Going to write this using caps as I think it will be longer than my usual drivel.

I've recently gotten in to an older PC architecture from Japan called PC-98. This is a case of parallel development like if you took the Intel processors and designed your own BIOS, bus standards, protocols, etc. Early on it was a case of technical superiority in a lot of ways -- it captured an estimated 60-80% of the Japanese market... but it wouldn't last forever.

I find it fascinating.

If you want to really go down the rabbit hole just go peek at wikipedia. I will give a shorter TL;DR, but it's still probably going to have a bit of length to it. The architecture lasted a long time, all the way up into the 2000s. If you ever visited the country you may have seen these machines and not even known they were different.

For some background, PC-98 was the architecture that followed up the PC-88 architecture (which itself was a followup to PC-80). That is its own interesting rabbit hole. (If this post is interesting to anyone maybe I'll describe some of those a bit.)

One of the primary goals of this new system was that the Japanese wanted to stop using kana for everything on their computers. Kana is the name for two of the simple sound-based writing systems that the Japanese use. Japanese words can always be written in kana, but they usually also have a Kanji representation. Kana is great for simple stuff or for little kids to get their footing in the language. It's terrible for longer content though.

So, NEC decided that JP computers needed a higher resolution than was offered by equivalent western computers. This Kanji requirement meant that in 1982 when PC-98 launched, users were rocking out with 640x400 (yes, was not a typo. it's 16:10) in 8 colors.

They also used the 8086 instead of the 8088 that IBM went with. That meant true 16-bit instead of the 8-bit bus the IBM PC went with. These things were pretty speedy for the time.

User expansion cards plugged into something that was retronym'd as the C-Bus. The C-Bus came out at roughly the same time as ISA, but was 16-bit with a 20-bit address line (ie: same as the CPU and memory) which meant you could basically put whatever you wanted on it. Later this was expanded to 24-bit with the introduction of the 286.

The systems launched with a version of MS-DOS that was compatible with "wide" characters but users had to tack on a ROM board to make use of them. Wide characters take up more space though, so you know what we need? 640KB floppies in 1983!

With the mention of MS-DOS you might be thinking that you could just snag a couple of western games and throw them on a PC-98 system, but they were only compatible at the raw COMMAND.COM sort of level. Anything that touched an address or an interrupt was a guessing game as to when and where it would fail. If it used graphics, memory managers, or accessed hardware in any meaningful way, forget it.

"Fun" fact: while we think of the A: and B: drives as diskette and C: as the start of your hard disks, the PC-98 architecture uses a complicated system where if you boot from a floppy it takes A:. If you boot from a hard drive, the first partition of that hard drive takes A: Other drives are assigned down the line. Example: you boot from a Win98 partition 2 of your first HDD. sYour old DOS 6.2/win3.1 drive takes A:, Win98 takes B:, first floppy takes C:, second floppy takes D:. If your system was new enough you might have a CD-ROM. Canonically this was assigned Q:. Why? No one knows.

But... say you reboot and use a floppy. Now your A: is floppy 1. B: is either your floppy 2 (if you had one) or your hard disk.

There was a bit of back and forth with IBM gaining and losing the tech lead on various system aspects. There was a fun processor released in 1985 called the NEC V30. It was a hybrid that allowed 8088 compatibility and many of the systems would go on to have these added as a selectable processor. Meaning, you might have a 386 AND an 8088 in one. Backwards compatibility was a big thing. The PC-9821As/W12 (a 486DX-33) I have has a pair of switches on it. The first controls the processor clock and it has a high, medium, and low setting. The second controls the graphic read/write speed. You can think of the first one as an oldschool turbo switch, but with 3 positions. The second one maintains compatibility with older programs that reached directly into video memory.

Okay, I'm running out of steam at this point. Haven't had a second coffee yet. Just know this: I am currently in retro heaven. 125 million people shoved into an area less than the size of California and (let's say) 70% of them all using this ecosystem that to us has been rendered into obscurity. There are sooooo many things for me to play with.

