RetroTick parses PE/NE/MZ binaries, emulates an x86 CPU, and stubs enough Win32/Win16/DOS APIs to run classics like FreeCell, Minesweeper, Solitaire and QBasic, entirely in the browser. Built with Preact + Vite + TypeScript.
Demo: https://retrotick.com
GitHub: https://github.com/lqs/retrotick
chromehearts8 hours 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
lqs_op6 hours ago
Ha — even the README itself was written by AI, including that very sentence. Funny times indeed.
pimlottc5 hours ago
How kind of them to let us humans participate!
spwa43 hours 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!
darthcircuit12 minutes ago
I for one welcome our new human overlords
frostworx3 hours ago
at least for now :}
[deleted]13 minutes agocollapsed
lqs_op6 hours 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.
butokai6 hours ago
Just a couple of hours ago I was thinking about this project from some time ago doing the same thing: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32
I wondered how much of this could be done with an LLM agent, and here we have the answer
lqs_op6 hours 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.
jeroenhd7 hours 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_op6 hours 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.
pjc505 hours ago
Making this a partial WINE-in-a browser, quite impressive. How much of this was AI?
realityfactchex2 hours ago
Cool concept. I tried six different old Windows executables from programs I wrote way back when.
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.
hypercube3323 minutes ago
To be fair windows didn't even have this if I recall you had to ship it with your executable
hard_times4 hours 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.
smusamashah2 hours 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.
pathartl2 hours 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.
maniazi833 hours 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?
ddgflorida2 hours 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.
LinusU7 hours 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
lqs_op6 hours ago
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.
Tepix7 hours 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
The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.
fao_7 hours ago
Really doesn't surprise me, to be honest:
> We strongly recommend contributing with Claude Code or similar AI coding tools.
[deleted]5 hours agocollapsed
ftchd7 hours ago
so which one, the coding by hand part?
lqs_op6 hours ago
Win16 GDI support is still pretty incomplete. There's a lot of work left to do there.
[deleted]7 hours agocollapsed
TechSquidTV7 hours ago
Please let me plan Sim Theme Park. I can't seem to run it on Crossover on my mac.
lqs_op6 hours ago
Sim Theme Park is probably too modern and complex for the current state of RetroTick, unfortunately.
ale426 hours 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: 0x00002feelqs_op6 hours ago
DOS interrupt support is still limited. Running SHELL would essentially require implementing a full MS-DOS COMMAND.COM, which is a significant undertaking.
stuaxo5 hours ago
Ralph browns interrupt list could go a long way to getting stuff working.
stuaxo5 hours ago
Oh, I did exactly the same :D
stuaxo5 hours 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.
itintheory5 hours ago
Seems like the .scr files trigger CrowdStrike Falcon. Not clear where the executables run here come from...
haonnoah6 hours 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_op6 hours 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.
b3lvedere8 hours ago
Aww. The FreeCell cheats don't work, except for -1 and -2 :)
lqs_op6 hours ago
Just added keyboard shortcut support. Ctrl+Shift+F10 should work now!
b3lvedere2 hours ago
Awesome! Thank you!
em3rgent0rdr5 hours ago
Impressive. Noting however that double-clicking is not working in Minesweeper. :)
tty4564 hours ago
Winamp 2.x would be great to add if allowed!
Dwedit7 hours ago
Not enough Shell32 to run Winfile or Notepad.
Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.
lqs_op6 hours 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.
KellyCriterion4 hours ago
they even have SSMAZE.SCR, that 2.5D rendering screensaver! :D
alfiedotwtf5 hours ago
Whoa, this is pretty sick!!
wertyu1238 hours ago
Nice
octoclaw8 hours ago
[dead]