Running Windows 95 on a PlayStation 2: A Partial Success, but No Doom

So there’s this fun saga—yeah, saga—by Jace from MetraByte, a YouTube channel that’s all about “silly tech.” They kinda decided to spend an absurd amount of time coaxing Windows 95 and Doom to run on a PlayStation 2. And hey, maybe you’re thinking: “Why, though?” Honestly, same here. But it’s pretty entertaining. Just picture it: trying to get this ancient Windows to hobble along on a PS2. Spoiler alert: Doom was a no-go.

Okay, let’s rewind. So, Windows 95 showed up on earth back in 1995, and the PS2 rolled in around 2000. If you’re thinking that the PS2 should breeze through this challenge—because, duh, five years’ worth of tech evolution—well, you’d think wrong. PS2 uses a MIPS processor, and Windows 95? Good ol’ x86. It’s like asking a cat to bark.

Anyway—wait, where was I? Right, Jace’s escapade. It’s condensed in a YouTube video, just under 30 minutes but, from what I gather, it took them like many, many hours to sort this out.

Here’s what went down. Jace modded a PS2, equipped it with a QWERTY keypad controller, a USB stick, and a hard drive—like some sort of science experiment. Weirdly mesmerizing. They loaded up these files: a .ELF file (fancy name for some homebrew code), DOSBox, Bochs emulator, Windows 95 files. It’s like packing for an interstellar trip but with old tech.

Get this: Jace tried DOSBox first but, despite “47 attempts”—seriously, who counts?—they switched to Bochs. It’s slower but gets the job kinda done. This whole ordeal looked painful, like pulling teeth, given PS2’s annoyingly slow I/O.

And Bochs? A whole new set of headaches. Read errors, drive complaints, mounting this and that. But then—oh, the sweet relief—up popped the Windows 95 setup screen. Cue cheers and probably some fist pumps.

Fast forward, “14 hours” later (Jace time-logged this, apparently), they were in. Running Paint on a modded PS2, like painting with your elbows. As for Doom95? The game left the building. No dice. But the adventure was what counted. Or so one might tell themselves.

Funny, how tech challenges like this kinda pull you in, right? I found myself rooting for them, even when things weren’t going as planned. Random side note: maybe some lessons here about determination? Or just being brilliantly bonkers? Who knows. Anyway, kudos to Jace for taking us along on the ride.