PC-9821 HDD Image

[AnnaWu]

Some info (Japanese) about it.
tinyurl.com/qbyjcqj

[caius]

Yes, I already noticed that page the problem is that it's still in full japanese..

[eidis]

Hi AnnaWu and Caius !

AnnaWu, thank you for yet another quality link !

Caius,

Maybe this will help:

☆ ERCACHE ver3.00 or newer

In general it has two features and uses PC-98x1 + protected memory,
1. The FD-based game can be converted to image file
2. FD-based game can be loaded from RAM-DISK via virtual FD function.

☆ First of all download the following software.

http://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/dos/game/tool/index.html

ERCACHE game support system
ERCGSV (image saver)
ERCVFD (virtual FD controller)

HSB
http://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/dos/util/boot/hsb/index.html

ESOUND
http://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/dos/art/music/fm/index.html

ESOUND is not required for those who do not have the 86 or 26K sound cards.

☆ The software should work on PC-98x1 without problems.
PC-9821 compatibility is not confirmed.

1) Create a subdirectory in root called "REBOOT" and extract
contents of ERCxxxxx.LZH, ERCGSVxx.LZH, ERCVFDxx.LZH, HSBxxxxx.LZH
archives there.

Open autoexec.bat in text editor and add the following line
"SET PATH=A:\DOS;A:\DEVICE;A:\REBOOT"

2) Due to the nature of ERCACHE, IPL is run at boot time
before accessing the partition on hard drive.

3) ERCACHE starts normally from second partition but HSB must be in
your path.

4) HSB can not be run if image file is not mounted with ERCACHE

Those who do not use EMS driver
================================

Please add the following line at the beginning of the CONFIG.SYS.
DEVICE=HSB.EXE VC IGDC IG IF Y2 T2 TS

Copy HSB.EXE to A:\REBOOT directory abd write the following line if you
have an 86 sound card:
DEVICE=A:\REBOOT\HSB.EXE VC I26 II[A468&7F] IGDC IG IF Y2 T2 TS

Those who use EMS driver
========================

Add the following line at the beginning of the CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=HSB.EXE VC Y-

And the following one, immediately after the EMS driver (EMM386, etc.)
DEVICE=HSB.EXE VU IGDC IG IF Y1 T2 TS

Example of CONFIG.SYS
=====================

DEVICE=A:\REBOOT\HSB.EXE I26 VC Y-
DOS=HIGH,UMB
BUFFERS=15
FILES=30
LASTDRIVE=Q
FCBS=2,0
DEVICEHIGH=A:\DEVICE\VMM386.EXE /F=C0 /W=CC /U=D0-D7,DE-DF/ROM=D8-DD,E8-FF /I
DEVICE=A:\REBOOT\HSB.EXE VU I26 II[A468&7F] IGDC IG IF Y1 T2 TS
SHELL=A:\COMMAND.COM A:\ /e:1024 /p

The HSB should now be ready to use.

5) A significant amount of memory is required. 7-8Mb should be enough for 2-3
floppy games. 32Mb should be enough for 7-8 disks.

================================

☆ Let's move Innovation crunchy.

HSB can be used with the following commands:

A>CD A:\REBOOT
A>HSB WHERCACHE.HSB

· First, we need to create a virtual image of FD game and store it in a
"A:\VFD" directory on hard disk. Before you proceed, make sure that ERCACHE
and ERCVFD.EXE are in your path.

Place game disk 1 in drive 1
"Quinn tier load" is used for this example

A>CD A:\VFD
A>ERCVFD /SAVE QLOAD.1

Note:  Use the following command for games that are on 2DD media
        A>ERCVFD.EXE /SAVE FILENAME.x /DRIVE=10

Insert disk 2
A> ERCVFD / SAVE QLOAD.2

Using cwsdpmi or DPMI protected mode can cause V86 monitor errors.
Please use the following environment:

1) CONFIG.ERC

DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=A:\REBOOT\HSB.EXE VU IGDC I26 II[A468&7F]
DEVICE=A:\REBOOT\ERCACHE.EXE /HM /IGDC2 /VFDS=128 /VFDMAX=15 /VFDKEY /VFD1FD

/HIDEDEV /400LINE
FILES=30
BUFFERS=10
LASTDRIVE=Q
SHELL=A:\COMMAND.COM A:\ /P /E:1024

Use "/VFDMAX=10" for models which do not have the vf key on the keyboard
At the same time "/VFDS=128" might not work. Reduce the 128 to a value,
shown in reference 1, which corresponds to your system.

