Such games utilized both 32-bit memory addressing and 32-bit instructions, both of which are features that were introduced in the 386. A 286 could never support such software, except if the source code were available and written in a portable programming language. And even then it would likely require modifications to the source code.

If you'd like to run such games on a specific retro system, a better approach would be to find one of those 386 or 486 CPU upgrade modules that were designed to be installed in 286 motherboards. It might still run too slow for many of such games to be playable, though.

Short answer: no.

The only 386 emulator for 286 was for real mode software

Extended memory is addressed differently in the 286 1gig mode than 386 flat protected 4g mode.

You would need to translate the software which would likely bloat memory requirements and be very manual.

Well, any Turing-complete machine - with enough memory - can emulate any other machine.
But there's the speed problem...
Somebody managed to run 32-bit Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller, but it took 2 hours to boot, with just "init=/bin/bash".

Ah okay thanks a lot. So practically not possible at all.
I also found this discussion with also further de HMU all details on the topic: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-36859.html

BR

Thank you for the link! 😁
It was really fun to read, because the people apparently had indepth knowledge about the 386/486, but avoided mentioning the 286's abilities.. 🙄
It wasn't mentioned that the 286 has 1GB virtual adress-space, a segmented MMU or support for the ring scheme, for example.
They spoke about segments/offsets, but not selectors/pointers and so on..

PS: The real-mode 386 emulator mentioned before is called Emu386.
It can be used for all sorts of real-mode games which use 386 code accidentally.
It's also useful for getting some soundcard software to work.

Re: Timeline of MS-DOS for NEC PC98 and more
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Re: Installing PnP Soundblaster in 286/386 system?

Grzyb wrote on 2020-07-22, 01:45:

Well, any Turing-complete machine - with enough memory - can emulate any other machine.
But there's the speed problem...
Somebody managed to run 32-bit Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller, but it took 2 hours to boot, with just "init=/bin/bash".

Funny that you mention this.
I successfully ran a PC/XT emulator on a 286 once!

https://youtu.be/mFGcL26ECGY

But the really funny thing is.. It's written in Quick Basic! 😂

One example I found is the doom8088 project where a former dos4gw game is now able to run on a 286 eg. on the other hand bad example as the author uses kind of a GBA game as source for recompiling not the original dos game 🫠

Closed. Old thread.

Reopening since the OP started it.

For awareness the thread was opened in 2020-07-21 and the last post was on 7-23-2020, so if the thread is possibly not dead but extremely rarely posted to then it's best to rename the thread to something more clear and appropriate instead of seeming like an issue thread and even the latest poster (op) stated it was a bad example....

Ex:
"List of previously 32bit ported games to 286"
"Running 386 games on a 286"
etc