PCem VS Emscripten

Compare PCem VS Emscripten and see what are their differences

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PCem

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

Emscripten

Emscripten is an LLVM to JavaScript compiler.

Landing page //
2023-05-06

Landing page //
2021-08-02

PCem

Website: pcem-emulator.co.uk
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Emscripten

Website: emscripten.org
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PCem features and specs

High Compatibility
PCem is known for its high compatibility with a wide range of older PC systems, allowing users to emulate various hardware configurations from the '80s and '90s.
Wide OS Support
PCem supports a variety of operating systems, allowing users to run DOS, Windows 95, 98, and many other legacy systems.
Authentic Experience
By emulating the hardware at a low level, PCem provides an experience that is very close to using an actual vintage PC.
Customization
Users have extensive control over the configuration of the emulated machine, including CPU type, amount of RAM, and various peripherals.

Possible disadvantages of PCem

Complex Setup
Setting up PCem can be complex, especially for users not familiar with configuring legacy PC hardware and software.
Resource Intensive
PCem can be resource-intensive compared to other emulators, requiring a relatively powerful modern PC to run smoothly.
Limited Graphics Support
While it supports many early graphics cards, PCem lacks support for more advanced graphics emulation beyond older Voodoo models.
Requires BIOS
PCem requires the user to provide their own BIOS files for the emulated systems, which can be difficult to legally obtain.

Emscripten features and specs

Cross-platform compatibility
Emscripten enables developers to compile C and C++ code to WebAssembly or JavaScript, allowing the same codebase to run on multiple platforms, such as browsers and node.js, without needing additional platform-specific adaptations.
Leverage existing libraries
Developers can utilize a vast ecosystem of existing C and C++ libraries by compiling them for the web, saving time and resources required for rewriting or finding alternatives developed in JavaScript.
Performance optimization
Emscripten's compilation to WebAssembly provides near-native performance for web applications, making it suitable for compute-intensive tasks like gaming, simulations, and data processing.
Familiar toolchain
Developers can use familiar tools like CMake and others as part of their Emscripten workflow, making it easier for those with C/C++ backgrounds to adapt and integrate into their web development processes.

Possible disadvantages of Emscripten

Steep learning curve
Developers unfamiliar with C and C++ may find Emscripten challenging to use effectively, as it requires knowledge of these languages and their build systems to create and debug applications.
Limitations in browser environments
Certain features of C/C++ may not translate directly to web environments due to browser sandboxing constraints, leading to potential issues with file I/O, threading, and other system-level operations.
Code size
Compiled WebAssembly and JavaScript code can sometimes be large, potentially affecting load times and performance, especially on lower-end devices with restrictive bandwidth or processing capabilities.
Debugging complexity
Debugging WebAssembly code can be more complex than traditional JavaScript, requiring specialized tooling and techniques to trace and fix issues effectively.

PCem videos

+ Add

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

Emscripten videos

+ Add

Monster Madness Online (Emscripten Web Technology Overview)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PCem and Emscripten)

Emscripten

IDE

34 34%

IDE

66% 66

Email Marketing

16 16%

Email Marketing

84% 84

Games

100 100%

Games

0% 0

CRM

0 0%

CRM

100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using PCem and Emscripten. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Emscripten might be a bit more popular than PCem. We know about 47 links to it since March 2021 and only 34 links to PCem. 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.

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 / almost 3 years 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: about 3 years 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: about 3 years 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: about 3 years 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 / about 3 years ago

Emscripten mentions (47)

Ask HN: Qt style "Signals and Slots" based JavaScript UI library?
The first thing that comes to mind is that Qt now has a WebAssembly port[1] using Emscripten[2], so depending on your use-case, you could possibly just run Qt on the Web platform and avoid the need for a JavaScript framework entirely. [1]: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/wasm.html [2]: https://emscripten.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
Ask HN: Resources for Learning Graphics Programming
Me and a friend build our own Graphics engines based on https://learnopengl.com I can highly recommend this to everyone who gets started with computer graphics. It is a lot of new information but not the most modern Graphics library, but the information will help you understand the field and pickup any other graphics library quicker. Once I had a small project up and running I started looking at... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
Software Applications Incorporated
Https://infinitemac.org, which is https://basilisk.cebix.net compiled for the web using https://emscripten.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
How does one get started with unit testing?
One place that I’ve found some real, open source unit tests to look at for an example is in the emsdk for emscripten: https://emscripten.org. Source: over 2 years ago
Playing with low-level memory in WebAssembly
I am playing around with Emscipten which wraps around clang to compile C/C++ code in WASM binary and provide some glue-code API to embed WASM binary into JavaScript. Look into MDN Docs and Emscripten SDK to get started. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago