Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Emulators
==Emulators==
<div style="max-width:100%; overflow:auto;">
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"|Name
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓~}}
|-
|[[MAME]]
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{~✗}}
|-
|SL9821
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}
|[http://www.satotomi.com/sl9821/sl9821_dl.html {{SL9821Ver}}]
|{{✗}}
|High
|{{✓}}
|{{✓✗}}|{{TBD~}}
|-
|[[DOSBox#DOSBox-X|DOSBox-X]]
|{{~}}
|-
|ePC-9801
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
|[http://takeda-toshiya.my.coocan.jp/ 11/17/2022]
|{{✗}}
|Mid-Low
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{~}}
|-
|QEMU/9821
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓~}}
|}
</div>
<references group=N />
===Comparisons===
;[[DOSBox#DOSBox-X|DOSBox-X]]:A very active fork of DOSBox that, among other things, adds support for the PC-98 as a target system. While it's very easy to set up, its PC-98 system is not yet complete.
;[[MAME]]:It has drivers for various revisions but as of version 0.189, all of them are reported as <font color="darkred">Not Working</font>. Support for the first batch or so of PC-98 games have started to be added to MAME in [https://www.mamedev.org/?p=460 0.201] (Aug 2018).
;SL9821: Yet another PC-98 emulator that has quite high accuracy. Requires extra ROM files for BIOS and other subsystems (sound card, IDE controller, etc.) of the hardware. Floppy disks and HDD images have to be converted to either proprietary *.slf/*.slh files or *.bin raw images.
;ePC-9801: Emulator focusing on PC-9801 series. The only emulator that supports 1120x750 high-resolution mode presented in some models. Requires extra ROM files for BIOS and other subsystems (sound card, IDE controller, etc.) of the hardware. Emulation for each model is released as individual exes which are designed to emulate that specific model, which disallows adjusting options such as RAM size and mix-and-matching peripherals. Accuracy seems still a lot to be improved.
;QEMU/9821:A fork of [[QEMU]] that supports PC-9800 architecture. No longer maintained. Able to boot MS-DOS, Windows 98 and Windows 2000, but software compatibility is hit or miss.
==Capabilities Comparisons==
===Graphics===
''For more information about the graphics subsystem of PC-98, [http://radioc.web.fc2.com/column/pc98bas/pc98disphw_en.htm Reference to this documentation].''
Most of the games won't require graphics subsystems that are more advanced than EGC, and basically, all emulators have achieved full emulation of EGC, so whether an emulator could emulate more advanced graphic systems doesn't really bug.
However, some games do make use of more advanced graphics subsystems, such as some AliceSoft's adult games which support 256 color mode of IO-DATA's GA-1024A, and games originating from IBM PC such as Doom, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, etc. may make use of PEGC due to its similarities with VGA graphics.
Specifically, it's possible to install a totally out-of-spec graphic card, such as Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE on later PC-98 models with PCI bus, but such scenarios are quite obscure and no emulators support such cases.
Notice that an emulator supporting a graphic subsystem doesn't necessarily mean such an emulator is mature enough for programs that make use of it to work properly.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"|Name
! scope="col"|GRCG
! scope="col"|GRCG + PC-9801-24
! scope="col"|EGC
! scope="col"|PEGC
! scope="col"|GA (CL-GD54XX)
! scope="col"|HiRes
|-
|Neko Project 21/W
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|Neko Project II
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|Anex86
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|SL9821
|{{?}}
|{{?}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|DOSBox-X
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|ePC-9801/E/U/VF
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|ePC-9801VM/VX/RA
|{{✓}}
|{{?}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|-
|ePC-98XA/XL/RL
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|}
===Sounds===
Most of the DOS games make use PC-9801-26(K) which provides 3 channels of FM, 3 channels of PSG, or PC-9801-86 which provides 6 channels of FM, 3 channels of PSG, and PCM recording & playback.
For Windows, PC-9801-118 provides support for both FM and PCM playback as a PnP & Windows Sound System compatible card, but not fully backward compatible with PC-9801-86 under MS-DOS. Q-Vision WaveStar is yet another PnP card for Windows but is fully backward compatible.
Alternatively, games originating from IBM PC such as Doom may have the option to make use of Sound Blaster 16.
Other sound options such as PC-9801-14 exist, but are not commonly used.
When it comes to MIDI, most of the emulators are capable of redirecting PC-98's MIDI output (MPU-PC98) to MIDI devices on the host computer, including the built-in GS Synthesizer in Windows. Dosbox-x also provides extra emulation for Roland MT-32.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"|Name
! scope="col"|26(K)
! scope="col"|86
! scope="col"|118
! scope="col"|SB16
! scope="col"|WaveStar
! scope="col"|14
! scope="col"|MIDI
|-
|Neko Project 21/W
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|-
|Neko Project II
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|-
|Anex86
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|-
|SL9821
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|-
|DOSBox-X
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|-
|ePC-9801
|{{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
|{{✓}}
|{{✗}}
|}
===Keyboard and mouse===
PC-98 keyboard layout presents keys that aren't available on IBM PC keyboards. Most of the emulators will map them to other keys on IBM PC keyboards, but only Anex86 and SL9821 support manually remapping these keys.
