PCem

Anubis · 27 August 2018, 14:48

I still have PII Win98SE box (one with catridge processor) and still works. Last time it was turned on was 2 years ago. After finding pcem emulator, no need to find a spot for old dinosaur on my desk.

PCEM running 486, Dos 6.22 & Win 3.11 ...

Earthsiege 2 running on Win95, 486 @66MHz

Colonization for Windows

Total commander - moving videos to drive after installing Civ 2.

Anubis · 03 October 2018, 18:58

And yes, got P200 with MMX running easily @ full speed. (might even try faster processor)

My first computer I used to run WinUAE and WinFellow was P1 @ 333 MHz (laptop)

Good old days...

nobody · 16 October 2018, 12:47

I cannot believe I missed this emulator (pcem). I run a Pentium 75, S3 Virge, 64mb, Soundblaster 16, Windows 98 SE and runs like a dream on my humble Athlon A10-4600 quad core 3.0ghz (if I remember well lol). 3D works, dos games load with a click inside windows. Dos games run 100 percent all the time, but I get some speed loss in windows (80-90?). Could be a bit faster though I don't understand why they cannot use the CPU directly aren't they compatible or what.

malko · 16 October 2018, 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by nobody

I cannot believe I missed this emulator (pcem). [...]

+1 .

Maybe silly question, but... can this pcem emulates the required material to run Amithlon ??? Never had the chance to make my original copy (fully) working due to material requirement...

Has anyone already tested it ?

nobody · 16 October 2018, 14:12

I think it emulates P1@233 with Voodoo 2 at maximum. But i don't know if this is what amithlon requires for installation.

nobody · 16 October 2018, 15:41

Just to give an idea how good this emulator is. I was trying to run 2 old favorites on Dosbox. C&C Red alert, Descent. On Dosbox they had very poor performance, glitches etc. Playing with cycles etc... Still crap...
On pcem they run SOLID 60fps on that P75 emulated system.

No need to setup hundreds of games in dfend reloaded or similar launchers. Just make an iso of the games you want, mount, copy on Win95/98 and run inside Win98 or in its Dos mode. It's an awesome emulator. If they improve speed a bit it would be phenomenal.

Anubis · 16 October 2018, 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by nobody

I think it emulates P1@233 with Voodoo 2 at maximum. But i don't know if this is what amithlon requires for installation.

Max speed with pcem v14 is 300MHz (Mobile Pentium MMX 300)

Most of games I use it for require far less processor.

It is nice little emulator, not VM, thus, they can't use processor, but emulate it.

Retroplay · 16 October 2018, 21:06

I could never get any of my USB/Wireless controllers to work in Sega Rally 2.. but PCem to the rescue.

malko · 17 October 2018, 00:02

Yep. It does !

It's just a quick test so far. Maybe will free more time to tune it...

While browsing in order to configure PCem, found this (from this page. Last comment also interesting).

Edit: This page is a good starting point to configure PCem and get some files

.

SnkBitten · 17 October 2018, 01:58

Neat, is it possible to select other video displays than 3dfx? Would be nice to be able to select an nVidia AGP or PCI card since they have the best support in Amithlon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by malko

Yep. It does !

It's just a quick test so far. Maybe will free more time to tune it...

While browsing in order to configure PCem, found this (from this page. Last comment also interesting).

Edit: This page is a good starting point to configure PCem and get some files

.

malko · 17 October 2018, 02:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

Neat, is it possible to select other video displays than 3dfx? Would be nice to be able to select an nVidia AGP or PCI card since they have the best support in Amithlon.

As I don't have much time, I didn't test the other cards so far.
I have played with the 2-3 CPU and saw some differences. But nothing I can say for sure (a tool like sysinfo could be useful maybe). Think I will try to install it on HD (video show the CD boot). But can't say when. I hope for next week

.

