theelf wrote on 2025-08-24, 18:33:

Now testing software, one thing im discovering is how little care many companys put on testing in 286 — many games that say on the readme 'need at least 286' just crash cause they forgot some random 386 instruction inside the code. lazy!!

There are at least four games that I know of where the earliest version works on a 286 but later versions require a 386 - Aces of the Pacific and Space Hulk are commercial examples, AstroFire and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold are shareware examples. The beta of Realms of Chaos runs on a 286 properly but the released version hangs on an illegal instruction.

Additionally, there's two games I'm aware of where they are normally executed via a BAT file which include an intro EXE that requires a 386, but the main EXE will run on a 286 - Entity and The Machines.

Finally, there's another two games that will run on a 286 but Sound Blaster support requires 386 instructions - Fatal Fumes and Tiahuanaco.

I have the following games marked as "may work on a 286 with specific settings", as they all hang trying to get in-game:

Aleshar: World of Ice
Cannon Fodder
Highway Fighter/Highway Hunter
Might & Magic 4&5: World of Xeen
Might & Magic: Swords of Xeen
Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail
Star Wars: Tie Fighter

Aleshar specifically appears to require more than 4MB of RAM.

Hi there! The Japanese font utility Dos-J Plus uses 80386 real-mode instructions and works with emu386.
Of course, there are likely more utilities like this that may not need it. It just came to mind.

_
The native operating system MS-DOS 6.20/V also works on an 80286,
but relies on EMM386 to succesfully manage to squeeze all these Japanese extra software into memory.
Without a 386 processor, the user would need to have an EMS card and UMB card or an intelligent 80286 chipset.

DEAT wrote on 2025-08-26, 07:58:

There are at least four games that I know of where the earliest version works on a 286 but later versions require a 386 - Aces o […]
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theelf wrote on 2025-08-24, 18:33:

Now testing software, one thing im discovering is how little care many companys put on testing in 286 — many games that say on the readme 'need at least 286' just crash cause they forgot some random 386 instruction inside the code. lazy!!

There are at least four games that I know of where the earliest version works on a 286 but later versions require a 386 - Aces of the Pacific and Space Hulk are commercial examples, AstroFire and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold are shareware examples. The beta of Realms of Chaos runs on a 286 properly but the released version hangs on an illegal instruction.

Additionally, there's two games I'm aware of where they are normally executed via a BAT file which include an intro EXE that requires a 386, but the main EXE will run on a 286 - Entity and The Machines.

Finally, there's another two games that will run on a 286 but Sound Blaster support requires 386 instructions - Fatal Fumes and Tiahuanaco.

I have the following games marked as "may work on a 286 with specific settings", as they all hang trying to get in-game:

Aleshar: World of Ice
Cannon Fodder
Highway Fighter/Highway Hunter
Might & Magic 4&5: World of Xeen
Might & Magic: Swords of Xeen
Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail
Star Wars: Tie Fighter

Aleshar specifically appears to require more than 4MB of RAM.

Thanks a lot for help, I tested games you say

realms of chaos - work fine, i think they use 386 instructions to sound, because is very smoth until some sound happen and get a little slow, but playable

Aleshar: World of Ice work fine but too slow to be playable
Cannon Fodder start, but hang with a failed 386 opcode, need more testing or different versions of game
Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail failed 386 opcode
Star Wars: Tie Fighter need EMS but sadly i dont have ems card i cant test

Fatal Fumes funny thing... complains about need co-processor, i tried some emulators without luck, and i never installed a 287 to test... i will buy jeje

https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/em8 … ry-in-it.41463/

ok, with this and emu386 load fine!! even with sound jaja little slow but playable, here im emulating a 386 and a 287 ... too much i think jaja

Highway Fighter and Swords of Xeen work on 286

I dont find Tiahuanaco anywere

Jo22 wrote on 2025-08-26, 08:36:

Hi there! The Japanese font utility Dos-J Plus uses 80386 real-mode instructions and works with emu386. Of course, there are lik […]
Show full quote

Hi there! The Japanese font utility Dos-J Plus uses 80386 real-mode instructions and works with emu386.
Of course, there are likely more utilities like this that may not need it. It just came to mind.

_
The native operating system MS-DOS 6.20/V also works on an 80286,
but relies on EMM386 to succesfully manage to squeeze all these Japanese extra software into memory.
Without a 386 processor, the user would need to have an EMS card and UMB card or an intelligent 80286 chipset.

Thanks, yes i started with games, but some software work fine if not try to detect 386