PC98 Core

[mapf]

Would you mind sharing the .d88 of Rusty? I have tried to convert the .hdi version with virtual floppy image converter but the .d88 I have got doesn't boot at all.

Most archives targeted at emulation will contain hard disk images, and I have not found a way to use these with the PC98 core.

I found floppy disk images for many titles in the "Neo Kobe - NEC PC-9801 (2017-11-17)" collection on archive.org. You will need a disk image tool to convert to .d88 files. I use the "Virtual Floppy Image Converter" from https://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/util/se151106.html

I managed to boot Rusty from the floppies from the "Neo Kobe" archive and can enjoy the introduction with music, but cannot start the game. The title screen reacts to no input by joystick, mouse or keyboard. I need to learn more about PC-98 using an emulator, I guess.

[wark91]

Me I used the one from Mame and the same tool to convert my floppies.
I tested my D88 on Mame and it is working.
I can used my game controller and go in game.

[Alkadian]

@alkadian, what is the software you use to convert floppies of Rusty ? Is vfic ? Is the floppies converted working on the PC 98 emulator ?
Do you have just black screen or a message ?
Thanks,

@wark91,
Thanks for coming back to me.
Yes I am using vfic ver 0.73.
I haven't actually checked it with a PC 98 emulator.
I only get a blank screen with no messages at all.
Thanks!

[Alkadian]

Would you mind sharing the .d88 of Rusty? I have tried to convert the .hdi version with virtual floppy image converter but the .d88 I have got doesn't boot at all.

Most archives targeted at emulation will contain hard disk images, and I have not found a way to use these with the PC98 core.

I found floppy disk images for many titles in the "Neo Kobe - NEC PC-9801 (2017-11-17)" collection on archive.org. You will need a disk image tool to convert to .d88 files. I use the "Virtual Floppy Image Converter" from https://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/util/se151106.html

I managed to boot Rusty from the floppies from the "Neo Kobe" archive and can enjoy the introduction with music, but cannot start the game. The title screen reacts to no input by joystick, mouse or keyboard. I need to learn more about PC-98 using an emulator, I guess.

@mapf,
Thanks for your help as well!
Yes I have used the same software as mentioned in my previous post in response to wark91.
In fact I have used the same "Neo Kobe" archive. I will try it again just in case the file got somehow corrupted.
I am so jealous you guys got it working
Well, time to start from scratch then and will report back here..hopefully with good news!

[Alkadian]

Me I used the one from Mame and the same tool to convert my floppies.
I tested my D88 on Mame and it is working.
I can used my game controller and go in game.

Good point, I haven'y thought about mame at all! I will try that as well! Thanks!

[wark91]

Ok.
You just load the first floppy or did you reset ?
The reset doesn't seem to work correctly.
The only way I have found to work every-time after tested the floppies on emulator is :
- Restart the Mister
- Start the core Zet98
- Load the first floppy

[Alkadian]

Ok.
You just load the first floppy or did you reset ?
The reset doesn't seem to work correctly.
The only way I have found to work every-time after tested the floppies on emulator is :
- Restart the Mister
- Start the core Zet98
- Load the first floppy

So I have converted again the .hdi file to .d88 with vfic.
I have followed your steps, without resetting. But again no luck, just a blank screen.

Just to clarify, shall I convert the 5 .hdm files instead?

[mapf]

I converted the .hdm files to .d88. When inserting the "system" and "introduction" disks, it boots and shows the intro.

Update: Tried again and this time the joystick input works. I can follow the disk change requests and the game starts.

[wark91]

In Mame, it is 5 foppies used FDI format (not HDI or HDM). Sorry I didn't try other set.
Also do you have a bip when the core launch ?

[pgimeno]

Since I can't run that disk tool, I made a converter from FDI to D88 in Python, based on my previous DIM to D88 converter. Usage is:

python fdi2d88.py <input file> <output file>

[Alkadian]

Ok.
You just load the first floppy or did you reset ?
The reset doesn't seem to work correctly.
The only way I have found to work every-time after tested the floppies on emulator is :
- Restart the Mister
- Start the core Zet98
- Load the first floppy

@wark91,

Many thanks for your help, I got it working at the end!

