v86 VS ruffle

> As a thought experiment, we're almost there! We could technically have `win95.img + bochs86vm.wasm + autorun.inf + msword.exe` wrapped in a "browser evaluator"

I looked into this and... holy crap! We are there. Not for modern programs quite yet, sure, but this is amazing. You can use Windows 2000 from your browser.

https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows2000

I think you are looking for Shadow.

https://shadow.goose.icu

Or just the whole kitchen sink. Why not?

http://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows98

Also: https://github.com/copy/v86 - more productized browser x86 runtime, used by eg https://github.com/snaplet/postgres-wasm

Wonder if you could put all those databases in a Linux image and boot it using v86 [0], eliminating the need for a server.

[0] https://github.com/copy/v86

Trying it out in https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=kolibrios , it's also clearly a love letter to Windows 95 in particular. That could be an unstated goal here, create a very particular PC experience under very particular constraints. I don't know anything about the creator but it's very possible that this kind of work was actually their career in the 90s.

It's incredible how much work was done. Maybe this should be an internet curiosity like how TempleOS has become, though Terry's personality was a unique factor.

hmm, why would people still use VMWare? Isn't vbox open source, or even things such as https://copy.sh/v86/ would do most virtualization trick now days?

Oh, there are more OSes one can use at the parent page:

https://copy.sh/v86/

My highlights:

- First version of Windows (1.01)

- SerenityOS <3

- and even ReactOS

The memories…

I often wondered what would happen to those wonderful Orisinal mini games after Flash's death, without actually checking out the site. Would Ferry Halim find the time to port them to "HTML5"? Would they just… disappear forever?

It turns out that they know run in Ruffle[1], a Rust/WASM based Flash Player emulator I've never heard of (or forgotten about). The handful of them that I have tested work flawlessly.

[1] https://ruffle.rs/

shrug It finds its uses. It's just not that overstated.

sandspiel is quite popular and is built using WASM: https://sandspiel.club/

Google Earth - https://blog.chromium.org/2019/06/webassembly-brings-google-...

Ruffle (the "make Flash run safely" tool) - https://ruffle.rs/

Ableton's Learning Synths - https://learningsynths.ableton.com/

etc etc. It's just hard to tell when something is using WASM when it "just works" and is indistinguishable from optimized JavaScript

I was amazed that the site still runs, apparently still using the same engine.

But it seems that it was a flash site (of course), and archive.org seems to replace Flash Player with "Ruffle" [1]. Either that, or someone of Tobin's team replaced Flash with Ruffle >= 2019.

[1] https://ruffle.rs/

Out of curiosity a couple months ago I wondered if I could play my old Proximity flash game on Newgrounds from the browser within the Quest 3 VR headset, and it worked great!

That led me to do a little searching, and I discovered that originally the game didn't work in Ruffle, as I apparently did something with the play game button that wasn't normal. But someone put a fix in it back in 2020[1] in order to get my game working again. That was pretty neat. Felt kind of nice that people still cared enough about my old game to make sure it still works in an emulator.

Still working on a more in-depth sequel (using Monogame), and I'm way overdue to make a new web version of the original. Might knock that out once I get closer to getting the sequel out there.

[1]: https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle/pull/1024

i believe it's using Ruffle[0] and that's already happened[1]

[0] https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle

This is all using a really cool Flash emulator called https://github.com/ruffle-rs/ruffle