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jinkusu wrote to All <=-

For some background, PC-98 was the architecture that followed up the
PC-88 architecture (which itself was a followup to PC-80). That is its
own interesting rabbit hole. (If this post is interesting to anyone
maybe I'll describe some of those a bit.)

The design of those computers was pretty slick - at VCF West one of the
exhibitors had a table full of them. If I recall, one of the models was
black and a desktop vertical tower, pretty cutting-edge for the time.


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The design of those computers was pretty slick - at VCF West one of the
exhibitors had a table full of them. If I recall, one of the models was
black and a desktop vertical tower, pretty cutting-edge for the time.

look up the X68000 and see if it was that. (yet another) different architecture, but also cool in its own way. famously vertical orientation on them though and they looked super slick.

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jinkusu wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

look up the X68000 and see if it was that. (yet another) different architecture, but also cool in its own way. famously vertical
orientation on them though and they looked super slick.

You're exactly right - the Sharp X68030.

Apple did early design studies for the Mac, one concept was called
Jonathan and reminds me partly of the Sharp and the NeXt borrowed a lot
from it:

https://www.storiesofapple.net/the-jonathan-computer.html

It feels part Jony Ive, a lot of Dieter Rams - and I would have bought
it in a heartbeat.




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You're exactly right - the Sharp X68030.
It feels part Jony Ive, a lot of Dieter Rams - and I would have bought
it in a heartbeat.

it could still be yours! for a small fortune!

bigger issue than the computer itself is that i think those use 15kHz+24kHz+ 31kHz tri-sync monitors. (big yikes.)

that being said, i am seeing them go past on yahoo auction pretty regularly if you ever get the itch.

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On Saturday, December 13th poindexter FORTRAN said...

look up the X68000 and see if it was that. (yet another)
different

architecture, but also cool in its own way. famously vertical
orientation on them though and they looked super slick.

Apple did early design studies for the Mac, one concept was called Jonathan and reminds me partly of the Sharp and the NeXt borrowed a lot from it:

This reminds me a lot of the concept drawings Regan Cheng made in the early 1980's for Atari computers,

One was called the A-300 project which involved a new series of Atari computers which would work as modules and plug together to form a complete computer system. The second was an evolution of the A-300 project that shed all of the expansion and modular design for a low profile, high tech
computer system which became the Atari 1200XL Computer System.

https://designsojourn.com/awesome-hand-rendered-atari-computer-concepts/

The Atari 1200XL and its accessories and later 800 and 600XL's have a really good look to them, I think the 1200XL is the best looking 8-bit computer, I also enjoy the early concept art Atari had for arcades, not so much the machines but everything else, the people and rooms and "asthetic" of modern futurism mixed with 70's fashion,

https://arcadeblogger.com/2016/02/13/atari-arcade-concept-art-a-glimpe-of-the-future/



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On Fri 5-Dec-2025 5:37p, |11Jinkusu|03 prophesied to |11ALL|08:|03

|10JU|08>|02 I've recently gotten in to an older PC architecture from Japan called|03
|10JU|08>|02 PC-98. This is a case of parallel development like if you took the Intel|03

As a gamer, I love the PC-98! It had some killer titles released
in-between putting out, well... a GIANT MOUNTAIN OF HENTAI. Just... a
crazy amount of porn on that platform. That being said, its particular
era had a distinctive style of anime art that I really love. The PC-98
had Policenauts, Macross Skull Leader(!), Dead of the Brain, great
stuff. Best of all, the translation scene has been really active of late
with English patches.

Are you doing any gaming with it, or just coding?

aNACHRONiST +o aBSiNTHE BBS

|16|10.|16|15|16|10---------------------------------------------------------.|16
|16|10||16|13 "You can still fight when you're drunk!" -Macross: DYRL |16|10||16
|16|10`---------------------------------------------------------'|16
--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (911:1919/0)

on 30 Dec 2025, Anachronist said...

As a gamer, I love the PC-98! It had some killer titles released in-between putting out, well... a GIANT MOUNTAIN OF HENTAI. Just... a crazy amount of porn on that platform. That being said, its particular
era had a distinctive style of anime art that I really love. The PC-98
had Policenauts, Macross Skull Leader(!), Dead of the Brain, great
stuff. Best of all, the translation scene has been really active of late with English patches.