[Alkadian]

I converted the .hdm files to .d88. When inserting the "system" and "introduction" disks, it boots and shows the intro.

Update: Tried again and this time the joystick input works. I can follow the disk change requests and the game starts.

I was not aware of the right order of the system/introduction disks.

Maybe it is just me, but in order to get the controller to work I have to re-configure the controls, save the settings and re boot the core. After that I can use my controller.

I have also found these controls settings specifically for Rusty, not sure if they work though:

Code: Select all

[How to play]
4/6 : move left/right
8 : climb
2 : crouch
8+4/8+6 : run left/right
x : attack
z : jump
(while running) z : running jump(long jump)
8+x : attack upper
2+z : small jump
z+x : use special weapon(if you have any special weapon)
ESC : pause

Main-menu says :
"Begin Game"
"Continue Game"
"Option-menu"

Option-menu says :
don't touch this line
"Music select" (<- 4/6 to select music and x to play music)
"Return to the top menu"

Menu when you got game-over says :
"Continue this stage with no save"
"Save this stage and return to the main-menu"
"return to the main-menu without saving"

Thanks!

[Alkadian]

Since I can't run that disk tool, I made a converter from FDI to D88 in Python, based on my previous DIM to D88 converter. Usage is:

python fdi2d88.py <input file> <output file>

Cool, thanks for that. I will test it as well.

[vanfanel]

Hi!

I am strating with this core and while D88 games work fine, I have found this collection of english games in HDI format:
http://www.pc98.org/main.html

,,,and the core seems to use HDF instead of HDI.
Do you know how to convert HDI to HDF?

[pgimeno]

I can only see FDI files there. Did you mean FDI? Or can you point me to any HDI file?

[Cohge]

Since I can't run that disk tool, I made a converter from FDI to D88 in Python, based on my previous DIM to D88 converter. Usage is:

python fdi2d88.py <input file> <output file>

Thank you, this is very helpful!

Would be possible to use something similar to converter the .fdd from TOSEC sets "NEC_PC_9801_TOSEC_2012_04_23" ?

[vanfanel]

I can only see FDI files there. Did you mean FDI? Or can you point me to any HDI file?

Yes, for example Rusty english-translated is in HDI:
http://www.pc98.org/images/rustye.zip

[pgimeno]

Yes, for example Rusty english-translated is in HDI:

Thanks. Now I need to figure out the format of an HDF file. Any idea where can I find one?

[mapf]

I only know .hdf from Amiga emulators. You could try this tool: https://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/ ... s/xdftool/

[mapf]

Also, there is disk explorer for accessing those images: https://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA01393 ... dex_e.html

[wark91]

The state of this core is the hard disks (HDF) are not supported for the moment.

[pgimeno]

Would be possible to use something similar to converter the .fdd from TOSEC sets "NEC_PC_9801_TOSEC_2012_04_23" ?

I haven't found any info on the .FDD layout, but since I have that TOSEC collection, I may try to reverse engineer the file format. Meanwhile, you can use the Mame 0.208 set, which is in .FDI format.

[shira]

Here you can find some info and code about the .FDD format.

http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/v ... 3&start=15)
https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbo ... .cpp#L1439

[Cohge]

Would be possible to use something similar to converter the .fdd from TOSEC sets "NEC_PC_9801_TOSEC_2012_04_23" ?

I haven't found any info on the .FDD layout, but since I have that TOSEC collection, I may try to reverse engineer the file format. Meanwhile, you can use the Mame 0.208 set, which is in .FDI format.

Thanks for the info, didnt know they were in this mame set

[Alkadian]

I haven't found any info on the .FDD layout, but since I have that TOSEC collection, I may try to reverse engineer the file format.

@pgimeno,
That would be awesome. All your previous tools/scripts always worked like a charm. Many thanks!

[pgimeno]

Thanks for the info, didnt know they were in this mame set

After looking more carefully, it turns out they are in several different formats, including d88 itself.

Nevertheless, here's an FDD to D88 converter:

http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno ... fdd2d88.py

Usage: python fdd2d88.py <input file> <output file>

Notes: Don't disable assertions (don't use -O to run). Should run with Python 2 and 3. It's not very flexible with the accepted format, but it should be OK with most files. It's not very thoroughly tested. If there is a problem, please report it to me.