※ Reference 1
4Mb system = 28
6Mb system = 44
8Mb system = 60
9Mb system = 68
10Mb system = 76
11Mb system = 84
12Mb system = 92
13Mb system = 100
14Mb system = 108
16Mb system = 124
24Mb system = 188
32Mb system = 252
48Mb or more = 256

2) AUTOEXEC.ERC

@ECHO OFF
A:\REBOOT\ESOUND /VF
;　 ESOUND is only for those who have s sound card
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.1
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.2
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.3
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.4
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.5
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /LOAD A:\VFD\QLOAD.6
A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD /REBOOT

You can launch the game with these files.

Press the following keys when the game prompts you to change disks:

Drive 1,
CTRL + GRAPH + f·1 ~ vf·5

Drive 2,
CTRL + SHIFT + GRAPH + f·1 ~ vf·5

======================================================================

☆ You will probably think "What about save games ?". Do not worry,
because there is also a proper save function.

However, due to ERCACHE storing data in RAM, the data will be lost
when you reset or restart HSB.

Press  CTRL + GRAPH + INS keys when you want to save.

Use the following command to load saved game:
A>A:\REBOOT\ERCVFD.EXE /VFDSAVE?


Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[acridAxid]

Thanks for providing this great information, eidis!

[RobIvy64]

Sweeeet!

[caius]

Thanks as always, Eidis, for your great translation.From my own I've still to test this environment but I fear it can't run under emulation.Perhaps someone with real machine could test it

[RobIvy64]

As of now, i'm the only one here (that I am aware of) with a real PC-98.

Load up the files and I will try them out.

[caius]

Yes, I think you are the only one but within some time I'll be there too! 

[eidis]

 Hi Guys !

I can confirm that ERCVFD.EXE does not work with T98-Next 13.1th Beta, Anex86 v2.77 and Neko Project II v0.83. All three of them create a file with a size of 2672 bytes. That is not sexy.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[caius]

No, I also managed to create the right file (bigger than 1Mb) from a disk image,  the problem is that I can' mount it and boot from RAM.It gives me an error related to 86 sound card.

[RobIvy64]

acridaxid and tw3ek both have PC-98s on the way, so we will have more testers with varying types of hardware!

[eidis]

 Caius,

Please attach the original image to your post, from which you created the ERCVFD image.

Keep the scene alive !
Eidis

[caius]

Here the screenshot.
If you were unable to create the ERCVFD specific file (it happens to me too quite often) , probably the disk image format is not recognized.Try other games (or convert to a more usable format with Virtual Floppy Image Converter) or use a different /LEVEL parameter of the SAVE function.

[AnnaWu]

I am surprised why people still prefer to use T98-Next. ; )

[caius]

Kobushi from Tokugawa forums very kindly explained how to use ERCVFD virtual floppy system.You can read more about here as well download an HDD image:

http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1497#p14024

Now it woud be interesting if someone could test this image on real hardware since ERCACHE doesn't work under emulators.

[MSXManiac]

"Howdy!

Version 1.5 of the PC98 HDD image is now available! Release date: 20 June 2014

Give Caius some praise for working hard to improve the V1.0 image!

http://nfggames.com/PC98/HDDimages/PC98HDDV1_5.zip

V1.5 Updates by Caius:"

And who uploaded http://nfggames.com/PC98/HDDimages/PC98HDDV1_6.zip

I downloaded several times and always don't pass the archiver test (broken zip file)!!!

Can upload it again?

[caius]

Hi, if you can wait some days I will release an updated HDD image with a lot of more games installed!

[SkyeWelse]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to give an update that I've been working on a new HDD image based on this one and Kobushi's YAHDI image and I hope to release it soon. It's going to contain everything that is in the 1.5 image, the original YAHDI image, and plenty more games which I plan to index by genre rather than a simple list of 8 character filenames only as well as an English game category.

My goal here is to present an update of the YAHDI image in an organized way and I'm testing which games will work on real hardware versus emulation, or both and I plan to put notes in each game's folder as to the compatibility with my setup at least, which is the PC9821 C Series, specifically the Ce2. I've also gotten the P88SR PC88 emulator working and have already tested several PC-88 games as well on real hardware. It "can" be run in emulation, but not very well so far. Perhaps it could be tweaked though.

Anyhow I'm having fun working on it and I hope to have more news soon. Also, a few others and myself have started up a new Romhacking community over at www.heroesoflegend.org. We plan on working on games from many different platforms and posting notes about how to hack these games as we gain experience with them. I bring this up here mainly because we plan on working on at least 3 PC-98 titles, possibly others as well. Brandish 2 Renewal is already underway and coming along fairly well as soon as we can figure out the compression or how to fake compress the translated text. And we have AIZA: New Generation and Xak I: The Art of Visual Stage planned as well so far.

