PCem icon
PCem icon

PCem

 7 likes

PCem emulates an IBM 5150 PC, several models of clones and successors, along with various graphics adapters, sound devices, and peripherals.

King's Quest, running on an emulated Tandy 1000.

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application type

Country of Origin

  • GB flagUnited Kingdom

Platforms

  • Windows
  • Linux
4.5 / 5 Avg rating (2)
7likes
1comment
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Virtualization

 Tags

  • 8086-emulator
  • pc-emulator
  • 8086
  • microprocessor-emulator
  • intel-8086

PCem News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent activities

  • App icon
    POX added PCem as alternative to CheerpX
    7 months ago
  • tzabbakeh liked PCem
    7 months ago
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PCem information

  • Developed by

    GB flagSarah Walker
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.5
  • Alternatives

    8 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Category

Network & Admin

GitHub repository

  •  1,719 Stars
  •  228 Forks
  •  128 Open Issues
  •   Updated May 21, 2025 
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Our users have written 1 comments and reviews about PCem, and it has gotten 7 likes

PCem was added to AlternativeTo by Anamon on Nov 22, 2016 and this page was last updated Mar 2, 2024.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
Korkman83
Jul 6, 2018
0

Fantastic effort to emulate the 80s and 90s era of personal computing. Has all the virtual hardware required for retro gaming!

What is PCem?

PCem offers emulation of various IBM PC compatible machines, from the original 1981 model 5150 to later successors and clones by third party manufacturers. The software includes emulation of several compatible graphical video adapters, audio devices, and other peripherals of the day.

Among the machines emulated are the IBM 5150 PC, IBM 5160 XT, IBM PCjr, IBM PC AT, IBM PS/1, as well as more variations and clones from manufacturers such as Olivetti, Tandy, and Amstrad; spanning roughly from 1981 to the mid-1990s and up to Pentium class processors.

Emulated graphics adapters include MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, various SVGA chipsets, and 3Dfx Voodoo. Emulated audio interfaces include PC speaker, Tandy, Creative Gameblaster, Adlib and Adlib Gold, various versions of Creative Sound Blaster (from 1.0 to 16 and AWE32), and Gravis Ultrasound. Further, the application emulates various mice and a CD-ROM drive.

It has been tested to successfully run versions of MS-DOS and clones, Windows 1 to Windows XP, OS/2 1.0 to Warp 4, and several flavours of Linux and BSD.

Unlike other PC emulators, PCem doesn't aim to provide a "compromise system" to support as many applications as possible in one environment, but focusses on authentic recreation of actual machines, that offer neither more nor less functionality than the originals they're modelled after. And in contrast to projects like DOSBox, it doesn't emulate an entire operating system environment, but is a true hardware emulator that allows (and requires) the installation of any operating system compatible with the original machines.

Official Links