Old Computer Appreciation Thread

Zering

@Folly I'll look into this after I've had some sleep, thanks! I'm not sure I understand it all but I'll shout if I have any questions!

@AdamBeGood I may take you up on that, it seems like it's always the DOS games that intrigue me the most that I can't get to run!

Folly

@dmmarti said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

I've did some preliminary testing against those older Russian computers using Retroarch with MESS core.

Happy to report that yes, the Retroarch translate works on them too!

Isn't it amazing !

Now I just have to formally get the systems installed onto my Pi build and add all of the theme media, etc. Then I can load a few more games again and play.

Can you make an "Old Russian Computer Appreciation Thread" that we can join ?
(EDIT @Zering converts this thread to an "Old Computer Appreciation Thread" if we all agree !)

Zering

@folly Maybe we should just convert this thread into 'Old Computer Appreciation ' ^^

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Maybe we should just convert this thread into 'Old Computer Appreciation ' ^^

Thats ok.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

Could it be possible to use that to get around some of those roms that just won't run, ie. Refight and its music mode or multidisc X1 games?

Refight (PC8800) :
Tried to solve this. I used Quasi88 for editing.
This game works in Quasi88 but not in lr-quasi88.
At boot the computer automatically runs the "IPL" basic file at boot.
I think it's a sort of "autoexec.bas" from what we know from MSX.
This file checks on model and speed etc. Seems that lr-quasi88 is missing something.
Tried to fool the computer by removing lines. but that did not work.

multidisc X1 games with lr-x1 :
Tried .m3u, did not work.
Tried .cmd, works but only fdd0 is inserted, fdd1 is not inserted.
This core is quite old and there are no docs, so I think thats why it's not working.
(https://github.com/r-type/xmil-libretro)
Nice to know the, parly working, .cmd file looks like this :

x1 "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/x1/Xanadu Scenario II (Disk D).d88" "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/x1/Xanadu Scenario II (Disk C - User disk).d88"

(manually inserting second disk in fdd1 works in the gui "F11")

So, no fix, no IPS, for now.

AdamBeGood

@folly Good news on Refight, I'll try that today once I've sorted out Quasi88 not being anywhere near full screen. It is just in the top left corner at the moment.

Zering

@folly Did you manage to resolve the small screen issue in standalone quasi88? Np2pi, the other pc98 emulator has the same issue. Maybe there's a connection?

I'd tried using mess to run those multidisk x1 games but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. I'll try again when I have some time to tinker, busy days lately!

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Good news on Refight, I'll try that today once I've sorted out Quasi88 not being anywhere near full screen. It is just in the top left corner at the moment.

Quasi88:
Temporary removing the kanji roms you get the menu in english.
select screen -> select double (-full)
select save.cfg -> make "blue"
exit emulator
put back you kanji roms.
start again
Use NUM keys for moving.

I think that will do the trick.
(at least I'm running in full screen)

adding -full to the quasi88 commandline in emulators.cfg could also be an option.

Zering

@folly So you did find a fix.
Sounds like I'll have to get the standalone version.
I'm pretty sure it was available on Pi 3, I wonder why it's gone now?

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly So you did find a fix.
Sounds like I'll have to get the standalone version.
I'm pretty sure it was available on Pi 3, I wonder why it's gone now?

I added an issue on github about Quasi88.
The answer was :

The standalone emulator doesn't work well on the Pi4 - that's why it is disabled on KMS platforms.

So thats the reason.

Still busy with the docs.......
Can take a long time to get all the comments from the "push request" resolved.
Getting around in Github with this sort of thing is not an easy task, I know now.
But it's quite a good learning experience.

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Good news on Refight, I'll try that today once I've sorted out Quasi88 not being anywhere near full screen. It is just in the top left corner at the moment.

Temporary removing the kanji roms you get the menu in english.
select screen -> select double (-full)
select save.cfg -> make "blue"
exit emulator
put back you kanji roms.
start again
Use NUM keys for moving.

I think that will do the trick.
(at least I'm running in full screen)

adding -full to the quasi88 commandline in emulators.cfg could also be an option.

Hmm, I've tried all the options now and I've tried the commandline also.

