Windows98 On PCEM Works A Lot Better (Incl DirectX 3D Hardware Acceleration) Than On DOSBox ✅

Zontar82 pointed me towards PCEM, a multiplatform emulator that instead of using hypervizor or hardware virtualization that provides an abstraction of the real hardware of the host-system uses emulation of the various CPU’s, Chipsets, Graphics and sound cards to emulate IBM PCs, PCXTs, 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Cyrix, Pentium MMX, Mobile Pentium MMX in specific multi configurable configurations. In fact it was even possible to configure / recreate my now deceased retrogaming PC almost 100%:
A 200Mhz MMX Pentium, 256Mb ram, Voodoo 2 Gfx, S3Virge Gfx, 4 and 3Gb HD, SB16.

And it works. Installing Windows98 on it was like installing it on the real machine. Network/Ethernet isn’t supported, nor is USB emulation but mouse/keyboard – even if the host uses USB -is emulated as PS/2 or COM port mice and keyboards.

You do need software to be able to do file management on the disk images that PCEM works, I found that various Image utilities work without much issues. I am personally quite partial to Winimage, but that is pay-ware/shareware that costs 30 USD or 30 Euros, well worth it in my opinion if you like an easy to use GUI.

It also uses quite a bit of computer resources and up to 4 threads –
voodoo emulation can take 2 threads – so this works best on 4 thread capable modern PCs. I am running this on a 4th gen i7 3.8/4.0 Ghz (i7 4790 (non K)). But the lower the emulated PC config the faster and more fluid it will run, also on slower hardware.

The PROs of DOSBox are that it also runs well on fairly slow hardware, even the Raspberry Pi is capable of decent PC/XT/286/386 like performance. When you don’t install Windows, running DOS based games is quite easy and compatibility is quite good. The CONs of DOXBox mainly arise when you want to do things with Windows 95/98. Compatibility and stability isn’t high.

Virtualization software like VirtualPC, VMWare or VirtualBox isn’t suited to use as retro gaming systems. On VMWare it is possible to activate 3D3 emulation but that will only work with WindowsXP installed inside the virtual environment, I don’t think Windows9x works with the special driver pack that VirtualBox needs to install to the virtual environment. VirtualBox also uses a set of specific drivers and utilities to enhance the experience with the emulated machine, making things like drag and drop files to and from the virtual machine possible. But for (retro)gaming these types of softwares isn’t suited.

PCEM does the job and let me know if you want to see more PCEM, retro PC Emulation videos.

I am still looking for a decent retroPC capable of running late 90s early 00s Windows9x and DOS games as well as a solid Windows XP Pentium II/III/IV machine for running the older 32bit Windows games that won’t run on WinVista/7/8/10.

But for now I have to make due with emulation, which is actually quite fascinating.

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