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I love the look of PC98 games aka the Anime PC game machine
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
Ivan Amiibo
Banned
thelatestmodel
Junior, please.
Subscribing to this - I really, really love some of this artwork. Amazing.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
This comment made me cringe when the first pic is of a anime girl and somehow conviently has her positioned in such a way to show her panties, one of the main complaint about "anime of today"
Superblatt
Member
Which games in English? I have a PC engine duo r and am looking for good stuff.
That 80's anime style is so wonderful. Part of it is nostalgia, since that's what I grew up on, but I just feel like there was more detail in the art, shading, eyes, and hair. Each cel looked like a labor of love, like when you look at any still from Macross '84 DYRL, Megazone 23, Patlabor, etc. There was, of course, a lot of cheap crap too, but the look just appealed to me more.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
1. Which computer, the PC-98 or the whole variety of old Japanese PCs? The main emulator de jour for PC-98 is Neko Project II fmgen, which has overall best compatibility and runs on recent Windows OSes. Only use T-98Next and Anex86 for edge cases (latter has very useful floppy-disk utility though).
2. If you want to play these legally, collect the disks/packages themselves (Yahoo! Japan Auctions is your friend, do research on middleman services and proceed from there) and/or buy games from Project EGG so you can play them via proprietary emulators. Maybe you can all of the above working via WINE if you're a Linux/OS X user.
What was the exact output resolution for this hardware?
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
The popular 16-color PC-98 video mode outputted to RGB at a 640x400 pixel resolution. Other video modes existed but weren't used by the majority of commercial developers, as resolution superiority was a selling point for the machine and its library of applications.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Can't help but feel a lot of the games with screenshots posted in this thread have sex scenes.
And I'm totally down for that.
And I'm totally down for that.
Ivan Amiibo
Banned
A ton of nudity on pc98, yeah. A lot of times it just happens to be in there, rather than being the focus.
But apparently if you *really* want that stuff, japanese win95 games is the place to be. Not as much pixel goodness there tho
Oh shoot are they all in Japanese :/
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Nearly all, but a number have been translated in different places. You don't need Japanese knowledge to play stuff like action games (Night Slave, Rusty, and Flame Zapper Kotsujin are common recommendations), but it makes things harder for VNs, wargames, and xRPGs if you aren't willing to mess around and keep save states.
sixteen-bit
Member
The soundtrack fucking bangs, btw
https://fmfridays.tumblr.com/post/97544392321/rusty-pc-98-1993-masahiro-kajihara-kenichi
Azure Phoenix
Member
Every time I see images for the PC98 it always makes sad how hard it is to find any clear information about the games available or the hardware itself. Is it even feasible for people to play the games on original hardware at this point? The costs of importing a hefty tower, CRT and accessories (I assume you can't use any old monitor/keyboard?) would be insane, plus the hassle of compatibility and such. It seems unlikely the 25 year old hard drives in them are still ticking along well either. Also what games are even playable (either fan translated or not) for those with little to no Japanese knowledge? I'd imagine most screenshots in here are from eroges not available in English.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
You won't need them: there's at least one compact-flash virtual hard-drive solution for booting, playing stored games, and running OSes on a range of later PC-98(21) machines. Most hard-drive images are made either because games require installs or because you can take advantage of them and play on real machines.
Ivan Amiibo
Banned
seems to google translate well enough to understand
very cool! love reading about this stuff. and seeing people's reactions when they find out Koei and Square and Enix got started selling porn games out of computer parts stores and stuff.
I've had a blast reading the interviews with 80s japanese game devs in the Untold Stories Of Japanese Game Devs books, very informative.
Laevateinn
Member
I'm moving soon so I can't pointlessly buy anything right now but I have my sights set on one of these. Hopefully I can get one for a good price this fall.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm reaaaaaaal close to buying one of these, especially since the price on Yahoo auctions don't seem "too" horrendous (25,000 Yen for a 9821Ce2, although that's before the middleman site would add their fees to it) which I've heard is a good middle ground system for the broadest compatibility with stuff.
Would love to see this localized in English.
Gainax's Silent Möbius PC Game From 1990 to be Reissued
Gainax's Silent Möbius PC Game From 1990 to be Reissued
To do more with these kind of games than just play them, I started a little blog in which I briefly share my thoughts on and experiences with the games.
It's called Sumi-kara Sumi-made, and the first game I looked at is one mentioned earlier in this thread: Kuro no Ken.
I won't pretend that I'm by any means an expert at this games; I simply enjoy discovering them and their gorgeous audiovisuals, and discover even more as I write about them.
It's called Sumi-kara Sumi-made, and the first game I looked at is one mentioned earlier in this thread: Kuro no Ken.
I won't pretend that I'm by any means an expert at this games; I simply enjoy discovering them and their gorgeous audiovisuals, and discover even more as I write about them.
cireza
Member
This game got my attention when I was browsing through PC-98 stuff on the internet. Sadly I won't play a game entirely in Japanese, that's too much of a hassle.
But I really like the overall look and presentation of the game.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Really want to get into games from this era. Wish that was easier to do as a Mac user.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Couple of GIFs I made of Falcom's Brandish:
Game's a real piece of work for a 1991 PC-98 game. High-resolution dungeon-crawling at some of its finest, at least until the sequels came.
Look at the animations I've posted so far and tell me these games are all just visual novels.
I can't believe I beat the sequel on the Super Famicom before the game was even translated. Back then, there wasn't even a complete walkthru. I somehow beat it with a little help from save states. God, that was an amazing feeling!
One of the reasons I love Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is because the scenes are presented like a high quality version of these scenes from the PC-98 games. It was something I was really envious of in CD based games. They could afford these big elaborate scene like this.
