Can a student simulate the free Cortex-M from DesignStart?

I saw, and tried in the past already, to simulate the Cortex-M0. It does not really matter efficiency, customization and so on, but only the learning process behind a steup for a correct very basic simulation.

I was trying to setup a Linux machine, when in the basic steps of the quick guide, I read:

Verilog simulator requires the install of one of the following:

• Mentor QuestaSim version 10.4e_1. You are required to set the environment variable QUESTASIM_HOME to reference your QuestaSim installation directory.
• Cadence IUS version 15.20.008.
• Synopsys VCS version 2016.06-SP2.

Now, I tried with ModelSim (thinking was like QuestaSim), but apparently the free version (Student Edition) works only on Windows and the code may be more than 10000 LOC, making it not executable.

As a student, is it possible to play with any kind of emulator? Are there (even buggy) alternatives for these emulators?

Thanks to all