Old Computer Appreciation Thread

[Zering]

@AdamBeGood Good luck! The NEC PCs are among the trickiest to set up on RetroPie in my opinion. I still haven't figured out what's wrong with my PC98. I expect I'll have to un-install and re-install it and start fresh...
Just be aware that although there are great games on the PC98 it's mostly known for games of an erotic nature ^^

[Folly]

@Zering @AdamBeGood

Back on the PI4.

This is a better doc for lr-quasi88 :
https://docs.libretro.com/library/quasi88/

Perhaps we can borrow some info.

Tried with an .m3u file (it works)
(.m3u has to be lower-case, otherwise it will ask, how many files, and go into "basic")
I will take Wibarm as an example :
Make a text file (in this case: Wibarm.m3u) with the following content :

Wibarm.d88
Wibarm (User disk).d88

If you run this .m3u it will run, ok, directly.

This is the manual way (2 disk example) :
Start, for example, first disk to run the emulator.
(If configured, you can also use the joystick)

• Press "F1"
• Press "z"(back)
• Select, with "x"(forward), "Subsystems"
• Select, with "x", "Load 2-Disk Game"
• Select, with "x", the first disk file
• Select, with "x", "Subsystems"
• Select, with "x", "Load 2-Disk Game"
• Select, with "x", the second disk file
• Select, with "x", "Subsystems"
• Select, with "x", "Start 2-Disk Game"

[Zering]

@Folly Just out of curiosity, is there any software that can automatically generate .m3u files?

[Folly]

@AdamBeGood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I got the games you mentioned, I was catching some rice balls in Konami Collection this morning!

You have to be fast !!! How many levels ?

When I first got this game. I could go five or six levels I think.
How further you go, it becomes dark, later it will lighten up again.

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Just out of curiosity, is there any software that can automatically generate .m3u files?

You can just use a text editor.

Don't know if there are automated m3u generators.

Perhaps I can make something.

Well, it all depends on how the files are organized.

[Zering]

@Folly The reason I'm asking is I don't see myself doing it manually for +5000 games ^^

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly The reason I'm asking is I don't see myself doing it manually for +5000 games ^^

Ofcourse, I get it.
Well, I will try some things.

Perhaps someone already did something like that.
We can see in the forums or on github.

[Zering]

@Folly I'll look into it of course, but I thought I'd start by asking you!

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I'll look into it of course, but I thought I'd start by asking you!

That's ok.

I was thinking about a bash solution with the command "ls".
If the files of 1 Game are in 1 directory you can check all the directory's and write the output to a file and use the directory's name and add an .m3u extension to that file.

The files have to be in good order though, then it will work.

Do you get it ?

[Zering]

@Folly Not at all ^^

I'm terrible with terminal commands and whatnot. Could you show me an example?

[Folly]

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly Not at all ^^

I'm terrible with terminal commands and whatnot. Could you show me an example?

This is very basic.

You see if I go to that directory and run the command, it will output the files we need in the .m3u file.

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/pc88/Wibarm (Arsys) $ ls -w1
 Wibarm.d88
'Wibarm (User disk).d88'

(-w1 => show everything in 1 column)

This will already create an .m3u that can be used :

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/pc88/Wibarm (Arsys) $ ls *.d88 -w1 > Wibarm.m3u

*.d88 wil list only diskfiles, otherwise the newly created .m3u is also added in the file.

This will only list directory's :

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/pc88 $ ls -d */
'Wibarm (Arsys)/'

If we put that in an array, we can list every directory one by one

[AdamBeGood]

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I'll look into it of course, but I thought I'd start by asking you!

That's ok.

I was thinking about a bash solution with the command "ls".
If the files of 1 Game are in 1 directory you can check all the directory's and write the output to a file and use the directory's name and add an .m3u extension to that file.

The files have to be in good order though, then it will work.

Do you get it ?

I know this isn't helpful, but someone has put the contents of a batch file that produces .m3u somewhere on this forum I think. I saw it the other day and thought if I was downloading a lot of stuff it would be worthwhile.

[AdamBeGood]

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@AdamBeGood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I got the games you mentioned, I was catching some rice balls in Konami Collection this morning!

You have to be fast !!! How many levels ?

When I first got this game. I could go five or six levels I think.
How further you go, it becomes dark, later it will lighten up again.

I had a very quick go but I'll get on it properly tomorrow!

[Folly]

@AdamBeGood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly I'll look into it of course, but I thought I'd start by asking you!