I've avoided replying to this thread so far because I'm relatively ignorant on the topic, but these 80s Japanese PCs have always fascinated me - so many amazing exclusive games (or at least unique ports of more widely available ones.) I recently played through the MSX-2 versions of the original Metal Gear games, actually.

That said, I was wholly unfamiliar with "Macross Skull Leader" and I'm a huge Macross fan. It looks awesome!

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

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On Wed 31-Dec-2025 8:41a, |11Jack Phlash|03 wheezed to |11aNACHRONiST|08:|03

|10JP|08>|02 I've avoided replying to this thread so far because I'm relatively|03
|10JP|08>|02 ignorant on the topic, but these 80s Japanese PCs have always fascinated|03
|10JP|08>|02 me - so many amazing exclusive games (or at least unique ports of more|03

There are so many games with amazing artwork on these machines:
MSX/MSX2, Sharp 68K, et al. The 80s and 90s style of manga/anime
illustration just pulls me right in. While we are getting more
translations of these titles nowadays, there is still a mountain to get through. English translated releases of Japanese games keep me young!
*applies Rogaine*

|10JP|08>|02 widely available ones.) I recently played through the MSX-2 versions of|03
|10JP|08>|02 the original Metal Gear games, actually.|03

I've been meaning to do that for some time! But, did you see Hoffman's
killer port of MSX2 Metal Gear to the Amiga? It's the best of both
worlds.

|10JP|08>|02 That said, I was wholly unfamiliar with "Macross Skull Leader" and I'm a|03
|10JP|08>|02 huge Macross fan. It looks awesome!|03

It is awesome! It's been fully translated, too. We have tons of Macross shooters, but here we have a game with much more substance. I highly
recommend it.

aNACHRONiST +o aBSiNTHE BBS

|16|10.|16|15|16|10-----------------------------------------------------------.|16
|16|10||16|13 "In the galaxy's sea, we dream." -Space Battleship Yamato |16|10||16
|16|10`-----------------------------------------------------------'|16
--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (911:1919/0)

on 31 Dec 2025, Anachronist said...

There are so many games with amazing artwork on these machines:
MSX/MSX2, Sharp 68K, et al. The 80s and 90s style of manga/anime illustration just pulls me right in. While we are getting more translations of these titles nowadays, there is still a mountain to get through. English translated releases of Japanese games keep me young! *applies Rogaine*

Ha! Yeah, there 100% are. That's still true today - some very cool stuff that never gets translated and/or released outside of Japan.

I've been meaning to do that for some time! But, did you see Hoffman's killer port of MSX2 Metal Gear to the Amiga? It's the best of both
worlds.

I enjoyed both a lot more than I thought I would. I actually just started Metal Gear Solid. Yep, believe it or not I never played any of the Metal Gear games (for more than like 10 minutes) so I'm going to attempt to play through *all* of them. Yikes.

I did, though I haven't actually tried it yet. Pretty f'ing crazy, but too be expected from Hoffman.

It is awesome! It's been fully translated, too. We have tons of Macross shooters, but here we have a game with much more substance. I highly recommend it.

It's not surprising - most of the best Macross stuff never made it over here. I recall there being an R-type style horizontal shooter for either NES or SNES that was awesome as hell.

As an aside, this ones isometric tactical view reminds me of another Japanese game that I don't think ever made it over here, that also included Macross mechs and characters - the Super Robot Wars series. It's an insane mash-up of different mecha anime into one weird strategy/tactical RPG game (think something like the older games in the Fire Emblem series) that must have been an absolutely licensing hell to put together. I've never played any of them personally, but I have fond memories of watching one of my friends who was an uber anime/manga nerd playing through Super Robot Wars Alpha on the Dreamcast - Macross valkyries, Evas, Gundams, even Giant Robo and Gunbuster (and all of the characters from those shows/movies/mangas) in the same game. Insane!

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

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Hey Jack!

