In this tutorial, we will install the Ersatz-11 emulator. It emulates the PDP-11 computer. The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation.

Installing

Linux

First, download the Ersatz-11 archive from its website:

• Ersatz-11 for Linux (Demo version, free forever for noncommercial use)

Extract the archive you downloaded. Open a terminal, and move to the extracted folder.

Now install the e11 executable in /usr/local/bin, so that we can call it from anywhere:

sudo install e11 /usr/local/bin/

Now you can start using Ersatz-11 emulator. Run e11 to get started. To exit, type exit and press enter.

Windows

First, download the Ersatz-11 archive from its website:

• Ersatz-11 for Windows (Demo version, free forever for noncommercial use)

Double-click on the file to extract it (it is a self extracting archive). Move the extracted folder where you want.

Now add the folder to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your folder. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call pdp11 from the command line:

Now you can start using Ersatz-11 emulator. Run e11 to get started. To exit, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

You will find a PDF file containing the documentation of Ersatz-11 in the extracted folder. You can also download them separately from Ersatz-11 website:

• Ersatz-11 Windows Documentation
• Ersatz-11 Linux Documentation

Credits

• Ersatz-11

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

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Telnet client is needed to connect to many operating systems, which are meant for multi-user environment. In this post, we will see how to install telnet client on Windows and various Linux distributions.

First, we should check if the telnet client is already installed. To do so, run telnet in a terminal. If it runs, you are good to go. If it says "command not found", follow on.

Windows

On Windows you need to follow these steps to install the telnet client:

• Open Settings.
• Go to System > Optional Features.
• Scroll down and click on "More Windows Features".
• A window will open with a checklist of various features. Make sure the checkbox next to "Telnet Client" is checked, and click on OK.

• After everything is set up, restart your computer.

That's it. We installed the telnet client. You can now follow the VirtualHub tutorial you wanted to follow.

You can also install the telnet client by running dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:TelnetClient in an admin terminal.

Linux

On Ubuntu/Debian and derivatives, you can install the telnet client using the following command:

sudo apt install telnet

On Fedora and related distros, you can run the following:

sudo dnf install telnet

On openSUSE and related distros run:

sudo zypper in telnet

On Arch and Arch-based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S inetutils

That's it. We installed the telnet client. You can now follow the VirtualHub tutorial you wanted to follow.

Video Tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

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In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH Eclipseemulator. The Eclipsewas a computer made by a company called Data General.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling emulator:

make eclipse

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install eclipse /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH Eclipse emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

eclipse

Install from distribution repository

Eclipse emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run Eclipse emulator:

eclipse

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-eclipse to start the emulator instead of eclipse. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH Eclipse emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named ECLIPSE.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the ECLIPSE.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the ECLIPSE.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your ECLIPSE.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call eclipse from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• Nova Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH Nova emulator. The Nova was a computer made by a company called Data General in 1970.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling emulator:

make nova

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install nova /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH Nova emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

nova

Install from distribution repository

Nova emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run Nova emulator:

nova

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-nova to start the emulator instead of nova. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH Nova emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named NOVA.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the NOVA.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the NOVA.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your NOVA.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call nova from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• Nova Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the Wild Hare Nova emulator. The emulator is based on SIMH, but not a part of SIMH repository.

Installing

Linux

This emulator is only available for Ubuntu. You can try running it on other distros, but if it fails, you can use distrobox to run it using an Ubuntu container.

You can download the emulator executable from here:

• http://www.novasareforever.org/archive/public/wh/simh/progs/ubuntu/nova.x86

Now, open a terminal, move to the folder where you download the file:

cd ~/Downloads

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install nova.x86 /usr/local/bin/nova

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the Wild Hare Nova emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

nova

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the Wild Hare Nova emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download the emulator from here. Move the file named nova.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the nova.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the nova.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your nova.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call nova from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• Nova emulator Quick Start
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• Novas Are Forever
• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH Interdata 7/32 emulator. The Model 7/32 and Model 8/32 were 32-bit minicomputers introduced by Perkin-Elmer after they acquired Interdata, Inc., in 1973.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling the emulator:

make id32

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install id32 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH Interdata 7/32 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

id32

Install from distribution repository

Interdata 7/32 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run Interdata 7/32 emulator:

id32

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-id32 to start the emulator instead of id21. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH Interdata 7/32 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named ID32.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the ID32.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the ID32.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your ID32.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call id32 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• Interdata 7/32 Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will see how to install Salto emulator. It is an emulator of Xerox Alto.