Edit: Caius, since you were working on an update as well, I'm wondering if you'd like to work together privately on it so that maybe I can add this new update you have planned into this image, or if you prefer to keep it separate from YAHDI as a base image, I can always send you my progress and you can maybe take a few from there to add to yours?

-Thomas

[RobIvy64]

If you want me to test your image on my Cs2, let me know

[SkyeWelse]

Sure, I'd be happy to Rob. I'm testing with emulation first and then on the Ce2. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm making some progress. One thing I've had some trouble getting to work is Alantia. It's a Space Harrier-esque shooter with wonderful visuals and terrible gameplay. Still... I want it on the system for it's visual look alone. I've finally gotten the commonly found FDD images converted to .D88 files (FDD to FDI did not work with VFIC I'm afraid) which can be played inside of T-98 Next as well as Project Neko II. I then attempted to get it converted to VFD files and tried to play it using ERCACHE, but no luck so far I'm afraid. I'm fairly confident thought that it might work on a HxC or a Gotek running HxC firmware at least since it at least is converted to a .D88 file, which is something the HxC program should understand and convert into it's own proprietary format. But after a few hours spent trying to get this one game working, I've given up.

The good news is that I finally figured out what the VFD Save feature is doing now when using ERCACHE. I'm not calling myself an expert on it, but I was at least able to save my game in AIZA: New Generation and reload it from a permanent save disk.

So we can save the game by hitting CTRL + GRAPH + INS right? Well, after that there is an HSB reset that takes place and at least if you are using the YAHDI image, which is what I'm working off of due to the convenience of having so many tools available, you should see some new red text briefly appear during the loading of BM, and whatever else is being loaded as far as DOS system files and extras. It should look a bit like this:




I'm not sure which of those RED text messages means that there is something still in RAM, but either way, these normally do not appear during normal startup. Now since the save is still in RAM and not saved permanently yet, exit to DOS and type:

ERCVFD /VFDSAVE?

*Or create a new .BAT file in the root of your HDD like I did when this command. I called mine ERCSAVE.BAT, as an example.

Doing so should bring up a menu that looks like this:



Hit Enter, and it should read what is in RAM and write it to a new DISK file which will then be dumped into the root of your HDD, or A:\.

This new file will be called ERCVFD01.VFD.

In my case, this VFD file created is a copy of DISK 1 out 4 DISKS that I loaded up in order to play AIZA. DISK 1 in this case is the System DISK, and is also where my Save game is written to, like a User Disk.

My original setup for AIZA for ERCACHE is as follows:

1. 4 VFD DISKS named whatever I want.

2. An autoexec.bat which looks like this:

SET PATH=A:\,A:\DOS;A:\TOOLS
CD A:\GAMES\AIZA
ESOUND /VF
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZASYS.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA1.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA2.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA3.VFD
ERCVFD /REBOOT
ERCVFD /VFDSAVE?
*If this does not display correctly in your browser, it's a RETURN KEY / CARRIAGE RETURN symbol.

3. A config.sys file that is setup like this:

DEVICE=A:\TOOLS\HSB.EXE VU I26 IGDC
DEVICE=A:\TOOLS\ERCACHE.EXE /HM /VFDS=124 /VFDMAX=4 /VFDKEY
DOS=HIGH
*If this does not display correctly in your browser, it's a RETURN KEY / CARRIAGE RETURN symbol.

*Also note that this file may be different on my machine and per game, as VFDS refers to the amount of RAM I have available on the machine and VFDMAX refers to the number of disks I need to put into RAM.

--------

What's important for this Save restore is to go ahead and copy the ERCVFD01.VFD file over to this directly (In my case, to my GAMES/AIZA directory) and then edit the DISK 1 entry above in my autoexec.bat file which was ERCVFD /LOAD AIZASYS.VFD and change it to: ERCVFD /LOAD ERCVFD01.VFD.

So now my autoexec.bat file looks like this:

SET PATH=A:\,A:\DOS;A:\TOOLS
CD A:\GAMES\AIZA
ESOUND /VF
ERCVFD /LOAD ERCVFD01.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA1.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA2.VFD
ERCVFD /LOAD AIZA3.VFD
ERCVFD /REBOOT
ERCVFD /VFDSAVE?
*If this does not display correctly in your browser, it's a RETURN KEY / CARRIAGE RETURN symbol.

