Old Computer Appreciation Thread

AdamBeGood

To get us back on topic, I've installed some fun PC-98 games today:

Briganty - Action RPG, Japanese may make it tricky but seems okay
Galt-Rio - shooter, quite a bit of chat but seems good
Last Breakers - this looks like a nice shooter
Totsugeki! Mix - by Rusty people, plays like Rusty.

I've also got Jump Hero, Net Guardian, Pool Bang and Usagina Panic 1 and 2 - but only checked they've worked. Can't speak on quality yet.

Zering

@adambegood We were on topic! ^^
I'll try what you described once I feel comfortable.

Net Guardian and Last Breakers are very nice. Did you try Burning Dragon?

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood We were on topic! ^^
I'll try what you described once I feel comfortable.

Net Guardian and Last Breakers are very nice. Did you try Burning Dragon?

Indeed I did - I always take your recommendations (apart from when it is installing a tricksy new system for improved versions of games I already have)!

It's a decent shooter.

Zering

@adambegood Ah well that's good to hear!

Speaking of recommendations, what games would you recommend for DOS? Outside of the obvious.

Dark Forces looks awesome but the controls are antiquated and off-putting. Now that I've overcome the keyboard and mouse hurdle I'm not sure I can do without WASD! ^^

There is a source port called DarkXL, I wonder if that'd be something that could be compiled on the pi.

Edit : Bit of a curiosity. I just realized the Gagharv trilogy, out of the Legend of Heroes saga (itself part of the Dragon Slayer series), which are widely available on PSP, were originally released on PC98.

Kind of a shame they're not available in english as I think they look a lot more unique than their enhanced releases for the PSP.

It seems there's just no end to Falcom's awesomeness on the NEC machines.
(The Legend of Heroes games, from what I've played, are excellent)

Folly

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood How do you do all that?
I think I've overcome a big hurdle with DOS yesterday (I've got Gravis Ultrasound and DOS32A running, not to mention other games like Command and Conquer) but I'm still a beginner ^^

You have already done some good stuff with these .bat files.
Do you like the lr-dosbox VS dosbox-svn ?

Zering

@folly You mean the Dos commands for Fallout and Daggerfall? I suppose they could work as bat files. I've tried using .bat and .sh files as described by Adam but I get booted back to ES. Not sure why. Thanks though.

I've actually only tried Dark Forces with lr-dosbox and it was horribly slow, the game wouldn't get past the first loading screen either. So I can't really say as of yet.

Folly

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly You mean the Dos commands for Fallout and Daggerfall? I suppose they could work as bat files. I've tried using .bat and .sh files as described by Adam but I get booted back to ES. Not sure why. Thanks though.

I've actually only tried Dark Forces with lr-dosbox and it was horribly slow, the game wouldn't get past the first loading screen either. So I can't really say as of yet.

5 moths ago I managed to get about 10 games working. Indeed some fail. But when they work, if I remember correctly, they work like a treat. I think not many people are trying the lr-dosbox so there is still very little information available on how this works.
We can consider us as pioneers !

I got these working, back then :
'3D Lemmings Winterland (1995)'
'Castlevania (1990)'
'Cool Ball (1990)'
'Luigi and Spaghetti (1992)'
'Metal Gear (1990)'
'OutRun (1989)'
'Pac 2000 (1996)'
'Pac PC II (1995)'
'Rayman (1995)'
'Super Boulder Dash (1986)'
'Test Drive (1987)'

Zering

@folly Metal Gear and Castlevania were on DOS? O_o

I'll look into lr-dosbox more then. Were you aware there is also a lr-dosbox-svn? Not sure what the difference is.

I think I installed it using RetroPie-Extra

Folly

@Zering

Perhaps it a good idea to rename my IPS repository to a Retropie-share repository.
Then I can put more different files on it like :

.ips
.bat
.m3u
.cmd

Good idea ?

Zering

@folly Definitely.
In the meantime I'll keep updating my first post.

Speaking of, I tried generating m3us yesterday using your commands, but I'm getting syntax errors. Any chance you could share a screenshot of how you're doing it?

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood Ah well that's good to hear!

Speaking of recommendations, what games would you recommend for DOS? Outside of the obvious.

Hard to know which ones aren't obvious, I'll try these but I know Little Big Adventure went to Playstation also.

Bioforge
Dune
Ecstatica is weird and I like it
Little Big Adventure
Terminal Velocity

Folly

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Metal Gear and Castlevania were on DOS? O_o

I'll look into lr-dosbox more then. Were you aware there is also a lr-dosbox-svn? Not sure what the difference is.

I think I installed it using RetroPie-Extra

I don't actually know.

Seems that this is something you can fiddle with, for perfomance issues. (in core options)

dosbox_cpu_cycles = "9"

Zering

@adambegood Terminal Velocity looks AWESOME.
What's Ecstatica like?

@Folly that seems absurdly low. Don't the cycles need to be in the thousands for games to run at even a decent speed?

I'll try dark forces again on lr-dosbox tonight.

Folly

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Definitely.
In the meantime I'll keep updating my first post.

Speaking of, I tried generating m3us yesterday using your commands, but I'm getting syntax errors. Any chance you could share a screenshot of how you're doing it?

Is it the bulk commandline ?

It displays errors when it does not find appropriate files. That should be normal.

Zering

@folly Not the bulk one. The single m3u one. I've already put it in the first post, at the very bottom under miscellaneous.

Folly

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@folly Not the bulk one. The single m3u one. I've already put it in the first post, at the very bottom under miscellaneous.

Did you do this ? :

ls *.d88 -w1 > Wibarm.m3u

AdamBeGood

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood Terminal Velocity looks AWESOME.
What's Ecstatica like?

@Folly that seems absurdly low. Don't the cycles need to be in the thousands for games to run at even a decent speed?

I'll try dark forces again on lr-dosbox tonight.

Ecstatica is like Alone in the Dark or Resident Evil in that it is fixed camera angles. I just like its harshness, you get the sh1t kicked out of you a lot early on. It's got quite a good atmosphere considering the graphics are ellipsoid weirdness. Yeah, Terminal Velocity is great. SlipStream 5000 is a fun flying racer as well.

Ps. the Descent games are better on PC as well, I think. Nicer with a mouse and keyboard.

Folly

@adambegood said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@zering said in Old Computer Appreciation Thread:

@adambegood Terminal Velocity looks AWESOME.
What's Ecstatica like?

@Folly that seems absurdly low. Don't the cycles need to be in the thousands for games to run at even a decent speed?

Well could be, that is something to fiddle with indeed !
9 worked for my P2000 emulator.

Zering

@Folly I don't think I understand how the command is supposed to work. If I could just see a screenshot of you doing it I think I can figure out what I'm doing wrong. If that's okay of course.

@adambegood Ecstatica sounds interesting. Didn't you have issues getting that one running?

There are ports in RetroPie for Descent 1 and 2, I'm pretty sure that's the best way to play them on the pi. They look tough as nails.

Edit : Is Slipstream 5000 on the PC98? It rings a bell.

Folly

@Zering
Go to the directory and use quotes, if there are spaces in the path ! :
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc88/Wibarm (Arsys)'
Do the command :
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/pc88/Wibarm (Arsys) $ ls *.d88 -w1 > Wibarm.m3u

This is the normal command (running the command from within the directory !) :
ls *.d88 -w1

Output :
Wibarm.d88
'Wibarm (User disk).d88'

The bulk command is runned from here :
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc88