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3.1 / 24-12-2021

86Box

Accuracy

Performance

Features

competition

86Box (formerly known as PCem Unofficial, PCem Experimental, or PCem-X) is an unofficial branch of the PCem emulator, which aims to run older operating systems and software designed for IBM PC systems and compatibles from 1981 through fairly recent system designs based on the PCI bus.


Features include but are not limited: Low level emulation of 8086-based processors up to the Pentium with focus on accuracy, Great range of customizability of virtual machines such as the very first IBM PC 5150 from 1981, or the more obscure IBM PS/2 line of systems based on the Micro Channel Architecture, Lots of supported peripherals including video adapters, sound cards, network adapters, hard disk controllers, and SCSI adapters and much more!


It is also recommended to use a manager application with 86Box for easier handling of multiple virtual machines:

  • WinBox for 86Box - The new manager with improved new user experience; installer, automatic updates of emulator files and more.


  • 86Box Manager - The traditional 86Box manager with simple interfac


Windows 32-bit
Windows 64-bit
Windows (debug)
Source Code
Source Code (gz)

--

Windows: 7+

CPU: minimum Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor

RAM: 4GB

--3.1--

Bugfix release. See the release announcement for more information!

--3.0--

The new major release is finally here! 🥳

  • New logo and icons!

  • User interface

  • Localization support (#1790)
    Media menu in the main menu bar (#712)
    Customizable icon sets (#1817)
    Nicer messages boxes using the Vista+ TaskDialog interface (#824)
    HiDPI support (#992)
    Discord Rich Presence support (#484)
    OpenGL renderer with shader support (#1382)
    Machines and CPU are now sorted into categories
    Options to resize the window to a specified size and to lock the window size were added

  • Plug and Pray PlaySupport for legacy ISA Plug and Play was introduced (#1316)

    The following ISA PnP devices are supported:
    Sound cardsCreative Sound Blaster 16 PnP
    Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP
    Crystal CS4236B

    Network cardsAMD PCnet-ISA+
    Realtek RTL8019AS
    SMBus and I2C emulation was introduced, allowing the emulator to report the presence of 86Box-branded memory sticks and video displays (#1110)

  • ACPIACPI support was added for select Socket 7 and newer machines
    Windows Vista and Windows 7 can now (somewhat) run as guests under 86Box!

  • CPUsIntel Pentium Pro, Pentium II and Celeron emulation was added together with adequate Socket 8, Slot1/2 and Socket 370 machines
    VIA Cyrix III emulation has also been added for Socket 370 and Slot 1 machines
    AMD K6, K6-2, K6-III and IDT WinChip 2 were added for (Super) Socket 7
    IBM 386SLC, 486SLC and 486BL emulation has been added for PS/2 machines (#502)
    STPC series of x86-based SoCs has been added (#905)

  • ChipsetsOverhauled the emulation of i430-series and introduced i440-series chipsets
    VIA Apollo series chipsets have been introduced, including the MVP3 chipset

  • Video
    Added or overhauled video adaptersAdded 3dfx Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3 (port from PCem)
    Added S3 86C924, 86C928, Vision868, VIsion968, Trio64V+, Trio64V2 and Trio3D/2X
    Added Trident TGUI 9600XGi and 9680XGi; overhauled emulation of 9400CXi and 9440AGi
    Added Kasan Hangulmadang-16 Korean VGA (based on Tseng ET4000)
    Overhauled emulation of G2 GC205 and Headland HT216-32; added the SVGA Multiview
    Added the CL-GD5401
    Added the Schetmash Iskra EGA
    Numerous driver-specific bugs on existing cards have been fixed
    Basic AGP support has been added (#1303)

  • NetworkingThe AMD PCnet-FAST III, PCnet-PCI II and PCnet-ISA+ adapters have been added, based on their emulation in VirtualBox
    The Realtek RTL8019AS adapter has been added

  • SCSIThe option to use up to four SCSI adapters in one configuration has been added.
    Added emulation of the AMD Am53C974 PCscsi controller, based on QEMU's emulation
    Added the NCR 53C815, 53C820, 53C860 and 53C875 SCSI controllers

  • Sound
    New sound cards have been added:Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold (#1563)
    Crystal CS4236B (#1470)
    Aztech Sound Galaxy 16 (ported from PCem)
    Ensoniq AudioPCI (#1580)
    AC'97 codec has been implemented (#1580)

  • New hardwareMagneto-optical disc and drive emulation
    Generic PostScript-based printer, using the Ghostscript library (#474)
    POST code diagnostic card (#618)
    DEC 21150 PCI-PCI bridge (#1009)

  • Rewrites and improvementsPIT and PIC emulation was rewritten to fix several outstanding bugs with older software such as Microsoft Word 1.0 for DOS and MR BIOS
    Memory framework was reworked to support features required by newly-added CPUs
    Network emulation performance and stability have been improved

Documentation

Documentation for this release is available at 86box.readthedocs.io (available from the emulator's Help menu). We happily accept pull requests to expand the documentation in the 86Box/docs repository!



Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded from the 86Box/roms repository. The roms directory should be in the same location as 86Box.exe.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.



--2.07--

Bugfix release.

