Possible revival of bug W343-3 on Windows prior to version 8 #1675

Activity

1. chasonr commented on Sep 7, 2026

   

   chasonr

   on Sep 7, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   I have a Windows 98 image preserved from a computer that died long ago. It does not have the files bcrypt.dll, dbghelp.dll and userenv.dll, which NetHack.exe and NetHackW.exe both use. I think it's fair to conclude that NetHack is broken on Windows 95 and friends.
2. chasonr commented on Sep 7, 2026

   

   chasonr

   on Sep 7, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   The MS-DOS version runs natively on Windows 98, with full support for VESA BIOS Extensions.
3. nhmall commented on Sep 8, 2026

   

   nhmall

   on Sep 8, 2026

   Contributor

   More actions

   Is this what you are recommending?

   • remove the tests for console.has_unicode and just assume that's true.
   • remove all use of WriteConsoleOutputCharacterA() and use WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW() always.
   • publish a stance that states: If you want to play NetHack on Windows 98, consider using the MSDOS version because there isn't a working Windows version.

   I think, generally, there's a desire to maintain support for multiple platforms, as long as there is someone actively providing updates for each platform.

   I don't think, however, it is feasible to try to maintain support for all older operating system versions on every platform that NetHack executes on.
4. nhmall commented on Sep 8, 2026

   

   nhmall

   on Sep 8, 2026

   Last edited by nhmall

   Contributor

   More actions

   While the "roadmap" gets discussed, I have placed the following change into the pipeline, to attempt to undo the reported undesirable effect of 19d8ec6.

   diff --git a/sys/windows/consoletty.c b/sys/windows/consoletty.c
   index 93dd8a966..62b5cf28a 100644
   --- a/sys/windows/consoletty.c
   +++ b/sys/windows/consoletty.c
   @@ -162,6 +162,8 @@ extern void (*ibmgraphics_mode_callback)(void);  /* symbols.c */
    extern void (*utf8graphics_mode_callback)(void); /* symbols.c */
    #endif /* VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_SEQUENCES */
    
   +static boolean OnWindows95_98_Me(void);
   +
    static void init_custom_colors(void);
    static void free_custom_colors(void);
    
   @@ -892,6 +894,12 @@ void buffer_write(cell_t * buffer, cell_t * cell, COORD pos)
            back_buffer_flip();
    }
    
   +static boolean
   +OnWindows95_98_Me(void)
   +{
   +    return ((GetVersion() & 0x80000000) != 0);
   +}
   +
    /*
     * Called after returning from ! or ^Z
     */
   @@ -2525,7 +2533,8 @@ void nethack_enter_consoletty(void)
        buffer_fill_to_end(console.back_buffer, &clear_cell, 0, 0);
    
        /* determine whether OS version has unicode support */
   -    console.has_unicode = (IsWindows8OrGreater());
   +    /* console.has_unicode = (IsWindows8OrGreater()); */
   +    console.has_unicode = !OnWindows95_98_Me();
    
    #ifdef VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_SEQUENCES
        /* store the original code page*/
   
   
5. chasonr commented on Sep 8, 2026

   

   chasonr

   on Sep 8, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   Always calling WriteConsoleOutputCharacterW seems the easiest thing to do.

   It looks like getting the current NetHack running on Windows 95 would require more changes than reverting that one line. These functions, all called from windsys.c, are not supported:

   • BCryptCloseAlgorithmProvider
   • BCryptCreateHash
   • BCryptDestroyHash
   • BCryptFinishHash
   • BCryptGenRandom
   • BCryptGetProperty
   • BCryptHashData
   • BCryptOpenAlgorithmProvider
   • GetUserProfileDirectoryA
   • SymCleanup
   • SymFromAddr
   • SymGetLineFromAddr
   • SymInitialize

   From the Microsoft docs, the BCrypt* functions go back to Windows Vista, GetUserProfileDirectoryA goes back to Windows 2000 and the Sym* functions are available in a redistributable DLL.
6. chasonr commented on Sep 11, 2026

   

   chasonr

   on Sep 11, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   I set up some VMs with older versions of Windows. I was able to run NetHack as far back as Windows Vista. It does not run on XP, and I didn't expect that it would.

   Without the recent change to the version check, I observed a completely different bug from the one I expected: IBMgraphics did not work at all. It looks like the ANSI code page is being used instead of the OEM one. I also saw that going from one menu to another (as to change symset from the options menu) did not display the second menu correctly. With the version check changed, I saw correct IBMgraphics and menus.

   OTOH, the text-mode NetHack is generating ANSI escape sequences that the older terminal program does not understand. If you've ever run a DOS program that expected ANSI.SYS, and ANSI.SYS wasn't loaded, that's what it looked like. NetHack 3.6.7 does not generate the escape sequences. Cmder runs on Vista, understands the escape sequences, and gives a correct display.

   The graphical-mode NetHackW shows no obvious problems running on Vista.