Show HN: RetroTick – Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser

 (retrotick.com)

56 points | by lqs_ 2 hours ago

11 comments

  • jeroenhd 1 hour ago
    Seems to run a lot faster than the previous proof-of-concept I've found (https://www.boxedwine.org/app). Then again, that website runs an entire Linux VM to support Wine.
  • chromehearts 1 hour ago
    This is so cool & I'm really amazed by it but I couldn't help laugh at the readme

    > We strongly recommend contributing with Claude Code or similar AI coding tools. [...] Of course, coding by hand is also welcome.

    Funny time we live in lol

  • ale42 21 minutes ago
    Funny project...

    Tried to run SHELL from QBASIC, but it crashes:

      D:\qbasic.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.
  
  Reason:  illegal instruction
  Address: 0x00002fee
  • Tepix 57 minutes ago
    Tried it with REVERSI.EXE from Windows 3.0 from https://winworldpc.com/download/c2bbc28f-177a-c2b2-5311-c3a4... DISK02.IMG

    (you have to first uncompress it, for example with 7zip).

        $ sha256sum REVERSI.EXE
    a9e319c8f479d1568beec03858fdbb27c71747b2bbed6cd7c9f5e2daa23b40e9  REVERSI.EXE
    Result:

    The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.

    [-]
    • fao_ 52 minutes ago
      Really doesn't surprise me, to be honest:

      > We strongly recommend contributing with Claude Code or similar AI coding tools. [...] Of course, coding by hand is also welcome.

      [-]
      • ftchd 35 minutes ago
        so which one, the coding by hand part?
  • haonnoah 29 minutes ago
    Pretty cool. The pipes program doesn't seem to have color. Thoughts on making programs launch from a URL parameter? IE Launching a screensaver or game?
  • TechSquidTV 59 minutes ago
    Please let me plan Sim Theme Park. I can't seem to run it on Crossover on my mac.
  • LinusU 1 hour ago
    This is super cool!

    Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32

  • Dwedit 1 hour ago
    Not enough Shell32 to run Winfile or Notepad.

    Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.

  • b3lvedere 1 hour ago
    Aww. The FreeCell cheats don't work, except for -1 and -2 :)
  • wertyu123 1 hour ago
    Nice
  • octoclaw 1 hour ago
    [dead]