Running Qemu as a Windows service …

Long story short I’m doing some work with a network that suffers a lot of ‘you can’t get there from here’.  They’ve given me VPN access and yet even the VPN cannot get to a lot of stuff.

The solution for them is to use this old server and ssh out from there to the rest of everything.  Which for the most part works fine, but if more then 2 people need to leapfrog suddenly you are waiting in line, or constantly knocking people off.

So I figured I’d do something different, install a QEMU virtual machine on the server during my allotted hour, and then launch it as a service so that I could leap in/out through the VM leaving the console free.

While I am going to add Qemu as a service, it is still somewhat stealthy as I don’t need device drivers, and I can run it nested as I know this machine is slated to be migrated to VMWare ESX.  And the best part of that is that it’ll continue to run.

So how do we set this kind of thing up?

The first thing you’ll need is srvany.exe instsrv.exe which both can be found in the Windows 2003 resource kit.

Installation is very straightforward, just remember to use complete paths for your Qemu, BIOS, and disk files.  Installation goes like this from the command line:

InstSrv qemu c:\qemu-0.15.0\srvany.exe

This will create a service entry named Qemu, which will in turn kick off the srvany executable from the resource kit.  Now I know what you are thinking, what about Qemu?  Well we have to specify that using regedit.  Also remember that because you are going to run this as a service you don’t want the SDL display popping up and scaring some poor hapless user.  So the first thing I’d recommend is to work out the flags that you want to start with.  Something like this:

c:\qemu-0.15.0\qemu -L c:\qemu-0.15.0\qemu\pc-bios -hda mydisk -net nic -net user -redir tcp:2222::22 -vnc w.x.y.z:2223

This will redirect tcp port 2222 into the VM for ssh, and sits the VNC display on port 2223 …

So we fire up regedit and navagate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Qemu

There we add a new key “Parameters”.  Then add an ASCII key of “Application” then just paste in the all of the qemu flags as mentioned above (or changed as needed by you).

Then you can simply start/stop the thing using the net start/net stop.

I suppose this is a little subversive (lol) but sometimes you’ve got work to do and the best way through it to piggyback on someone else’s computer.  Also I really fail to see the ‘wisdom’ in creating ACLs that only permit you to access your routers/switches from your desktop when you could easily *NOT* be in the office.  Or this guy just likes the excuse of not being able to work from home.

Anyways not to ramble but that’s how I ‘fixed’ the issue without ruffling too many feathers.

Windows 2008 & Proxmox VE

Just a quick tip to people running Windows 2008 under Proxmox/VE (I know this applies to the amd64 x86_64 version probably i386 as well) sometimes when you reboot it’ll come up and crash saying that there is no available hard disks. Then it’ll go into recovery mode and … somehow claim you have no hard disks.

Turn the VM OFF.

Wait a few seconds.

Turn the VM ON.

I had this issue after installing antivirus software in the VM, but I guess there is other things that may set it off. Anyways after a shutdown, power cycle of the VM it’ll boot back up.

That’s it!

I’ve got to stop watching the blogger stats…

Because then I see something like this come my way as a query from google:

“is there a version of colossal cave adventure that runs on 64 bit systems”

Well I certainly can’t let that one go unanswered.

So whomever you are stranger, here it is. Well for Win64 x86_64 machines.

This is built using f2c on MinGW64. I’ll spare you the details, but it compiled, and fired up and I got lost in the woods… So I assume it is working…..

For those of you not in the know, colossal cave adventure, or sometimes known simply as ‘adventure’ is the grand daddy of all text adventure games.

As mentioned in this timeline of adventure versions, adventure was written by Willie Crowther and expanded by Don Woods. This version, the Kenneth Plotkin version was derived from Kevin Black’s DOS version and Bob Supnik’s Decus versions.

With that said, there is a tonne of INT2 and INT4 casting, which I’ve just removed as I’m passing it through f2c. I suppose I could have seen about fixing the variables, but I just fixed the ones f2c and gcc really complained about. Included in the download is the modified source, and the original source, so anyone can take a look at it.

Naturally Wikipedia has a most excellent article on the history of adventure, check it out.

Colossal Cave in 64bits!

Colossal Cave in 64bits!

Enjoy!

MinGW-w64

Well after yesterdays x86_64 excitement, I figured I’d take a look in the windows area to see about the 32bit vs 64bit performance on Windows…

I know this isn’t the ‘best’ test as I’m using VMWare Fusion on OS X and running Windows XP x64 sp2 (the 2007 edition, not the 2003 one).

If anyone wants to know how to get a 64bit gcc on windows, this is the best formula I’ve come up with so far.

First download a build of mingw-w64-bin_x86_64 from sourceforge… Right now I’m using a ‘Personal Build’ from sezero_20101003, because… it’s recent, and I would imagine a personal build has some hope of actually working.

I downloaded that, and extracted to the root of the C drive. Then I renamed the mingw64 to mingw.

Next up, I downloaded and installed MSYS 1.0.11, and installed that. I selected the default options, and of course specified my mingw is installed in

C:/mingw

After that, I install the MSYS DTK 1.0, again with default options.

