How to select different CPU

[averageJoe]

Hello all,

I managed to find out the machines must have their own directory inside ´roms´ , and that videocards and soundcards should not have their respective directory, but instead they have to be directly inside ´roms´directory.
However I cannot find out what makes it possible to select different cpu. I am stuck to 8088 cpu for some reason and the dropbox isnt selectable.
Can please someone help? Thank you.

[Arjen42]

Each machine type have their own set of cpu's to choose from. Mostly variants of the same cpu. Just like real motherboards.

If you happen to select a machine type that only supports 8088 then you might want to select a different machine type.

You can only select machine types for which you have rom image files in the correct directory and with the correct file name. See the read me file for details.

[averageJoe]

Thank you for your answer and sorry for taking so long to reply.
What constitutes then a machine type? Is it the bios of a motherboard?
If I dump the rom of my intel 815 motherboard, will some coppermine become available at the menu?
Would really like to understand the setup so I can have incremental control of what becomes available on PCem, for instance only having the video and sound cards of my choice showing up in the menu.
Many thanks.

[Arjen42]

A machine type maps to a motherboard or a computer model. The presence of bios image file, with the correct image filename and location, determines if a machine type is shown in the list box. You may remove rom files you don't want to see in the list box. Same goes for video cards. Sound cards are not emulated using roms, so you cannot hide those using that method.

A bios dump of an unknown machine will be ignored. To make this work, you will need to fork the PCem source code from Github, make the necessary code changes, compile the program and run it. When satisfied you could submit a pull request in Github, the maintainer will be notified and will consider adding your contribution to the next release of PCem. However, current computers are not fast enough to emulate a Pentium 3 PC. So you may want to consider other options if you want to play games designed for that kind of PC. The Vogons forum is considered a good starting point for that.

[averageJoe]

Much appreciated!
I'm just a retroenthusiast. A user, not a coder. But know I know how this works.
PCem brings the possibility of emulating my ms-dos and win9x games in just one pc(1988 up to 2001), whilst getting rid of my vintage hardware. Not something one does whitout much research and consideration.
Thanks.

[Arjen42]

Please do yourself a favor, and not dispose your vintage hardware. Or at least make smart choices about that. Perhaps make someone else very happy with that.

Any DOS game would not be a problem. Just emulate a machine from the correct time period. Don't setup a Pentium II machine with Windows 98 to play Dune 2 when a 486 running DOS would be more than enough.

Windows 9x games are more complicated. Some do run on modern Windows 10 or 11 with little effort. Most of them have more or less some issues. PCem is not perfect, but can help.

So keep your working Windows 98 era machine, and keep your working Windows XP era machine. And perhaps keep some spare parts too.

Personally, I'm more interested in the full DOS era (1981 to 1995). At lot of games after that are, either already ported to the newer Windows versions or just not worth playing, newer similar games that look better and play better exist. Also, I'm not just interested in the games of those time, but other applications and utilities as well.