Enlarge / Windle is a clone of Wordle meant to fit in with old Windows games like Minesweeper and Chip’s Challenge . (credit: Dialup. net )
If you thought that Wordle was old news, here’s something even older: Dialup. net has created and released Windle , a Wordle clone designed to run on Windows 3. 1 and the early ’90s PC hardware that would have been running Windows 3. 1.
You could run Windows 3. 1 and its apps on modern hardware within a virtual machine or DOSBox , but to maximize its authenticity, Windle was built and operate on period-appropriate hardware with period-appropriate tools. The PC used was a Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V with a 66 MHz Intel 80486 DX2 CPU, Windows 3. 11 for Workgroups, and the very first version of the Borland Delphi development environment . Running on the original hardware helped expose issues that may not have been evident in a virtualized copy of Windows 3. 1—like a system hang that would occur as the entire dictionary was loaded into memory by a 66 MHz processor, for example.
Playing Windle works great in a virtual Windows 98 SE environment, just like the other Microsoft Entertainment Pack games. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
Windle was designed to fit in with Microsoft Entertainment Pack games like Chip’s Challenge , JezzBall , Minesweeper , and Rodent’s Revenge , making its aesthetic instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up surrounded by the bulky beige PCs of the early ’90s. Like those games, it also runs well in early 32-bit versions of Windows like Windows 95 and 98—I tested it using a Windows 98 Second Edition installation I set up in DosBox-X to run old games and other software.
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