PCem

I download PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56 but how to run it in Windows? Some DLL's missing.

I have put the necessary dll's in the following archive, both for PCem compiled under Mingw64 and Mingw32, just extract the proper ones to the same folder where you have pcem.exe
Note: These are the ones used by my configuration, maybe other configurations that use other options need some other dll more, in that case pcem will show an error message indicating each one that is missing, in the error dialog box you can press control + c to copy the error message.

Disclaimer: I have checked these files with two antivirus programs and they seem to be clean but I cannot offer any guarantees, use them at your own risk

[EDIT: new upload with more DLLs] https://mega.nz/file/Hlp1DYID#dqdFweikG ... r8TC4i0EdA

Rad22 wrote: ↑Mon 10 Jan, 2022 7:29 am I download PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56 but how to run it in Windows? Some DLL's missing.

Can you let me know which ones it is saying is missing? I am planning to automate this in case I add a dependency but if you got it from GitHub it should have the DLL's.

Glad to see the project alive.

I know I am VERY late to this party, but I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to Sarah for all the incredible work she has done with this project. I can't imagine how hard it was to give up something you've built and watched grow over the years. I'm "just an end user," as they say. The PCEM project is by far and away my favorite method of playing around with emulated old hardware that I grew up with (er, I am actually older than the oldest hardware, but nevermind that).

Michael, welcome! Looking forward to seeing where the project goes from here!

MichaelJManley wrote: ↑Tue 11 Jan, 2022 4:31 am

Rad22 wrote: ↑Mon 10 Jan, 2022 7:29 am I download PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56 but how to run it in Windows? Some DLL's missing.

Can you let me know which ones it is saying is missing? I am planning to automate this in case I add a dependency but if you got it from GitHub it should have the DLL's.

People are uploading their own builds here and there but they forgot about the libraries...
Would it be too difficult to add an option for the compiler to use as much static libraries as possible under mingw? Like the executable available on github, was it cross compiled under Linux?

PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56. I got this errors when launch pcem.exe in bin folder.

I have updated my post above (https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 618#p15618) with a new archive that includes those DLLs, as well as pcem.exe compiled both under MINGW32 (x86) and MINGW64 (x64) from latest source code.
Since "PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56" may already include some custom modifications to the latest source code available on github, copy only the missing DLLs to your pcem.exe folder.

ruben_balea wrote: ↑Wed 12 Jan, 2022 3:17 pm I have updated my post above (https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 618#p15618) with a new archive that includes those DLLs, as well as pcem.exe compiled both under MINGW32 (x86) and MINGW64 (x64) from latest source code.
Since "PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56" may already include some custom modifications to the latest source code available on github, copy only the missing DLLs to your pcem.exe folder.

I wonder if newer packages added new dependencies, I am going to add a bugfix to the build system to get the dll's in an automated way to deal with new dependencies.

Thanks

ruben_balea wrote: ↑Wed 12 Jan, 2022 3:17 pm I have updated my post above (https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 618#p15618) with a new archive that includes those DLLs, as well as pcem.exe compiled both under MINGW32 (x86) and MINGW64 (x64) from latest source code.
Since "PCem-Windows-MINGW64-dev-56" may already include some custom modifications to the latest source code available on github, copy only the missing DLLs to your pcem.exe folder.

Thanks. Where can i find latest ROMs? I have it for PCem v17.

Almost all of them are protected by copyright and therefore there is no set of ROMs available here for download except for the Generic XT machine of which the source code is public domain (http://pcem-emulator.co.uk/files/genxt.zip) and the XTIDE BIOS licensed under the GPLv2 and used as an alternative IDE controller BIOS to bypass hard drive limits imposed by some machines BIOSes (http://pcem-emulator.co.uk/files/xtide.zip)

If you have a physical machine emulated by PCem you can use a ROM chip reader or some DOS utility to make a copy of the BIOS, then to make it work under PCem open this link https://github.com/sarah-walker-pcem/pc ... /README.md and scroll down until "Systems"
There you will find the name of subfolder (if one is needed) to make under the roms folder for each machine plus the files that must go on that folder, after that list there are similar lists for graphic cards, disc controllers and so on.