The final part is some kind of editor, I like VIM but it’s… involved to download as the default package ‘vim-7.2-1-msys-1.0.11-bin.tar.lzma’ is in a 7zip compatible archive that needs a bit of tweaking to get a tar file out of. I can provide it here in gzip format, that you can simply extract within the msys command prompt in the /usr directory.

Now with all that done, you should be in business!

$ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-w64-mingw32
Configured with: ../gcc44-svn/configure –host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 –target=x86_6
4-w64-mingw32 –disable-multilib –enable-checking=release –prefix=/mingw64 –w
ith-sysroot=/mingw64 –enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ –enable-libg
omp –with-gmp=/mingw64 –with-mpfr=/mingw64 –disable-nls –disable-win32-regis
try
Thread model: win32
gcc version 4.4.5 20101001 (release) [svn/rev.164871 – mingw-w64/oz] (GCC)

 

But will it run Dungeon?

What is also cool, is that this build of mingw includes gfortran, which is a Fortran 95 compiler with various 2003 & 2008 enhancements. So for the heck of it, I’ve rebuilt the makefile from dungeon-2.5.6 and tweaked the machdep.f to at least call the ITIME function to get the current time. The resulting archive runs pretty well!

Windows XP x64 - dungeon

Yes, it runs! And without a *32 meaning this is a 64bit binary!

 

Onward with SIMH

So going back to SIMH as my benchmark, here is the vax780 with -O0/-O0

Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 18
This machine benchmarks at 27777 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 20
This machine benchmarks at 25000 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 19
This machine benchmarks at 26315 dhrystones/second

Which comparing it to the native x86_64 build is pretty good considering I’m running this in a VM (VMware Fusion!). Now the same test with -O1/-O1

Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second

Which is pretty good! Now for the finally with -O2/-O1

Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 12
This machine benchmarks at 41666 dhrystones/second

Which is interesting in that there is no appreciable difference in the -O2/-O1 vs the -O1/-O1 build. Although I kind of expect different results on a native machine. If anyone else cares to test, I’m going to make available the whole project here. This includes the source and the pre-built binaries.

Unzip it on a win64/win32 machine and it should be somewhat straightforward to build / run. You can alter the makefile and change the primary CC flags from O0 to O1 or O2 if you so wish… just run make and it’ll generate a vax780.exe . Then in the test directory you can bench your exe like this:

$ make
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_cpu.o VAX/vax_cpu.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_cpu1.o VAX/vax_cpu1.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 –
DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_fpa.o VAX/vax_fpa.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘op_cmpfd’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:210: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:210: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:211: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:211: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘op_cmpg’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:233: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:233: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:234: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:234: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘vax_fadd’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:371: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:373: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:386: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘unpackd’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:525: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:525: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘unpackg’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:540: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:540: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘norm’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:548: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:548: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:548: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:549: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:549: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:557: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘rpackfd’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:574: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c:575: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
VAX/vax_fpa.c: In function ‘rpackg’:
VAX/vax_fpa.c:597: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_cis.o VAX/vax_cis.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_octa.o VAX/vax_octa.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 –
DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_cmode.o VAX/vax_cmode.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64
-DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_mmu.o VAX/vax_mmu.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_sys.o VAX/vax_sys.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_syscm.o VAX/vax_syscm.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64
-DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_stddev.o VAX/vax780_stddev.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DU
SE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_sbi.o VAX/vax780_sbi.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_mem.o VAX/vax780_mem.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_uba.o VAX/vax780_uba.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_mba.o VAX/vax780_mba.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_fload.o VAX/vax780_fload.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE
_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax780_syslist.o VAX/vax780_syslist.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 –
DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_rl.o PDP11/pdp11_rl.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_rq.o PDP11/pdp11_rq.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_ts.o PDP11/pdp11_ts.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_dz.o PDP11/pdp11_dz.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_lp.o PDP11/pdp11_lp.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_tq.o PDP11/pdp11_tq.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_xu.o PDP11/pdp11_xu.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_ry.o PDP11/pdp11_ry.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_cr.o PDP11/pdp11_cr.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_rp.o PDP11/pdp11_rp.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_tu.o PDP11/pdp11_tu.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_hk.o PDP11/pdp11_hk.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT
64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o PDP11/pdp11_io_lib.o PDP11/pdp11_io_lib.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 –
DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o scp.o scp.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX
-I PDP11
scp.c:470: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:470: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:470: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:470: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:471: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:471: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:471: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:471: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:472: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:472: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:472: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:472: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:473: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:473: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:473: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:473: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:474: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:474: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:474: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:474: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:475: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:475: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:475: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:475: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:476: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:476: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:477: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:477: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:478: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:478: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:479: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
scp.c:479: warning: integer constant is too large for ‘long’ type
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_console.o sim_console.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_fio.o sim_fio.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR6
4 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_timer.o sim_timer.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_A
DDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_sock.o sim_sock.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADD
R64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_tmxr.o sim_tmxr.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADD
R64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_ether.o sim_ether.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_A
DDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o sim_tape.o sim_tape.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADD
R64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O0 -c -o VAX/vax_cpu2.o VAX/vax_cpu2.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 –
DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -O1 -c -o VAX/vax_cpu2.o VAX/vax_cpu2.c -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64
-DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11
gcc -o vax780 VAX/vax_cpu.o VAX/vax_cpu1.o VAX/vax_fpa.o VAX/vax_cis.o VAX/vax_
octa.o VAX/vax_cmode.o VAX/vax_mmu.o VAX/vax_sys.o VAX/vax_syscm.o VAX/vax780_st
ddev.o VAX/vax780_sbi.o VAX/vax780_mem.o VAX/vax780_uba.o VAX/vax780_mba.o VAX/v
ax780_fload.o VAX/vax780_syslist.o PDP11/pdp11_rl.o PDP11/pdp11_rq.o PDP11/pdp11
_ts.o PDP11/pdp11_dz.o PDP11/pdp11_lp.o PDP11/pdp11_tq.o PDP11/pdp11_xu.o PDP11/
pdp11_ry.o PDP11/pdp11_cr.o PDP11/pdp11_rp.o PDP11/pdp11_tu.o PDP11/pdp11_hk.o P
DP11/pdp11_io_lib.o scp.o sim_console.o sim_fio.o sim_timer.o sim_sock.o sim_tmx
r.o sim_ether.o sim_tape.o VAX/vax_cpu2.o -I. -DVM_VAX -DVAX_780 -DUSE_INT64 -DU
SE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11 -lwinmm -lwsock32

