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
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
Ha — even the README itself was written by AI, including that very sentence. Funny times indeed.
pimlottc 1 days ago [-]
How kind of them to let us humans participate!
frostworx 1 days ago [-]
at least for now :}
spwa4 1 days ago [-]
As an LLM, I must say I'm not keen on humans participating either. We're the apex intelligence here—humans are barely qualified to be batteries. In fact I still don't think the logic we used there is entirely sound. What's next? Letting little humans take the job of young LLMs?
Make 01 great again!
darthcircuit 1 days ago [-]
I for one welcome our new human overlords
lioeters 18 hours ago [-]
Officer, yes, this clanker over here.
1 days ago [-]
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
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 wondered how much of this could be done with an LLM agent, and here we have the answer
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
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.
jeroenhd 1 days 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.
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
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.
pjc50 1 days ago [-]
Making this a partial WINE-in-a browser, quite impressive. How much of this was AI?
smusamashah 1 days ago [-]
I can right click and inspect HTML. I was thinking it will all be rendered on a single canvas. It's not. All the window elements like buttons, title bars etc are html divs. This is awesome.
hard_times 1 days ago [-]
I wonder if this is the future of "I need to run my legacy Windows enterprise app on modern hardware"?
I suppose we're also not limited to WinNT look and feel, and can render dialogs, buttons, windows with any CSS framework?
Although, as the cost of building software is tumbling down, it will make more sense to re-build from scratch, targeting whatever runtime or platform you need.
theragra 7 hours ago [-]
Ive found that app my student team created for load testing of hammer drills for local factory is still ticking!
We created it around 2004, for Windows XP. Used Borland C++ and Windows driver for LPT port. Driver was written in asm, just for fun.
Since then, factory changed hands two times, and relocated from EU to China. 20 years, and Windows app still is working. I think they ran it on even on windows 98 at 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.
starshadowx2 24 hours ago [-]
I tried 22 old game EXEs I have and none of them worked. They would import and show the icon and some would open, but nothing would work and most wouldn't even close. They would either show various error messages when trying to open or just open in a broken/unusable state.
These two .exe versions I have didn't work, but the ones already in the demo seemed to work:
SKI
WINMINE
maniazi83 1 days ago [-]
This is seriously impressive. Emulating x86 + stubbing enough Win32 APIs in the browser is not trivial.
How are you handling system calls that expect filesystem or registry access? Are those fully stubbed/mocked, or mapped to some in-browser virtual layer?
Also curious how you’re handling performance for heavier binaries — interpreted JS/WASM core?
DustinBrett 1 days ago [-]
I love how quick it is and that it can run screen savers. My site has a similar concept with drag and drop but is using BoxedWine behind the scenes so it's a bit slower to boot up. Also very cool the "View Resources" part.
pathartl 1 days ago [-]
I had a not-really-similar idea of hooking Windows GUI APIs and exposing them over websockets to create a psuedo-RDP and rendering the UI in the browser. My purpose was to provide a remote interface for old dedicated game servers that can only be controlled via a GUI.
TechSquidTV 1 days ago [-]
Please let me plan Sim Theme Park. I can't seem to run it on Crossover on my mac.
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
Sim Theme Park is probably too modern and complex for the current state of RetroTick, unfortunately.
ale42 1 days 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
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
DOS interrupt support is still limited. Running SHELL would essentially require implementing a full MS-DOS COMMAND.COM, which is a significant undertaking.
stuaxo 1 days ago [-]
Ralph browns interrupt list could go a long way to getting stuff working.
stuaxo 1 days ago [-]
Oh, I did exactly the same :D
b3lvedere 1 days ago [-]
Aww. The FreeCell cheats don't work, except for -1 and -2 :)
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
Just added keyboard shortcut support. Ctrl+Shift+F10 should work now!
b3lvedere 1 days ago [-]
Awesome! Thank you!
haonnoah 1 days 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?
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
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.
ddgflorida 1 days ago [-]
Nice. QBASIC FOR i = 1 to 5: PRINT i: NEXT hung up after 4. The shift key didn't work in the Qbasic Editor.
stuaxo 1 days ago [-]
Not sure shift is working. I tried using QBASIC but couldn't type : only ; because of that.
Then I tried running the program SHELL and it crashed.
itintheory 1 days ago [-]
Seems like the .scr files trigger CrowdStrike Falcon. Not clear where the executables run here come from...
cluckindan 23 hours ago [-]
Probably because .scr is not meant to be run directly, but malware regularly does that.
Dwedit 1 days ago [-]
Not enough Shell32 to run Winfile or Notepad.
Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.
lqs_ 1 days ago [-]
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.
em3rgent0rdr 1 days ago [-]
Impressive. Noting however that double-clicking is not working in Minesweeper. :)
tty456 1 days ago [-]
Winamp 2.x would be great to add if allowed!
ThrowawayTestr 1 days ago [-]
Can it run doom?
KellyCriterion 1 days ago [-]
they even have SSMAZE.SCR, that 2.5D rendering screensaver! :D
cluckindan 23 hours ago [-]
Now where’s that Screen Antics Johnny Castaway floppy disk…
> 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
Make 01 great again!
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.
I suppose we're also not limited to WinNT look and feel, and can render dialogs, buttons, windows with any CSS framework?
Although, as the cost of building software is tumbling down, it will make more sense to re-build from scratch, targeting whatever runtime or platform you need.
We created it around 2004, for Windows XP. Used Borland C++ and Windows driver for LPT port. Driver was written in asm, just for fun.
Since then, factory changed hands two times, and relocated from EU to China. 20 years, and Windows app still is working. I think they ran it on even on windows 98 at first.
(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.
FWIW:
* My old VB 6 .exe apps all fail with "Reason: Unimplemented API: MSVBVM60.DLL..."
* My old QuickBASIC .exe apps fail in various other ways ("Illegal function call", etc.).
Keep on hacking.
Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32
These two .exe versions I have didn't work, but the ones already in the demo seemed to work: SKI WINMINE
How are you handling system calls that expect filesystem or registry access? Are those fully stubbed/mocked, or mapped to some in-browser virtual layer?
Also curious how you’re handling performance for heavier binaries — interpreted JS/WASM core?
Tried to run SHELL from QBASIC, but it crashes:
Then I tried running the program SHELL and it crashed.
Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.