I think we can update the CI workflows as done in Woof to build the 32-bit executable with a version of MSVC that's still Win XP compatible. @rfomin ?

Oh wait, we would also have to implement all the library downloading etc. in the build system for that, right?

There is a problem with the libraries, we need to install them somehow. In Woof, we download them in CMake, but Crispy requires more libraries (zlib, libpng, libsamplerate), so maybe that's too cumbersome. An alternative is vcpkg, but it does not support WinXP.

Some possible approaches:

1. Download all libraries as in Woof (the current libsamplerate seems to be built without WinXP support, so we need an older version).
2. Build them ourselves with WinXP support (problems may occur).
3. Just copy the DLL's to the repository.
4. Build a reduced version without png and libsamplerate.

Thanks @rfomin !

But, seriously, I don't consider any of these alternatives as future-proof options to support an operating system for which "Mainstream support ended on April 14, 2009, Extended support ended on April 8, 2014".

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

4. Build a reduced version without png and libsamplerate.

I think this approach is the most realistic. PNG screenshots are unnecessary, and the SDL resampler is better these days than it used to be. Yes, WinXP is very dead, but if we don't support it, why do we need a 32-bit version at all?

Windows 7 and Windows 10 are both available in 32 bit versions.

Wow! Didn't expect such attention. I guess if it's hard to support maybe just mark the last good xp-compatible version and pin it somewhere, for such people as me, who wanna play old stuff on old hardware :)

Wow! Didn't expect such attention. I guess if it's hard to support maybe just mark the last good xp-compatible version and pin it somewhere, for such people as me, who wanna play old stuff on old hardware :)

That would be awesome, I love my older hardware as well, I have played the latest version on XP but with the older SDL's that work in XP with Woof as well.

I have played the latest version on XP but with the older SDL's that work in XP with Woof as well.

The 32-bit build of Woof supports Windows XP and has the latest SDL. The problem with XP is that modern development tools don't support it, so it's inconvenient and could be broken at any point in the future.

I guess if it's hard to support maybe just mark the last good xp-compatible version and pin it somewhere, for such people as me, who wanna play old stuff on old hardware :)

You can download a Crispy autobuild that runs on XP from here: http://latest.chocolate-doom.org/