You can run a number of PC programs on a "modern" computer if you can get it to boot DOS. But you will run in to compatiblity issues quickly. For example there are no PCI sound cards (that I know of) that provide real-mode hardware Sound Blaster compatiblity.
Many gamers will swear by running programs on actual period hardware. (for example many games look like crap on LCD monitors... ah, heck, LCDs always look like crap)
But for convenience, it is often easier and quicker to run an application in an emulator or virtualizer.
Just off the top of my head, emulators include DOSBox, PCE, PCEm, MESS, and there are plenty others.
Virtualizers (better for 9x/NT business applications) include: VirtualBox, VMWare, and VirtualPC.
IBM Compatible is a typical PC format. If the PC can run Windows 32bit like XP, Windows Vista 32bit, Windows 7 32bit then you can run old 8bit/16bit software that was meant for DOS and Windows 3.x
A better question I suppose is, what application software do you want to run?
Different software over the ages often requires specific hardware configurations what will not be found in all "IBM PC Compatibles".
For example some early 1980s games and applications might only work correctly with an IBM CGA video card, and not VGA. While plenty of others require VGA video and won't work with CGA.
The different emulators and virtualizers mentioned above target different hardware configurations for different software vintages. Your 1982 CGA game probably won't run well, if at all, in VirtualBox. For that you probably want DOSBox.
Although obviously over most people's heads here, in fact, there were some very early 1980s computers based around the Intel 8088/8086 CPU that were in no way at all hardware compatible with the IBM PC, yet ran ports of MS-DOS.
Last I checked you can run 8088/8086 software on typical x86 hardware, hench x86 architecture. Now the Z80 based systems that were marketed as IBM compatible wasn't x86 compatible.
Comments
You can run a number of PC programs on a "modern" computer if you can get it to boot DOS. But you will run in to compatiblity issues quickly. For example there are no PCI sound cards (that I know of) that provide real-mode hardware Sound Blaster compatiblity.
Many gamers will swear by running programs on actual period hardware. (for example many games look like crap on LCD monitors... ah, heck, LCDs always look like crap)
But for convenience, it is often easier and quicker to run an application in an emulator or virtualizer.
Just off the top of my head, emulators include DOSBox, PCE, PCEm, MESS, and there are plenty others.
Virtualizers (better for 9x/NT business applications) include: VirtualBox, VMWare, and VirtualPC.
Different software over the ages often requires specific hardware configurations what will not be found in all "IBM PC Compatibles".
For example some early 1980s games and applications might only work correctly with an IBM CGA video card, and not VGA. While plenty of others require VGA video and won't work with CGA.
The different emulators and virtualizers mentioned above target different hardware configurations for different software vintages. Your 1982 CGA game probably won't run well, if at all, in VirtualBox. For that you probably want DOSBox.
Although obviously over most people's heads here, in fact, there were some very early 1980s computers based around the Intel 8088/8086 CPU that were in no way at all hardware compatible with the IBM PC, yet ran ports of MS-DOS.