[Alkadian]

Thanks for the info, didnt know they were in this mame set

After looking more carefully, it turns out they are in several different formats, including d88 itself.

Nevertheless, here's an FDD to D88 converter:

http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno ... fdd2d88.py

Usage: python fdd2d88.py <input file> <output file>

Notes: Don't disable assertions (don't use -O to run). Should run with Python 2 and 3. It's not very flexible with the accepted format, but it should be OK with most files. It's not very thoroughly tested. If there is a problem, please report it to me.

Great, thanks a lot for sharing. I will definitely give it a go!

[nsm]

I'm a complete newbie to the PC98 and really to MiSTer in general. Here are some notes on the thread, and the setup that worked for me. I don't like BBCode so the notes are plaintext.

Code: Select all

===== CORE SETUP =====

* I used Mr. Fusion for my SD setup: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/mr-fusion
    * The root of the SD card contains a _Computer folder. This is where the
    .rbf file for the PC98 core (Zet98) goes.

* The core's author, puu, posts updates to the core on his blog:
http://fpga8801.seesaa.net/ * The cores are posted here as Quartus II .qar
archives. They can be extracted by using https://github.com/makigumo/unqar *
tontonkaloun has also been posting zip versions for download. As of writing, the
latest one is attached to this post:
https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=167&p=18662#p18662

===== BIOS =====

* If you just want to get going with the core, download tonton.rar attached to
this post: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=18850#p18850
    * Inside is a script named mkrom.sh and a file named Zet98.rom. Ignore the
    script. Rename Zet98.rom to boot.rom. Place into YOUR_SD/games/Zet98.
    Alternatively, place into YOUR_SD/bootrom/Zet98.rom. * The core should boot
    to a black screen. OSD should work via F12. You know it's working if you
    hear some beeps.
	
Detailed info on the BIOS:

* In puu's post for the first release of the core
(http://fpga8801.seesaa.net/archives/20210107-1.html) he mentions that the core
requires a boot.rom file, which is a catenation of the BIOS, ITF (unsure what
this is), and fonts. These files refer to bios.rom, itf.rom, and font.rom files
which are typically found in PC98 BIOS dumps I've found. Specifically, those are
the files present in the Neo Kobe PC98 archive's BIOS files.
* There has been some discussion on what model PC98 BIOS is required. See:
https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=15766#p15766
    * From what I can tell, none of the BIOS included in the Neo Kobe archive are
    appropriate. I tried making the BIOS myself as per the mkrom.sh file with a
    few different models, but to no avail. Whatever BIOS tontonkaloun used to 
    make his Zet98.rom works. I didn't see any mention of specifically what
    model that file was generated from.

For reference, my Neo Kobe archive contains BIOS for the following models:

Epson PC-486HX
Epson PC-486MU
NEC PC-9801 (unknown model)
NEC PC-9801-86 Sound Board
NEC PC-9801UX NEC PC-9821 (unknown model)
NEC PC-9821Ce2
NEC PC-9821V13 NEC
PC-9821V20 YM2608 (OPNA) rhythm samples

===== CONVERTING GAMES =====

According to https://46okumen.com/pachy98/, there's a LOT of disk formats PC98
games can be found in. The only format I care about is .hdm, the format the ROMs
in the Neo Kobe archive are distributed in.

* We need to go from HDM to D88 for this core. Let's take Albion - Domino
Soldier from the Neo Kobe archive as an example. The files are:

Albion - Domino Soldier [FD].zip
    * Albion - Domino Soldier (Disk A).hdm
    * Albion - Domino Soldier (Disk B).hdm
	
* The [FD] means Floppy Disk. Some games also have an [HD] archive, for Hard
Drive. From reading the thread, it seems people have only had success running
the floppy disk versions of games.
    * wark91 seems to confirm only floppy versions work at the moment:
    https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=167&p=19139&hilit=hdf#p19139
	
* To convert the HDM files to D88, I used an ancient piece of software called
Virtual Floppy Image Converter running in a Win2K virtual machine:
https://www.vector.co.jp/download/file/win95/util/fh212773.html
    * Open it. Check "EXPORT FOLDER" and provide a path to export the D88 file
    to. set "FORMAT" to "D88 format". Drag the HDM file in the box that says
    "Drag & Drop File(s) Here to Convert"
    * Copy the Albion - Domino Soldier (Disk A).d88 and Albion - Domino Soldier 
    (Disk B).d88 files to YOUR_SD/games/Zet98 or wherever.

