Tokugawa Corporate Forums

Notice:
This thread is out of date. The most recent PC-9801 emulators are available in the Neo Kobe emulator pack.

Overview of PC98 Emulators

There have been several developments in PC98 emulation in the last year, so I created this thread to provide information and links to the latest files.

Neko Project II fmgen
Unofficial, closed-source build of Neko Project II, with extremely good sound reproduction, support for more disk formats, various graphical filtering options, and CD-ROM support. Includes many other features and flexible advanced options. High system requirements.
Latest version:
Link (pass: 9801): http://www1.axfc.net/uploader/File/so/76189
Mirror (no pass): http://www.mediafire.com/?6o8ouea8w990b54
fmgen dll set (v1) - external FM synth engines. Add "FMGenDll=xxx.dll" to the .ini file.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cja10ogt54tp2j2

Neko Project II kai
Another unofficial build supporting a wide variety of disk formats, CD-ROM support, and other features.
Warning: the coder has been tweaking the floppy drive system so there may be some bugs which could corrupt files. Always keep a backup of your disk images.
np2kaiEVC8p - latest version
Link (pass: 9801): http://ux.getuploader.com/Files/downloa ... iEVC8p.zip
Mirror (no pass): http://www.mediafire.com/?rjbnxd8r08n827t
np2_085kCVC8 - for PC-9801
http://www.mediafire.com/?8ocxm18v698b4c6
np21_083kCVC8 - for PC-9821. 0.83 code base.
http://www.mediafire.com/?2m88p1prpg1px84
np21_085kCVC8 - for PC-9821. 0.85 code base. 0.83 and 0.85 are identical except for the i386 core. Performance is better with 0.85, but 0.85 crashes with EMM386.EXE and you'll need to use an alternative memory driver like VEM486.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ry6su3n8nac39s5

np2ss3a - Another build, not by the kai author but using much of the same code. Uses VC6 instead of VC8. Also has multithreading. This is more of a test version.
http://www.mediafire.com/?t63sikgag5n2jkx

T98-Next 20100525
After an 8-year hiatus, Yuki tweaked his T98-Next emulator, improving compatibility with Windows Vista/7 and making some other fixes. A third-party CD-ROM module is available, but outdated. Emulation is fast. Japanese interface.
This version still has some issues - if you have problems, try the 20100523 version or the 13.1th Beta version below.
(click to download)
Official WIP page

T98-Next 13.1th Beta
The last "standard" version of T98-Next from 2002. A third-party CD-ROM module is available, but outdated. Emulation is fast. Japanese interface.
Official homepage

Anex86 2.78
One of the first fully functional PC98 emulators, Anex86 is still very popular. However, the developer A.N. has quietly retired. Anex86 is also compatible with the Anime Games Text Hooker (AGTH) software for extracting Japanese text.
Very low system requirements, but there is no support for OPNA rhythm samples, and Anex86 does not support using real BIOS ROMs, which causes compatbility problems.
Download page mirror

Xnp2
Originally a port of Neko Project II to Linux, the author has been improving 386 processor emulation. Source + Windows binary available.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~aw9k-nnk/np2/

Neko Project II 0.83
The latest official version of np2. Superseded by the unofficial versions above.
Official homepage

Neko Project II 0.83+R4
Another unofficial build based on the Neko Project source code, this version features support for some exotic sound cards such as the Sound Orchestra series. There's also a 64-bit version for newer computers. This build is based on the official Neko Project II 0.83, so it lacks the extra features of the newer unofficial builds.
Official homepage

Takeda Toshiya's emulators
Prolific emulator author Toshiya Takeda has developed several PC-9801 emulators. These aren't very suitable for running games.
ePC-9801 - emulates the very first PC-9801 model from 1982.
ePC-9801E - emulates the early E/F/M models from the early 80s.
ePC-98DO - emulates the PC-98DO, a hybrid 8801/9801 machine.
QEMU/9821 - adaption of the QEMU emulator to support the PC-9821. Needs a very specific set of ROM files.
Official homepage

Excellent Thread.
Neko Tracer is the only version of NP that has Save support, is that right?

Also, Anex is the only emulator compatible with AGTH, which I find occasionally useful.

Thanks Starscream, I added the info about AGTH to the Anex description.

Also, you can enable save states in any version of NP2. Add the line
STATSAVE=true
to the .ini file. However, you have to be careful to not save or load states while there is disk activity. It is possible to permanently corrupt data.

Done, but how do I actually save after that? There's no option in the gui I can associate with it.

A Stat menu appears between Emulate and FDD1. Did you modify the right .ini file? There are separate .ini files for np2, np2nt, np21, and np21nt.

Yeah, but I added the line at the end of the ini. After I wrote it at the beginning, the stat menu appeared.
Did you actually get my pm kobushi? There's nothing in my sentbox, so maybe I have to write it again.

Ah, the statsave line has to go in the [NekoProject**] section of the .ini.

Sorry, I never received any pm.

Thanks kobushi.

This page will come in very handy for many (lurkers )

Very nice summary, thanks !

Is there any specific system library required to run this unofficial Neko build? It crashes on Win7-64 with the error message "The application was unable to start correctly".

_________________
Kaminarimon HES Music Archive | Tokugawa Corporation | VGMRips Playlist | YouTube Channel

Sorry, I really don't know, and I don't have a Win7x64 machine for testing.

If you want to experiment, here is the source to the VC6a build above, and a few other builds.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lfch7w

Thanks for the package, unfortunately it didn't resolve the issue.

It's ok though, because I remembered why it couldn't work anyway. I wrote about it myself 3 months ago. Neko x32 is not compatible with x64 systems.

Alzheimer is not too far away...!

_________________
Kaminarimon HES Music Archive | Tokugawa Corporation | VGMRips Playlist | YouTube Channel

That's too bad

Hopefully someone can take the source code of the newer Neko builds and create a 64-bit binary.

Kaminari, do you know which emulators are x64 compatible? That would be good information to have.

As far as I can tell, Anex86 and T98-Next work correctly on x64.

The "Seven" version of T98 is rather unstable, sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow, and the mouse doesn't seem to work in a few games (Policenauts comes to mind). Also, I'm surprised they still haven't implemented CD digital audio support instead of the long dead analog playback.

_________________
Kaminarimon HES Music Archive | Tokugawa Corporation | VGMRips Playlist | YouTube Channel

Well, Yuki never actually implemented CD support in T98-Next. The CD-ROM module is a 3rd party module by Thor-Hammer, and it hasn't been updated in 10 years (!). I wish Yuki would stop messing around with Android and improve the PC version of T98-Next, but I doubt he will.

Anyway, for CD games, use the kai8 build of Neko.
The ka8 build supports a number of CD image formats such as .ccd, .nrg, and .mds, as well as bin/cue and .iso
I have been able to get alot of stuff running now.

Policenauts is basically perfect in kai8, except for the lip animations. (the lip animation code in Policenauts is very finicky - even with real hardware, the lip animations only work with a specific sound driver version)