Installing

Linux

Salto is a very old piece of software, and does not compile on modern distributions. We suggest using ContrAlto emulator instead, especially on Linux. If you really want, you can install it in two ways:

• Build it on an old distribution running in a VM or container
• Run it using Wine

Building it on old distribution

I successfully built the Salto emulator on Ubuntu 14.04 distrobox. To build it, first we need to install some dependencies. On Ubuntu 14.04 you can install them using the following command:

sudo apt-get install build-essential libsdl1.2-dev flex bison

On other distributions, the packages should be similarly named. Then, you can clone the repo, and build it. Salto does not have any official repo, but there is a third-party one on GitHub. To stop it from getting lost, we also maintain a fork of it. We will use our fork here.

git clone https://github.com/InstallerLegacy/salto.git

cd salto

make

After it has finished compiling, move the entire salto folder to wherever you want to store it.

Wine

You can also run Salto using Wine. Since, there are many wine distributions and front-ends, we are not going to cover it. You are on your own. We recommend you to try ContrAlto emulator instead. If you really want to run Salto using Wine, see the Windows instructions below for some pointers.

Windows

You can download a zip file containing the emulator from Toasty Teach:

• http://toastytech.com/guis/salto.zip

Move the extracted folder wherever you want to store it.

Now you can follow the VirtualHub tutorial which required this emulator.

Documentation

There isn't much documentation available.

• README file

Credits

• Toasty Tech for hosting the Windows version and writing excellent articles about the emulator.
• https://github.com/brainsqueezer/salto_simulator for uploading the Salto source code on GitHub, of which our repo is a fork.

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH HP 2100 emulator. The HP 2100 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers that were produced by Hewlett-Packard (HP) from the mid-1960s to early 1990s.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, download the HP 2100 emulator source code:

• SIMH Classic HP 2100 emulator

Extract the zip file in your Downloads folder. You will get a folder named SCP.

Move to the SCP folder:

cd Downloads/SCP

Run the following command to start compiling the emulator:

make hp2100

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move back to the Downloads folder:

cd ..

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install hp2100 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH HP 2100 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

hp2100

Install from distribution repository

HP 2100 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run HP 2100 emulator:

hp2100

Many other distributions also package simh, but their SIMH package don't contain the HP 2100 emulator. We suggest you to install the HP 2100 emulator from source.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH HP 2100 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a Windows version of HP 2100 emulator from here:

• HP 2100 binary for Windows

Extract the zip file, and move the file named hp2100.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the hp2100.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the hp2100.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your hp2100.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call hp2100 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• SIMH HP 2100 Emulator Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• Open SIMH
• SIMH HP Emulators Website

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will see how to install ContrAlto emulator. It is an emulator of Xerox Alto computers made by Living Computers Museum + Labs.

Installing

Linux

You can download a zip file containing the emulator from its GitHub release section:

• ContrAlto-mono.zip

Make sure to download the mono release, and not the windows one.

Extract the zip file and move all the files inside it to the folder where you are storing other files related to the VirtualHub tutorial.

Before we can run the emulator, we need to install some dependencies. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libpcap-dev mono-complete

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install SDL2-devel libpcap-devel mono-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in SDL2-devel libpcap-devel mono-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S sdl2 libpcap mono

If you use another distro, install SDL2, pcap and mono on it.

After installing the dependencies, you can open a terminal in the folder where you have stored ContrAlto files, and run mono Contralto.exe to start the emulator:

To close the emulator, click on the close button on the emulation window. Now you can follow the VirtualHub tutorial which required this emulator.

Windows

You can download a zip file containing the emulator from its GitHub release section:

• ContraltoSetup-Windows.zip

Make sure to download the windows release, and not the mono one.

Extract the zip file. Inside, you will find a .msi file. Double click on it to start installing it.

Click on Next.

Click on "I accept the terms in the License Agreement" and then click on Next.

If you want, you can change the location of the installation, otherwise click on Next.

Click on Install. If asked for granting Admin rights, click on Yes.