Edit: Seen this on WinUAE page "[...] WinUAE 4.1.0 WIP #1 [...] Emulation core replaced with PCem. Compatibility has improved greatly, for example Windows 3.x enhanced mode, DOS extenders and Windows 95 are now fully working. [...]"

nobody · 17 October 2018, 07:22

I was trying to play a Win95 game, Fallout 1 on Windows 8 (lol) and yes I did it after hours of searching, patching, installing, uninstalling and so on. I guess with pcem it will run flawlessly but not yet tried.

malko · 17 October 2018, 15:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

Neat, is it possible to select other video displays than 3dfx? Would be nice to be able to select an nVidia AGP or PCI card since they have the best support in Amithlon.

I booted all the possible GFX device (no other parameters change or tweak). With the 'bigird.gz' that is present on the Amithlon CD, only the 'S3 ViRGE/DX' is working

... but... better one than nothing

.

Anubis · 17 October 2018, 17:14

List of devices possible to select depends on list of BIOS / firmware roms you have. I haven't test Amithlon, but I know I have few cards available.

malko · 17 October 2018, 22:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anubis

List of devices possible to select depends on list of BIOS / firmware roms you have. I haven't test Amithlon, but I know I have few cards available.

If you have any idea wich BIOS / firmware roms are needed to make the below 'dark-orange/red' entries available, let us know Anubis

For my Amithlon test yesterday I have used the [Socket 7] Award 430VX PCI.

In black : present in both PCem 'status page' & in GFX Device drop-down list (v14)
In green : not mentioned in PCem site but present in the drop-down list (14)
In dark-orange : mentioned in PCem 'status page' but not present in the drop-down list (v14)
In dark-red : mentioned in the 'changes from' but not present in drop-down list (v14)

Code:

Graphics cards emulated :
    3DFX Voodoo Graphics
    ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (Mach64 GX) (/ATI Mach64 (v8))
    ATI Korean VGA (V14)
    ATI VGA Edge-16 (ATI-18800)
    ATI VGA Charger (ATI-28800)
    ATI Video Xpression (v13)
    CGA
    Cirrus Logic CL-GD5429
    Cirrus Logic CL-GD5430 (V14)
    Cirrus Logic CL-GD5435 (V14)
    Compaq CGA
    Diamond Stealth 32 (Tseng ET4000/w32p)
    Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (S3 ViRGE/325)
    EGA (/IBM EGA)
    Hercules
    Hercules InColor
    MDA
    MDSI Genius (v13)
    Number Nine 9FX (S3 Trio64)
    OAK OTI-037 (V14)
    OAK OTI-067
    Obsidian SB50 (v12)
    Paradise Bahamas 64 (S3 Vision864)
    Phoenix S3 Trio32
    Phoenix S3 Trio64
    Plantronic ColorPlus
    S3 ViRGE/DX
    Trident TVGA8900D
    Trident TGUI9400CXi (V14)
    Trident TGUI9440 (Trident TGUI9440AGi (v8))
    Tseng ET4000AX
    VGA (/IBM VGA (v10))
    Voodoo 2 (v12)
    Wyse 700 (Wyse WY-700 (v12))

Mrz · 18 October 2018, 07:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by nobody

Just to give an idea how good this emulator is. I was trying to run 2 old favorites on Dosbox. C&C Red alert, Descent. On Dosbox they had very poor performance, glitches etc. Playing with cycles etc... Still crap...
On pcem they run SOLID 60fps on that P75 emulated system.

No need to setup hundreds of games in dfend reloaded or similar launchers. Just make an iso of the games you want, mount, copy on Win95/98 and run inside Win98 or in its Dos mode. It's an awesome emulator. If they improve speed a bit it would be phenomenal.

nope
the game Descent runs perfect at full speed in DOSBOX no glitches I tested it
red alert is a windows game works perfect on VIrtual PC + win98 install, far easy to setup and run

PCEM have lot of bugs yet but will be good in the future if they add support for socket 462 and socket 370 hardware

anyways to play the game Descent , PCEM and DOSBOX sucks
this is the best way
http://www.descent2.de/d2x-frames.html

nobody · 18 October 2018, 07:52

Maybe I did something wrong in dosbox. Anyway I prefer having a given setup(CPU,graphics card etc) and play all without changing cycles, cpu etc plus being able to play Win95+Dos games in the same window

I have read in another forum that dosbox is actually faster if you just want to play 2D Dos games but didn't check. Then I guess if you have a fast i7 and use pcem with P233mmx will be faster there.

