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4.2 / 26-07-2024

86Box

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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:

  • 86Box Manager - It's an optional configuration manager to create and edit multiple isolated virtual machines while running at the same time and much more...

--

Windows: 7+

Mac: Intel / Rosetta 2+

CPU: minimum Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor

RAM: 4GB

--4.2--

See the release announcement for more information!


What's Changed



--4.1.1--

See the release announcement for more information!


What's Changed



--4.1--

This update bringing new emulated machines, new hardware and bugfixes.


Matrox video cards

Through the second half of the 1990s, the PC industry was in an all-out 3D accelerator war. Several companies tried their hand at producing hardware solutions to bring more advanced 3D games and applications to PCs, and some were more successful than others. It was a game of survival where only NVIDIA and ATI emerged victorious in the grand scheme of things.


Matrox sat right in the middle: they weren’t as big as the then-undisputed market leader 3dfx, but weren’t among more obscure names such as 3Dlabs either. The company, originally specializing in professional CAD cards, made its entry into the broader 3D market in 1995 with the MGA Millennium, followed up by the Mystique in 1996 and Millennium II in 1997. 86Box now emulates these three cards, available on the PCI bus.


Network cards

The single most popular PCI network solution of all time is now represented in 86Box, with Realtek RTL8139C+ emulation based on code from QEMU. This 100 Mbit controller first seen in the late 1990s has drivers available for a wide array of operating systems, often universally supporting the numerous revisions this chip has received over the years, including our C+ from the early 2000s.


This release also brings several PCI network cards from Digital Equipment Corporation, collectively known as the DEC Tulip family: the 21040, 21140 and 21143, also based on QEMU code. The 21040 is a 10 Mbit controller, while the 211xx models are 100 Mbit capable.

Generic compatible variants of the NE1000 and NE2000 are now available, addressing a common pitfall when setting up a Windows machine, where the network drivers provide different options on Novell and compatible cards. The D-Link DE-220P was also added as a second ISA Plug and Play NE2000 clone.


Changelog

Emulator

  • Fixed some very specific crashes after saving machine settings

  • Fixed forced 4:3 aspect ratio not always applying to a maximized window

  • Fixed mouse capture on the secondary monitor window

  • Fixed mouse capture incorrectly available while the emulated machine is paused

  • Fixed ROM set detection with multiple XDG_DATA_DIRS on Linux

  • Removed Direct3D 9 renderer due to several issues


User interface

  • Fixed window icon and grouping on some Linux desktop environments

  • Updated translations: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Taiwan), Russian


Machines

  • Added GLaBIOS XT clone machine

  • Added Hyundai Super-286C machine

  • Added ECS Panda 386V 386DX motherboard

  • Added DataExpert EXP4349 combo 386DX + 486 motherboard

  • Added J-Bond PCI400C-A Socket 2 motherboard

  • Added Acrosser AR-B1476, Advanced Integration Research 486PI, AMI Super Voyager PCI, Anigma BAT4IP3e, A-Trend ATC-1762, DEC Venturis 4xx, ECS AL486, Epson ActionTower 8400, ICS SB486P, Lanner Electronics AP-4100AA, MSI MS-4144 and Packard Bell PB450 Socket 3 machines

  • Added Lanner Electronics IAC-H488 STPC 486 machine

  • Added Dell Dimension XPS Pxxx (OEM version of the Intel Premiere/PCI II), FIC PT-2000, MSI MS-5109, Northgate Computer Systems Elegance Pentium 90, Shuttle HOT-539, Teknor TEK-932 and TriGem Torino Socket 5 machines

  • Added AMI Atlas PCI-II, ASUS SP97-XV, BCM SQ-578, Chaintech 5SBM2, Daewoo CB52X-SI, Dell Hannibal+, Gateway Tomahawk, Gigabyte GA-5SG100, Micronics Thunderbolt, MSI MS-5172, Radisys EPC-2102 and TriGem Richmond Socket 7 machines

  • Added Gateway Lucas Super Socket 7 machine

  • Added Gateway 2000 Venus (OEM version of the Intel VS440FX), AOpen AP61 and LG IBM Multinet x61 Socket 8 machines

  • Added Freetech/Flexus P6F99, LG IBM Multinet i x7G and NEC Mate NX MA30D/23D Slot 1 machines

  • Added PC Chips M773 Socket 370 motherboard

  • Added BIOS language selection to the IBM PS/1 Model 2011

  • Fixed floppy booting on Zenith Z-series machines

  • Fixed timer interrupt failure error on Zenith Z-series machines

  • Fixed incorrect memory detection on the Olivetti M19, Packard Bell PB8810 and Sanyo SX-16

  • Fixed keyboard error on the Hyundai SUPER-16T and 16TE

  • Fixed memory size error on the IBM PS/ValuePoint 433DX/Si

  • Fixed boot issues with Cyrix CPUs on some SiS 496 machines

  • Fixed Acer A1G integrated IDE controller issues

  • Fixed Packard Bell PB410A PS/2 mouse issues

  • Fixed ABIT AB-AH4 filed on the wrong category (now Socket 3)

