#Dosbox windows 3.1 share.exe portable#
Your Spongebob game is using an executable that is of the format Portable Executable. Despite nearly 40 years going by, this format still maintains that old DOS Header from the DOS MZ executable days in the DOS Stub introduced with the New Executable format for backwards compatibility. This is the format that is still widely used today. With the release of Windows 3.1 NT, yet another format of executable files was created called Portable Executable. This is the "family" of Windows you are almost certainly running today. They could not run under DOS.Ĭontinue forward through time to 1993 and the release of Windows 3.1 NT. Early versions of Windows like Windows 1.0 (not to be confused with early versions of Windows NT - see next paragraph) and MS-DOS 4.0 (multitasking) were capable of running this executable. Remember that DOS Header present in the previous DOS MZ executable format? It's still present within this format - only now it's retained within a DOS Stub! The reason for it still being there is to maintain backwards compatibility. This version of Windows was the first operating system to use a new format of executable files called New Executable. This format contained a DOS Header, which will become relevant later on in this post.įast forward 4 years to 1985 and the release of Windows 1.0. MS-DOS was (and still is) able to run DOS MZ executable files, which was a specific format of a. Go back nearly 40 years to 1981 and the release of MS-DOS. You can't run the game from DOSBox because it isn't compatible with DOS. TLDR: The executable file for the game isn't compatible with the format that DOS understands, thus it can't run.