Utilities for playing OS/2 games

OS/2 software can be run on any x86 computer, as well as many non-x86 platforms. How this is accomplished depends on what operating system your computer is running.

OS/2 is capable of running DOS and Win16 programs, so OS/2 can be installed on top of those operating systems. Any computer running DOS (MS-DOS/PC-DOS/DR-DOS/FreeDOS) or Windows 1.0 through Windows 3.11 that meets the minimum hardware requirements should be able to install a copy of OS/2. If you want to run a real copy of OS/2, but don't already own one, there is an operating system based on OS/2 called eComStation.

Windows NT-based operating systems (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003) support only OS/2 1.x text-mode programs. Windows Vista, Windows 7, BeOS, Linux, and Mac OS X don't support OS/2 software at all. If you are using any of these operating systems, the only way to run OS/2 games is to install a real copy of OS/2 or eComStation in an emulation or virtualization program. Such programs allow you to run OS/2 and other operating systems as a "guest" operating system in a window on your "host" operating system.

Emulation/Virtualization

Bochs 
Win9x Freeware (always)
Published by Bochs Crew
Genre: Emulation/Virtualization
User rating: 0 (0 votes)
Bochs emulates a PC with a 32 or 64-bit x86 processor. Like virtualization suites, it allows you to run a real copy of DOS, Windows, Linux, and other PC operating systems. The significant difference is that a virtualization suite simply allows a guest operating system to run on your PC, whereas Bochs emulates a PC, so you can run PC operating systems on non-PC computers. Unlike DOSBox, you will need a copy of DOS to play DOS games, but Bochs was designed to run other operating systems as well, which can be anywhere from difficult to impossible with DOSBox. Written in C++, Bochs can compile on many platforms. Please see the Bochs homepage for other versions.

Bochs

Downloads

Bochs v2.5.1 Freeware (4,001,273 bytes) 6 January 2012 Win9x

Availability

This project is still actively being developed.
Virtual PC 
Win9x Freeware (former commercial)
Published by Microsoft
Genre: Emulation/Virtualization
User rating: 5 (2 votes)
Virtual PC allows almost any PC operating system to be run in Windows with virtually no loss of performance. You can run a real copy of DOS, OS/2, or Windows as a "Guest" operating system within your normal version of Windows (the "Host" operating system). Virtual PC is a virtualization environment, not an operating system emulator, so you will have to install your own copy of whatever OS you want to run as a Guest.

Virtual PC 2004 requires at least Windows 2000, and supports DOS, OS/2, and Windows 3.x (unofficially)/NT/9x/2000/XP/Server 2003 as Guests.

Virtual PC 2007 requires at least Windows XP, and adds support for 32-bit Windows Vista/Server 2008 Guests. Official support for DOS and Windows NT/95/98 First Edition/Me Guests was dropped, though they still work just fine.

The newest version, released on 19 September 2009, is called Windows Virtual PC. It requires Windows 7 and only supports Windows XP/Vista/7 Guests, so it is not useful for running any of the games on this site.

Virtual PC

Downloads

Virtual PC 2007 SP1 64-bit Freeware (33,381,416 bytes) 15 May 2008
Virtual PC 2007 SP1 32-bit Freeware (33,260,072 bytes) 15 May 2008
Virtual PC 2004 SP1 Freeware (19,058,331 bytes) 30 August 2006

Availability

Microsoft generously released Virtual PC 2004 as freeware on 12 July 2006. Virtual PC 2007 was originally released under a freeware license.
VirtualBox 
Win9x Freeware always
Published by Oracle
Genre: Emulation/Virtualization
User rating: 7 (2 votes)
VirtualBox is an extremely easy to use virtualization package that allows almost any PC operating system to be run in a window on PCs running Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, OS/2, and Solaris, with virtually no loss of performance (as long as you have enough RAM to spare for the guest operating system). You can run a real copy of DOS (with or without Win16) or Win9x, to play games from this site and be able to switch back and forth between the host and guest operating system without rebooting. VirtualBox is a virtualization environment, not an operating system emulator, so you will have to install your own copy of DOS or Windows. VirtualBox emulates a SoundBlaster 16, which is great for DOS and Win16, and it supports 2D and 3D acceleration and has experimental DirectX support, which is great for Win9x and newer operating systems. Shared folders can be created to transfer files to and from the guest operating system. There are ports for Solaris/OpenSolaris and a number of Linux distributions, so I recommend visiting the home page if the version for your operating system isn't listed below.

VirtualBox

Downloads

VirtualBox v4.1.8 for Mac OS X for Intel Macs (91,625,678 bytes) 19 December 2011
VirtualBox v4.1.8 for Windows (92,193,072 bytes) 19 December 2011

Availability

This project is still actively being developed.