Just like IBM PC keyboards, the Later PC-98 keyboard also introduced Windows and Context keys alongside the introduction of Windows 95. Only Neko Project 21/W, and Dosbox-x support emulation of Windows and Context key.
There are also other keyboard layouts for PC-98, such as PC-9801-114 (for PC-PTOS), PC-9801-116 (IBM PC layout for PC-98), and PC-9801-98-S02 (for using with some kind of word processor). These keyboards are rarely supported even on actual PC-98 and no emulator supports emulating these layouts yet.
Most of the emulators are capable of emulating the mouse interface and mouse on PC-98.
Some late models of PC-98 come with USB keyboard and mouse (and surprisingly, they are still supported by modern versions of Windows), but no emulator supports emulation of USB bus yet.
===CD-ROM===
Neko Project 21/W, Neko Project II, SL9821, and Dosbox-x support emulation of CD-ROM drive attached to IDE bus. SL9821 also supports using a physical optical drive.
Just like IBM PCs, MSCDEX is required to access CD-ROM under MS-DOS.
===ROM-BASIC===
PC-98 series have N88-BASIC interpreter built into the system ROM, despite not many programs being written in BASIC or bare-metal assembly running under N88-BASIC.
Neko Project 21/W, Neko Project II, SL9821, and ePC-9801 supports ROM-BASIC. Specifically, Neko Project 21/W and Neko Project II require an extra BIOS.rom file in order to enter ROM-BASIC.
Simply remove all HDD and FDDs then power on to enter ROM-BASIC.
===Networking===
Neko Project 21/W supports the emulation of the Buffalo LGY-98 LAN adapter. A TAP virtual network adapter driver is required to be installed on the host machine in order to connect the emulator to the host machine in host-only mode by default. Bridged and NAT-enabled Internet access is also available by setting up the TAP virtual network adapter on the host machine.
It's unknown whether the emulation of the Novell NE2000 adapter provided by Dosbox-x works under PC-98 mode.
===Cassette===
It's possible to add a cassette interface (PC-9801-13) to some early models of PC-98 and use it in ROM-BASIC, despite this cassette interface is rarely used.
Only ePC-9801 supports emulation of cassette interface.
==Usage==
Neko Project II's controls are not remappable. They're 2, 4, 6, and 8 on the numpad, arrow keys, enter, space, ctrl, z, and x. For games using the mouse, hit F12 to enable or disable mouse input. Use programs like Joy2Key to rebind other keys.
==Hardware variations and spin-offs==
===APC-III===
The [https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=996 APC-III] is basically rebranded the original PC-9801, targeted at the western market.
No emulator specifically emulates this model, and it's unknown whether APC-III software could be run on regular PC-98 hardware, or otherwise.
===PC-9801FC===
A PC-9801F with Chinese character ROM replaced its Japanese Kanji ROM and addressed in a different scheme, targeted at the Chinese market.
Despite no emulators specifically emulating this model, PC-9801FC software could run on regular PC-98, hence it's possible to run them with regular PC-98 emulators, but all non-ASCII text strings will become gibberish as their character ROMs are encoded in different schemes unless feeding in the character ROM of PC-9801FC either as ROM file or character mapping image into the emulator, which is not yet in public.
===PC-9801LT===
NEC's first attempt at mobilizing PC-98 which is not so successful, ended up with a machine with 3.8kg of weight and not fully compatible with the regular PC-98 series.
Only MAME and ePC-98LT provide emulation of this model and both are in preliminary stages.
===PC-98HA (Handy98)===
A handheld-sized PC-98, which is still not fully compatible with the regular PC-98 series as it's more similar to PC-9801LT in architecture.
Only MAME and eHANDY98 provide emulation of this model and both are in preliminary stages.
===N5200===
Despite N5200 being a different series of computers of NEC in the beginning, later N5200 models are just Hyper98 computer hardware with different BIOS.
No emulators provide emulation of N5200 yet.
===iNHERITOR II-A===
iNHERITOR II-A is an emulation box manufactured by ZUKEN ELMIC, which the purpose is to replace PC-98s used in industrial devices in order to keep them running long after the demise of PC-98 series.
iNHERITOR II-A is an IBM PC powered by Intel Core i7 processor, running Windows Embedded 2009 and a customized PC-98 emulator (which seems to be a fork of Neko Project II judging from its menu bar), and equipped with a special PCI card and C-bus breakout board that could redirect actual PC-98 floppy drive, serial port and C-bus devices to the emulator, which makes it possible to control industrial devices relying on PC-98 via IBM PCs.
There is little to no information about the technical details of its customized PC-98 emulator and related hardware.
==Resources==