I feel like the new games on the 3DS lost this simple presentation style. I don't like the 3D models rotation around the characters. I want to see detailed painting with character portraits laid over them.
Awesome thread.
PC-FX (NEC failed successor of PCE) had lots of games which originated or was inspired by the japanese computer scene like Pia Carrot, Farland Story, Dragon Knight IV and Power Dolls.
To me PC-FX is more a consolized continuation of PC-98 and late PCE gaming offerings than PCE first wave of games.
PC-FX (NEC failed successor of PCE) had lots of games which originated or was inspired by the japanese computer scene like Pia Carrot, Farland Story, Dragon Knight IV and Power Dolls.
To me PC-FX is more a consolized continuation of PC-98 and late PCE gaming offerings than PCE first wave of games.
Bwahahah
Tizoc
Member
For Tizoc, some PC-88 GIFs:
Final Crisis, Techno Grard, PC-88, 1991
Silver Ghost (inspiration for Shining Force), Kure Software Koubou, PC-88, 1987
Testament (successor to Lyrane), Glodia, PC-88, 1987
An early-2000s Sharp X68k would be using an LCD monitor instead!
Dat first GIF *Banderas.gif*
Oh hey, just realized I can contribute sort-of! I lived in Japan from 2005 to 2008 and picked up some odd PC stuff, including the EA Collection of Ultima I-VIII (and Ultima IX but that's not relevant to this thread).
For Ultima I through VI, which were PC98 games, it ships with the English-only for some reason Anex86 emulator and a PDF compiling all the game's manuals with additional instructions for each game on how to load the relevant disc images in the emulator.
PDF of the manual is in the background
Ultima VII only had a Japanese release on SNES, so the included version here is English-only. Good luck with the copy protection! But here are instructions from the manual on how to deal with the 640K barrier.
For Ultima I through VI, which were PC98 games, it ships with the English-only for some reason Anex86 emulator and a PDF compiling all the game's manuals with additional instructions for each game on how to load the relevant disc images in the emulator.
PDF of the manual is in the background
Ultima VII only had a Japanese release on SNES, so the included version here is English-only. Good luck with the copy protection! But here are instructions from the manual on how to deal with the 640K barrier.
sixteen-bit
Member
Holy FUCK
Polioliolio
Member
Wowee, I'm drooling!
Never played anything like this.. Wish these games were on steam or something.
Never played anything like this.. Wish these games were on steam or something.
Advanced Power Dolls! I tried to play it, but it was too opaque for me to get into. Look up its music, that's also amazing.
Holy FUCK
Speedwagon
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Yabuki turned off voice chat in Mario Kart races. True artists of their time.
Gorgeous stuff.
Awesome pictures and info! Thanks for posting
Love all the other PC98 stuff in the thread as well.Nuts_On_Your_Tonsils
Banned
I would really love to play these games but learning Japanese would take up way too much of my time. I wish these games were more popular so they could get the fan-translation treatment. I love that era of anime and love cyberpunk...
Thank gawd we at least have snatcher and the space adventure on Sega CD.
Thank gawd we at least have snatcher and the space adventure on Sega CD.
G L O R I O U S
Holy FUCK
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Yahoo! Japan Auctions, plus buying from Suruga-ya or BEEP Shop and shipping through a middleman service, will get you the floppies/CDs/cartridges, then you'll need hardware to play on which is trickier to research and get shipped. The best way to buy and play digitally is Project EGG which has its own strengths (authentic emulation/ease of use and Windows OS compatibility) and weaknesses (outdated subscription model (which has something of a loophole), limited selection based on whims of rights-holders).
Thanks a bunch! I'll give those options a thorough look. Emulation sounds like the most feasible option, but maybe I can find some hardware whenever next I travel to Japan. It sounds like the games themselves are not necessarily impossible to find.
The problems with Power Dolls is that its interface relies on the compactness of kanji. A translation would mean either a translator's hell in finding fitting abbreviations for pretty much everything or a hacker's hell in re-building the entire interface.
That said, technically translating these games is possible.
_
Edit:
Since I had the game open anyway, have some screenshots from its opening:
That said, technically translating these games is possible.
_
Edit:
Since I had the game open anyway, have some screenshots from its opening:
I just love the art. Translating one of these sounds like fun, being aware of course of the enormous time and energy required to actually complete such a project. Still tempted to try for the experience.
The status screens would probably end up being a bunch of acronyms with a dictionary PDF included if I did it, as you say there's not really a short form English equivalent for most of this stuff.
The status screens would probably end up being a bunch of acronyms with a dictionary PDF included if I did it, as you say there's not really a short form English equivalent for most of this stuff.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Most Japanese PCs have great emulators, but you'll have to use Windows (or Wine) and do some research on the less friendly emulators, ex. XM6 typeG (region-locking, but there's an English crack) and PC6001VW (place the emulator directory in Program Files (x86) for it to work).
A Power DoLLS translation project could be useful, but I really want the Schwarzschild sci-fi fleet wargames in English at some point. There's a bunch of them, but the third mainline game stands out for how it added a lot of world-building and characterization to the series. You also have, like with Power DoLLS, a number of Windows-based installments that do things differently and/or similarly.
Not to mention translating on old computer systems lead to fun situations of "Oh, there's not enough room to squeeze my translation in there" or "What do you mean you can't render ASCII characters?!" I've been lucky that the X68000 project I completed didn't have either of these issues.
runnin_blue
Banned
I really like the look of this game (GAGE), it gives off Hero's Quest/Tactics games vibes.
I've tried and miserably failed at finding footage of it. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?
Cheetos is Pretty Awesome
Member
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Ironically, your bump made me discover this thread.
I really need that JP-PC megathread promised by Dragoon En Regalia.
I played all the Megatech Software eroges back in the day.
