Building SDL-INSTEAD for Windows 95 and Pentium CPU
There are a number of difficulties with this:
- VC Runtime 8.0 used in existing builds of some dependencies is not compatible with Windows 95(requires Windows 98 at least).
- Most of the components are built with i686 instruction set, which is only available starting with Pentium Pro.
This article may be updated later if I find ways to simplify/improve certain steps or for newer mingw-w64 versions. Please email me if you find any errors or have any suggestions.
1. Prepare standard library
As of mingw-w64 10.0 on Debian 12, CRT is built with i686 architecture. This means that we need a custom one. I put the information about that into a separate article: Using mingw-w64 with Custom CRT.
I will be using crt_prefix in this article as a substitute to your CRT installation prefix.
2. Compile dependencies
I only list dependencies that need to be rebuilt. You can download all the libraries from INSTEAD-9x package here: Download INSTEAD-9x.
You'll need these environment variables for all of below:
export CC="i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -static-libgcc"
export CXX="i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -static-libgcc"
export CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i486 -Bcrt_prefix/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-O2 -march=i486 -Bcrt_prefix/lib"
export CXXFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} -static-libstdc++"
If you omit -static-libgcc or -static-libstdc++ parameter, the build will require extra dlls to work.
2.1. SDL
You will need SDL 1.2.15. Download SDL-1.2.15.
Configure and make:
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=sdl_prefix
make
make install
Setting sdl_prefix and make install steps are required for building SDL_* libraries.
2.2. iconv
I used libiconv-1.18 with these commands:
./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=iconv_prefix
make
make install
2.3. zlib
I used zlib 1.2.3. Should be possible to use the latest available version.
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=zlib_prefix
make
Library will be built in the same directory, and you can pass it to dependencies directly (Referenced as zlib_path further)
2.3. libpng
I used libpng 15. Should be possible to use the latest available version. This one requires some extra steps.
Copy scripts/makefile.linux to makefile.linux.
- Edit the file. You'll need to set some variables to other values. Replace existing declarations for following variables with provided ones:
LIBSO=$(LIBNAME).dll LIBSOMAJ=$(LIBNAME)-$(PNGMAJ).dll OLDSO=libpng.dll # These will be a bit lower in the file AR_RC=i686-w64-mingw32-ar rc CC=i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -static-libgcc RANLIB=i686-w64-mingw32-ranlib ZLIBLIB=zlib_path ZLIBINC=zlib_path
Replace all occurences of -lz with -lzdll.
make the library.
Library will be built in the same directory, and you can pass it to dependencies directly (Referenced as png_path further).
2.4. freetype
I used freetype 2.6.5. You can safely use later versions, but 2.13.3 has issues with loading raster windows fonts, so I decided to use the version I know is working.
I decided to disable some of dependencies, since they are only needed for special cases.
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32 \
--with-harfbuzz=no\
--with-zlib=yes\
--with-bzip2=no\
--with-png=yes \
--prefix=freetype_prefix \
ZLIB_CFLAGS="-Izlib_path" \
ZLIB_LIBS="-Lzlib_path -lzdll" \
LIBPNG_CFLAGS="-Ipng_path" \
LIBPNG_LIBS="-Lpng_path -lpng15-15"
make
make install
Don't forget to correct png library name if you have used a different version.
2.5. libjpeg
I used jpeg-8d.
./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=libjpeg_prefix
make
make install
2.6. libtiff
I used tiff-4.7.0. Later versions should work as well.
./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=libtiff_prefix
make
make install
2.7. libwebp
I used libwebp-1.5.0. Later versions should work as well.
Threading will have to be disabled, since it uses some modern APIs, not supported on classic Windows versions.
export CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Izlib_path"
export CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -static-libstdc++"
export INCLUDE_PATH="zlib_path:$INCLUDE_PATH"
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=libwebp_prefix\
--disable-threading
make
2.8. SDL_image
SDL_image-1.2.12 is used.
You'll need to specify all of the image format libraries, as well as zlib paths for SDL_image to build properly.
export CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Izlib_path"
export CPPFLAGS="-Ipng_path -Ilibjpeg_prefix/include -Ilibtiff_prefix/include -Ilibwebp_prefix/include -Izlib_path ${CLAGS}"
export CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -static-libstdc++"
export INCLUDE_PATH="zlib_path:$INCLUDE_PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-Lpng_path -Llibjpeg_prefix/lib -Llibtiff_prefix/lib -Llibwebp_prefix/lib -Lzlib_path"
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=sdl_image_prefix\
--with-sdl-prefix=sdl_prefix
make
2.9. SDL_ttf
SDL_ttf-2.0.11 is used.
You'll need to specify freetype, zlib and iconv2.
export CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Izlib_path"
export CPPFLAGS="-Iiconv_prefix/include -Isdl_prefix ${CLAGS}"
export CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -static-libstdc++"
export INCLUDE_PATH="zlib_path:$INCLUDE_PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-Lsdl_prefix/lib -Liconv_prefix -liconv2 -with-freetype-prefix=freetype_prefix"
./configure --build=amd64-linux\
--host=i686-w64-mingw32\
--prefix=sdl_ttf_prefix\
--with-sdl-prefix=sdl_prefix
make
2.10. Other libraries
I did not rebuild any of the audio libraries, since they seem to work fine. You should be able to recompile them in a similar way.
3. Compiling INSTEAD
There are no plans of merging SDL1 support into mainline INSTEAD. You can get the source code here: INSTEAD-9x Source Code.
- Copy or symlink Rules.mingw.sdl1 to Rules.make
- Build the executable by running CFLAGS="-O2 -Bcrt_prefix/lib -march=i486" make -f Makefile.mingw.sdl1 all. In CFLAGS you need to specify architecture and custom CRT if you need i486/Pentium support.