NEC PC8800
The PC 8800 was a series of 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers released in 1982 by the Nippon Electric Company
| Emulator | Rom Folder | Extension | BIOS Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quasi88 | pc88 | .d88 .88d .cmt .t88 | N88.ROM, N88SUB.ROM, N88N.ROM, N88EXT0.ROM, N88EXT1.ROM, N88EXT2.ROM, N88EXT3.ROM and optional (N88KNJ1.ROM, N88KNJ2.ROM, N88JISHO.ROM, FONT.ROM) |
| lr-quasi88 | pc88 | .d88 .88d .cmt .t88 .m3u | n88.rom, n88_0.rom, n88_1.rom, n88_2.rom, n88_3.rom, n88n.rom, disk.rom and optional (n88knj1.rom, n88knj2.rom, n88jisho.rom) |
ROMS
Place your PC-88 ROMs in:
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc88
Accepted File Extensions: .d88 (disk) .88d (disk) .cmt (tape) .t88 (tape) and .m3u (lr-quasi88 only).
BIOS
Place your BIOS files in:
- Quasi88
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/pc88 - lr-quasi88
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/quasi88
At this link you can find information on the BIOS files used by the emulator Quasi88 BIOS File Page
Both emulator use the same BIOS file. lr-quasi88 looks for the same file with an alternate name (2nd column in the list).
| File | Alternate name | SHA1 | CRC32 | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N88.ROM | - | 3B31FC68FA7F47B21C1A1CB027B86B9E87AFBFFF | A0FC0473 | 32 KB |
| N88SUB.ROM | DISK.ROM | BB7103A0818850A039C67FF666A31CE49A8D516F | 2158D307 | 2 KB |
| N88N.ROM | N80.ROM | 5B922ED9DE07D2A729BDF1DA7B57C50DDF08809A | 27E1857D | 32 KB |
| N88EXT0.ROM | N88_0.ROM | D239C26AD7AC5EFAC6E947B0E9549B1534AA970D | 710A63EC | 8 KB |
| N88EXT1.ROM | N88_1.ROM | 8528EEF7946EDF6501A6CCB1F416B60C64EFAC7C | C0BD2AA6 | 8 KB |
| N88EXT2.ROM | N88_2.ROM | B7C8BCEA219B77D9CC3EE0EFAFE343CC307425D1 | AF2B6EFA | 8 KB |
| N88EXT3.ROM | N88_3.ROM | EFCE0B51CAB9F0DA6CF68507757F1245A2867A72 | 7713C519 | 8 KB |
Adding the next BIOS files allows the display of Japanese Kanji characters in menus and games:
| File | Alternate name | SHA1 | CRC32 | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N88KNJ1.ROM | KANJI1.ROM | 82E11A177AF6A5091DD67F50A2F4BAFDA84D6556 | 6178BD43 | 128 KB |
| N88KNJ2.ROM | KANJI1.ROM | 7E6591CD465CBB35D6D3446C5A83B46D30FAFE95 | 154803CC | 128 KB |
| N88JISHO.ROM | JISYO.ROM | DEEF0CC2A9734BA891A6D6C022AA70FFC66F783E 06241085FC1D62D4B2968AD9CDBDADC1E7D7990A |
BD6EB062 856459AF |
512 KB |
NOTEs
* the standalone emulator (Quasi88) expects the BIOS filenames to be uppercase, while lr-quasi88 accepts both uppercase and lowercase variants.
* DISK.ROM may clash with the fMSX's BIOS ROM with the same name, so if you're using lr-quasi88, rename it to N88SUB.ROM.
Emulator: Quasi88
Note that the emulator (and most documentation) is written in Japanese.
Controls
Quasi88 has better keyboard support.
Recommended for:
- Working in BASIC, DOS or CP/M-86
- Editing disks or files
By default, Quasi88 uses the keyboard for controls. To enable a game controller using the keyboard:
- Press F12 to bring up the menu with several tabs at the top
- Select the mouse tab
- Click the dropdown that's labelled nomouse and Change it to joystick
Once this is done, the controller is mapped to:
- Joystick - Number Pad
- A Button - Z key
- B button - X key
To exit the emulator, press 3 times F12.
Emulator: lr-quasi88
This emulator has better joystick support.
Recommended for:
- Games
Controls
lr-quasi88 utilises Retroarch configurations.
Add custom retroarch controls to the retroarch.cfg file in
/opt/retropie/configs/pc88/retroarch.cfg
For more information on custom RetroArch controls see RetroArch Configuration
By default, lr-quasi88 maps the RetroPad controls to the keys most often used in PC88 games:
| PC88 Keyboard | RetroPad input |
|---|---|
| Z | B |
| Space | Y |
| I | Select |
| Enter/Return | Start |
| Numpad Up | D-Pad Up |
| Numpad Right | D-Pad Right |
| Numpad Down | D-Pad Down |
| Numpad Left | D-Pad Left |
| X | A |
To fully control the mapping, the Device Type for the controller should be changed from Retro Joypad to Retro Keyboard in RetroArch's Controls menu, allowing remapping for each keyboard key. For software/games that use the full set of keyboard keys, it's recommended to use a keyboard and turn on Game Focus mode in RetroArch with the ScrolLock key.
Multiple disks (via menu)
lr-quasi88 can load multi-disk games. Start the game using the 1st disk entry from EmulationStation, then open the RetroArch's menu (with Hotkey + X/F1) and:
- Go back to the main menu with B
- Open the Subsystems menu, then choose Load X-Disk Game and browse for the 1st disk
- Repeat the previous step for loading the 2nd, 3rd, etc. disk from the set
- After loading all disks, open again Subsystems and choose Start X-Disk Game to start the game with all disks attached
Multiple disks (M3U playlist)
You can create an M3U playlist to easily start the core with multiple disks preloaded instead of using the subsystem interface. Create a text file with the extension .m3u and write the filename of each disk on a new line like in the example below:
# Ys II (Falcom)
Ys II (Program disk).d88
Ys II (Disk A).d88
Ys II (Disk B).d88
Ys II (User disk).d88
Cycling between disks
If you've loaded multiple disks, you can hold one of the trigger buttons and use the D-Pad to change the disk that's loaded in each drive. Use L for Drive 1 and R for Drive 2. When the shoulder button is released, the chosen disk will be inserted.
Game specific settings
There are a few Core Options that may need to be changed in order to get a game running. The RetroArch Core Options page has instructions on how to access and change options.
Some notable core options for lr-quasi88:
- Sub-CPU Mode - setting it to Allways run both CPUs will generally improve emulation speed and may be required for some games (e.g Fire Hawk)
- CPU Clock - some games will need an increased CPU clock (e.g. Final Crisis works best with 8Mhz)
For a list of other options and how they affect the emulated system, see the Libretro Docs page for lr-quasi88.