Old Computer Appreciation Thread

[Folly]

@AdamBeGood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@AdamBeGood Yep, that's fine.

Thexder works on my end, Thexder 2 doesn't.

Are you sure it's actually a black screen? Some of these games take ages to load.

You may have a bios problem if it is but honestly quasi88 is more hit than miss in terms of compatibility I think.

I'll leave it running for a while. I have all the BIOS files the same as @Folly, apart from the N88jisho that you mentioned. Which I have a different version of. That may be the difference though, it is hard to tell.. although it isn't listed on RetroPie wiki to be fair.

Edit: Yep, Thexder does work. Isn't the BIOS such a tease - what if N88jisho is the difference? It is such a hassle when you just don't know if it is the answer. Thexder 2 works on his doesn't it? There must be something.

Can't find the link anymore but if i remember correctly, the jitsu is a replacement for the fonts (or kanji).
I removed my font.rom.

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Edit : my issue with Thexder 2 isn't bios related. I can get into the game fine, there's just some disk swapping I'm not understanding yet.

First of all use an .m3u

left-shoulder / "q" for selecting diskdrive 1 -> while holding "q" press left or right to change the image. Then release the key

right-shoulder / "w" for selecting diskdrive 2 -> while holding "w" press left or right to change the image. Then release the key

https://docs.libretro.com/library/quasi88/#cycling-between-disks

That should do the trick.

[Zering]

@Folly Brilliant! It works, and that game is awesome.
I should have figured out on my own really, the Famickm Disk System has a similar disk swapping logic.
How do you know so much about computers?

I've ran into a few games that have similar issues i can't resolve on my own, ie. Refight and The Scheme. Would be curious to see how you got on with those!

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Brilliant! It works, and that game is awesome.
I should have figured out on my own really, the Famickm Disk System has a similar disk swapping logic.

Sometimes it's realy simple, but you have to know it all. Otherwise it can be a big problem.

How do you know so much about computers?

Years and years (I mean decades) of experience, and I have just that fealing for those things, born with it I guess.

I've ran into a few games that have similar issues i can't resolve on my own, ie. Refight and The Scheme. Would be curious to see how you got on with those!

Great. :)

[Zering]

@Folly You mean you got them to run?

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly You mean you got them to run?

No, I was thinking that you were now be able to figure it out by yourself.

Will try them later on.

[Zering]

@Folly I haven't tried yet, I'm trying to resolve my font issue on PC98.

Speaking of... @AdamBeGood You appear to be right, I've just booted Popful Mail on .hdm, and I'm still not getting any text. So you're not that jinxed with BIOS after all ^^
I'll begin hunting for that text.bmp file now.

Edit : I've got Sharp MZ700 working. It's actually fairly straight forward using valerino's mess scripts, but I did have to learn to load tapes in lr-mess. I'm trying to see now if I can map my joystick to it, but the big deterrent are the loading times for each game (2-5 minutes...). Moving on to the Sharp MZ2000 and MZ2500.

Edit 2 : Mz2500 is also an easy install. Controls work right out of the box with lr-mess.

[AdamBeGood]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I haven't tried yet, I'm trying to resolve my font issue on PC98.

Speaking of... @AdamBeGood You appear to be right, I've just booted Popful Mail on .hdm, and I'm still not getting any text. So you're not that jinxed with BIOS after all ^^
I'll begin hunting for that text.bmp file now.

Edit : I've got Sharp MZ700 working. It's actually fairly straight forward using valerino's mess scripts, but I did have to learn to load tapes in lr-mess. I'm trying to see now if I can map my joystick to it, but the big deterrent are the loading times for each game (2-5 minutes...). Moving on to the Sharp MZ2000 and MZ2500.

Edit 2 : Mz2500 is also an easy install. Controls work right out of the box with lr-mess.

Let me know how you get on with the text.bmp, that seemed to be the problem for me. Maybe we can work out a way of getting it to you.

All my issues are fixed! I was using Root and I thought I'd set the rights to be okay, but I don't think they were... I've reset all the rights to 0777 and everything works.

Thexder II on 88, hdis on 98. It is so lame, but I am really very happy about it! Sorry for messing you guys about. I didn't see it coming from that cause.

[Zering]

@AdamBeGood No worries at all, I'm just glad you can finally enjoy those systems!
I haven't found the text.bmp but I've set up a bunch of other systems to curb the frustration. I've got the Sharp MZ700, 800, 2000 and 2500 working well seemingly and I'm working on the PC6001 and the FM7 now. Fun stuff.

[AdamBeGood]

@Zering When I get a minute, I'll try and find the zip I got it from if I can and give you some hints.

Have you tried the one that can be found in the RetroArch/RetroPie BIOS sets?

[Zering]

@AdamBeGood Yes, several of them. They do not match the sum you provided earlier.

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Refight and The Scheme. Would be curious to see how you got on with those!

Refight ask for a sound mode I guess.
Problem that I faced earlier in n88-basic, is that the keyboard does not work as it should. Can't use "shift" and some other keys. So for now this game won't work.
(tested both OPN and OPNA)

The Scheme works, altough the creatures dissapear sometimes. I don't know if this is how it should be.

[Zering]

@Folly Shame about Refight.

How did you get into the game with The Scheme? I have to press 0 or 1 for Normal or Special then I get stuck on a line of Japanese text.

[Folly]

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Shame about Refight.

How did you get into the game with The Scheme? I have to press 0 or 1 for Normal or Special then I get stuck on a line of Japanese text.

Both options work for me ( no japanese text here) :
[1] normal
[2] special

Just using the normal 1 and 2 (above the Q and W) seem to do the job. Although in n88-basic only the numlock keys could be used.

[Folly]

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Only one I've had no joy with is Night Slave but that has Disks A to J so maybe needs to be installed? I think that might have to be run on .hdi (it looks quite fun so wonder if you guys want to try it?).

.hdi is working. Press "1". The game seems to be a bit slow. Perhaps will improve if you use other cpu or multiplier. (I did not test!)

[AdamBeGood]

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Only one I've had no joy with is Night Slave but that has Disks A to J so maybe needs to be installed? I think that might have to be run on .hdi (it looks quite fun so wonder if you guys want to try it?).

.hdi is working. Press "1". The game seems to be a bit slow. Perhaps will improve if you use other cpu or multiplier. (I did not test!)

It works for me also, now I've solved my issue. Mine was also slow and I didn't have time to test but I am sure with a multiplier it will be fine. Zering didn't report any problem with it.

I'll try The Scheme today, and I'm going to try translating some games on PC98.

[Folly]

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

I'm going to try translating some games on PC98.

Just curious, How are you going to do that ?

[Folly]

To all of you.

Tested .m3u on PC-9800 with .d88 and with .hdm
An .m3u with .d88 was not working. (saying "How many files..)
An .m3u with .hdm was OK.

[Zering]

@folly He'll probably patch them.

The CPU Clock Multiplier is essential in PC98 emulation.
10 did it for me on Night Slave but you may have varying experiences depending on your overclocks. The highest I've had to go was 24 with Rude Breaker and Mystic Square and I don't think games get much more resource intensive on the PC98.

Concerning The Scheme, I'm just realising now my Romsey is quite old. Could that be why I'm having so many compatibility issues?

On another note, it seems playing multi disk X1 games on the Pi 4 is currently impossible. M3u does not work.

[Folly]

@zering

Thanks for the info.