-double
-full
-fullscreen

The best is double - it is bigger that way but it doesn't centre. I've tried lots of RunCommand screen sizes also, but nothing makes a difference. It's bearable but annoying.

Have you guys tried Melt Down by the same Doujin group? That doesn't control for me.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

The best is double - it is bigger that way but it doesn't centre. I've tried lots of RunCommand screen sizes also, but nothing makes a difference. It's bearable but annoying.

Quasi88:
Much off centre ?
Mine is a little bit.
But as said : it seems not to work perfectly.
Thought it's nice to fool around with it, and learn some N88 basic.
Basic is almost like the MSX one. We can use the "files" command.
the F* keys. etc...

Have you guys tried Melt Down by the same Doujin group? That doesn't control for me.

lr-quasi88:
Use the keyboard "A key" or the "joystick Y button" for shooting.
After shooting, the screen does sometimes a refresh, then you can play (move).
Use 4Mhz.

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

The best is double - it is bigger that way but it doesn't centre. I've tried lots of RunCommand screen sizes also, but nothing makes a difference. It's bearable but annoying.

Much off centre ?
Mine is a little bit.
But as said : it seems not to work perfectly.
Thought it's nice to fool around with it, and learn some N88 basic.
Basic is almost like the MSX one. We can use the "files" command.
the F* keys. etc...

Have you guys tried Melt Down by the same Doujin group? That doesn't control for me.

Use the keyboard "A key" or the "joystick Y button" for shooting.
After shooting, the screen does sometimes a refresh, then you can play (move).
Use 4Mhz.

I think it is fairly off centre.. maybe it is the same as yours....

But can you move around in Melt Down before you shoot? Or do you have to shoot and then you can move? I'll try that again later.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

I think it is fairly off centre.. maybe it is the same as yours....

Quasi88:
Tested from the terminal, I always run from the Desktop.
Had to go to the settings again.
With only double I have black borders left and right (seems perfectly centered)
With double + fullscreen, I have no black borders and the screen seems to be a bit bigger (left an right) than my monitor but is centered quite good.
I use a normal wide screen vga monitor with a cheap hdmi to vga converter.
Maybe thats why I have a good screen. Or my monitor does auto centering.
I don't actually know.

But can you move around in Melt Down before you shoot? Or do you have to shoot and then you can move? I'll try that again later.

lr-quasi88:
Shoot first, otherwise you can't move !

AdamBeGood

@folly Ah well, I guess I will just have to deal with it. There was some issue like this on DosBox before I changed something in the config file.

Mine is definitely not like yours, it is very off centre really. I am annoyed it didn't work when I changed the RunCommand screen size.

Melt Down works on lr-quasi88, you are right. I was just trying all the movement options, left off the fire button... I think in quasi88, the fire button doesn't work either. So I tried that there, and then didn't bother trying it in lr-quasi88.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Ah well, I guess I will just have to deal with it. There was some issue like this on DosBox before I changed something in the config file.

Did you ever experiment with lr-dosbox ?

I did, and it seems to work quite good, you know.
Just run .exe or make .bat files. and run this. just like a .cmd or .m3u

Zering

@folly I was actually wondering how to use lr-dosbox, since you can't easily use DOS launching games seems quite haphazard.

AdamBeGood

@folly said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Ah well, I guess I will just have to deal with it. There was some issue like this on DosBox before I changed something in the config file.

Did you ever experiment with lr-dosbox ?

I did, and it seems to work quite good, you know.
Just run .exe or make .bat files. and run this. just like a .cmd or .m3u

I've always been able to do what I wanted with dosbox, so didn't feel the need to try the libretro version.

Folly

@zering said in Old Japanese Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly I was actually wondering how to use lr-dosbox, since you can't easily use DOS launching games seems quite haphazard.

lr-dosbox :
Here I have an example of Lemming 3 :

This is in directory 3D Lemmings Winterland (1995) (eXoDOS) :
lemmi3d -> containing the hd files (no images)
lm3d.cd ->directory containing just 2 nessesary files (no images)
lemmi3d.BAT
setup.BAT

lemmi3d.BAT :

mount D LM3D.CD
cd lemmi3d
L3D

setup.BAT:

mount D LM3D.CD
cd lemmi3d
SETUP

Zering

@folly So then you select the .bat files in ES and the game runs?