Old Computer Appreciation Thread

Zering

@adambegood There's a translation for the MSX2 port!
Bear in mind that the original PC versions of the game are lacking the third act though.
I think I'm going to play the MSX2 version eventually though, apparently it's vastly different in tone from the Sega CD game.

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood There's a translation for the MSX2 port!
Bear in mind that the original PC versions of the game are lacking the third act though.
I think I'm going to play the MSX2 version eventually though, apparently it's vastly different in tone from the Sega CD game.

Is there? I'll have to download the MSX2 version then, I didn't know that!

Zering

@adambegood Yeah I'm pretty sure there is, although it's not without its caveats apparently. From what I've read the translation is a bit literal... but at least we can play the game.
You can also play Snatcher and Policenauts on the PC98, that's pretty cool too! (But sadly no translations)

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Well I'm now at my wit's end with this font issue. My BIOS files match yours exactly and I still can't get any text in games that use the japanese font.

Could it be a permissions issue? My BIOS are set to 0755 and I can't seem to be able to change that.

my bios files are (don't think that's the issue):
644

edit :
my np2kai directory :
755

Zering

@folly Do you have any idea what could be happening here? My next step is I throw all the PC98 bios I can find in my np2kai directory and hope for the best.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Do you have any idea what could be happening here? My next step is I throw all the PC98 bios I can find in my np2kai directory and hope for the best.

No idea.
But the logs I saw were a mess. (mine and Adam).
If it wasn't working for me I would first make a log without any bios. Most logs then show which files are needed. Then I go from there to get a nice looking log. (bios lookup wise)

Zering

@folly Would you be okay to help me with that? How do I get such a log?

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Would you be okay to help me with that? How do I get such a log?

Press a key when starting the emu (retropie screen is seen) press a key. Select "launch with verbose mode"
Exit the emu.

Now you have a log in /dev/shm/

edit :
If you always want a full log edit :
/opt/retropie/configs/pc98/emulators.cfg
change "-L" into "-v -L"

Zering

@folly Learnt something new today - again. ^^

I removed all the BIOS. Weirdly enough, the game still launched. I was using the floppy version of Popful Mail as a test.

Here is my verbose log

Seems like it actually requires a whole bunch of font files, from what I can gather.

Folly

@zering

Checked some things with mine.
I also have a bunch of "Couldn't open file (RO)".

This thing striked me though :
np2kai.cfg is saved every time at start.
(mine will save)

It says your file can't be saved.
saving ......
[libretro WARN] Couldn't open file (W) /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/np2kai/np2kai/np2kai.cfg.
(I don't have this warning)

Do you still have this file in the np2kai directory ?

Zering

@folly Weird. I was sure I had it but now that you mention it I can't find it anywhere. If it had been in the np2kai directory when I removed the BIOS I would know because I copied everything over to a separate folder.

Could that be the issue?

Edit : That has to be it if that's the only difference between our set ups. We have the exact same BIOS.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Weird. I was sure I had it but now that you mention it I can't find it anywhere. If it had been in the np2kai directory when I removed the BIOS I would know because I copied everything over to a separate folder.

Could that be the issue?

Copied, you said. You have to move it.
Or copy, then delete the originals.

Zering

@folly I copied all my BIOS files to my desktop then deleted them from my RetroPie installation. But I don't have that np2kai.cfg anywhere. I have no idea what happened to it. I know I had it yesterday.

Folly

@zering

I changed the name of my np2kai directory.
Created a new empty np2kai directory.
Started Popfull mail.
Popfull mail works without the japanese text.
np2kai.cfg is created in empty directory.

Zering

@folly I've found a new np2kai.cfg now, out of a BIOS pack. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly I've found a new np2kai.cfg now, out of a BIOS pack. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

You don't need that file.

It's automatically generated by the emulator.

edit:
I removed mine in the good bios set.
popfull mail works OK.
After exit, new np2kai.cfg file is created in np2kai.

Zering

@folly Why is the emulator not generating the file then?

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Why is the emulator not generating the file then?

I'm still using the binary version of the emulator.
Perhaps the source one has issues.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Why is the emulator not generating the file then?

Check your log again.

Did you refresh the winSCP ?

Zering

@folly I did. Nothing is happening. I deleted my BIOS prior to removing the core and reinstalling it from binary, and still nothing.
But the weirdest thing is my customized settings in the RetroArch menu are still there.

And naturally Popful Mail is still blank.