Tiny386 Emulator Boots Windows 95 on an ESP32-S3

Forget the patience needed to boot Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller—a feat that often took hours. He Chunhui has accomplished something arguably more impressive: running the Tiny386 emulator on an Espressif ESP32-S3, successfully booting and running Windows 95.

While the video demonstrates a system that’s “borderline usable”—you’ll still have time for that cup of tea while it loads—the project is a remarkable technical achievement that showcases the power of modern, low-cost microcontrollers.

The Technical Achievement

The project leverages the dual-core power of the popular ESP32-S3 microcontroller, which is far more powerful than its classic predecessors.

• The Emulator: Tiny386 is a straightforward, simple emulator for the 80386 CPU, written in C99. It borrows necessary peripherals from established emulation projects like TinyEMU and QEMU, and uses a SeaBIOS ROM.
• Compatibility: While the demonstration focuses on Windows 95, the Tiny386 project is theoretically capable of running most 16/32-bit DOS and early Windows software. Older DOS games or even Windows 3.11 could prove to be much smoother experiences.

Hardware & Potential

The current demonstration uses a readily available, roughly $30 JC3248W535 development board, which conveniently includes an integrated touchscreen display.

• Display: The built-in display and touch screen on the dev board provide the core I/O needed to interact with the emulated system.
• The Future is USB OTG: The most tantalizing possibility lies in the ESP32-S3’s USB OTG (On-The-Go) peripheral. If the developers utilize this, the ESP32-S3 could host a USB hub, allowing users to plug in a physical keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals, creating a fully functional (if slow) 386 PC system based entirely on a tiny chip.

This project is a fantastic reminder that the spirit of retro-computing and platform hacking is alive and well, constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with affordable hardware.

You can find the source code for the Tiny386 emulator on GitHub and start exploring 90s nostalgia on your own dev board.