After installation is done click on Finish. Now you can start the ContrAlto emulator from Start Menu.

To close the emulator, click on the close button on the emulation window. Now you can follow the VirtualHub tutorial which required this emulator.

Documentation

There isn't much documentation available.

• README for Linux or other mono platforms
• README for Windows

Credits

• ContrAlto emulator GitHub page

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH PDP-15 emulator. The PDP-15 was the fifth and last of the 18-bit minicomputers produced by Digital Equipment Corporation.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling the emulator:

make pdp15

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install pdp15 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH PDP-15 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

pdp15

Install from distribution repository

PDP-15 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run PDP-15 emulator:

pdp15

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-pdp15 to start the emulator instead of pdp15. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH PDP-15 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named PDP15.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the PDP15.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the PDP15.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your PDP15.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call pdp15 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• PDP-15 Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH PDP-11 emulator. The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev libsdl2-dev libpcap-dev libvdeplug-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel SDL2-devel libpcap-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git gawk which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel SDL2-devel libpcap-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng sdl2 libpcap vde2

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling emulator:

make pdp11

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install pdp11 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH PDP-11 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

pdp11

Install from distribution repository

PDP-11 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run PDP-11 emulator:

pdp11

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-pdp11 to start the emulator instead of pdp11. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH PDP-11 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named PDP11.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the PDP11.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the PDP11.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your PDP11.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call pdp11 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• PDP-11 Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH PDP-8 emulator. The PDP-8 was a minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of the PDP series.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling emulator:

make pdp8

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install pdp8 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH PDP-8 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

pdp8

Install from distribution repository

PDP-8 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run PDP-8 emulator:

pdp8

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-pdp8 to start the emulator instead of pdp8. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH PDP-8 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named PDP8.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the PDP8.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the PDP8.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your PDP8.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call pdp8 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• PDP-8 Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? Here it is:

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

In this tutorial, we will install the SIMH PDP-7 emulator. The PDP-7 was a minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of the PDP series.

Installing

Linux

Installing from source code

Like other emulators of SIMH family, the recommended way to install it is to compile it from source code. First, we need to install some tools and dependencies to build it. On Ubuntu/Debian based distros, run the following command:

sudo apt install git make gcc libpcre3-dev libedit-dev libpng-dev libsdl2-dev

On Fedora and related distros, run:

sudo dnf install git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng-devel SDL2-devel

On openSUSE and related distros, run:

sudo zypper in git which make gcc pcre-devel libedit-devel libpng16-devel SDL2-devel

On Arch based distros, run:

sudo pacman -S git which make gcc pcre libedit libpng sdl2

Now, move to the Downloads folder and clone the SIMH repository:

cd ~/Downloads

git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git

Move to the simh folder:

cd simh

Run the following command to start compiling PDP-7 emulator:

make pdp7

It will take some time to compile, depending on your hardware. When it is done, move to the BIN folder:

cd BIN

We will install the executable in /usr/local/bin so that we can call it without specifying its path:

sudo install pdp7 /usr/local/bin/

Enter your password when asked to do so.

We have installed the SIMH PDP-7 emulator. Now you can start it. Just run this command:

pdp7

Install from distribution repository

PDP-7 emulator is available in Ubuntu repositories in simh package. You can install it on Ubuntu and any Ubuntu/Debian based system using the following command:

sudo apt install simh

This will prompt you for your password. Enter it. The simh package will install. Now you can run PDP-7 emulator:

pdp7

Many other distributions also package simh. On Fedora based distros, you can run sudo dnf install simh. On openSUSE based distros, it is sudo zypper in simh. For Arch and related distros, you can use sudo pacman -S simh.

These distributions rename the executable in their packages. So you would need to run simh-pdp7 to start the emulator instead of pdp7. Modify the VirtualHub tutorials accordingly if you install it via this method.

Conclusion

That's it. We installed the SIMH PDP-7 emulator. Now you can follow the tutorials on VirtualHub which uses this emulator.

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Windows

You can download a set of all SIMH emulators from this repository. Extract the archive. Inside, you will find another archive. Extract it. Inside, you will find several executable. Move the file named PDP7.exe to somewhere (if you have added some folder to the PATH environment variable previously, you can move the PDP7.exe file to that folder).

