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 Post subject: Got an 8801MC - problems
PostPosted: October 29th, 2012, 3:14 am 
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Hi. Good to be back here again.

I just bought a PC-8801MC, and I really like the design of this machine a lot. I was pleased to find that the system powers up, displays correctly, and both floppy drives read fine.

I don't have a keyboard yet, since it didn't come with one, and the particular type of keyboard this machine requires (Type A) is in surprisingly high demand and hard to find. I know I'll get one eventually.

For the time being, however, I don't seem to be able to play games with a game pad either. It seems that some of the game pad buttons are constantly registered as "on". When I started Ys 3, for instance, Adol constantly crawls to the left while attacking. This is the same whether a game pad is plugged in or not.

I'm trying to determine if the machine has a hardware problem or not. I should be able to tell for sure once I have a keyboard. By any chance does a keyboard need to be connected in order for the machine to function properly? My other guess is that there might be a setting in the softdips for this? I can't access the dips without a keyboard. Gamepad and mouse use the same port, so is there perhaps a dip to change between mouse and joypad mode?

If anyone has any experience with this hardware, your assistance would be appreciated. If it is a hardware issue, I'm hoping it can be fixed easily by fixing pins or replacing caps, but before I do that I want to exhaust all other possibilities. There's very little info to be found about this machine on the Net - in either English or Japanese!


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PostPosted: October 31st, 2012, 3:23 pm 
that definitely sounds odd, but now that i think about it i've never tried to play a game without the keyboard connected. give me a few days and i can test that out with ysIII; i have an 8801MA so our models are pretty close.

just out of curiosity, what type of controller are you using? the fact that it seems to be acting weird without one plugged in probably rules that out, but just for reference...


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PostPosted: November 1st, 2012, 8:33 am 
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I have two controllers with me at my current dwelling. Both are MSX controllers (Panasonic and Hudson). Incidentally, I just bought them and I've never used them on other machines yet, and I don't have anything else to test them on with me at the moment. (I've used similar controllers on PC-98, X68k, MSX, FM Towns in the past with no problem.) But, yeah, it does the same thing whether anything's plugged in or not, so I doubt it's a controller issue.

Damn. No one is listing a keyboard for sale. Wishing I had bought the one that ended at like 7000 yen now. That would definitely be the most I've ever paid for a keyboard!


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PostPosted: November 3rd, 2012, 4:40 am 
okay, fired up ysIII without the keyboard and saw no issues going on with input. we already suspected that though. it doesn't seem like anything relevant to controller input would have changed in the progression from MA > MA2 > MC, so it looks like you'll have to wait for a keyboard and mess with the switches. :\ i'd offer my keyboard for testing, but something tells me you are probably not anywhere near the us east coast.

let me know if there's anything else i can cross-check, though.


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PostPosted: November 5th, 2012, 4:11 am 
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Thanks a lot for your help.

Yeah. Tokyo here, so at least I know it's only a matter of time before another keyboard comes up on Yahoo.


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PostPosted: November 30th, 2012, 2:35 pm 
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Got a keyboard. Cost me over $70.
But, yes! Everything works correctly with the keyboard attached. Joypad suddenly works and everything.

Next question, how do I start N88Basic on this thing? I need to be able to start so that I can use Transdisk through RS-232C. Right now when I start the PC-8801MC it doesn't let you use basic, and eventually just says "TADASHII DISK WO IRETE KUDASAI" in katakana and freezes. You don't get the familiar "How many files?" I believe the PC-8801MA does the same thing.

[EDIT: And for reference, this machine uses keyboard "Type A". This info just isn't available anywhere on the web.]


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PostPosted: December 19th, 2012, 7:20 am 
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Can I access N88Basic if I have the system disk?
I have an image of the system disk, but I can't make a real one unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic and I can't access N88Basic unless I have a real system disk and I can't make a real system disk unless I can access N88Basic...

Hehe sorry about that. Wish I just had my PC-98 and 5 inch floppy drive with me here. That would probably solve my problem. Don't really want to screw with trying to install a 5 inch drive on my Windows machine.


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PostPosted: December 19th, 2012, 11:23 am 
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Romanus Eunt Domus

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PostPosted: December 19th, 2012, 2:53 pm 
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kazekirifx wrote:
Can I access N88Basic if I have the system disk?

Hehe sorry about that. Wish I just had my PC-98 and 5 inch floppy drive with me here. That would probably solve my problem. Don't really want to screw with trying to install a 5 inch drive on my Windows machine.


Perhaps you could get a cheap adapter for external use of the floppy drive? I have one in use with an IDE-Burner to connect via USB when needed.


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PostPosted: December 19th, 2012, 11:41 pm 
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Starscream, what kind of drive and adapter are you using to connect via USB?

I just bought this drive, but I can't for the life of me locate a card-type connector here in Japan, and I'm also running Windows XP which doesn't support 3-mode drives out of the box. (I guess it might be a good idea to boot an old version of DOS?)
http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/167055849


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PostPosted: December 20th, 2012, 12:44 am 
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It was actually a gift :)
And it works only with hdds and CD/DVD drives, there's no floppy connection. I was just speculating that a solution for floppies might exist.


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PostPosted: December 20th, 2012, 3:56 am 
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Good like finding either of the 2 pc88 CD games. One of them has been my pc88 holy grail to find for like 5 years now.


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PostPosted: December 20th, 2012, 6:42 am 
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Macaw wrote:
Good like finding either of the 2 pc88 CD games. One of them has been my pc88 holy grail to find for like 5 years now.


I know of three: CD Takarabako, DIOS, and Mirrors. I don't have any yet, but I can get CD Takarabako anytime I'm ready to plunk down 4000 yen.

I do have some of the games which allow you to replace the music with CD audio though (Teitoku no Ketsudan, Popful Mail, and Legend of Heroes).


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PostPosted: December 22nd, 2012, 3:42 am 
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I thought CD Takarabako wasn't an actual game? I've never bothered to have a look at it haha.

Duel and some of the koei stuff also have the separate CD audio music, but Mirrors and DIOS are the only real CD specific games.

I must find DIOS cd version one day. Its one of the most fascinating and cool games on the old computers, and the thought that a obscenely rare cd version with voice acting was released is incredibly cool, especially given the circumstances of zain soft at the time.


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PostPosted: December 22nd, 2012, 3:06 pm 
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Macaw wrote:
I thought CD Takarabako wasn't an actual game? I've never bothered to have a look at it haha.


It isn't, it's a compilation of system demos and samples (some playable) which came with the PC-88MC2; not a game, definitely.

Macaw wrote:
I must find DIOS cd version one day. Its one of the most fascinating and cool games on the old computers, and the thought that a obscenely rare cd version with voice acting was released is incredibly cool, especially given the circumstances of zain soft at the time.


I'm quite ignorant on Zain Soft's history, where they closing down when they published DIOS CD, or something like that?


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