Nintendo 3DS Emulates Windows 95 on DOSBox — Boot Time Takes Hours

A tech enthusiast recently embarked on a fascinating experiment: running Windows 95 on a homebrew version of DOSBox tailored for the Nintendo 3DS. This wasn’t just any 3DS, though. It was the upgraded “New” 3DS, boasting enhanced RAM and processing capabilities. TechTuber MetraByte took on the challenge by first installing the DOSBox port. The installation process seemed straightforward, even if initiating Windows 95 ended up being a slower affair. MetraByte humorously described letting the 3DS sit overnight just for the initial boot to load completely. Installing the OS itself took merely about five minutes, but achieving functional mouse input through DOSBox’s touch support was a hurdle that wasn’t fully cleared until Windows 95 was up and somewhat running on the device.

Incredibly, Windows 95 does indeed function on the New Nintendo 3DS. This isn’t entirely surprising since Windows 95 was designed to run on systems with as little as 4MB of RAM, albeit those were traditional x86 machines, not emulated environments. The 3DS, packing 256MB of RAM, might seem underwhelming by today’s standards but offered ample space for such early-era software. The real challenge arises from DOSBox needing to juggle emulating an x86 environment on the Arm-based hardware of the 3DS, which significantly hampers performance.

Thus, even though it’s technically possible to run Windows 95 on a New Nintendo 3DS, there’s little practical reason to do so. The installation process is both lengthy and cumbersome, and once you finally get to the OS, its functionality is heavily limited. As MetraByte discovered, even simple MIDI audio file playback wasn’t feasible, and attempts to run music studio software led to a system crash, or the dreaded blue screen. While the OS did operate to a degree, it’s only light applications that might manage to run without issues.

For anyone using DOSBox on a New Nintendo 3DS, focusing on classic DOS games is a much smarter choice. These older titles are more likely to perform smoothly under these conditions, benefiting from the system’s genuine power without the extra load of an additional OS like Windows 95 complicating things.