Classic Systems Emulated: OS/2 V2.1

 

OS/2 has grown a lot, but there was still plenty of room for improvement.

On 1993, IBM introduced the latest version of OS/2, version 2.1. It as a massive update over the previous release (2.0). Win-OS/2 was updated to Windows 3.1 Compatibility. DOS Compatibility was improved on as well. The new release also supported a much greater array of SVGA adapters.

The biggest new addition to the latest OS/2 release was the MMPM/2 (Multimedia Presentation Manager/2). This was the multimedia subsystem which included drivers for the most common audio adapters of there day. Not surprisingly, the SoundBlaster family of adapter are very well supported. Hearing sounds in this OS was really cool at first. However, once the novelty wore off, one realizes how bloody annoying those sounds are! The MMPM/2 came with the Ultimotion video codec, which was basically IBM's answer to the Cinepack codec used in Apple's QuickTime and the VFW(Video For Windows) codec used in Windows.

Version 2.1 supported a greater array of hardware and motherboards. With a larger install base, more third-party developers released applications for OS/2. Version 2.1 came with Micrografx's PM Chart, an applications that allowed colorful charts to be created. Micrografx was a major OS/2 software house. Lotus Software was very committed to the platform as well, and they showed it by releasing Lotus SmartSuite. The OS/2 ports of Lotus 123, AMI Pro, and Freelance Graphics (Powerpoint-like program) were bundled together as a complete office solution.

WordPerfect was released for OS/2, along with CorelDRAW! and Footprint Works, a integrated office suite. Footprint Works was later rebranded by IBM as IBMWorks for OS/2 Warp 3, which was intended as being Big Blue's answer to Microsoft Works . Integrated software suites were very popular at the time. They were much more affordable than full-fledged office solutions like Lotus SmartSuite and Microsoft Office. While there never was a native OS/2 port of Microsoft Works, it ran fine under Win-OS/2.

        Footprint Works                                Footprint Works                        Corel Draw! For OS/2

    Corel Draw! For OS/2                        Lotus 123 for OS/2                        Lotus Ami Pro for OS/2


    Lotus Freelance Graphics                Lotus Freelance Graphics                Lotus Freelance Graphics

    Micrografx PM Chart for OS/2       Micrografx PM Chart for OS/2

Since OS/2 was commonly used in a networked environment, Lotus released an email client for the platform called cc:Mail. cc:Mail was seen as basically a scaled-down version of the Lotus Notes. In the area of CPU benchmarking, the DKB Raytracer was released for OS/2 as well, bringing raytracing to OS/2.
A image that was rendered by the DBK Raytracer for OS/2

A Better DOS than DOS.
DOS compatibility was improved further in version 2.1. DOS compatibility was still essential simply due to its user base and the sheer size of its software library. Applications like Microsoft's QuickBASIC was widely used. Not only that, DOS was home of the PC gaming scene. DOS compatibility was a must for any PC gamer as native games were far and few. Earlier DOS titles like Test Drive 2 and MS Flight Simulator 3 ran fine without issue. On version 2.1, Flight Simulator 4 was tested in the 320 by 240, 256 color VGA mode. It also ran fine without issue.

OS/2 v2.1 was released at a time when the PC gaming scene was going through a massive transformation. Largely neglected through the 80's, and 90's, id Software started to set the PC gaming scene on fire first with Wolfenstein 3D, and then Doom. Doom's popularity couldn't be understated. At one point, there were more people running Doom than they were running Windows 3.1. OS/2's install base was dwarfed by Doom! Wolfenstein 3D was tested with 2.1, and it ran without issue (SoundBlaster and all). I decided to save Doom for OS/2 Warp 3. In theory, Warp 3's multimedia capabilities should be even greater than that of 2.1. Since version 2.1 ran Wolfenstein without issue, maybe there's great hope for Doom!

