1-PPC please confirm this (or the opposite)?

I could post a link to an Italian website that mentiones SoftWindows-2-68k, if someone is interested (and speeks Italian).

 

[nlp]

in version 1.01 of softwindows i found the following version history:

"SoftWindows, Version History

[...]

Version 1.0

This was the initial version of SoftWindows for the Power Macintosh.

If you already know the SoftPC product family for 68k macintosh computers you will find some new features in SoftWindows:

speed - fast as a 486.

SoftWindows was developed for the PowerPC using the full capacity of the Power Macintosh."

then i checked my cds, found a version of SoftPC 3.0 - which runs on 68k.

"get info" reveals this info:

SoftPC Professional

Part of the SoftPC 3.0 family

Wed, Dec 16, 1992

1992 Insignia Solutions Inc.

--

i do not know what to conclude out of this, i have found softWindows 1.04 that runs on 68k,

and i have softPC 3.0 that runs on 68k, could it be that the version 2.0 for 68k was not softwindows, but softPC?

this is a very confusing.

 

[tyrannis]

@Travis Hunt:
As already mentioned, I'm not sure if this necessarily means something. Probably SoftWindows-1-68k also wasn't mentioned in the docs of SoftWindows-1-PPC

Similar to your link, the promotional material contains advertisement of SoftPC, SoftPC Pro, SoftWindows 1.0 for Macintosh, SoftWindows 1.0 "for Performa", and 2.0 PPC. I think it's safe to assume that was the entire emulation product line at the time.

Perhaps response #5 in this thread below provides you with a glimmer of hope for SW 2.0 on the 68k:

http://www.computing.net/answers/mac/windowsemulation-in-mac-os-752/9010.html

 

[Grex]

@nlp:

I already know SoftPC (also the (AFAIK latest) Version: SoftPC 3.1 professional), I tested and compared it carefully to SoftWindows-1-68k a while ago. SoftWindows is definitely faster, this especially shows up when trying to play simple Windows-3.1-games (like Tetris or Asteroids) from old game-compilations. This is actually not surprising, because I remember that SoftWindows-1-68k was one year newer than SoftPC (according to the copyright note on their respective startup-pictures).

Anyway, if I got you right, nlp, then you confirmed my assumption: The 68k-version of SoftWindows-1 isn't mentioned in the docs of SoftWindows-1-PPC. So it probably really is the same for version 2.

And you are right, yes, it is confusing. It all would be so much easier if I could access older versions of http://www.Insignia.com, but unfortunately the version I linked in above post was the oldest available on web.archive (from the year 1997).

@Travis Hunt:

I already knew that page (of course, as I already googled for weeks (not the last few weeks, as I had already given up in the meantime)). So I registered at that forum and wrote a PM to the guy claiming to have so many versions of SoftWindows (that was a few months ago), but I didn't get any response so far.

I also found another forum-entry like this (again thanks to google), at the Canadian "www.ehmac.ca"-forum (this forum is however orientated towards more current mac-models). I registered and PMed again, this time I at least got a response, but he couldn't find his CD (apart from that I wasn't sure if it was the 68k-version anyway).

If Insignia still existed, I could ask them about the last version, but unfortunately this is impossible.

Sigh.