Administrator@JASON-4AC1B1EA0 /usr/src/simh
$ cd test/

Administrator@JASON-4AC1B1EA0 /usr/src/simh/test
$ ../vax780.exe bsd42.ini

VAX780 simulator V3.8-1
loading ra(0,0)boot
Boot
: ra(0,0)vmunix
199488+56036+51360 start 0x11a0
4.2 BSD UNIX #9: Wed Nov 2 16:00:29 PST 1983
real mem = 8384512
avail mem = 7073792
using 102 buffers containing 835584 bytes of memory
mcr0 at tr1
mcr1 at tr2
uba0 at tr3
hk0 at uba0 csr 177440 vec 210, ipl 15
rk0 at hk0 slave 0
rk1 at hk0 slave 1
uda0 at uba0 csr 172150 vec 774, ipl 15
ra0 at uda0 slave 0
ra1 at uda0 slave 1
zs0 at uba0 csr 172520 vec 224, ipl 15
ts0 at zs0 slave 0
dz0 at uba0 csr 160100 vec 300, ipl 15
dz1 at uba0 csr 160110 vec 310, ipl 15
dz2 at uba0 csr 160120 vec 320, ipl 15
dz3 at uba0 csr 160130 vec 330, ipl 15
root on ra0
WARNING: should run interleaved swap with >= 2Mb
Automatic reboot in progress…
Tue Nov 8 03:44:30 PST 1983
Can’t open checklist file: /etc/fstab
Automatic reboot failed… help!
erase ^?, kill ^U, intr ^C
# ./d2;./d2;./d2
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 19
This machine benchmarks at 26315 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 19
This machine benchmarks at 26315 dhrystones/second
Dhrystone(1.1) time for 500000 passes = 18
This machine benchmarks at 27777 dhrystones/second
# sync
# sync
# sync
#
Simulation stopped, PC: 80001629 (BNEQ 80001630)
sim> q
Goodbye

Administrator@JASON-4AC1B1EA0 /usr/src/simh/test
$

The d0,d1,d2 are the dhyrstone benchmark compiled with -O0, -O1, and -O2 respectively. This gives you a chance to observe various optimizations in the GCC 2.7.2.2 for the VAX.

Neko x64!

For no real reason today I remmeber that there used to be this cool program back in the Windows 3.0 days called Neko. I was trying to explain it to my girlfriend about this cat that would chase your mouse!  Click the picture above to play with neko in jdosbox.

I recall that Neko even made it to OS/2 as it was more interesting than the mouse trails alternative from Microsoft.

At any rate, I was wondering if there ever was a 32bit version of Neko… And much to my amazement I found there was a Neko95, and a Neko98! And they even ran on my x64 version of Windows… So after googling around, I found the source code to Neko 98!

So, I did the next best thing, which is download the source, fix a single casting ‘error’ in some square root function and I got it building under Visual C++ 2008. Then I figured, what the hell, added a target for the x64, and built… a 64 bit version of neko!

You can download the x64 binaries, and the source directory that I used here.

You may need some VC runtimes if your system is an old x64… At this moment it can be found here:

Or by searching for Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64)

Oh well at any rate, it’s cool to see Neko still kicking!

PS When I get back, I’ll have to see about an i386, MIPS, Dec Alpha and Itanium build… wink wink!

—edit

Neko98’s source code has been rescued, all saved here. and on github.

—years later

I just received this screen shot of Neko x64 rocking it on Windows 8 (Desktop mode)

Neko on Windows 8