Is PCem different from a regular VM?

Hey all, I'm trying to decide if using something like PCem is worth it for me. There are some old windows 95 abandonware games I played as a kid that I'm quite fond of and wish I could play again, but don't properly function on modern computers (Even using WINE on my linux machine, which I've had some success with when playing other abandonware games) I had considered using virtual machine software to run them, such as VirtualBox, but VMs like that take up a lot more resources and hard drive space than I'm willing to sacrifice just for some nostalgia.

Enter PCem. I'm seeing all sorts of videos and posts around the internet hailing PCem as this revolutionary new way to play old abandonware that didn't exist before, but any time anyone explains how it works, it just sounds like a regular old VM to me, which I imagine would still take up far too many resources and hard drive space for my liking.

So I figured I'd ask here. Is PCem actually just a VM? if not, how does it differ? Will it actually allow me to play my old abandonware conveniently without having to sacrifice precious resources? Please advise.