That's ok.

I was thinking about a bash solution with the command "ls".
If the files of 1 Game are in 1 directory you can check all the directory's and write the output to a file and use the directory's name and add an .m3u extension to that file.

The files have to be in good order though, then it will work.

Do you get it ?

I know this isn't helpful, but someone has put the contents of a batch file that produces .m3u somewhere on this forum I think. I saw it the other day and thought if I was downloading a lot of stuff it would be worthwhile.

This is helpfull.

Found this :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15551/sharp-x68000-multi-disk-games-questions/14?_=1604429566708
(too bad, windows batch)

There seems not to be some suff on the Retropie Forum.

[AdamBeGood]

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Found this :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15551/sharp-x68000-multi-disk-games-questions/14?_=1604429566708
(too bad, windows batch)

There seems not to be some suff on the Retropie Forum.

That is the batch that I had seen, yep. Sorry that isn't useful to you.

@Zering - I've managed to set up PC98. I have to go to sleep now, but I managed to get Rude Breaker to work. It was an absolute punt actually, I had the four BIOS files but none of the hashes were right, and I couldn't find the .wav files anywhere (I don't know if that will cause me problems with some games). I really didn't expect the system to load at all.

So it works! My controller didn't, so I need to look at that. I'm not sure how to map it, and the game was running slowly but you mention somewhere above about a setting to sort that out.

I'll have another look tomorrow.

Edit: Oh, do .m3u files work with the PC98 emulator? They aren't listed on RetroPie wiki but then that doesn't mean they don't work.

[Folly]

@AdamBeGood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Found this :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15551/sharp-x68000-multi-disk-games-questions/14?_=1604429566708
(too bad, windows batch)

There seems not to be some suff on the Retropie Forum.

That is the batch that I had seen, yep. Sorry that isn't useful to you.

I prefer a bash, but if that does not work, we can always try that batch. Lateron I was thinking that batch can also be run within the dosbox. Perhaps a solution.

I've managed to set up PC98.

Perfect.

I couldn't find the .wav files anywhere.

These are "YM2608 (OPNA) rhythm samples", I think.
Hope It's helpfull.

Edit: Oh, do .m3u files work with the PC98 emulator?

Not mentioned in both docs. We will have to try.

[AdamBeGood]

Thanks, @Folly

I will try on the .wavs with that then, and I'll give .m3u a go.

All games apart from Rude Breaker seem to be giving me a Japanese "Please set the system disk" message... Do you think that relates to my BIOS being wrong or is this something you've encountered?

[Folly]

@AdamBeGood

I think we actually don't need .m3u files for PC-9800.
Most games are on harddrive images, you know.

[AdamBeGood]

@Folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@AdamBeGood

I think we actually don't need .m3u files for PC-9800.
Most games are on harddrive images, you know.

Yeah, I have Puyo Puyo on 2 disks - but I think I can find it as a .hdi

Good thinking.

I have the .wav files, now I need the proper BIOS with the right hash. Weird that Rude Breaker still worked though.

Edit: .wav files don't have correct checksums. I may cry.

[Zering]

Wow, so much to catch up on!
I find that PC98 roms are mostly .fdd actually. They're a bit of a pain, but .fdi and .hdi games seem to work out of the box on my end. I think Rude Breaker is probably the easiest game to set up.
PC98 on RPi has a lot of issues. For example, my .fdd files do not appear in ES unless I scrape the whole system. More importantly, and this is something I was going to open a thread about soon, translated games do not seem to display any text. There are a lot of games that seem great that require a translation patch, ie. the Farland Story games.

@AdamBeGood Please share your .wav files checksums. The issue may be entirely unrelated. Like I said, PC98 emulation is tricky and there is very little information.
I do not believe .m3u files work. When I tried, it didn't work, but that was ages ago and may have done it wrong.
To suppress the slowdown in Rude Breaker, you will need to set the CPU Clock Multiplier high. 24 did it for me, but for some games, ie. Flame Zapper Kotsujin, you may need to set a much lower value.
I believe mapping the controller in lr-n2pkai is as easy as going into the RetroArch menu and switching a setting in the Options menu. I don't remember which one but I think it's fairly self-explanatory. Many games require a keyboard and mouse though.

Edit : @AdamBeGood My .wav files do not match the md5 checksum indicated by the documentation. Try them anyway!

@Folly Thank you for all your help with the .m3u files! I'm just catching up after a long night, but I'll look into it this week and let you know how I get on...