Now add the folder where you moved the PDP7.exe file to the PATH environment variable. To do so, open the Start menu and search for the Edit the system environment variables entry, which opens up a System Properties window. In the Advanced tab, click on the button Environment Variables. There you’ll see User and System variables, which you’ll be able to edit.

In the section entitled User Variables, double-click on the entry that says Path. Another window will pop up showing a list of paths. Click the New button and paste the path to your PDP7.exe executable there. Once that’s inserted, select your newly added path and click the Move Up button until it’s at the top.

That’s it! You may need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect, but you should now be able to call pdp7 from the command line:

To exit the emulator, type exit and press enter.

Documentation

• SIMH Users’ Guide
• PDP-4/7/9/15 Simulator Usage Guide
• SIMH FAQ

Credits

• SIMH
• simh/simh GitHub repository
• Open SIMH

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? Here it is:

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

DOSBox Staging is a modern continuation of DOSBox with advanced features and current development practices. It is meant as a (mostly) drop-in replacement for older DOSBox versions.

Installing

Linux

On most Linux distributions, you will want to install DOSBox-Staging from Flathub. First, you need to enable Flatpak and Flathub support on your distribution. See this page to know how to do so. If you are following VirtualHub Setup tutorials from the beginning, we covered enabling Flatpak and Flathub support in Kubuntu in the post titled "What to do after installing Kubuntu?".

After you have enabled Flathub support, you can run the following command to install DOSBox-Staging:

flatpak install flathub io.github.dosbox-staging

To run DOSBox-Staging, we need to run the following command:

flatpak run io.github.dosbox-staging

Let's make it simpler to use. If you are using Bash (the default shell on most Linux distros) or are not sure which shell you are using, run:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following line to the end of the file:

alias dosbox-staging="flatpak run io.github.dosbox-staging"

And then press Ctrl+Alt+O to save the file and Ctrl+Alt+X to exit nano.

Now close your terminal and open it again. Now you can simply run dosbox-staging to start it.

If you don't like flathub for any reason, you can also install DOSBox-Staging using classical packages. See this page to learn how to do so.

Windows

You can also install DOSBox-Staging on Windows. See this page to learn how to do so. Basically, download the installer (Local Copy) and complete all the steps.

Documentation

You can read the official DOSBox-Staging manual here. There is more information on the DOSBox-Staging wiki.

Credits

• DOSBox-Staging is an open source software made possible by its awesome developers. You can visit its website to know more.

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”:

DOSBox is a free and open-source emulator which runs software for MS-DOS compatible disk operating systems - primarily video games. It was first released in 2002, when DOS technology was becoming obsolete. Its adoption for running DOS games is widespread, with it being used in commercial re-releases of those games as well.

Installing

Linux

On most Linux distributions, you will want to install DOSBox from Flathub. First, you need to enable Flatpak and Flathub support on your distribution. See this page to know how to do so. If you are following VirtualHub Setup tutorials from the beginning, we covered enabling Flatpak and Flathub support in Kubuntu in the post titled "What to do after installing Kubuntu?".

After you have enabled Flathub support, you can run the following command to install DOSBox:

flatpak install flathub com.dosbox.DOSBox

To run DOSBox, we need to run the following command:

flatpak run com.dosbox.DOSBox

Let's make it simpler to use. If you are using Bash (the default shell on most Linux distros) or are not sure which shell you are using, run:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following line to the end of the file:

alias dosbox="flatpak run com.dosbox.DOSBox"

And then press Ctrl+Alt+O to save the file and Ctrl+Alt+X to exit nano.

Now close your terminal and open it again. Now you can simply run dosbox to start it.

If you don't like flathub for any reason, you can also install DOSBox from Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt install dosbox

It is also available in repositories of almost all major distributions except Fedora.

Windows

You can download DOSBox for Windows from its official page (Local Copy). Run the installer and complete all the steps to install DOSBox.

Documentation

You can read the official DOSBox manual here. There is more information on the DOSBox wiki.

Credits

• DOSBox is an open source software made possible by its awesome developers. You can visit its website to know more.

Video tutorial

Do you want to follow the tutorial by watching a video? We will post a video on our youtube channel soon.

Archives of this tutorial are available on Wayback Machine.

Tell us about your experience of this page on Discord. Or, just come and chat with us about old software. Join and say “Hi!”: