Thank you very much for this video. Like yourself, I wanted to get into PC-98 gaming and decided to import both a PC-9821 Ce2 and a PC-9800 DO (because of the 88 Mode enabled via a switch and various emulation modes with the Zilog 80 Processor built inside). Like you mentioned, I had specific games in mind such as most of the Falcom game and Microcabin games such as Xak, that I own originals of. As soon as I got these computers in, I tested to see that they worked correctly, only I was limited with what I could do because my keyboard (mechanical for the PC98DO) had about half of the keys non-functioning. I just now got that keyboard fixed and my would-be PC-98 is about to continue where it left off about a year ago. lol I was very happy to see that you had made a video (series) about your PC9821 machine. I found it very informative since I really have no clue with how to get started with using Dos 6.2 or installing it for that matter, or Windows 3.1, or even how to get my CD-Rom drive to initialize a game. I'm also very interested in learning how to install games to the harddrive and write games to 3.5 floppies since I believe the 1.2 mb 3.5 and 5.25 formats are compatible from what I've read. You could essentially make an exact Diskcopy image from the 5.25 drive to the 3.5. Anyhow, thanks very much for doing these videos. I plan to watch them all and order a IDE to SD / Compact Flash adapter next. I have another device that you may find interesting that is a CBUS card that allows for additional drives to be setup via a 50 pin Centronics cable. I see these occasionally on Yahoo Japan. I wish I could show more, such as the device working, but the one external dual 5.25 inch floppy drive had some leaking caps and I'm currently trying to fix this first. www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-98-FDD-1MZ.JPG www.retro-type.com/PC98/FDD-1MZ-Instructions-for-Multi.JPG www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-inside.jpg www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-with-FDD-1MZ.jpg www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-installing-FDD-1MZ-01.jpg www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-installing-FDD-1MZ-02.jpg www.retro-type.com/PC98/5inchquarter_doublediskdrive.jpg (This is the beast I hope to hookup to it) Thanks again!
+The Obsolete Geek got me a Cx S3, which actually is a lot like your Cx2. Both are 486SX 33mhz machines with the 9801-86 built in. I basically jumped on the first viable auction that came with a keyboard, and built in FM to cut down on the number of parts I need to get it going. Plus the unit looked rather clean. Only problem is the lack of a joypad port, you were talking about a solution using the mouse port, did you ever figure it out? Plus, I am a bit worried that 33mhz might be on the low end. Would have been more comfortable with an early Pentium model.
Kaleb Schmidt Actually I won another auction for the exact same model. The reason being that the auction came with a bunch of really rare extras for that model, among them a CPU accelerator and a ram expansion module. I guess I am going to have two identical machines now, but I've already found a potential buyer for the spare.
I have never done anything with PC-98, but I have a PC joy 2 from IO data from when I was trying to find a joystick solution for my 486 laptop. I don’t really know much about this card, but the box has logos referencing PC98-NX and Windows 95 plug and play. Has a driver floppy in the box too.
Hey, quick question. I recently won an auction to grab a pc-9821S2. It seemed to be in great condition, however, they could not confirm the HDD. You briefly talked about your compact flash drive for your HDD and I was wondering if there were any limitations on that. Would a 40pin compact flash to IDE bus be fine? Also, what is the typical memory range? I don't expect it to be anything big, but I don't wanna use a large compact flash just to find out it does not work. Thanks and great video.
Since it's mostly a PC, is it possible to just hook in a gameport expansion card? I imagine they existed specifically for the PC-98, but they'd probably be harder to find, the question would be if its operating system accepts/has drivers/recognizes a standard old gameport expansion card.
V. Sigma I know this is an 11 month old comment. The issue with the PC 9800 series machines is that they were used in Mori Sekei CNC machines extensively. So a lot of companies that have their PC98's break just look for a replacement. And they don't care about cost, if it works they'll pay the 3000$ for a working one. So you really have to hunt for them on various places on the web, because anyone who knows what they are knows they can be sold for thousands of dollars.
@Ian B >They made more PC-98's than they did C64's Eh, that's awfully broad; the C64 was only one computer and one set of hardware if you don't count the C128 that had a C64 built in; while the PC-98 was a whole range of machines with different CPUs RAM and configurations. There was never a single PC--98 machine that was made more and sold more than the C64. And I'm not even sure that's true, C64 is worldwide, lasted a decade, versus PC-98 all but exclusive to Japan lasting a little over a decade and a half; I wouldn't be surprised more C64s were made and built and sold than all PC-98s combined; I would have to see actual numbers on them to be sure either way. As said, the PC-98 however was almost entirely exclusive to Japan, meaning there are nowhere near as many machines out there as Western MS-DOS and Windows machines, and a small supply equals a high price.
I wish they had these just as empty cases ... Would love to make a PCMR build out of it. I got all the CRTs on earth, just need the case and peripherals lol
i think that were on fips or the linux fdisk program on a red hat linux that long ago i see something on that weird japanese fat partitions. maybe that worked out.
Hi there, a friend of mine has just sent me a PC9801DA2 / U... I've researched a bit and it seems to use a 80386 socketed CPU, plus it comes with sound card and HDD card... 1.6mb of RAM... I guess it could have it expanded to a Cyrix / Texas Instruments 486 DLC 40mhz... However i wonder if that could be enough to play advanced games. I've read somewhere that a 486SX 25 powered 9821 (earlier models) is the best "all round" option. My 9801 comes with sound board but i'm not sure if it's model 86. Is there any way to know without turning it on? I will need several weeks fot the computer to arrive and it will take me a bit more to find a video adapter to plug it to an standard monitor. Any advice? Thanks
Hello is the NEC APC-III which was fairly common here in the US equivalent to a first generation pc98 box? It seems even the various 486 based pc98 descendants use a similar expansion card cage as the APCIII. Wondering if I was cheating myself out of groov s/w, assuming it is compatible, though my unit has the IBM compatability option. IINM the III a 7220 graphics chip.
+Chris Keegan You have a NEC APC-III? Does it work? If it works, can you somehow post images in the internet? FYI, there's a forum called Tokugawa Corporate which is all about Japanese computers. You can find someone for help overthere.
Hey there! I have a Cs2 as well and downloaded your link! It looks like it boots into the file manager but the games, when !start is selected, it just goes back to the list again. Do you have the .hti files installed separately?
Does the 98 output though a 15 pin D-Sub? Or is there an adapter available to covert it to D-sub, component or even 15Khz inputs like SCART and S-Video?
It uses a specific RGB15 (not dsub vga) connector with special wiring. You want to have a framemeister when you get into the retro Japanese computer scene, because these computers usually output oddball resolutions and frequently switch frequencies (15khz, 24khz, 31khz) on the fly. The framemeister is a must have here because it accepts all kinds of oddball resolutions and frequencies over scart or RGB21 . The pc98 outputs RGB along with H and V sync so you will need either a specially made PC88/98 to scart cable or a RGB15 to DSUB 15 VGA-style converter that goes into a sync combiner then into a scart cable that goes to the framemeister that goes to your tv! Pretty complicated but really worth the trouble as from this point on its then pickup and play
Mantis128 I never tried really, but what actually counts is the handling of 15khz and 24khz 640x200 resolution from the 88. The 88 outputs H and V sync so again, sync combiner to output RGB and Csync over Scart.
What notebook model PC 98 would you recommend? Would a PC 9821 Na series model be good for early 90's games (like Policenauts, Giten Megami Tensei, ect.)
I've always been curious about these Japanese machines. Love watching the videos.
Thank you very much for this video. Like yourself, I wanted to get into PC-98 gaming and decided to import both a PC-9821 Ce2 and a PC-9800 DO (because of the 88 Mode enabled via a switch and various emulation modes with the Zilog 80 Processor built inside). Like you mentioned, I had specific games in mind such as most of the Falcom game and Microcabin games such as Xak, that I own originals of. As soon as I got these computers in, I tested to see that they worked correctly, only I was limited with what I could do because my keyboard (mechanical for the PC98DO) had about half of the keys non-functioning. I just now got that keyboard fixed and my would-be PC-98 is about to continue where it left off about a year ago. lol I was very happy to see that you had made a video (series) about your PC9821 machine. I found it very informative since I really have no clue with how to get started with using Dos 6.2 or installing it for that matter, or Windows 3.1, or even how to get my CD-Rom drive to initialize a game. I'm also very interested in learning how to install games to the harddrive and write games to 3.5 floppies since I believe the 1.2 mb 3.5 and 5.25 formats are compatible from what I've read. You could essentially make an exact Diskcopy image from the 5.25 drive to the 3.5. Anyhow, thanks very much for doing these videos. I plan to watch them all and order a IDE to SD / Compact Flash adapter next.
I have another device that you may find interesting that is a CBUS card that allows for additional drives to be setup via a 50 pin Centronics cable. I see these occasionally on Yahoo Japan. I wish I could show more, such as the device working, but the one external dual 5.25 inch floppy drive had some leaking caps and I'm currently trying to fix this first.
www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-98-FDD-1MZ.JPG
www.retro-type.com/PC98/FDD-1MZ-Instructions-for-Multi.JPG
www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-inside.jpg
www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-with-FDD-1MZ.jpg
www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-installing-FDD-1MZ-01.jpg
www.retro-type.com/PC98/pc-9821ce2-installing-FDD-1MZ-02.jpg
www.retro-type.com/PC98/5inchquarter_doublediskdrive.jpg (This is the beast I hope to hookup to it)
Thanks again!
Well, I just took the plunge and won an auction. Looks like the PC98 scene in the west will soon grow one stronger.
Nice! Which model did you get?
+The Obsolete Geek got me a Cx S3, which actually is a lot like your Cx2. Both are 486SX 33mhz machines with the 9801-86 built in. I basically jumped on the first viable auction that came with a keyboard, and built in FM to cut down on the number of parts I need to get it going. Plus the unit looked rather clean. Only problem is the lack of a joypad port, you were talking about a solution using the mouse port, did you ever figure it out?
Plus, I am a bit worried that 33mhz might be on the low end. Would have been more comfortable with an early Pentium model.
lucky!
Kaleb Schmidt Actually I won another auction for the exact same model. The reason being that the auction came with a bunch of really rare extras for that model, among them a CPU accelerator and a ram expansion module. I guess I am going to have two identical machines now, but I've already found a potential buyer for the spare.
Aww I really want one
Otaku's PC Master Race!
はい！！＾＾
How did you connect the monitor ?
The NEC PC-98 is still highly emulated to this date
I have never done anything with PC-98, but I have a PC joy 2 from IO data from when I was trying to find a joystick solution for my 486 laptop.
I don’t really know much about this card, but the box has logos referencing PC98-NX and Windows 95 plug and play. Has a driver floppy in the box too.
Hey, quick question.
I recently won an auction to grab a pc-9821S2. It seemed to be in great condition, however, they could not confirm the HDD. You briefly talked about your compact flash drive for your HDD and I was wondering if there were any limitations on that. Would a 40pin compact flash to IDE bus be fine? Also, what is the typical memory range? I don't expect it to be anything big, but I don't wanna use a large compact flash just to find out it does not work.
Thanks and great video.
Since it's mostly a PC, is it possible to just hook in a gameport expansion card? I imagine they existed specifically for the PC-98, but they'd probably be harder to find, the question would be if its operating system accepts/has drivers/recognizes a standard old gameport expansion card.
I just read on your guide, on NFG, that we should "avoid the CX series".
Why exactly is that?
Got a bit of sticker shock when I went on eBay and saw PC-98s selling for over two thousand dollars...there's gotta be a cheaper place to look, right?
V. Sigma I know this is an 11 month old comment. The issue with the PC 9800 series machines is that they were used in Mori Sekei CNC machines extensively. So a lot of companies that have their PC98's break just look for a replacement. And they don't care about cost, if it works they'll pay the 3000$ for a working one. So you really have to hunt for them on various places on the web, because anyone who knows what they are knows they can be sold for thousands of dollars.
They made more PC-98's than they did C64's
Totally correct. I work for a company that use these old PC's and when they go companies will pay big bucks for them.
@Ian B >They made more PC-98's than they did C64's
Eh, that's awfully broad; the C64 was only one computer and one set of hardware if you don't count the C128 that had a C64 built in; while the PC-98 was a whole range of machines with different CPUs RAM and configurations. There was never a single PC--98 machine that was made more and sold more than the C64. And I'm not even sure that's true, C64 is worldwide, lasted a decade, versus PC-98 all but exclusive to Japan lasting a little over a decade and a half; I wouldn't be surprised more C64s were made and built and sold than all PC-98s combined; I would have to see actual numbers on them to be sure either way.
As said, the PC-98 however was almost entirely exclusive to Japan, meaning there are nowhere near as many machines out there as Western MS-DOS and Windows machines, and a small supply equals a high price.
Great Megadrive-sounding FM synth!
+98digger You mean OPNA (YM2608), which became the YM2612.
I really wish I had one, they're just so rare and expensive nowadays
I wish they had these just as empty cases ... Would love to make a PCMR build out of it. I got all the CRTs on earth, just need the case and peripherals lol
My dad had an NEC Ready 9733 Pentium MMX. Is this a collectable machine?
Yes
Hi. Can you please provide a new link for the HDD image?
Have tried the Touhou Project games? I play them using Anex86 emulator or Neko Project II but never seen them run on original PC 98 hardware.
if you want a good emulator for touhou games i recommend T98Next
Thanks for the guide!
i think that were on fips or the linux fdisk program on a red hat linux that long ago i see something on that weird japanese fat partitions. maybe that worked out.
Would you happen to have any info on getting a working virtual machine of the PC-9801? Like how you can install different OS inside of virtualbox.
If the old PC98 power supply worn out or broken , howto replace it ? AT standard or ATX standard.
image download is getting a 403 error now ? new link ?
Where does the current image reside ?
If you're looking for games to put on the PC-98, may I recommend Doom? It was released on that platform.
Hi there, a friend of mine has just sent me a PC9801DA2 / U... I've researched a bit and it seems to use a 80386 socketed CPU, plus it comes with sound card and HDD card... 1.6mb of RAM...
I guess it could have it expanded to a Cyrix / Texas Instruments 486 DLC 40mhz... However i wonder if that could be enough to play advanced games. I've read somewhere that a 486SX 25 powered 9821 (earlier models) is the best "all round" option.
My 9801 comes with sound board but i'm not sure if it's model 86. Is there any way to know without turning it on?
I will need several weeks fot the computer to arrive and it will take me a bit more to find a video adapter to plug it to an standard monitor.
Any advice?
Thanks
Hello is the NEC APC-III which was fairly common here in the US equivalent to a first generation pc98 box? It seems even the various 486 based pc98 descendants use a similar expansion card cage as the APCIII. Wondering if I was cheating myself out of groov s/w, assuming it is compatible, though my unit has the IBM compatability option. IINM the III a 7220 graphics chip.
+Chris Keegan You have a NEC APC-III? Does it work? If it works, can you somehow post images in the internet? FYI, there's a forum called Tokugawa Corporate which is all about Japanese computers. You can find someone for help overthere.
+cuba200614 I have an NEC APC III. I should be able to pull it out of storage, turn it on, and take some pictures this coming or the following week.
Is a voltage transformer required to safely use this in the US?
Where did you find yours? The prices on eBay are insane!
Hey there! I have a Cs2 as well and downloaded your link! It looks like it boots into the file manager but the games, when !start is selected, it just goes back to the list again. Do you have the .hti files installed separately?
what about the TV tuner ?
OG, I am thinking about getting a PC-98. I have a question...
1. Can you use an X68000 keyboard for a PC-9821?
Thanks.,,
Sadly you can't
By the way, if I ever get my hands on one, do you think the model 9821 Ce2 will be compatible with the touhou games and Ys I / Ys II ?
very awesome indeed!
Does the 98 output though a 15 pin D-Sub? Or is there an adapter available to covert it to D-sub, component or even 15Khz inputs like SCART and S-Video?
It uses a specific RGB15 (not dsub vga) connector with special wiring. You want to have a framemeister when you get into the retro Japanese computer scene, because these computers usually output oddball resolutions and frequently switch frequencies (15khz, 24khz, 31khz) on the fly. The framemeister is a must have here because it accepts all kinds of oddball resolutions and frequencies over scart or RGB21 . The pc98 outputs RGB along with H and V sync so you will need either a specially made PC88/98 to scart cable or a RGB15 to DSUB 15 VGA-style converter that goes into a sync combiner then into a scart cable that goes to the framemeister that goes to your tv! Pretty complicated but really worth the trouble as from this point on its then pickup and play
@@joshi_6887 How would an OSSC fair? I recall a video on here of a person playing the old Touhou games on an OSSC.
Mantis128 I never tried really, but what actually counts is the handling of 15khz and 24khz 640x200 resolution from the 88. The 88 outputs H and V sync so again, sync combiner to output RGB and Csync over Scart.
What notebook model PC 98 would you recommend? Would a PC 9821 Na series model be good for early 90's games (like Policenauts, Giten Megami Tensei, ect.)
I'm looking mostly to play visual novels and RPGs
Well, I guess an early model Nr(like Nr13 or Nr15) would fit.
None, like he said in the video; notebook equals no PC98 soundboard, let alone with a joystick port.
Nice project. very inforative vidyo. Appreciativeities.
Omggggg I want to play one of these
I'd love to learn Japanese and play some 90s Japanese PC games
im trying to find the complete roms for nec 98. can anyone help?
check archive.org?
How's PC-98 Emulation?
Anex86 is a great and simple emulator
@10:04 WTF is wrong with this clock?!
+Ben I was assuming it would be an obvious Y2K bug, then I looked at it... wow. Weird.