Windows 95 went into a special mode when it detected a 16-bit version of SimCity running.

Although Windows 95 is a 32-bit OS, it was able to run legacy 16-bit software perfectly. One of them includes the 16-bit version of 'Sim City' for Windows 3.1. In fact, the 16-bit version of SimCity did not work in the beta version of Windows 95, but Microsoft conducted a thorough investigation and made it through by incorporating special specifications.

There is a specific piece of code in Microsoft Windows 95 that checks to see if Sim City is running so Win95 can change how memory is stored to work around a bug in Sim City (source

https://t.co/Ps1A9wGP6a ) pic. twitter.com/lfZJX9OgEQ

— KaL - cohost.org/KaLY - @[email protected] (@Kalyoshika) October 6, 2022

This information was discovered by @Kalyoshika, who distributes game-related podcasts. The original information is a column written by famous engineer Joel Spolski in 2000.

Strategy Letter II: Chicken and Egg Problems – Joel on Software
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/24/strategy-letter-ii-chicken-and-egg-problems/

Mr. Spolski received testimony from Mr. John Ross, who was involved in the development of the original 'Sim City', that ``I left a bug that read the memory that was just released.''

Windows 3.x was not affected by this bug, but when I tested it on the beta version of Windows 95, SimCity did not work. Microsoft conducted a thorough investigation and found the bug that Mr. Ross testified about, and added ``code to search for Sim City'' to Windows 95.

As a result, when Windows 95 detected the execution of 'Sim City', it managed memory in a special mode that did not release memory immediately and ran 'Sim City'. 'Sim City' was a popular title at the time, selling 5 million copies, so it was expected that users would be reluctant to migrate if it did not work on the new OS, so it was necessary to ensure backward compatibility even if it was by force. is.

Spolski credits the move as part of a solution to the chicken-and-egg problem of platforms and content.

This matter was supplemented by Mike Perry, who has worked for Maxis, EA, and Hudson, and Ross left Maxis after working on SimCity 2000, which was released in 1994, and worked on Windows 95 at Microsoft. He is said to have been involved in. By the way, apart from the 16-bit version of SimCity that Microsoft forced to run, a 32-bit version of SimCity was released for Windows 95 in 1995, and at that time both were included in the 'Deluxe Edition'.

True story, minor correction: Jon wrote SC2K for DOS, and worked on the Win95 OS at MS after leaving Maxis. Trivia: there is a 16-bit version of SimCity for Win3.1, and a totally different 32-bit ver for Win95 . You can see both bundled together in the “Deluxe Edition” circa 1995. pic.twitter.com/5aw0wsGh5w

— Mike Perry (@mike_perry) October 8, 2022