Mrz · 18 October 2018, 11:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by nobody

Maybe I did something wrong in dosbox. Anyway I prefer having a given setup(CPU,graphics card etc) and play all without changing cycles, cpu etc plus being able to play Win95+Dos games in the same window

I have read in another forum that dosbox is actually faster if you just want to play 2D Dos games but didn't check. Then I guess if you have a fast i7 and use pcem with P233mmx will be faster there.

in the other forum were right, DOSbox is faster
and Id say that DOSBOX is faster an 10x better

for Descent and 99% of the games just set cycles to "auto" and do not touch nothing, the emulator alone will try to run at max speed

when you sense some game run slow or too fast or the joy not works correctly use CTRL+F11 and F12 to adjust it

Anubis · 18 October 2018, 13:14

pcem is based on DOSBox, and both programs are great and serve different purpose.

You can install both Win3.11 and Win95 on DOSBox, but it requires quite a lot of learning and working with hd image tools that are not part of dosbox. Once you have it installed, try to install any multidisk game just does not work, due to not being able to change floppy drive on fly.

On DOSBox you regulate speed, while in pcEM speed is set to exact cycle count you select for processor. This means that some game might run too fast if you run them under DOS. This is where you need speed throttling program, like in old win95/98 days. (SLOMO etc.)

Games such as Civ 2, AoE, and few others will only run in pcEM.

So, no, I would not call either one of them better, rather they both good at what they can do.

@malko - I use pcEM bit over 2 years now and it seems I have all of the drives listed above. There was few versions back zip with all required bioses.

Toni Wilen · 18 October 2018, 13:21

I don't think PCem is based on DOSBox, code is very different (I know because I replaced DOSBox emulation with PCem in WinUAE x86 bridgeboard emulation).

PCem is designed for emulating configured hardware (model specific mainboard chipset, including side-effects etc..) as accurately as possible with accurate speed which makes it less flexible. There is no "fastest possible" mode. DOSBox "only" emulates "generic" PC.

16 October 2018, 12:47	#3
nobody Registered User Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: GR Age: 46 Posts: 1,416	I cannot believe I missed this emulator (pcem). I run a Pentium 75, S3 Virge, 64mb, Soundblaster 16, Windows 98 SE and runs like a dream on my humble Athlon A10-4600 quad core 3.0ghz (if I remember well lol). 3D works, dos games load with a click inside windows. Dos games run 100 percent all the time, but I get some speed loss in windows (80-90?). Could be a bit faster though I don't understand why they cannot use the CPU directly aren't they compatible or what. Last edited by nobody; 16 October 2018 at 21:36.

17 October 2018, 00:02	#9
malko Ex nihilo nihil Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: CH Posts: 4,856	Yep. It does ! It's just a quick test so far. Maybe will free more time to tune it... While browsing in order to configure PCem, found this (from this page. Last comment also interesting). Edit: This page is a good starting point to configure PCem and get some files . Attached Thumbnails Last edited by malko; 17 October 2018 at 00:13.