Win-OS/2 Troubles
Win-OS/2 was updated to Windows 3.1 compatibility now. Thus (in theory), the vast majority of Windows 3.1 programs can run on Win-OS/2, and this is largely the case. In fact, I much prefer the Win-OS/2 experience in 2.1 compared to 2.0. With version 2.0, Win-OS/2 could run directly on the Workplace shell IF you had the appropriate Win-OS/2 video driver installed to facilitate this. Other than that, the only way you could run Win-OS/2 was in a full-screen DOS window. With version 2.1, driver support was much better, and thus, Win-OS/2 ran directly on the Workplace Shell. However, there were a few gripes. Even though Win-OS/2 can use sound, you have to manually install the sound support as if you were doing so on Windows 3.1. When MMPM/2 installs sound support in OS/2, it's ONLY for OS/2, and not for the DOS and Windows sessions as well. There support has to be added manually. The manner of installing sound drivers in Win-OS/2 is carbon copy to Windows 3.1. In fact, because Win-OS/2 is built from Windows 3.1 retail, it even ships with the exact same drivers for the Creative Labs SoundBlaster. There is an additional problem though.

This problem occurred on PCEM. However, this issue wasn't emulator related (I believe). My emulated setup had a Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16. This adapter could process 16-bit PCM audio. Technically, this adapter wasn't supported in MMPM/2. However, I told MMPM/2 to install the SoundBlaster Pro 16, which worked. From there, I found drivers for the actual SoundBlaster 16 and replaced the SoundBlaster Pro with the downloaded ones. However, it wasn't OS/2 I was concerned with. As mentioned earlier, MMPM/2 only installs audio support for OS/2 proper, and not for the DOS or Windows session. Windows 3.1 didn't ship with drivers for the SoundBlaster 16, only the 8-bit SoundBlasters. The 8-bit drivers can't process 16-bit PCM audio. Creative Labs (damn them!) bundled the DOS and Windows 3.1 drivers together. You can't install the Windows drivers separately (at least until the DOS setup program runs). The DOS setup program hated the OS/2 DOS session. I had to run the DOS setup program on DOSBox and then copy the Windows drivers separately. Even then, issues occurred and to make a long story short, I manually added the drivers in Win-OS/2 by editing the Windows SYSTEM.INI file. The support was flaky at best. Windows Media Player ran without issues, but MOD4WIN crashed. Multimedia support on Win-OS/2 was a mess. I know if I've experienced these problems now, then other users probably experienced them in the past. One surprisingly thing did occur though. I did "install" Win32s by manually copying the files from a previous install and then adding the entries manually in the SYSTEM.INI file. I got the Windows Mosaic 1.0 web browser running by using this method.

In all honestly, Win-OS/2 probably caused much more harm than good. Most Windows programs ran fine without issue. However, multimedia programs were a hit-or-miss. Also, because most programs ran without issue, many developers were reluctant at releasing a native OS/2 version of there application because the Windows version could run fine under OS/2 as well, so why bother.

Emulation
Using PCEM, I created a configuration around a 386 motherboard with a emulated Cyrix 486DRx2 processor running at 66MHz. This was basically a 486 upgrade that could operate on 386 motherboard. The reason why I went in this direction was because Lotus 123 for OS/2 didn't run correctly on the 486 or Pentium proper configurations. Cells where there's numbers instead showed the "*" symbol. Lotus 123 ran correctly on the 386 processors along with the 486 upgrades on the same board.

The system also had 8MB's of RAM, an S3 Trio 32 SVGA video adapter with the appropriate drivers installed along with an Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 audio adapter. The system was generally very responsive and quick. The OS/2 Workplace Shell ran at the screen resolution of 800 by 600, 16-bit (65,536 colors) depth. OS/2 was installed on a 512MB hard disk image and formatted with the FAT16 file-system. OS/2 v2.11 was installed.

Conclusion
OS/2 v2.1 was a vast improvement over version 2.0. Win-OS/2 was vastly improved with Windows 3.1 compatibility. Not only that, there was now multimedia support. However, there was still a lot to be desired. The trouble one needed to go through to add multimedia support within the DOS and Windows session was hellish at best. Things were better as long as one was using hardware that OS/2 supported out of the box. I was technically running OS/2 v2.11, which was released in 1994, and the last one of the 2.x series before Warp 3 was introduced. On the whole, OS/2 has grown a lot, but there was still plenty of room for improvement.

Articles Of Interest
PCEM : https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/
OS/2 Museum - OS/2 2.0 : https://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-2-0/
OS/2 Museum - OS/2 2.1 and 2.11 : https://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history/os2-2-1-and-2-11/
Wikipedia - OS/2 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 

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