  • Changes to the DirectDraw and Direct3D renderers.

  • Improvements to the Window Message protocol for communicating with the 86Box Manager.

  • Fixed a bug in the PGC/Image Manager 1024 text modes.

  • Fixed IDE on the SPC-4200P.

  • PCI Reset Control register now forces bit 4 to be written as 0, fixes resets through this register from the second soft reset onwards.

  • The 86F handler now returns randomly generated noise for physical holes, rather than always 0.

  • Fixed the video RAM addresses in the text modes on the Sigma Color 400.

  • Some fixes to the PC speaker - fixes amplitude in mode 1 (the intro of (Perestroika now works correctly at least on the 8088 4.77 MHz) and makes the parameters consistent with the rest of the PC speaker emulation.

  • Fixed the readback of the PC/XT FPU installed switch.

  • Added the ability to pause and resume the network thread's reception.

  • Fixed the state of network_wait.

  • Fixed slowdowns on several games that use CD Audio, such as Tomb Raider II.

  • The Award 286 Clone no longer has on-board IDE - the machine technically has it, but it can be disabled, so the easiest way to do it on the emulator is to make the user choose the IDE controller if they need it, and tell the BIOS to use it.

  • Some quick fixes for the IBM PS/2 Model 30-286. The hard disk controller is the same as the PS/1 one, and will be properly fixed in v2.10.

  • Some changes to the (AT) NVR code.

  • Applied Ryuzaki's fixes for the New Floppy/ZIP Image and Settings dialog progress bars, those now work correctly.

  • Increased maximum ESDI sectors 99 and fixed the cylinders truncation in config.c.

  • Fixed EGA and (S)VGA pel panning, fixes games like Supaplex.


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)


It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.06--

Bugfix release.

  • Fixed memory states set by some machines (including IBM PS/1's and MCA PS/2's).

  • Fixed IDE status readout on an absent device 1 with a present device 0, fixes hangs with AMI BIOS'es on hard disk detection in such cases.


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)

It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.05--

Bugfix release.

  • OpenAL bug fixes, fixes all OpenAL run-time warnings and errors.

  • Fixed the AT ESDI hard disk controller.

  • Reworked IDE reset and diagnostics, fixes the various IDE controller

  • A confirmation message box is now shown on hard reset from the manager

  • AT MFM hard disk controller fixes.

  • Deleted leftovers of the old implementation of the WIN_DRIVE_DIAGNOSTICS

  • Gravis UltraSound fixes, should no longer make the emulator stop

  • Award 286 Clone now has an on-board IDE controller as its CMOS Setup


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)


It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.04--

Bugfix release.

  • The S3 cards now no longer do mixing or ROP's for PIX_TRANS reads.

  • Closing the emulator with a window message now asks for confirmation as well.


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)

It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.03--

Bugfix release.

  • Fixed S3 through the plane PIX_TRANS reads.

  • Serial port fixes, fixes Windows NT 3.1 1991 builds hanging.

  • PCI PIRQ's are now always level when PCI IRQ steering is present, and MIRQ's are now edge/level according to the device that issues them, per the Intel datasheets, fixes annoyingly long wait at POST on PCI Pentium AMI BIOS'es because of secondary IDE.

  • Fixed for the array sizes in snd_dbopl.cc.

  • PCI TRC hard resets now also reset the AT keyboard controller.

  • Numerous serial port bug fixes, now it passes all AMIDIAG tests.

  • Converted the serial mouse code to my advanced timer API, which makes the code a bit cleaner (less casts and multiplications with TIMER_USEC).


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)

It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.02--

Bugfix release.

  • Switched from XInput to DirectInput for joysticks.


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)

It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.



--2.00--

Here is a brief list of changes since the last stable release:

  • Vastly improved SCSI emulation (more controllers) with SCSI hard disk support

  • SCSI and ATAPI Iomega ZIP emulation

  • Many more emulated machines and hardware

  • New Settings dialog and overhauled UI in general

  • Vastly improved emulation of IBM PC and XT and 808x

  • Support for directly mounting CUE/BIN images and a lot of floppy formats

  • More mouse types

  • The best Cirrus Logic emulation as of October 2019 (TM)

  • PS/2 emulation including MCA

  • Vastly improved network emulation

  • Improved config file format

  • SDL renderer

  • Printer emulation

  • ISA RTC and memory expansion board emulation

  • Built-in MUNT and support for FluidSynth for MIDI

  • Stand-alone MPU-401 emulation, both ISA and MCA, with intelligent mode support

  • 8087 emulation


Prerequisites

86Box requires ROM files in order to operate, which can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/rs20191022 (extract the ZIP file to the same directory as 86Box.exe)

It is also recommended to use the 86Box Manager to manage virtual machines, although it is possible to use the emulator on its own, using the -P/--vmpath command line option.


Which ZIP should I download?

  • 86Box is the standard build. Download this if you don't know which one to choose.

  • 86Box-Debug includes debug symbols. If you don't need them, you generally don't need to use this build.

  • 86Box-Optimized are optimized builds for most modern CPU architectures. See our CPU architectures table to see which build you should download. Using the wrong binary may result in crashes.