18 October 2018, 13:14	#19
Anubis Retro Gamer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Underworld Age: 51 Posts: 4,058	pcem is based on DOSBox, and both programs are great and serve different purpose. You can install both Win3.11 and Win95 on DOSBox, but it requires quite a lot of learning and working with hd image tools that are not part of dosbox. Once you have it installed, try to install any multidisk game just does not work, due to not being able to change floppy drive on fly. On DOSBox you regulate speed, while in pcEM speed is set to exact cycle count you select for processor. This means that some game might run too fast if you run them under DOS. This is where you need speed throttling program, like in old win95/98 days. (SLOMO etc.) Games such as Civ 2, AoE, and few others will only run in pcEM. So, no, I would not call either one of them better, rather they both good at what they can do. @malko - I use pcEM bit over 2 years now and it seems I have all of the drives listed above. There was few versions back zip with all required bioses. Last edited by Anubis; 18 October 2018 at 13:22.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
x86 Bridgeboard update (PCem core)	Toni Wilen	support.WinUAE	499	04 May 2019 21:39

27 August 2018, 14:48	#1
Anubis Retro Gamer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Underworld Age: 51 Posts: 4,058	PCem I still have PII Win98SE box (one with catridge processor) and still works. Last time it was turned on was 2 years ago. After finding pcem emulator, no need to find a spot for old dinosaur on my desk. PCEM running 486, Dos 6.22 & Win 3.11 ... Earthsiege 2 running on Win95, 486 @66MHz Colonization for Windows Total commander - moving videos to drive after installing Civ 2. Last edited by Anubis; 05 November 2019 at 21:57.

03 October 2018, 18:58	#2
Anubis Retro Gamer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Underworld Age: 51 Posts: 4,058	And yes, got P200 with MMX running easily @ full speed. (might even try faster processor) My first computer I used to run WinUAE and WinFellow was P1 @ 333 MHz (laptop) Good old days...

16 October 2018, 14:12	#5
nobody Registered User Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: GR Age: 46 Posts: 1,416	I think it emulates P1@233 with Voodoo 2 at maximum. But i don't know if this is what amithlon requires for installation.

16 October 2018, 15:41	#6
nobody Registered User Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: GR Age: 46 Posts: 1,416	Just to give an idea how good this emulator is. I was trying to run 2 old favorites on Dosbox. C&C Red alert, Descent. On Dosbox they had very poor performance, glitches etc. Playing with cycles etc... Still crap... On pcem they run SOLID 60fps on that P75 emulated system. No need to setup hundreds of games in dfend reloaded or similar launchers. Just make an iso of the games you want, mount, copy on Win95/98 and run inside Win98 or in its Dos mode. It's an awesome emulator. If they improve speed a bit it would be phenomenal.

16 October 2018, 21:06	#8
Retroplay Lemon Curry ? Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Denmark Age: 49 Posts: 4,079	I could never get any of my USB/Wireless controllers to work in Sega Rally 2.. but PCem to the rescue.

17 October 2018, 07:22	#12
nobody Registered User Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: GR Age: 46 Posts: 1,416	I was trying to play a Win95 game, Fallout 1 on Windows 8 (lol) and yes I did it after hours of searching, patching, installing, uninstalling and so on. I guess with pcem it will run flawlessly but not yet tried.

17 October 2018, 17:14	#14
Anubis Retro Gamer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Underworld Age: 51 Posts: 4,058	List of devices possible to select depends on list of BIOS / firmware roms you have. I haven't test Amithlon, but I know I have few cards available.

18 October 2018, 07:52	#17
nobody Registered User Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: GR Age: 46 Posts: 1,416	Maybe I did something wrong in dosbox. Anyway I prefer having a given setup(CPU,graphics card etc) and play all without changing cycles, cpu etc plus being able to play Win95+Dos games in the same window I have read in another forum that dosbox is actually faster if you just want to play 2D Dos games but didn't check. Then I guess if you have a fast i7 and use pcem with P233mmx will be faster there.

18 October 2018, 13:21	#20
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,505	I don't think PCem is based on DOSBox, code is very different (I know because I replaced DOSBox emulation with PCem in WinUAE x86 bridgeboard emulation). PCem is designed for emulating configured hardware (model specific mainboard chipset, including side-effects etc..) as accurately as possible with accurate speed which makes it less flexible. There is no "fastest possible" mode. DOSBox "only" emulates "generic" PC.

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