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.
RetroTick's CPU emulation is actually slower than JIT-based emulators. It feels fast because the Win32 API calls are native JavaScript, not emulated system calls.
Hidden feature: right-click any executable and select "View Resources" to browse its embedded resources like icons, bitmaps, dialogs, and version info. It even supports viewing Delphi forms (though Delphi programs can't actually run yet). Think of it as a browser-based Resource Hacker or eXeScope.
I actually contributed to retrowin32 to get Solitaire running there. Back then the only AI tool available was Copilot, and it took me several days just to get the main window showing, without menus or dialogs.
The current state of RetroTick was achieved in less than one hour using Claude Code.
DOS interrupt support is still limited. Running SHELL would essentially require implementing a full MS-DOS COMMAND.COM, which is a significant undertaking.
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?
The missing colors are likely due to some texture bugs in the OpenGL implementation. As for URL-based launching, that's definitely on the roadmap, but I want to reach broader EXE compatibility first.
Thanks! I'm actually familiar with retrowin32. I even contributed a few commits to get Solitaire running in it. But Rust has a steep learning curve for me.
Notepad from Windows 2000 should launch now, though it's rendered as a simple textarea without full functionality. The file system API still needs a lot of work.
> 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
I wondered how much of this could be done with an LLM agent, and here we have the answer
The current state of RetroTick was achieved in less than one hour using Claude Code.
Then I tried running the program SHELL and it crashed.
(you have to first uncompress it, for example with 7zip).
Result:The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.
> We strongly recommend contributing with Claude Code or similar AI coding tools.
Tried to run SHELL from QBASIC, but it crashes:
Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32
Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.