Windows 95 Electron App Now Lets You Play Doom, Wolfenstein 3D

In the old days, and still occasionally these days, id Software's original Doom game has been the litmus test of whether something is worthy to be called a computer or not. It has been installed on ATMs and even the MacBook's Touch Bar, proving the case. But how about playing Doom on an OS running in a browser running on an OS running on a computer? Well, you can do that now, too, thanks to version 2 of Felix Rieseberg's Windows 95 Electron app.

It has just been half a year since Rieseberg made a name for himself when he released an app that could run Windows 95 in a 500 MB virtual machine. Now he's back with a lot more features and things you can do inside the Windows 95 instance, like installing the Netscape 2.0 web browser. Considering this app uses the Javascript Electron framework and, therefore, runs on web technologies, that alone is amusing enough.

Of course, there's more. The Windows 95 Electron app also now comes pre-installed with games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, A10 Tank Killer, and Grand Prix Circuit. Copyright and licensing issues aside, it's definitely an impressive improvement for something that just runs via Javascript. Good thing, too, that Rieseberg was able to add support for audio output.

"windows95 v2.0" is available for free and will run on Windows, Mac, and even Linux, thanks to Electron's cross-platform support. Given the legal minefield the app is treading on, however, it might not last that long.