Welcome to the community! Let's get back to work on this!

I'd love to see good Epson Dot Matrix support. Something like the MX-80 or FX-80 or RX-80. And perhaps an at-the-time modern inkjet like the hp 550/560 series. Perhaps make it output to PDF so its printable on modern rigs.

About me: Just an end-user with a solid layman's grasp of how things fit together and work. Been playing with emulators since the day they were invented. Love making criticisms of user friendliness and compatibility and hard-to-find pedantic bugs. Stuff like that. All with the aim improving whatever it is I'm bitching about.

I'd like to have PCEM print from an emulated machine directly to a host printer. I saw that some PC games and applications can print files via printers.

Hi, also late to the party here (only found out about this great news today).

Thank you for keeping this super awesome project going!

I've been using PCem since v12. Seeing all the improvements over the years was amazing, I hope many more are to come!

Some ideas that I personally am interested in:

1. Please make (and keep) the core system run optimized and FAST (My CPU can't seem emulate faster than a Pentium-166 at stable speeds). I am not sure how the plugin system may affect performance. Can performance be boosted possibly with platform-based ASM on areas of code that the CPU tends to spend the most amount of time with? I'm not sure how difficult this could be, or even the profiling work to see.

2. I second the printer functionality idea (from TonyTran) , although it's not crazy important to me as I believe DOSBox-X supports this feature if *really* needed. I can imagine this being difficult to implement right.

3. Multi-Thread more? (or as much as possible where it can safely be done). This is so that host CPUs struggle less on mostly Single-Core demands. Running the GPU cores on their own threads is great, is there anything else that can be done on it's own thread while keeping the system stable? I believe this is coded in C++ and I am aware that there has been a lot of changes in the later versions (C++20 etc.) which help with memory leaks, faster memory copy functions, as well as different threading options.

4. Update/Polish the Front-end GUI a little maybe? I had some strange issue where the GUI interface kept moving/shifting when starting a new instance and eventually I couldn't access the File Menu and had to End Task to quit.. this happened a number of times, enough to make me have to keep track of the window placement.

5. Add in some 'Out-of-the-Box' / Built-in GLSL shaders that can be easily turned on/off. There's some nice CRT shaders that come with RetroArch for example. AMD's FSR would be neat if that was possible to implement.

6. More emulated Hardware of course! I love the selection already in there, it's a treasure chest of wonderful old parts I can pick and choose from and build some imagined system with. I'd love to see more capable hardware like the Voodoo 3/4/5 series and other contemporary options.

7. Possibly adding a wizard-like interface (similar to VirtualBox) when setting up a system. With so many possible configuration choices, there is a potential to confuse some newer users and I can see it being less confusing to start out with PCem if there was a wizard to hold their hand through the system configuration and setup process. I don't think this is super important but it would be cool if even you knew how to do everything but this just made the setup happen much faster.. possibly with a default template for a standard system type (One or two for each generation of system perhaps).

I felt like saying that these are just some ideas and I don't expect anyone to go out and do the hard work just because I asked nicely

I know it's easy to have ideas and ask for them but often it can be difficult to make them a reality. I am very thankful to all the developers who already made this project shine.

Cheers and thanks for bringing this project and forums back!

Hi and welcome Michael i am also late, but very happy for You and everyone to get it back on track.
On the side note, best wishes to Sarah , She is the Queen of Pc emulation

I want to be excited but I can't easily forgive the nuking of the forums for 6 months. That isn't something I can excuse.

When PCemV18?

Rad22 wrote: ↑Tue 25 Jan, 2022 2:54 amWhen PCemV18?

