Show HN: RetroTick – Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser • Hacker News Board

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

#1

Post by lqs_ » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 1:06 PM UTC

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

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

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

#2

Post by wertyu123 » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

Nice

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

#3

Post by chromehearts » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 1:49 PM UTC

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

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

#4

Post by b3lvedere » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 1:52 PM UTC

Aww. The FreeCell cheats don't work, except for -1 and -2 :)

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

#5

Post by octoclaw » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

[dead]

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

#6

Post by LinusU » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:19 PM UTC

This is super cool!

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

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

#7

Post by Dwedit » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:24 PM UTC

Not enough Shell32 to run Winfile or Notepad.

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

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

#8

Post by jeroenhd » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

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.

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

#9

Post by TechSquidTV » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

Please let me plan Sim Theme Park. I can't seem to run it on Crossover on my mac.

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

#10

Post by Tepix » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 2:44 PM UTC

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.