PCem

[gimbal]

The speed problem seems easily solvable by having different architecture setups though. If something was made to run on a 386, run it on an emulated 386 and not on a Pentium 200 mmx

I'm definitely going to setup this baby to emulate my good old 486DX33.

[Valken]

Interesting... I love that old Windows 3.11 look - my current PC runs in Classic Mode - no OS bloat - for max performance.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

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.

Might be my bad memory, as I remember reading somewhere about it at the time there was network fork in project. Might be just my misunderstanding that DOSBox was base for it, and that as you said, instead of generic code, bios and and firmware were replacing otherwise generic code in DOSBox.

In DOSBox there is MAX Cycle option, that will run at max speed possible, but that is actually known to slow down or make game video/sound choppy.

Auto for cycle works great until you try game like UFO: Enemy Unknown, where your timer will run like crazy in geo world, but in mission everything runs smoothly.

Long time ago I wrote DOSBox instructions on Abandonia.

Originally Posted by Mrz

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

Why is Virtual PC easier to setup then pcEM? It is exactly as easy on pcEM, and some of folks, like me, can't run VirtualPC. (due to vmware )

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Why is Virtual PC easier to setup then pcEM? It is exactly as easy on pcEM, and some of folks, like me, can't run VirtualPC. (due to vmware )

virtual pc is far easy to setup and better, have the best mouse integration between windows and emulated OS
on PCEM you have to install drivers for the sound card, find the bios in the web etc etc
on virtual PC you don't need any bios, in a few clicks you install win98 from your CD and runs better than any other emulator

for win98 emulation virtual PC is the number 1 far better than vmware workstation
vmware is the best for linux and other new OSs , I use it to run Ubuntu 16.04

[cloverskull]

Do you have a link to virtual PC? Isn't that a Microsoft thing that died in like...2011?

[Anubis]

There is bunch of games that will not work on Virtual PC due to way to fast processor.

As I said, on my computer I can't even install it anymore, due to different VM software.

And just to note, I don't have nothing against Virtual PC, I still have license form Conectix before MS purchased the company, but that is not for emulation and old games. Sure, some will work, but many will have timing issues due to processor speed. (Wing Commander games, Fighting sequence from Full Throttle, etc.)

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by cloverskull

Do you have a link to virtual PC? Isn't that a Microsoft thing that died in like...2011?

I don't know exactly ion what date this emul was abandoned
but here is the link to download it in 6 different langs

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=4580

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by Anubis

There is bunch of games that will not work on Virtual PC due to way to fast processor.

As I said, on my computer I can't even install it anymore, due to different VM software.

And just to note, I don't have nothing against Virtual PC, I still have license form Conectix before MS purchased the company, but that is not for emulation and old games. Sure, some will work, but many will have timing issues due to processor speed. (Wing Commander games, Fighting sequence from Full Throttle, etc.)

of course perhaps there is some games which not work correctly on virtual PC, I don't tested enough
but all the games I tested worked fine, to play windows games between 1995-1999 is fantastic which most of them not works on win7/win 10 even using dgvoodoo glide wrapper

[DyLucke]

PCem is too power hungry

[nobody]

It's much more accurate than dosbox and emulates higher spec hardware.

In short (my opinion after testing both)
For 286/386 floppy games; Dosbox with a file manager (eg Norton Commander). No need for dfend reloaded etc with this setup as long as you know some simple dos commands. No need to tweak dos autoexec etc to run a game with this setup. Need the svn(?) Version that has menus to be able to change CPU etc on the fly.

486/early Pentium CD games; PCem. Everything is hassle free as long as your PC is fast enough to emulate an old P75. An i3 is the minimum here. Install Win95/98 and play like you really had a P75 Win95 system. But here most of the times, games complain there is not enough free memory, so you have to tweak dos to free memory (change CD driver etc to free memory). This simply doesn't happen in dosbox. The hardware emulated in this setup will allow you to run the newer dos games the way they should play.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by DyLucke

PCem is too power hungry

My 8 years old computer runs up to P100 emulation just fine, no performance issues or any drops in FPS.

Don't use DFend or Dfend Reloaded, better option is LaunchBox for Front End for DOSBox, ScummVM and about any other emulator, including WinUAE and FS-UAE.

[ Show youtube player ]

[ Show youtube player ]


And video with PCem runing..

[ Show youtube player ]

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by nobody

It's much more accurate than dosbox and emulates higher spec hardware.

PCEM seems is more accurate than DOSBOX because emulates a real bios, boots like an old PC, you can select specific hardware... etc
but is just a sensation , is not accurate not even close

PCEM have tons of bugs,crash often, to play DOS games dosbox is 10x better and much more accurate

[Seiya]

PCem is more difficult to use for gaming because emulate so much accurate hardware that you have configure hardware and software llike real DOS PC. Samething for the games. many times i found games more accurate and more real then Dosbox.

Dosbox has the features that is more easy to launch the game. you have rarely hardware emulation problem.
Who like emulate real PC, maybe pcem is the best. If you want to see performance of some old PC from 088 as far 486, PCem is the best solution. If you want simply play dos games, Dosbox is perfect.

[nobody]

Originally Posted by Mrz

PCEM seems is more accurate than DOSBOX because emulates a real bios, boots like an old PC, you can select specific hardware... etc
but is just a sensation , is not accurate not even close

PCEM have tons of bugs,crash often, to play DOS games dosbox is 10x better and much more accurate

I can play Fallout, warcraft 2 or Diablo (windows game) in pcem, never crashes plus almost all of dos games with some tweaking of config.sys etc to free some memory. With a click inside Windows. Dosbox is for older PCs or users that don't have a clue about dos.

PS tomb raider 1 in high resolution too (voodoo emulation).

[Seiya]

yeah true.
i however prefere pcem to emulate old pc from 088 to 486. I know however that is great also in windows games
Dosbox is good to create "compilation" because with Pcem you need more space (hardfile mainly)

[nobody]

I made an 8 GB hardfile that holds windows 98, Dos, 200+ Dos games (size 2mb to 80mb) and 3-4 windows games, still lots of space.

Runs rock solid P75, 64 mb, S3+Voodoo. Haven't noticed a single fault.

[Seiya]

yes, i believe in that. me to i have installed and play many dos and windows 3.x games. Great experience like real PC.

In my case handle more than 7000 games it was not possible with PCem even if it has great potential to create great compilations

[BitSeeker]

Originally Posted by Anubis

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.

You might be able to get around that by copying the contents of the entire floppy disk set for the game into a single directory on the hard disk and running the game from there. if that alone doesn't work, also try using the DOS subst command to map the directory to a floppy disk drive (e.g. A: or B. Of course this may fall apart if the program relies on the disk volume name to identify the next disk in the set. If its just looking for the next file in a series it should work.

https://www.computerhope.com/substhlp.htm

I have thrown away a lot of old DOS and Windows games not realising that it might someday be possible to use an emulator to run them. This has been an informative thread.

[Anubis]

Here is what game selection for IBM PC looks under LaunchBox. IMHO, it is the best front end for DOSBox, ScummVM, and tons of other emulators. (DOSBox and ScummVM are built in, tho)

Will move this to my gaming computer later this week.

It allows you to edit each game DOSBox config, or to use default config, that you can edit to your needs.

[lesta_smsc]

Never knew about PCEmu. I've been using Dosbox and a variant which allows 3DFX glide wrapper drivers for emulating Voodoo. If PCEmu can essentially mimic a 486 PC at FULL speed, I will have to convert!