Software Alternatives & Reviews

Open Watcom VS PCem

Compare Open Watcom VS PCem and see what are their differences

Open Watcom logo Open Watcom

Open Watcom is a project of the open source community to maintain and enhance the Watcom C, C++, and Fortran cross compilers and tools.

PCem logo PCem

PCem emulates an IBM 5150 PC, several models of clones and successors, along with various graphics...
  • Open Watcom Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-21
  • PCem Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-06

Open Watcom videos

2017-11-12 -- Hello World for Windows 9x-XP-7 with Open Watcom C

More videos:

  • Review - Integration of Open Watcom C++ compiler for ScaLib BDP project ( VTR-038 )

PCem videos

Installation and Review of Windows NT 3.1 Build 297 (PCem)

More videos:

  • Review - Emulating Windows 98 (D3D, 3Dfx) on PCEM running 3DMark'99 Full Speed On A Windows 10 PC
  • Demo - Blood II PC Gamer Demo (PCEM Test)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Open Watcom and PCem)
IDE
26 26%
74% 74
Email Marketing
30 30%
70% 70
CRM
30 30%
70% 70
Cross-Channel Marketing Automation

User comments

Share your experience with using Open Watcom and PCem. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PCem seems to be a lot more popular than Open Watcom. While we know about 34 links to PCem, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Open Watcom. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Open Watcom mentions (2)

  • Revisiting Borland Turbo C/C++, A Great IDE back in the 90s – CodeProject
    Https://web.archive.org/web/20230315024557/http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/ntvdmx64.html Or just run dosbox for full and isolated emulation. Full circle, there's also djgpp and openwatcom for semi-modern retro development. https://www.delorie.com/djgpp https://openwatcom.org I collect retro compilers, programming books, software, and hardware. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • I want to start learning how to program DOS games
    I recommend using Open Watcom, particularly the Open Watcom V2 fork, to target 32-bit protected mode DOS, rather than 16-bit real mode. Source: almost 2 years ago

PCem mentions (34)

  • Popularity of DOS/4GW made Win95 game compat easier, but with higher stakes
    Absolutely check out PCem for a closer to hardware emulation than dosbox, https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Anyone get Sid Meier's SimGolf Working?
    One option is to try PCEm https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/ which is a emulator for old computers that runs on Windows and Linux, I actually learned about it via this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HP9W88Wew of a guy playing Sim Golf on his Windows PC using PCEm, this should be similar on Linux but I'm not sure if the SteamDeck will have enough power but maybe worth a try. Source: 11 months ago
  • Is there anyway to port old abandonware Windows 95/98 game to Apple Silicon?
    For hardcore mode, compile PCEm - I think brew has most of the dependencies available ... https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/ - have fun! Source: 11 months ago
  • Is VirtualBox still really bad with Windows 9x?
    You use 86box or PCem which are not virtualizers but hardware emulators so you will need a really fast CPU (especially in single thread). The advantage is that Windows 98 will be running on period appropriate hardware, since all of it is being emulated real-time. Source: 11 months ago
  • Intel Explores Transition to 64-Bit-Only X86S Architecture
    QEMU [0] emulates many systems, including the 32-bit Intel architecture. For retro gaming specifically I can recommend PCem [1], which also emulates a wide range of sound and graphics cards, from IBM MDA to 3dfx Voodoo 2. [0] https://www.qemu.org/ [1] https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Open Watcom and PCem, you can also consider the following products

clang - C, C++, Objective C and Objective C++ front-end for the LLVM compiler.

NASM - The Netwide Assembler, NASM, is an 80x86 and x86-64 assembler designed for portability and...

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting...

flat assembler - A fast and efficient self-assembling x86 assembler for DOS, Windows and Linux.

Portable C Compiler - pcc is a C99 compiler which aims to be small, simple, fast and understandable.

86Box - 86Box is a hypervisor and IBM PC system emulator that specializes in running old operating systems...