PC98 Core

[saibayadon]

First of all, thanks puu for the hard work. It's incredible that this is already booting games.

I've set up everything and have managed to run some games. CRW (with the English patch) is booting perfectly when using D88 and loading both A and B disks. Chitty Chitty Train errors out with a "I/O Error" and a constant beep when trying to boot it. I'll continue testing games I have.

One thing I've noticed, and this may be my setup, is that the keyboard input stops working after a short amount of time or doesn't work at all. I booted the DOS disk someone shared here and was able to issue some commands and type for a short while and then it gets stuck. Has anyone seen a similar thing?

1QjSqTM.png (448.6 KiB) Viewed 76875 times

Are there any plans to support hard drive images ala VHD? It'd be very useful to be able to load something like https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=5463.0

[ShyTalk]

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!

Hi, Do you mind confirming how you got this to work in the end? I seem to be stuck at the same point as you but I can't seem to crack this:

1. I have my 5 Rusty .d88 files (Game disks A, B, C, Opening, System);
2. I run the core;
3. Ensure that the core settings are "standard";
4. I bring up the OSD and select "FDD0 *.D88 and select Rusty (System Disk);
5. I bring up the OSD again and select "FDD1 *.D88 and select Rusty (Opening Disk)
6. I click Reset and the Game System Disk seems to begin to load;
7. After a few moments the screen just goes blank

Have I missed something or could it be my Neo Kobe version of the roms do you think?

Thanks for any assistance!

[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!

Hi, Do you mind confirming how you got this to work in the end? I seem to be stuck at the same point as you but I can't seem to crack this:

1. I have my 5 Rusty .d88 files (Game disks A, B, C, Opening, System);
2. I run the core;
3. Ensure that the core settings are "standard";
4. I bring up the OSD and select "FDD0 *.D88 and select Rusty (System Disk);
5. I bring up the OSD again and select "FDD1 *.D88 and select Rusty (Opening Disk)
6. I click Reset and the Game System Disk seems to begin to load;
7. After a few moments the screen just goes blank

Have I missed something or could it be my Neo Kobe version of the roms do you think?

Thanks for any assistance!

Hi there,

I have just double checked the files again and they still run fine on my side. I can confirm that I have used the Neo Kobe version as well and I have used the very handy pgimeno converter tool to convert the .hdm. to .D88. This tool really works like a charm, as all his other converters!

I don't see anything wrong in your steps. Please make sure you have got the correct/recommended settings:

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 than that I cannot think of anything else. Please let me know how it goes.

[JsonOne]

Has there been any update on getting hard disks working? Some of the bigger games aren't on floppy disks

[Moondandy]

Hey guys, I was wondering what the status of this core is now? Is the source code available anywhere? Has anyone picked it up now Puu has moved onto FM Towns?

[Milspex]

I've set up everything and have managed to run some games. CRW (with the English patch) is booting perfectly when using D88 and loading both A and B disks. Chitty Chitty Train errors out with a "I/O Error" and a constant beep when trying to boot it. I'll continue testing games I have.

Can someone drop these D88 patched files on archive or someplace please? (hint hint Dead of the Brain english patched)

Also imagine the possibilites if this core could read hdm / hdi / fdi file types. Unlock all..

Also, maybe this is of any help https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1616/

[teller]

Did somebody get the english-patched version of 46 Okunen Monogatari - The Shinkaron (E.V.O. - The Theory of Evolution) to work?
I converted the .hdm-files to .d88 with Virtual Floppy Image Converter and the game boots but after ENIX PRESENTS there is s black screen. I also checked it unpachted, same issue.

[softtest9]

Is the floppy code on the FPGA or ARM side? If it's on the ARM side, perhaps a software developer could take a look. Emulators generally support multiple formats and some of them are open-source.

[puu]

Is the floppy code on the FPGA or ARM side? If it's on the ARM side, perhaps a software developer could take a look. Emulators generally support multiple formats and some of them are open-source.

FDD code is on FPGA.
The ARM side only inputs and outputs files, and the FPGA expands the .d88 image to the track image.
The .d88 format is used because it can handle formats where the sector size is different for each track or there are multiple size sectors in the track.

[Elrinth]

How do you get this core running?

I put the Zet98_20210217.rbf in the /fat/media/_Computer folder and I made a /fat/media/games/zet98/ folder... then what?

I only get a black screen.

I got help in the discord... Seems the file you need is the one posted by tonton earlier...

[nero81af]

Hi There,
First of all great job mr. Puu! I was playing around with pc98 core but the three games that I'd like to play do not work.. what can I do to help out? I'm a c++ coder only the three games are

dragon slayer: the legend of heroes
dragon slayer: the legend of heroes II
snatcher

My setup should be ok.. I can boot the dos disk!

[davidpgil]

Just started to get interested in Mister because of PC98 -- following.

[davidpgil]

... I JUST ordered a Mister morning after reading this thread. I love retro hardware but some of these old systems didnt really think about the historical preservation aspect and buying a fully compatible PC98 "system" can be quite expensive, just to be able to play games. I recently became osessed with trying to get into PC98 and now I can with Mister!

[TimeWarpGamer]

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>

Huge props for the Python script. Thanks so much for sharing. First try it worked great, then I tried Hellhound and Phalanx .dim files and got an error: "raise Exception('Data present in a track number not supported by D88, aborting'). I guess some .dim games cannot be converted to .d88?

