Emulation – My best options – A knock-kneed, old geek

Z80

RUNCPM
YAZE-Z80
Z80-PACK

80x6/80x86

FOR MS-DOS / TEXT

DOSBOX-X

# Most DOS/WINDOWS EMU's focus on Gaming as a prime use case # FOR Low-Level most/realistic

# PCEM v17 (2022) Windows Linux
# 86BOX (a fork of PCEM) v4.1.1 (March 2024) Windows, Linux
# VIRTUALBOX Windows Linux
# MAME(MESS) Windows Limux
# QEMU Windows Linux
# DOSBOX-X Windows Linux

2006 – 2026 Modern

1926 – 2006 Vintage

<1926 Antique

Retro – something that is inspired by or designed to mimic styles from the past. So the C64 Maxi for example would be a Retro item.

#Timeline based view

Antique < 1926

Typically anything over 100 years old is considered an antique. <1926 Antique

1971

Intel 4004

1972

Intel 8008

1974

Intel 8080

CP/M

1976

Zilog z80 processor

1977

Research Machines 380z

1978

Intel 8086 processor

CP/M v2

1979

Intel 8088 processor

MP/M

1980

Commodore VIC-20

1981

IBM Personal Computer (model 5150)

ICL PC Model 30

CP/M-86 v1

MP/M-86 v2.0

DOS 1.0

1982

Intel 80186 processor

Intel 80286 processor

NEC v20 processor

5MB hard disk

Commodore 64

Research Machines Link 480Z

DOS 1.1

1983

IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160)

CP/M-86 v1.1 (BDOS 2.2)

CP/M-86 Plus v3.1 (BDOS 3.1)

Personal CP/M-86 v1.0 (BDOS 3.1)

DOS 2.x

1984

IBM Personal Computer AT (model 5170)

20MB hard disk

DOS 3.0

1985

Intel 80386DX processor

Personal CP/M v3.1 (BDOS 3.3)

Concurrent DOS 4.1

DOS 3.1

Windows 1.0

Commodore 128

1986

Comart Quad

DOS 3.2

1987

33MB hard disk

MS DOS 3.3

Windows 2.0

IBM OS/2 1.0

Commodore Amiga 500

Compaq Portable III

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1987

1988

IBM AS/400

DR-DOS

OS/2

Windows 2.03

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1988

1989

Intel 80486 processor

20MB hard disk

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1989

1990

Windows 3.0

MS Office v3

Novell Netware 3.0

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1990

1991

Intel 80486SX processor

MS DOS 5.0

Novel Netware 3.10

Novel Netware 3.11

Linux introduced

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 2001

1992

Intel 80486DX2 processor

Intel 80486SL prcoessor

Windows 3.1

IBM OS/2 v2.0

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1992

1993

Intel 80486 processor

200 MB hard disk

MS DOS 6.0

Windows NT 3.1

Windows 3.11

Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Novell Netware 4

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1993

1994

Intel 80486DX4 processor

630 MB hard disk

MS DOS 6.21 (!)

MS DOS 6.22

Windows NT 3.5

OS/2 WARP

Example high-end spec:

486DX4/100
128Kb Cache
8 MB Ram
425 MB HDD (IDE)
VL Local Bus Graphics - 2MB (1024x768) SVGA (Diamond Viper VLB)
2x CDROM
Sound Card SB16
DOS 6.21
Windows 3.11
3.5" FDD

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1994

1995

Intel Pentium processor

1.2 GB Hard Disk

16MB RAM

SoundBlaster AWE32 sound card

CD-ROM drive

Windows 95

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1995

1996

Intel Pentium processor

1.2GB hard disk

Windows NT4

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1996

1997

Intel Pentium II and Pentium II Intel XEON processors

2GB hard disk

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1997

1998

Intel Celeron processor

Windows 98

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1998

1999

Intel Pentium III and Pentium III XEON processors

30 GB hard disk

Windows 98 Second Edition

DOS Days - Typical PCs in 1999

2000

Intel Pentium 4 processor

30GB hard disk

Windows ME

Windows 2000

2001

Windows XP

2005

Vintage

Vintage 1926 - 2006

Anything over 20 years old would typically be called Vintage

> 2006 up to today Modern