Can’t you just use a virtual machine on Windows?
Also I still have an old Windows XP PC that I recently reinstalled Windows XP from scratch. I was surprised it worked.
Most are inexpensive, and you only need the smallest of them to run DOS games at blinding speed. You can get FreeDOS to run the DOS games, for XP you will need an old XP CD and/or license.
Linux on a Raspberry Pi is understandable. Why Windows?
ping for later study.
One project I just read about was making a PI into "Alexa". Google it.
If you’re looking into buying an SBC to run old DOS or WinXP games, I would look at getting a different SBC than a Raspberry PI.
While I know of a number of people who use a Raspberry PI to run versions of old console games (e.g., Pacman), I don’t know of anybody who has gotten one to run MS DOS or WinXP. As others have said, it’s the ARM architecture versus X86.
There may be a couple of workarounds, though:
There is a DOS emulator out there for Linux, called “DOSBOX”. Here’s a writeup: https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-run-ms-dos-games-and-programs-in-linux/ — don’t know how well it works myself.
Also, as far as WinXP games, you could see if they’ve been successfully installed under Wine. Wine has got its limitations, but with the older games, somebody else may have figured out how to do it. A probably unnecessary caution: even apps that can be successfully installed using Wine don’t act 100% the same as they do in a Windows environment (font rendering is the biggest thing I’ve personally seen).
This is where the suggestion to look at another board than the Raspberry PI for your purposes. DOSBOX or Wine both both come with a bit of overhead. 1GB of RAM can be hit fairly quickly. If you find a SBC with 2GB or more of RAM, you are likely to have a better result.
For example:
- ASUS Tinkerboard S — 8 core processor and 2GB of RAM as well as 16GB of onboard eMMC memory and integrated WiFi and Bluetooth. $91. https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-board-RK3288-1-8GHz-Mali-T764/dp/B00FS83U42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547458972&sr=8-1&keywords=tinkerboard&th=1
- ODROID XU4 — 8 core processor and 2GB of RAM and an integrated active cooler. (No integrated WiFi or Bluetooth. Needs eMMC module for OS). $89. https://www.amazon.com/ODROID-active-cooler-power-supply/dp/B0761YJY27/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_1/133-0018981-0378178?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0761YJY27&pd_rd_r=66811708-17e0-11e9-aefc-7df63d5d44a8&pd_rd_w=iKnsz&pd_rd_wg=zXI41&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=XXRVJEK05Q8Z7S88ZZFC&psc=1&refRID=XXRVJEK05Q8Z7S88ZZFC
A pro tip for you: make certain that when you buy an SD card get as fast a card as your project budget will allow for. At least a Class 10. If you get a cheap one (like from the bin in Microcenter), you will be frustrated. Trust me — I have experience with that specific mistake.
Pi are not square....