On Wed, Dec 31 2025 16:22:58 -0600, you wrote:

I enjoyed both a lot more than I thought I would. I actually just
started Metal Gear Solid. Yep, believe it or not I never played any
of the Metal Gear games (for more than like 10 minutes) so I'm going
to attempt to play through *all* of them. Yikes.

If you're referring to the original, it was my favorite of the entire series!

I tried MGS5 when I got it free for purchasing an EVGA card at the time, but it didn't last very long. ;(

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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on 31 Dec 2025, Accession said...

If you're referring to the original, it was my favorite of the entire series!

I tried MGS5 when I got it free for purchasing an EVGA card at the time, but it didn't last very long. ;(

I am indeed - the original PlayStation one. I'm only a few hours into it but liking a lot. I might actually end up playing it more than once if its a quick as it feels like its going to be.

MGSV looks rad, but doesn't look like it has that much in common with these older games, gameplay-wise. Much more of an open world action game or something, but hey, I like those too, so whatever!

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

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Hey Jack!

On Wed, Dec 31 2025 21:37:45 -0600, you wrote:

I am indeed - the original PlayStation one. I'm only a few hours
into it but liking a lot. I might actually end up playing it more
than once if its a quick as it feels like its going to be.

My first apartment, had a friend over drinkin' and smokin' till about 9am the next day. Played the game all the way through from start to finish, trading off on levels. It was awesome. ;)

MGSV looks rad, but doesn't look like it has that much in common
with these older games, gameplay-wise. Much more of an open world
action game or something, but hey, I like those too, so whatever!

I think the only thing they really kept in common was the stealthiness, which I'm sure got better over time, but yeah.. it just wasn't the same as the original. Plus, I didn't party it up all night when I played it, either, so that could have played a factor.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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on 31 Dec 2025, Accession said...

My first apartment, had a friend over drinkin' and smokin' till about
9am the next day. Played the game all the way through from start to finish, trading off on levels. It was awesome. ;)

Nice! I had a weird relationship with console gaming in the 90s and missed a lot of it. I ended up getting an N64 in that generation and missed most of the core PS1 stuff. Then I got a Dreamcast, and then an original Xbox, so I kept on that course of not playing a lot of the PlayStation classics unless they got ported, although I also had some friends who I hung out with a lot in the late 90s and early 2000s that were PlayStation fanatics so I definitely got exposure to a lot of them.

I think the only thing they really kept in common was the stealthiness, which I'm sure got better over time, but yeah.. it just wasn't the same
as the original. Plus, I didn't party it up all night when I played it, either, so that could have played a factor.

Ha! You can never discount the part being younger had in how we enjoyed (and remember enjoying) some of this shit. That said, opinions on MGSV appear to be pretty much all over the place. A lot of people agree that it's stealth systems, controls, etc. are the best they've ever been, but it's definitely not at the top of most Metal Gear fans' rankings, and a fair amount of them detest it.

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

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Hey Jack!

On Thu, Jan 01 2026 09:44:16 -0600, you wrote:

Nice! I had a weird relationship with console gaming in the 90s and
missed a lot of it.

Same, but there were so many random ones at the time that seem completely forgotten about today. Neo-Geo, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, and what I seem to remember the most, TurboGraphix-16.

Ha! You can never discount the part being younger had in how we
enjoyed (and remember enjoying) some of this shit. That said,
opinions on MGSV appear to be pretty much all over the place. A lot
of people agree that it's stealth systems, controls, etc. are the
best they've ever been, but it's definitely not at the top of most
Metal Gear fans' rankings, and a fair amount of them detest it.

I can't say I detested it, but I just couldn't get into it. That could be more the fact that my willingness to sit and play for hours on end has gone way down since 20 years ago. :)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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A pretty amazing English translation just dropped for the PC-98. KOEI's "Progenitor" is an obscure early sandbox "space opera" game that melded
a few different genres.. and did it well! It was a relatively
high-budget title for the platform that never saw the light of day
outside of Japan.

