Virtual machine options for older systems? \ VOGONS

Virtual machine options for older systems?

Topic actions

First post, by snorg

Posted on 2014-09-19, 15:24

snorg Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1029
Joined: 2011-05-29, 15:32

Virtual box often comes in handy for emulating an older OS on newer systems, however what do you do when you want to emulate a complete environment on an older system? Say, 386/486 or Pentium !/II?

I figure you won't be able to easily emulate a full graphical OS on a 386/486 system since they just aren't as powerfui but a P200 level system would probably be beefy enough to emulate several GUI type OSs even with the performance hit due to emulation, you would just have to be willing to tolerate the hit.

I guess why I'm asking, is I'd like to have OS/2 in a virtual machine on a Win 95/98 box so I have the option to go back and forth without having to dual boot. If that's not possible, then I guess dual boot is an option.

Reply 1 of 5, by snorg

Posted on 2014-09-19, 15:51

snorg Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1029
Joined: 2011-05-29, 15:32

Or if it is not possible to do the above, then maybe a way to run Win 95 inside OS/2 Warp, although I doubt this is possible. I think there was something called Soft 95 but I don't think this was ever available for OS/2. Something tells me the best/most realistic option is going to be "just dual boot it".

Thanks in advance.

Reply 2 of 5, by DosFreak

Posted on 2014-09-19, 16:16

DosFreak Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 13554
Joined: 2002-06-30, 16:35
Location: Milliways

Connectix Virtual PC works on OS/2 (Not Microsoft Virtual PC)
I believe there is also a OS/2 port of VirtualBox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC
http://wse2010.warpevents.eu/uploads/tx_wseev … tualization.pdf

Bochs 2.3.7 works on 95 and NT4
Bochs 2.6.6 works on 98+

Qemu 6.0 works on Windows 95
Qemu 7.0 (with acceleration) works on 98-ME-NT4 if you hexedit the binaries
Qemu 14.0 works on 98-ME-NT4 if you hexedit the binaries

Virtual PC 5.1 works on 98-ME
Virtual PC 5.2 works on NT4

Vmware Workstation 4.5.3 works on 98-ME-NT4

DosBox works on OS/2,95/NT4-2012R2 😀

From my experience you'd be better off using OS/2 or NT4 as the host if you plan on using virtual machines.

Vmware Workstation would usually exceed Virtual PC performance wise. Never used VirtualBox on OS/2 nor on hardware that old so hard to say how that would perform.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 3 of 5, by pewpewpew

Posted on 2014-09-19, 17:13

pewpewpew Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 555
Joined: 2011-06-30, 05:05

then I guess dual boot is an option.

And KVM. The cheapest odd-brand ones are to be avoided, but I've been completely happy with my inexpensive IOGear switch for about a decade now. It's five star stuff.

Reply 4 of 5, by leileilol

Posted on 2014-09-20, 00:15

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12344
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

VirtualPC is the fastest solution I know of.

VirtualBox is very slow and relies on virtualization extensions on modern CPUs for it to work well.

For Linux however, dosemu can be very fast.

long live PCem

Reply 5 of 5, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

Posted on 2014-09-20, 11:07

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3363
Joined: 2006-11-15, 06:44
Location: Indonesia

I still have yet to find Virtual Machine solutions that enable us to use USB joystick on the host machine, which is then translated to gameport joystick on the guest machine. 🙁

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Milliways