Emulation:
In theory, the best solution. The problem is that emulating a PC makes emulating a game console look like nothing. They are horribly complex and have come in a huge number of different configurations. Game console specifications stay consistent, with only minor modifications to their hardware.

PC's use countless different standards, many of which conflict with each other. They are sometimes "mutually exclusive".

Example: A game may support Tandy video (16 color display) and sound (three channels of audio) or VGA (256 colors from a palette of 256,000) with speaker-sound (the built-in speaker, also known as the Buzzer).

You would probably prefer the graphics of the VGA version, but the audio of the Tandy version. Odds are, that won't work as these are two different sets of standards. So your best possible PC-emulator should emulate every possible form of hardware in every possible combination.

That would be an insanely huge task, so the best you can hope for is emulation of a wide range of popular hardware. Even then, it's still a huge task...but at least it's possible. The more hardware and configurations are supported, the greater the likelihood of creating a "Universal PC-emulator" that can handle any PC program...eventually. The problem is that type of emulation takes a very long amount of time to create and it's development will be very slow as it's programmers attempt to debug such a complex program. The alternative is to "stick to the basics" and only emulate what is necessary to run most programs in general.

For these "stick to the basics" programs, development will be much quicker, but the results may not be as consistent as an emulator that is designed to emulate everything possible.

Run natively. Usually with a tool like VDMSound.

Needs complete text write-up.

Filler post 4

Filler post 5

Bochs

A "full" PC Emulator. This is it's general condition at present:

Video:

Video output is quite slow and therefore not recommended for anything that needs quick screen updates (even X-COM displays tend to "swim"). Very limited SVGA support (only a few modes available). The Windows version of Bochs will only display to a window (no full-screen mode available).

Sound:

Bochs emulates an ISA model of the "SoundBlaster 16" soundcard. It supports 16-bit stereo output, but it is limited and it usually doesn't take much to overwhelm the emulation (resulting in broken-up audio). FM (AdLib) output is NOT supported and will give you nothing but silence. MIDI output can be directed to your "real" soundcard's MIDI output to give you reasonable quality MIDI music.

Input:
Emulates input from your "real" mouse and keyboard, with mouse input, switchable through a function key.

Other hardware:

Emulates harddrives, CD-ROM devices and floppies either from drive images or it can be configured to use actual drives. Using Bochs with actual harddrive partitions is not recommended. Extremely complex and difficult to configure and it's overall performance is poor. At present, Bochs is not recommendable in most cases. It does have the advantage of being completely free.

filler post 2

filler post 3

filler post 4

filler post 5

Virtual PC

An "almost-full" PC Emulator. It uses some emulation, mixed with some virtualization. Portions of the emulator that use virtualization instead of emulation use your resources in the same way as your "real" hardware. For example, the processor in VPC is not emulated (if you have a 2.4GHz P4 processor, then your Virtual-PC will have the same processor), it's using the processor the same way your OS normally uses it. This is it's general condition at present:

Video:

Video output is reasonably quick but still not nearly as quick as any "real" videocard output. Recommended for strategy games mostly, but it can handle full-screen video as well. Not recommended for high-speed action games that need a high amount of precision while running at high-resolutions (IE: First-person shooters like "Duke3D"). Good SVGA support as it emulates the S3 Trio64 videocard and should work with the majority of VESA displays.

Sound:

Virtual PC emulates an ISA model of the "SoundBlaster 16" soundcard. It supports 16-bit stereo output reasonably, but it can be overwhelmed. FM (AdLib) output is supported and will give you (almost) tolerable FM music. MIDI output works just like "real" soundcard (can use a wavetable if the OS will support it).

Input:
Emulates input from your "real" mouse and keyboard, with mouse input switchable through a function key. Some operating systems (Win9x, Win2k, WinXP) have additional support in the form of "additions". This is software that you install on the "guest" OS, that allows it communicate more easily with your "host" OS. It allows files to be dragged to or from the Virtual-PC's desktop and your "real" desktop. Also allows for easy "sharing" of drives (allows your real drive partitions to be mounted as network drives in the Virtual-PC). Very easy to network your virtual PC with your real one.

Other hardware:

Emulates harddrives, CD-ROM devices and floppies either from drive images or it can be configured to use actual drives. Using caution when using "real" drive partitions with Virtual-PC. Fairly easy to install and configure. It's overall game performance is in the "medium" range: much, much better than Bochs, not as good as DosBox. At present, Virtual PC is recommended for some titles.

Major downsides are the use of virtualization (speeds up overall operation, but not well-suited for running old game software) and the cost: $

A timed demo is available for download.

filler2

filler3

filler4

filler5

DosBox

A "full" PC Emulator. Unlike "Virtual-PC" and VmWare, it uses little-to-no "virtualization". This helps prevent hardware-compatibility issues that occur in real and virtual PC's since everything is emulated (including the processor). Unlike all the other PC emulators, DosBox allows you to control the speed of the emulated processor (by increasing or decreasing cycles), a feature desperately needed for the many speed-sensitive games out there. Unlike Bochs, Virtual PC, and VMWare, DosBox has it's own "operating system", which is about equivalent to DOS 5.0. You can't run other operating sytems like Linux or DOS6 instead.

Video:
Very capable video. Capable of running action games with a high framerate.

Sound:

Input:

Other hardware:

Sound:

Input:

Other hardware:

Fairly easy to install and configure. It's overall game performance is in the "medium-excellent" range: much better than most other emulators (presuming you are running "real-mode" 386 games or earlier). Much better than all other emulators for 386 real-mode games. DOS games that "Hate NT" usually like DosBox. At present, DosBox is reccommended for all 386 real-mode games or earlier.

Major downsides are the emulation limitations: no protected-mode support, no 486 or Pentium support, no SVGA/VESA support. All these will gradually appear, but be aware that when they do...by no means should you expect it run every game that uses those features. (CVS versions of DosBox do have many of these features but they are highly experimental and don't expect any support for them...at all.) Also, since no form of Windows runs on DosBox, that excludes any and all Windows games.

filler2

filler3

filler4

filler5