Sony’s PlayStation 2, the best-selling console ever, reshaped gaming in the early 2000s. Now, in 2025, a programmer named MeraByte has managed to run Windows 95 on this aging game console.
The PS2’s core, the MIPS-based Emotion Engine, is built for games, not the kind of processing that Windows 95 demands. That OS was made for x86 PCs, a totally different beast altogether. To make it work, MeraByte tapped Bochs, an open-source x86 emulator that essentially turns the PS2 into a virtual 1995 PC.
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Getting Bochs onto the PS2 meant navigating its bare-bones setup. Unlike a PC, the PS2 has no real operating system—just raw hardware for running games. MeraByte probably used FreeMCBoot, a classic homebrew workaround that unlocks the console via a memory card to run custom code. With that, they could load Bochs onto the PS2 via a USB drive, setting up the next big hurdle: installing Windows 95.
Windows 95 needs a hard drive, but the PS2’s all about memory cards and DVDs. MeraByte got clever, using Bochs to fake a hard drive on a USB stick, formatted to mimic the 80MB IDE or ATA drives of the ‘90s—back when 4MB of RAM was basic. This virtual setup demanded Bochs emulate not just the drive but a compatible BIOS and bare-minimum hardware like a VGA graphics card.
Loading Windows 95 was no walk in the park. The PS2’s DVD drive is picky, so MeraByte likely moved the Windows 95 disk image to the emulated drive using a USB stick or network share, leaning on homebrew tools like Open PS2 Loader. Installing it was painfully slow since the PS2’s 294.912 MHz Emotion Engine runs hard to emulate an x86 system.
Running Windows 95 on a PS2 comes with some hiccups. MeraByte’s video shows it works, but it’s not exactly practical. The mouse is a no-go, probably because of spotty driver support or the PS2’s limited inputs. Even Ultimate Doom 95, a game that should play with the setup, won’t run, likely due to emulation bottlenecks or missing files. The PS2’s gamepad ports don’t play nice with Windows’ keyboard-and-mouse world. Still, watching Solitaire or Minesweeper boot up on a PS2 screen is a nostalgia bomb.
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