Now when I launch the game again using ERCACHE, this new DISK1 file now has my save game and I can pickup and play right where I left of. And now when I want to save, I simply repeat, but it's a bit faster now because I simply save it in the game as I normally would, hit CTRL + GRAPH + INS. Run the ERCSAVE.BAT file from the FILMTN File Manager, Move ERCVFD01.VFD to the GAMES/AIZA directory, and it will then ask me if I want to replace the file with the new file with the newer time stamp. (It's option 1 out of 4 when presented with the different options to pick by the way), file is replaced, and I'm ready to load the game again.

The Japanese guide above makes mention of how this ERCVFD01.VFD is somehow equivalent to QLOAD.1, and how ERCVFD03.VFD (or DISK 3) is equivalent to QLOAD.3 and how these files can be renamed and placed inside the VFD directory in the root. Perhaps there is an easier and quicker method for saving and restoring games that I just don't full understand yet, but here is one way to do it at least! Hope it is useful to anyone looking to use ERCACHE and keep a permanent save game of their progress! : )

-Thomas

[caius]

Great work on Ercache, Thomas.
As for your new HDD images, we can start cooperating.Personally I've installed other games on the YAHDI image and launch them from BM menu (first option BROWSE GAME LIBRARY) and not from FILMTN .
Regarding other PC-98 related things, I 'm going to contact you via PM

[SkyeWelse]

Hi Caius,

Sure, PM would work best. This is actually what I'm doing as well. I'm getting the games themselves indexed within categories inside of FILMTN, but I'm also creating Genre Library pages and direct links and full names to each of the games in BM. So it looks like we'll both be pretty much on the same page when we start collaborating.

I'll need a few more days at least before I'm ready to share. I have a giant list of stuff I want to organize and try to get working first. : )

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

I just wanted to post to explain that I believe I finally understand how the Saves work now inside of Ercache and the program from what I can see so far appears to be rather intuitive in terms of only saving the specific disk number that was modified / written to during your last session without even so much as having to set that part up manually. So as a test, I now have Ys I playing perfectly inside of RAM, I save to my userdisk as I would normally using F4 (reloading with F1) and when I want to end my game and save permanently I reboot the system using CTRL + GRAPH + INS. This reboots the system, and before I turn off the power or load anything else, I now run a .BAT script called YS1SAVE.BAT which I have located inside the YS1 folder. I have the script set to launch the ERCACHE save program, which requires the RETURN key to be pressed, and it will automatically write a new disk file named ERCVFD02.VFD and save it to the file path of my choosing (this does need to be specified in the YS1SAVE.BAT. (*Note that the 2 here was automatically identified as DISK#2 that I had setup to load inside of my AUTOEXEC.BAT which looks like this:

SET PATH=A:\,A:\DOS;A:\TOOLS
CD A:\GAMES\YS1
ESOUND /VF
ERCVFD /LOAD YS1.1
ERCVFD /LOAD ERCVFD02.VFD  <= This is my userdisk.
ERCVFD /REBOOT
ERCVFD /VFDSAVE?
 <= Symbol for RETURN key / Carriage Return.

This will automatically overwrite the previous ERCVFD02.VFD file I was using, and I can now poweroff safely and the next time I load up YS1, my save will be there just as I left it. : )

Edit: So I had followed Kobushi's recommendation earlier in the YADHI thread about making a new ESOUND file to use with ERCACHE and thought that I only really needed to do it 'once' like his message states:

At the DOS prompt, type:

Code Select Expand

cd\tools
del esound.com
mksound
esound

This will delete and recreate the esound.com utility based on your specific sound hardware. This shouldn't be necessary in most cases, but you may as well do it. You only need to do this once.

This holds true, unless you write a new image to your CF card. In my case I had made an ESOUND setup before and I had backed up my YAHDI image as an IMG file, made some edits to it and wrote it back to the CF card, but this time I did not make a new ESOUND file because I didn't think I needed to.

Then I found that previous setups with saving games in ERCACHE resulted in the following Error message: 86モニタが見つかりません or 86 Monitor was not found. This relates to the 86 Sound Card and once I followed Kobushi's process mentioned above to create a new ESOUND file, I was in business again being able to make a ERCVFD save file again.

Just wanted to mention this in case someone else has this error and wasn't sure how to troubleshoot it.


-Thomas

[Koishi]

Can anyone put a PC-98 version of Windows 98 as an HDD image? I'm bored of the DOS and want to browse the web or something.

[kamiboy]

Let me report that the handful of games from this image that I ran on a 9821 Cx worked just fine.

Full disclosure, since my machine came with an HDD with Windows 95 installation on it already I opted to just extract the games and some other folders from this image, burn them onto a CD using a PC then copy them over using Win95.

Rusty and Rude Breaker ran fine. I also tested DOOM2 from some other image, and it worked as well.