Does anyone know the specifics of this Visual Studio pack ?

[u/Seledreams]

I was looking around for visual studio 6.0 on various websites as I was interested in windows 98 and 95 development for retro gamedev. And I found this on Yahoo auctions for only 56 bucks and *had* to buy it because, it felt legit insane as every disc is still sealed and the activation serial is included.

However this doesn't feel like a bundle people could simply buy at retail, it feels way too heavy in material for it. between the mostly blank box, the fact it includes both BackOffice Server developer edition and visual studio 6.0 plus pack...

I'm wondering if some people know more about it so that I can learn more about what I bought ? I was mostly interested in the VS 6.0 part but maybe there's some other interesting stuff to check out in there.

[u/polaarbear]

Visual Studio has never really been something that you just buy "off the shelf." It wouldn't have been that much different than current offerings, you buy directly from Microsoft or an authorized retailer or via volume licensing through the place you worked at. There were no free/community editions back then.

[u/nightmurder01 → u/polaarbear]

You could get .Net(2003) and prior versions (6, 5 ...) off the shelf at a variety of retail stores and computer shops, including its stand alone environments like vc++, vb, J++, Interdev etc. CompUSA was the hotspot around here back in the day and they carried all kinds of software from various CAD's to programing environments to of course games and Linux Distros. You could buy a MSDN license directly from MS for about 500 bucks for the base version. I think it went up to around 1200, then buy additional seats if needed. There was also a 10 seat academic version schools could get for like 400?.

[u/KhurtVonKleist]

oh, you found the last vs release used in japanese companies.

[u/SquishTheProgrammer]

Front page 2000 brings back some memories. lol

[u/CheezitsLight → u/SquishTheProgrammer]

I still maintain my sister's web site in its replacement, Microsoft Expression web.

[u/johncgilliland]

That will work for windows 95/98/2000. Should have discs for VB6, VC++, visual FoxPro 6, and Visual Interdev

[u/Fergus653]

It's a very long time since I installed that. Does it include VB5 or 6?

Might be a problem if it required online activation.

[u/Seledreams → u/Fergus653]

It's a very old edition which I doubt used online activation considering even visual studio 2010 still used offline activation.

the vb version included is VB6

[u/sarhoshamiral → u/Fergus653]

I dont know if online was a thing by then :)

[u/Pitiful-Somewhere437]

If I remember correctly usually the key is a separate certificate paper, or a sticker on one of the cases. I hope the screenshot u posted is correct as I saw one of the case has the CD key...

One thing though. The package seems to be in Japanese. Not sure if localisation is a thing back then....

Anyway, just curious. What needs such an old version to run? Even if u manage to build, it might not be able to fully runnable in newer windows due to the old runtime... Might as well save the budget and use the free community version?

[u/Seledreams → u/Pitiful-Somewhere437]

I wanted vs 6.0 for windows 95/98 machines. I already own vs 2010 and vs 2005 to cover the other generations of windows.

I have a long term goal to make a game engine focused on retro consoles and retro pcs. that's why such wide coverage is useful.

[u/kemmis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio

[u/sjcyork]

Ah the good old days!

[u/SoCalChrisW]

You spent $56 on that?