i know of course that many games only have dos executables and as such, it does not apply to those. they can however use it on old windows games without dos executables and windows games with dos executables. windows versions is usually better anyway and if people want to use the dos executable, they can always get dosbox and run it themselves. both emulators is free. they should still try to make windows games run without emulators of course.

Does PCEM require you (the user) install a genuine Windows within it? Ie. PCEM is like an emulated PC within which you install the OS, like Windows 98SE or XP, yourself?

I think that alone would make it impossible for GOG to use, since they don't have a permission from Microsoft to use and include those old Windows versions with their games.

However, PCEM might be interesting in general, for people who want to run older Windows games that have problems running on modern PCs.

Cross platform, up to date, let's see what the obvious snag is. I'm going to guess a lack of configuration/need to install/absurd rigidity.

This appears to be a correct assumption. I haven't installed it, but it looks like you would need to install your own copy of whatever operating system you require in it. I base that on a quick look at their forum. But it essentially means that this is not even close to valid alternative for GoG to use over dosbox.

Also performance. Ignorant people using pcem complain about performance while they are using i7s and using the maximum specs in pcem while not realizing what an emulator is. GOG wouldn't want to deal with those users who just want to play a game and not know or care what an emulator is.

there is certain 16 bit games that have no dos executable. those would not work without it. gog could just try to license a copy a windows for use with pcem. it is not like microsoft is making any money on windows 95 anymore, or dos for that matter. only reason dosbox could continue was that microsoft either gave them a license or did not care.

Microsoft doesn't licence that way. As for why DOSbox is allowed to exist, you need to maybe try your research roll again; that 1 won't get you very far, considering Microsoft DOS isn't the only Disk Operating System.

All code in DOSBox is GPL and not based on MS code. DOSBox doesn't need MS approval. If it did it would never exist since MS doesn't care.

For old Windows games GOG would be better off with boxedwine or similar but would be best to keep expectations low since performance is always an issue.

PCem is an IBM PC emulator emulating the hardware as if it were the real thing -- it's a complete PC done in software supporting many different machines and hardware configurations. It needs both a BIOS ROM set and an operating system (such as DOS + Windows) to be installed inside the virtual machine.

To run 16-bit Windows programs on 64-bit Windows, I suggest WineVDM. It's magic and does exactly what you want. ^:)

Sounds like Bochs. Though unless you need full emulation, simpler or faster methods are preferred, like using native hardware as much as possible.

And FreeDOS only exists because Microsoft gave them a license too. After all, it does have DOS in the name. :P

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dosbox uses microsoft`s dos commands. microsoft became the only developer of dos. wine is a linux based emulator, it does not run in windows. pcem does.

Wine Is Not an Emulator.

By stumbling upon this thread, you just enabled this person to do this on a 64-bit system.

Thanks for mentioning this!