Thank You SarahWalker for PCem

[LordStarwalker]

SarahWalker, I would like to sincerely express how much I am enjoying PCem v16 on Windows. Seriously, thank you so much for creating this! I have been able to get Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 2000 to install and run quite well on Windows 10. As someone who has been developing software since 1997, using PCem to go back and setup legacy PC builds so easily has been both nostalgic and therapeutic for me.

Thanks again, you are a lovely person for investing the time to create such a cool and broad emulation tool for the community. I wish you nothing but the best of luck with the PCem project going forward!

[tk421]

Well said!

Thank you Sarah for making such a good program. PCem solved a lot of software problems and made modern computing much more enjoyable by ending so many compatibility issues with modern Windows, be it XP, 7, 8 or 10.

I also appreciate getting the chance to try some old PC games from the 90s that I otherwise would never have played. I admit I discovered that the games I remember so fondly from way back are really the best ones. Jedi Knight, TIE Fighter, Star Trek Armada and, if I ever get it working right in PCem (let alone Windows 10), NHL 2000, remain my favorites.

I would like to thank LordStarwalker for starting this nice thread. PCem is amazing!

tk421

[omarsis81]

I wish you nothing but the best of luck with the PCem project going forward!

I thought you were going to end the sentence with "May the Force be with you"
Joke aside, I am hugely grateful to SarahWalker to for this amazing piece of software I almost use it everyday for more than 5 years now

[leilei]

Pretty much all of my early computers (long dismantled since) have been recreated in this pretty well, save for a couple of specific ISA/PCI video cards and boards (one of them's a MegaPC just for the familiar Phoenix parts for an unrelated US OEM currently undumped, and the M919 isn't there as the UMC chips involved aren't publicly documented). I've left the world of double-digit MHz behind in 1996, so seeing the old timing again (along with the BIOS boots) have been a vivid series-of-recalling experience, and also allowed me to explore hypothetical "what if" scenarios of upgrade/not-upgrade paths.

Also a couple friends had Packard Bell Legends (Hillary-based models with the terrible ripple mice and the forever booting times) so it was also fun to go through that hell again!!!

[Cheez]

I've appreciated PCem as the simple solution to a Dosbox alternative that would actually work properly with a number of things. I've always had a harder time trying to set up similar programs and came out with limited success. Here though, it seems things are a little more streamlined and the only thing I need to carry over is my existing old-PC knowledge. I've never been a fan of messy UIs and I value my time when getting into something for the sake of a hobby.

[davidinark]

Also a couple friends had Packard Bell Legends...

I had a Legend 316sx that I eventually "upgraded" via those 486 snap-on boards back in day. Having the PB300 now in the list makes me want to find an actual box like I had way back then. In the meantime, I have been enjoying the nostalgia of those PB days via pcem.

Actually, one of my favorite aspects of pcem is going through old bios setups like we had to back in the day - mfm drives, Hercules cards, 30-pin memory... Dang I'm old. haha!

[Neville]

Hell yeah! I still use DOSBox for the more demanding games, but recreating my first PC system in such detail almost brought me to tears. Not to mention the possibility of recreating machines like the Tandy 1000, the Amstrad PC or the IBM PS/1, custom desktop included.

PCem rocks.

[Buxton]

I didn't dive in to PCem for one specific thing, I'm just really enjoying the opportunity to return to my computing-childhood and casually fiddle around with delightful Old Stuff without any of the expense or space-needs of buying and setting up any Real Old Hardware.

I've gone for "somewhere between my first PC [386SX-33 generic from a local shop] and what that got upgraded to [486 DX4-120]" and am comfortably emulating a DX2-66 on one of my older laptops (Core i3 2330M which maxes out at 2.2GHz). I put Linux on that laptop (current Linux Mint Cinnamon version) and was able to get PCem built and running thanks to the other hints on this forum.

Just returning to DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 to aimlessly noodle-around with trivial stuff is really satisfying. Thank you, Sarah.

[tk421]

PCem is one of the best programs ever made. The Pentium MMX, with the Voodoo 2, works very well without the need for a physical machine.

Thank you Sarah.

[magnet]

I don't have more reasons to add than has already been posted.

Thank you, SarahWalker, thank you so very much.

[DOS]

Thanks, I was able to restore my 15 year old backup of my Windows 95 machine and it worked after updating some drivers! The only other way I could get it to work was with an old version of VMware Player, but I'm running on Linux so that's a huge pain, I had to run VMware Player in a Windows VM.

[tk421]

PCem is by far the best way to run any Win95 program. Once you are all set you are ready to go. PCem is that good. It is a very small number of programs that do not work with PCem. PCem is possibly the best compatibility tool for modern PCs.

The day I can connect PCem to a laser printer and print documents will be really amazing because that brings PCem much closer to becoming a viable work platform.

I recently discovered that for the typical sound stuttering issue in newer VMware Player versions, running windows media player minimized while running games fixes this issue. This fix works on Win XP VMs running through VMware, even v16. I have no idea if this would solve your VMware problem.

This weird solution to my VMware problems works well with my XP VMs. Performance improves substantially, though I have noticed that you still need a decent CPU for VMware today.

PCem is the best, and continues to be the best.