Was waiting for the "When is v18 coming" comments

When this hits 100%, basically that's my roadmap

https://github.com/sarah-walker-pcem/pcem/milestone/2

Is it possible to add support for AC'97 sound cards or it probably won't? We are talking about chipsets from Realtek, C-Media, VIA, ADI SoundMax, NVIDIA nForce (SoundStorm) etc

MrPepka wrote: ↑Thu 27 Jan, 2022 5:13 pm Is it possible to add support for AC'97 sound cards or it probably won't? We are talking about chipsets from Realtek, C-Media, VIA, ADI SoundMax, NVIDIA nForce (SoundStorm) etc

I'm interested too. Sarah's topic about Sound card's future implementations into PCem https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3604

MrPepka wrote: ↑Thu 27 Jan, 2022 5:13 pm Is it possible to add support for AC'97 sound cards or it probably won't? We are talking about chipsets from Realtek, C-Media, VIA, ADI SoundMax, NVIDIA nForce (SoundStorm) etc

Ensoniq AudioPCI and Sound Blaster 128 (both cards are emulated) are AC'97 compatible.
As for the rest from your list: There are currently no datasheets available for any sound chip from nForce boards. There are some for certain C-Media PCI cards, however, these cards produce rather awful sound quality and their DOS compatibility is not that good either.
An ideal choice for a PCI sound card would probably be an Aureal Vortex based card. Unfortunately no datasheets are available for any of the cards with Vortex chip. The best alternatives would probably be ESS or Yamaha based cards.

Great to hear this is still in development! I only recenty discovered PCem at v17 and am really enjoying it. As for things I'd like to see improved: I just posted in the compatibility thread that a lot of games appear to have issues with Voodoo / Voodoo 2 and (I assume) mipmapping support. If that could be improved it would make a lot of my favorite games playable.

Great news to start the year.

I love this emulator, the best way to remember my chilhood playing games in my Pentium at 120mhz

This is the best news I've heard in this year! Thanks Sarah and Michael
I hope PCem run faster with games in next version

Any news about v18?

I want to thank Sarah for making PCem where it is today and for sticking around. And I want to thank Michael for continuing the project. This to me is the OG emulator and I always cherished it greatly. Love the current version and look forward to new versions!

I wish to thank Sarah Walker for providing her PCem for retro users and Michael for passing the torch. I'm so much happy about the development is continuing to be maintained, as I'm going to continue using the program when I was dormant for two years!

So is PCEM dead? No news for a long time. I hope the new manager didn't get immediately overwhelmed due to so much focus on 'realism'. If you feel overwhelmed don't be afraid to make sacrifices for performance,etc whatever you feel is necessary to keep the project alive. It's all about balance baby! Balance. Too much of one thing isn't always good.

If I wanted a 1950s retro car I wouldn't want the actual engine and parts that came with it but rather I would go as close as reasonably possible while having some modern efficiency depending on the situation at hand. Same if I wanted a Stanely Steamer. You gotta know your limits and not get overwhelmed.

Sooga wrote: ↑Wed 20 Jul, 2022 9:28 am So is PCEM dead? No news for a long time. I hope the new manager didn't get immediately overwhelmed due to so much focus on 'realism'. If you feel overwhelmed don't be afraid to make sacrifices for performance,etc whatever you feel is necessary to keep the project alive. It's all about balance baby! Balance. Too much of one thing isn't always good.

If I wanted a 1950s retro car I wouldn't want the actual engine and parts that came with it but rather I would go as close as reasonably possible while having some modern efficiency depending on the situation at hand. Same if I wanted a Stanely Steamer. You gotta know your limits and not get overwhelmed.

More like I have a life and some other projects that need my time too

I want to try to get a release out soon, but I also have another project that needs a release this year as well, so I'm teeter-totering between PCem and that other project.

Trust me, I know there hasn't been a release out for a while, but you can easily use the dev builds to see a process and get bug reports out for the vNext builds which will be v18 once I feel its clean enough for a release (https://github.com/sarah-walker-pcem/pc ... builds.yml)