{"slug": "retrotick", "name": "RetroTick", "category": "browsers", "category_name": "Browsers and extensions", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 1, "score": 2.653, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-02-27", "latest": "2026-05-27", "why": "I love how quick it is and that it can run screen savers.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I love how quick it is and that it can run screen savers.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "retrotick.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://retrotick.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["RetroTick", "Retrotick", "retrotick"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 772784368, "item_id": 48299023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48299023", "by": "lukax", "date": "2026-05-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I successfullt spent a few days extending it to run a Click & Create based game", "excerpt": "There is also Retrotick. https://retrotick.com/ It simulates x86 (win32 and win16) and implements Windows APIs in javascript and renders window frames with DOM and contents with canvas (e.g. GDI translates to browser canvas operations). A lot of programs run already but a lot of APIs are not yet implemented. I successfullt spent a few days extending it to run a Click & Create based game from my childhood.", "context": "", "use_case": "Running Win16/Win32 programs in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Theseus: Translating Win32 to WASM"}, {"id": 767941232, "item_id": 47996327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996327", "by": "tehologist", "date": "2026-05-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Whoa, I didn't know about this.", "excerpt": "Whoa, I didn't know about this. Looks pretty new. Win32 in a browser https://github.com/lqs/retrotick", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows API Is Successful Cross-Platform API"}, {"id": 754991200, "item_id": 47186950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186950", "by": "DustinBrett", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love how quick it is and that it can run screen savers.", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "running classic Windows EXEs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}, {"id": 754891952, "item_id": 47180747, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47180747", "by": "LinusU", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is super cool!", "excerpt": "This is super cool! Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 754896672, "item_id": 47181042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47181042", "by": "Tepix", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.", "excerpt": "Tried it with REVERSI.EXE from Windows 3.0 from https://winworldpc.com/download/c2bbc28f-177a-c2b2-5311-c3a4c2ac5a54 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.", "context": "", "use_case": "Running Windows EXEs in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["running win16/win32 programs in browser", "running classic windows exes", "running windows exes in browser"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47180083", "title": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264328", "title": "Theseus: Translating Win32 to WASM", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47992859", "title": "Windows API Is Successful Cross-Platform API", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "quotes": [{"id": 772784368, "item_id": 48299023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48299023", "by": "lukax", "date": "2026-05-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I successfullt spent a few days extending it to run a Click & Create based game", "excerpt": "There is also Retrotick. https://retrotick.com/ It simulates x86 (win32 and win16) and implements Windows APIs in javascript and renders window frames with DOM and contents with canvas (e.g. GDI translates to browser canvas operations). A lot of programs run already but a lot of APIs are not yet implemented. I successfullt spent a few days extending it to run a Click & Create based game from my childhood.", "context": "", "use_case": "Running Win16/Win32 programs in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Theseus: Translating Win32 to WASM"}, {"id": 767941232, "item_id": 47996327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996327", "by": "tehologist", "date": "2026-05-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Whoa, I didn't know about this.", "excerpt": "Whoa, I didn't know about this. Looks pretty new. Win32 in a browser https://github.com/lqs/retrotick", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows API Is Successful Cross-Platform API"}, {"id": 754991200, "item_id": 47186950, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186950", "by": "DustinBrett", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love how quick it is and that it can run screen savers.", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "running classic Windows EXEs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}, {"id": 754896672, "item_id": 47181042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47181042", "by": "Tepix", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.", "excerpt": "Tried it with REVERSI.EXE from Windows 3.0 from https://winworldpc.com/download/c2bbc28f-177a-c2b2-5311-c3a4c2ac5a54 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.", "context": "", "use_case": "Running Windows EXEs in browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}, {"id": 754891952, "item_id": 47180747, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47180747", "by": "LinusU", "date": "2026-02-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is super cool!", "excerpt": "This is super cool! Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: RetroTick \u2013 Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser"}]}