A couple side notes:

    * Relying on VFIC seems prone to breaking in the future. Someone rewrote a
    couple conversion tools in Python:
    https://github.com/barbeque/pc98-disk-tools
        * We can't go directly from HDM to D88 using these tools. However, going
         from HDM to FDI then using pgimeno's FDI to D88 script
         (http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno/misc/converters.php) might
         work. I haven't tried it. It would be great to have a direct converter
        independent of VFIC.

===== RUNNING GAMES =====

* Boot to the Zet98 core. As mentioned above, if it successfully boots, you'll
get a black screen but hear a few beeps. If you wait long enough DOS(?) will
load, but you don't need to wait.
* Hit F12, go to FDD 0 *.D88 and load Disk A of Albion. Do the same for FDD1 and
Disk B.
* Hit Reset.
* Wait for a while, it takes a moment to boot. Some text from DOS will show up
after a while and continue booting the game.

===== TROUBLESHOOTING =====

* Some games (Rusty) will display a message telling you to flip DIP switch 2-8
to 2.5MHz in order to run. In that case, hit F12 and scroll to the bottom to
toggle it. Additionally, some games will look visually messed up
(duplicated/misaligned image) but WILL NOT provide the warning Rusty does. The
fix is the same: switch to 2.5MHz.
* In general, having the DIP switches set to what puu recommends is probably a
good idea:
https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=167&p=16251&hilit=DIP1#p16251

DIP1-8 Extend
DIP1-3 Normal
DIP2-1 1
DIP2-2 Basic
DIP2-3 80
DIP2-4 25
DIP2-5 Keep
DIP2-6 Connect
DIP2-7 Control
DIP2-8 2.5MHz

===== OTHER NOTES =====

* On my PVM (supports up to 1080i), I'm unable to get a good image unless
vga_scaler is set to 1. I don't know why this is, as supposedly the PC98 runs at
640x400. Without this on, some games display only a dark green color, and in
general the brightness seems to be screwed up. With the VGA scaler on they look
fine... unfortunately, without scanlines!

[pgimeno]

Code: Select all

    * Relying on VFIC seems prone to breaking in the future. Someone rewrote a
    couple conversion tools in Python:
    https://github.com/barbeque/pc98-disk-tools
        * We can't go directly from HDM to D88 using these tools. However, going
         from HDM to FDI then using pgimeno's FDI to D88 script
         (http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno/misc/converters.php) might
         work. I haven't tried it. It would be great to have a direct converter
        independent of VFIC.

Fair enough. I've added it to the converters page. Direct link: http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno ... hdm2d88.py

HDM turns out to be the simplest image format: raw sector data in order, like typical MiSTer VHD for example, so this converter was quite quick to write. I haven't tested it thoroughly, so please let me know of any problems.

[nsm]

Code: Select all

    * Relying on VFIC seems prone to breaking in the future. Someone rewrote a
    couple conversion tools in Python:
    https://github.com/barbeque/pc98-disk-tools
        * We can't go directly from HDM to D88 using these tools. However, going
         from HDM to FDI then using pgimeno's FDI to D88 script
         (http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno/misc/converters.php) might
         work. I haven't tried it. It would be great to have a direct converter
        independent of VFIC.

Fair enough. I've added it to the converters page. Direct link: http://www.formauri.es/personal/pgimeno ... hdm2d88.py

HDM turns out to be the simplest image format: raw sector data in order, like typical MiSTer VHD for example, so this converter was quite quick to write. I haven't tested it thoroughly, so please let me know of any problems.

Hey, this is excellent! I will give it a go tomorrow. Since the archival files for PC98 seem to be distributed in HDM due to the reasons you mentioned, I think a script like this will really help in preserving the platform. Cheers.