Old Computer Appreciation Thread

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Yes.
I'm using the appropriate BIOS (although I'm going to double check that) and official MAME 0.226 CHDs.
I can't get MESS to boot. When I can, it hangs on a 'Loading Complete' screen.

"FM Towns (Marty)" could have the same issue that was faced with "Philips CD-I" after an lr-mess update.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/27387/cd-i-does-not-want-to-load-after-updating-retropie

Altough this issue is fixed now with @valerino 's script and added BIOS files, it is still not working the old simple way.
I saw that valerino added the lr-mess-fmtowns.sh script 2 months ago. I think we should work from there, to get it working again.

Zering

@folly I think at this point it's safe to say that none of those old computer systems are easy to get working! ^^
I installed valerino's script a little under two months ago, I didn't see lr-mess-fmtowns.sh then. I'll have to look it up. I'll take a look today and let you know.

Folly

It works !

Used lr-mess-fmtowns.sh from valerino.
BIOS is called "fmtowns.zip" in root BIOS directory.
Containing :

8fa4e553f28cfc0c30a0a1e589799942 fmt_dic.rom
0585b19930d4a7f4c71bcc8a33746588 fmt_dos.rom
ac0c7021e9bf48ca84b51ab651169a88 fmt_f20.rom
b91300e55b70227ce98b59c5f02fa8dd fmt_fnt.rom
86fb6f7280689259f0ca839dd3dd6cde fmt_sys.rom

I think the f20 file is not needed.

Used a cue/bin as test :

Cannot play this game yet, it contains also a user disk.
Do you know how we can insert that, together with the CD ?
Tried a .m3u but that seems not working.

EDIT (manually inserting a floppy) :
With the "scroll lock key" I can activate/deactivate the "lr-mess gui" and insert a floppy.
This works, altough it's a bit of a hassle (I can't defeat the enemy yet):

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

It works !

Used lr-mess-fmtowns.sh from valerino.
BIOS is called "fmtowns.zip" in root BIOS directory.
Containing :

8fa4e553f28cfc0c30a0a1e589799942 fmt_dic.rom
0585b19930d4a7f4c71bcc8a33746588 fmt_dos.rom
ac0c7021e9bf48ca84b51ab651169a88 fmt_f20.rom
b91300e55b70227ce98b59c5f02fa8dd fmt_fnt.rom
86fb6f7280689259f0ca839dd3dd6cde fmt_sys.rom

I think the f20 file is not needed.

Used a cue/bin as test :

Cannot play this game yet, it contains also a user disk.
Do you know how we can insert that, together with the CD ?
Tried a .m3u but that seems not working.

EDIT (manually inserting a floppy) :
With the "scroll lock key" I can activate/deactivate the "lr-mess gui" and insert a floppy.
This works, altough it's a bit of a hassle (I can't defeat the enemy yet):

Well done, Folly! Prince of Persia 2 is pretty hard, it took me a while to work out how to fight. I died on that ledge many times (PC Version).

Zering

@Folly Damn! Well done! Now I'm jealous.

So the tutorial I followed was completely wrong?
Are you using MAME .chds?

Edit : Never mind, just saw cue/bin. That's even better as the tutorial was for the Marty, which excluded some Towns exclusives like Alltynex. Does the Neo Kobe collection work?

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Damn! Well done! Now I'm jealous.

So the tutorial I followed was completely wrong?

Perhaps at that time, it wasn't.

Now I think it is.

Are you using MAME .chds?

Edit : Never mind, just saw cue/bin. That's even better as the tutorial was for the Marty, which excluded some Towns exclusives like Alltynex. Does the Neo Kobe collection work?

These extensions should work (/etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg) :
.zip .chd .cue .toc .nrg .gdi .iso .cdr

That cue/bin was the fastest way to test it.

That Neo .... can take a long time you know.
(could not get just one)
Will try that in the future.

Well I don't know much about that "FM Towns", but is there any difference with "FM Towns Marty" ?
It's a bit confusing al those types.