It has some similarities to "Uncharted Waters". The 2D art is charming
and it even has some "Silpheed"-style early 3D graphics for segments
that hold up well if you have a taste for that aesthetic. I have an
archive with the game pre-patched and all of its extras included on
aBSiNTHE if anyone is interested. I can't wait to give it a proper play
this week.

|10aNACHRONiST |08+o |02aBSiNTHE BBS|03

|16|10.|16|15|16|10---------------------------------------.|16
|16|10||16|13 "I'd buy that for a dollar!" -RoboCop |16|10||16
|16|10`---------------------------------------'|16
--- CNet/5
* Origin: aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (911:1919/0)

As a gamer, I love the PC-98! It had some killer titles released in-between putting out, well... a GIANT MOUNTAIN OF HENTAI. Just... a

yeeeeeeeahh.... it does have an insane amount of that. like coming from america i think we had some games like leisure suit larry, but it was comparitively tame.

era had a distinctive style of anime art that I really love. The PC-98
had Policenauts, Macross Skull Leader(!), Dead of the Brain, great
stuff. Best of all, the translation scene has been really active of late with English patches.

hah, policenauts is pretty amazing. i just got a stereo "soundboard" clone card and i'm hoping to find out that it's compatible with the voice sync on policenauts. i would be willing to start my game over if that's the case.

and yeah, the translation scene is getting more active. a lot of the people who are interested in that hang out on a few discords and chat periodically. probably could track it down relatively quickly if you're interested.

i am playing them au naturel so it takes me a lot longer to get through things than it would in english.

Are you doing any gaming with it, or just coding?

absolutely doing gaming with it. that was my primary motivation. it's like having a giant back catalog of stuff that FEELS nostalgic, but that you've never actually seen before. and i'm not limited by the translation aspect, just how much effort i want to put in to figuring out what it says at any one point in time. i have punted on games that are too high above my reading level, but since the stuff was mostly aimed at teens and young adults i'm generally fine.

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Same, but there were so many random ones at the time that seem completely forgotten about today. Neo-Geo, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, and what I seem to remember the most, TurboGraphix-16.

ah, you like tg-16? then you will appreciate this memory you just caused to pop back into my head.

when i was maybe 10 our house got burgled while we were out of town. they stole all of the video games... except... keith courage in alpha zones -- which they clearly had picked up and thrown. hah

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A pretty amazing English translation just dropped for the PC-98. KOEI's "Progenitor" is an obscure early sandbox "space opera" game that melded

i have given this a shot because it's sci-fi, but i still haven't figured out how much trade and whatnot i need to do vs just doing the story (and to be honest i'm much less interested in the trade aspect than in the story).

it's on pause while i explore more of the catalog, but i might come back to it. i chatted with the translator a few times providing feedback when he was looking for some. i'm fairly certain he leveraged machine translation to do a lot of it, but it seems to have worked quite well. there were a few cases when i think it jumped to the wrong conclusion, but they were all defendable jumps in logic... and the speed with which he pulled it off is pretty crazy.

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jinkusu wrote to Accession <=-

when i was maybe 10 our house got burgled while we were out of town.
they stole all of the video games... except... keith courage in alpha zones -- which they clearly had picked up and thrown. hah

We have a cabin in the woods that was burgled twice in the 1990s. The
nearest law enforcement is 20 minutes away, no neighbors in sight.

Both robberies had one thing in common - they stole all of our DVDs,
with the exception of "Striptease", starring Demi Moore. Passed the DVD
up, both times.

With more people building (we now have a next-door neighbor and a house
across the street) the crime has gone down.





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Hey Jinkusu!

On Tue, Jan 13 2026 22:54:23 -0600, you wrote:

when i was maybe 10 our house got burgled while we were out of
town. they stole all of the video games... except... keith courage
in alpha zones -- which they clearly had picked up and thrown. hah

Hah! Almost like Super Mario Bros, with a just a tad better graphics.

Maybe they just dropped it and didn't have time to pick it up? ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
--- SBBSecho 3.34-Linux
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Both robberies had one thing in common - they stole all of our DVDs,
with the exception of "Striptease", starring Demi Moore. Passed the DVD up, both times.

that's fucking funny. even after being super bummed out that the games were all taken there was a part of me that was like "this asshole took the extra time out to spit on me with keith courage" -- and all i could do was shake my head and laugh.

i guess striptease is your KC. hah

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