[pgimeno]

Huge props for the Python script. Thanks so much for sharing. First try it worked great, then I tried Hellhound and Phalanx .dim files and got an error: "raise Exception('Data present in a track number not supported by D88, aborting'). I guess some .dim games cannot be converted to .d88?

These are for X68000, right? I can't reproduce the problem you're running into; maybe you need to redownload the tool? (check my sig)

Or maybe you were trying to use FDI2D88 to convert DIM files? Note that each file type needs a different converter. For DIM files you need to use dim2d88.py.

[JsonOne]

Is the floppy code on the FPGA or ARM side? If it's on the ARM side, perhaps a software developer could take a look. Emulators generally support multiple formats and some of them are open-source.

FDD code is on FPGA.
The ARM side only inputs and outputs files, and the FPGA expands the .d88 image to the track image.
The .d88 format is used because it can handle formats where the sector size is different for each track or there are multiple size sectors in the track.

There is some issue with the keyboard controller, holding down a key other than shift for more than a second will cause the computer to freeze. Using de0cv version, the address lights on 7 seg are stuck too when this happens.

[Madnar]

First of all, thanks puu for the hard work. It's incredible that this is already booting games.

I've set up everything and have managed to run some games. CRW (with the English patch) is booting perfectly when using D88 and loading both A and B disks.

Yes, I second thanking puu for the hard work. These Japanese computer cores are the ones I'm interested in trying the most! Have you played CRW at all? I'm trying to play the first level, but the game feels a lot more sluggish than a video of a play through I saw on youtube, which makes it tough for a game with real-time elements. I'm not sure if that's just emulation vs Mister, something I have to configure, or if I should be patient for a more mature core.

Also, does anyone have the Dead of the Brain translation working properly? The game is running on my end, but the text is gibberish. It's not English or Japanese. If I remember, maybe there are vertical lines over the entire screen, too (like jail bars).

[Madnar]

Hey, I'm trying to see if I can create a SASI HDF file from the neko project II emulator. Can any of the below HD types be converted? Or is there some other way to create this type of HD?

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[puu]

Unfortunately PC-98core does not yet support HDD.
Because in the PC-98 of the 8086 CPU era, the HDD was SASI or SCSI, but there are many types of host adapters including third parties, and the SCSI on hand is made by a third party and only a limited number of people can obtain the BIOS for this. Also, I don't have a genuine NEC SASI / SCSI host adapter, so I can't get the BIOS.
Later, the IDE was installed in the PC-98, but by that time the CPU was already in the 486 era, and the DISK BIOS is included in the system BIOS, but the CPU of this core uses instructions that cannot be used in the 8086. Cannot be executed.
However, I cannot support it because I do not have the ability to create a SASI / SCSI BIOS.

[aberu]

I think a few computer cores bypass this or they have a patched BIOS to get around this problem as a workaround. @sorgelig has offered to help with something similar for the upcoming PC-XT core, maybe he can give some advice or help with this too.

[JsonOne]

Because in the PC-98 of the 8086 CPU era, the HDD was SASI or SCSI, but there are many types of host adapters including third parties, and the SCSI on hand is made by a third party and only a limited number of people can obtain the BIOS for this. Also, I don't have a genuine NEC SASI / SCSI host adapter, so I can't get the BIOS.

I might have discovered a solution for this check your PMs messages!

[Jegriva]

Hi, does this runs also on consumer CRT?

[akeley]

Hi, does this runs also on consumer CRT?

I can get a stable image using modelines from PC-88 (which in turn were borrowed from ao486) , but it's squashed - even after applying 16:9 ratio.

On PC-88 it's the same, but this core has the Aspect Ratio: Full Screen option which helps to alleviate this problem.

Try at your own risk:

Code: Select all

[Zet98]
direct_video=0
vga_scaler=1
vsync_adjust=2
vscale_mode=3
video_mode=1280,159,140,248,240,11,0,19,29568

[Newsdee]

Does anybody have a list of game recommendations that work on the current pc98 core?

[koshi]

Unfortunately PC-98core does not yet support HDD.
Because in the PC-98 of the 8086 CPU era, the HDD was SASI or SCSI, but there are many types of host adapters including third parties, and the SCSI on hand is made by a third party and only a limited number of people can obtain the BIOS for this. Also, I don't have a genuine NEC SASI / SCSI host adapter, so I can't get the BIOS.
Later, the IDE was installed in the PC-98, but by that time the CPU was already in the 486 era, and the DISK BIOS is included in the system BIOS, but the CPU of this core uses instructions that cannot be used in the 8086. Cannot be executed.
However, I cannot support it because I do not have the ability to create a SASI / SCSI BIOS.

Thank you for your great work on all this classic Japanese comuters! Its a shame, though, that no HDDs are supported. I think this really holds back more people from getting into it, because it seems that especially translated games + games with extras, etc. are distributed as Hard Disk image.
I didn't exactly understand what is holding you back here - is it just a question of getting a genuine NEC host adapter? Or is the problem dumping the BIOS? I would be willing to buy a controller and an EPROM programmer, if that would be of any help!

[JsonOne]

Hey puu I use the DE0-CV version and would like to take a look at the FDD code to modify it to work with the IDE->SASI bios but couldn't find the code that runs in NIOS anywhere, do you know where it is?

[SavitarSvit]

puu, are there any plans to implement EGC (Enhanced Graphic Charger)?

[softtest9]

I believe puu is focusing on FM-Towns and won't be developing the PC-98 core anytime soon.

[siskavard]

Would be cool if this core came out eventually.