Zering

@folly The Marty was the consolized version of the Towns computer. It was compatible with most games but not all. There was also a Car Marty designed for use in... cars.

You can grab individual roms out of the Neo Kobe collection, I've done it before. I'll try that tonight then. Really excited to get this working!

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly The Marty was the consolized version of the Towns computer. It was compatible with most games but not all. There was also a Car Marty designed for use in... cars.

You can grab individual roms out of the Neo Kobe collection, I've done it before. I'll try that tonight then. Really excited to get this working!

Thanks for explaining.

Then perhaps we have to add more BIOSes in the directory for those specific games working on different types of "FM .......".
We have to look in the logs when those specific ones are not working.
Lr-mess is already in verbose !
No need to add that from the retropie boot screen.

Zering

@folly The thing is I'm not certain there were any exclusives for Marty! It was designed to be completely compatible. If we can get the basic Towns model to work I'm pretty sure it should cover all games.
The other FM (7, 77, 77AV, 8) are different systems entirely.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly The thing is I'm not certain there were any exclusives for Marty! It was designed to be completely compatible. If we can get the basic Towns model to work I'm pretty sure it should cover all games.

That would be great ;-)

Later we can try those FM7 etc. HaHa.

Zering

@folly I've got FM7 and FM77 working. Or at least I did before I lost the bios along with my old drive. FM77 is iffy. I've picked up quite a few games that ran horribly, ie. Luxsor.
They're about as easy to set up as the Sharp MZ700 or 2500. I recommend you use floppies and not tapes for FM7 as tapes take up to eight minutes to start.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly I've got FM7 and FM77 working. Or at least I did before I lost the bios along with my old drive. FM77 is iffy. I've picked up quite a few games that ran horribly, ie. Luxsor.
They're about as easy to set up as the Sharp MZ700 or 2500. I recommend you use floppies and not tapes for FM7 as tapes take up to eight minutes to start.

I will try that some time.

I fixed the issue with lr-bluemsx and MSXturboR.
I advise you to look back to that post.

Zering

@folly I did.
Can you save the game with that configuration? Bluemsx seems to struggle with that on my end.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly I did.
Can you save the game with that configuration? Bluemsx seems to struggle with that on my end.

Oh Yea, I remenber that didn't work with lr-bluemsx.
Well, this morning I installed the "source" one !
Now, just tested the "save" function for you.
WOW. That works.

This is MAGIC.

Perfect !!!

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Damn! Well done! Now I'm jealous.

So the tutorial I followed was completely wrong?
Are you using MAME .chds?

Edit : Never mind, just saw cue/bin. That's even better as the tutorial was for the Marty, which excluded some Towns exclusives like Alltynex. Does the Neo Kobe collection work?

I downloaded Raid Wind (PC-98) when I read this post, as apparently it is by the same guy as Alltynex. It seems okay, I haven't played it much.

When I was doing some reading, someone recommended Metal Force on PC-98 - do you guys have that? It seems to crash on the "CHIME" logo for me?

@Folly - thanks for looking into the BlueMSX TurboR issue, I'll have a look at that this evening.

Zering

@adambegood I've got no PC98 games at the moment. I'll be set in a couple if days. If you remind me then I can check.

@Folly I'm assuming you're playing a .dsk file?

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I'm assuming you're playing a .dsk file?

I'm using the rom version. (I'm sure the rom version can be patched)
I don't know if you can patch the .dsk version with the IPS patch.

Zering

@folly Well if you can save using the rom version then there's no point using the dsk one. That was literally the only advantage.

Thanks for all the info! Very useful as always.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Metal Force on PC-98 - do you guys have that? It seems to crash on the "CHIME" logo for me?

Same issue with both hdi or hdm.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Well if you can save using the rom version then there's no point using the dsk one. That was literally the only advantage.

Thanks for all the info! Very useful as always.

I do the saving with the libretro-core (F2=save F4=load).
I don't use the original save methode.