A custom virtual machine brings the 1995 4X classic Stars! back to life on modern Windows
A custom virtual machine for the Stars 4X game
Stars! is a 1995 4X game for 16-bit Windows that can't run on modern x64 Windows. Developer Chris Wellons built Stars!VM, a custom 80286 emulator with a Win16-to-Win32 bridge, packaged as a single signed EXE that embeds the original game. It adds modern file dialogs, 4K scaling, and even MCP support so AI agents can play. Turn generation runs nearly twice as fast thanks to hand-optimized routines and buffered I/O.
Opus 5 played a complete game through MCP — which is quite fun to watch — requesting my assistance at just two points when it got stuck in the UI.