  • Fixed Epson Action PC 2600 and PC Chips M919 integrated I/O issues

  • Fixed boot issues with some CPU speeds on MR BIOS machines

  • Fixed soft reboot issues on Amstrad PC machines, Intel Advanced/ATX with MR BIOS and Samsung SPC7700P-LW

  • Fixed PCI resource allocation issues for the single slot on the Compaq Presario 2240 and 4500

  • Fixed ACPI shutdown hangs on several machines

  • Fixed inaccurate power supply type detection on several machines

  • Fixed incorrect parallel port mapping on the MSI MS-5124

  • Fixed non-functional minimum memory amounts on the Tandy 1000 HX and ASUS P5A

  • Fixed boot issues and inaccurate BIOS CPU frequency read-outs on the Amstrad MegaPC

  • Fixed IBM 5161 expansion unit memory reporting on IBM PC and XT machines

  • Renamed Phoenix 286 clone to Arche AMA-2010

  • Renamed MR BIOS 386SX clone to Chaintech 325AX (and added original AMI BIOS)

  • Renamed Micro Star 586MC1 to Gigabyte GA-586IS

  • Changed CPU selection on Compaq Portable and Deskpro 386 machines

  • Changed Intel Premiere/PCI BIOS revision to a newer one


Hardware

  • CoreAdded debug register emulation for running software debuggers on 386 CPUs only
    Reverted 8088 and 8086 CPU emulation to the one from v3.11 due to several issues
    Fixed issues with the ADC and SBB instructions breaking specific applications on 8088/8086 CPUs
    Fixed inaccurate cache reporting on Pentium Pro/II family CPUs (not that it matters)
    Fixed missing model-specific registers on Pentium 1 and newer CPUs
    Fixed incorrect Feature Control Register reporting on WinChip and Cyrix III CPUs
    Fixed miscellaneous CPUID inconsistencies on several CPUs
    Fixed some 486 instructions incorrectly available on 386 CPUs

Display

  • Added Matrox Millennium, Mystique and Millennium II PCI video cards
    Added Chips & Technologies B69000 PCI video card
    Added Cardex variants of the S3 Trio64V+ PCI and VLB video card
    Added Realtek RTG3105 ISA video card
    Added IBM 5153 monitor color option to the CGA as a new default
    Added line doubling modes to the CGA
    Many fixes to EGA and VGA emulation inaccuracies in corner cases
    Fixed several rendering issues on Cirrus Logic, IBM 8514/A, XGA, ATI Mach8, Mach32, S3 and Tseng cards
    Fixed switching between VGA and enhanced modes on the 8514/A and clones
    Fixed ATI EGA Wonder emulation inaccuracies
    Fixed Windows display issues on the Cirrus Logic GD5446 and GD5480
    Fixed line drawing issues on Trident TGUI cards
    Fixed squishing issue with some DOS games on the Voodoo Banshee/3
    Fixed a rare hard reset hang with Voodoo cards
    Changed Realtek RTG3106 to the 8-bit ISA bus

Input

  • Added mapping for sliders and other analog joystick controls on Windows hosts
    Fixed joystick mapping issues with POV hats and high axis counts
    Fixed duplicate game port detection with Plug and Play sound cards

Sound

  • Added optional PC speaker volume control to the Sound Blaster 16 family
    Fixed Gravis Ultrasound crashing the emulator when accessing RAM beyond the configured amount
    Fixed Sound Blaster ViBRA 16XV 8-bit DMA playback issues
    Fixed AdLib Gold PCM playback issues

Network

  • Added Realtek RTL8139C+ PCI network card
    Added DEC 21040, 21140 and 21143 PCI network cards
    Added generic NE1000 and NE2000 compatible ISA network cards
    Added D-Link DE-220P ISA Plug and Play network card
    Added more IRQ options to PCnet ISA and VLB cards
    Fixed Racal Interlan EtherBlaster detection by some drivers

Ports

  • Fixed ESC/P printer cutting characters near a page edge
    Changed ESC/P printer dot matrix font to an improved one

Storage

  • Added ATAPI hard disk emulation (not hotpluggable yet)
    Fixed SCSI hard disk detection hang on NetBSD
    Fixed specific boot issues on Longshine, Rancho and Trantor SCSI controllers
    Fixed Western Digital WD1002A-WX1 MFM controller BIOS
    Fixed emulator crash during CD audio playback on Sony SCSI CD-ROM drives
    Fixed small CD-ROM speed calculation inaccuracy
    Fixed emulation inaccuracies with NEC and Toshiba SCSI CD-ROM drives
    Renamed NCR 53C90 MCA SCSI card to 53C90A to match the emulated feature level



--4.0.1--

See the release announcement for more information!



--4.0--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.11--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.7.1--

Patch release addressing several issues observed on 3.7. See the updated 3.7 release announcement for a detailed changelog.


What's Changed



--3.7--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.6--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.5--

See the release announcement for detailed information



--3.4.1--

Emulator 

  • Fixed mouse buttons not working 


User interface 

  • Fixed middle mouse button not releasing mouse capture



--3.4--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.3.--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.2.1--

  • Small hotfix for the Linux mouse capture speed drop and some other issues



--3.2--

See the release announcement for more information!



--3.1--

Bugfix release - See the release announcement for more information!

Show Previous Changes

--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.

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