RetroArch

Installation

Follow this guide on the Emulation General Wiki.

PC-98

PC-98 games can easily be played through RetroArch thanks to the np2kai libretro core.

Core installation and configuration

1. Install np2kai.

2. Put the font named “font.rom”, “FONT.ROM” or “font.bmp” inside ~/.config/retroarch/system/np2kai/ like explained in the documentation.

3. Run RetroArch and scan the directory where the games are located.

4. Configure the core like this:

   • for “PC Model”, select “PC-9801VX”
   • for “CPU Clock Multiplier”, select “42” or more
   • for “RAM Size”, select “16”
   • for “CPU Feature”, select “80386”
   • for “Sound Board”, select “PC9801-86” to play newer games (recommended) and “PC9801-26K” to play older ones
   • for “GDC”, select “uPD7220”
   • for “JastSound”, select “OFF”
   • for “Floppy Seek Sound”, select “OFF”
   • for “Volume Floppy Seek”, select “0”
   • for “Volume Beep”, select “0”
   • for “Use mouse or touchpanel to input mouse”, select “ON” if you want to play games that need a mouse
   • for “Joypad D-pad to Mouse/Keyboard/Joypad Mapping”, select “Manual Keyboard”

These settings can be tweaked further if some games require a different configuration. More information can be found in this guide and on the official libretro core documentation.

To remap joystick buttons, the “lrjoybtn” setting located in ~/.config/retroarch/system/np2kai/np2kai.cfg will have to be edited according to the np2kai core repository documentation.

Quoting the documentation:

“This value is little endian and 12 values ​​of 16bits(2Bytes) are arranged. Write the key code of RETROK (see libretro.h) to this value. The order is D-UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT/A/B/X/Y/L/R/Select/Start.”

So, if you want to bind the “Up” arrow key to “D-UP”, you will have to find its code in libretro.h first (here, “273”), convert it to little-endian hexadecimal (“1101”) and put a space between the 2 bytes (“11 01”). Then, repeat the process for each button.

At the end, the line should look like something like this:

lrjoybtn = 11 01 12 01 14 01 13 01 78 00 7a 00 20 00 32 01 08 00 2f 01 1b 00 0d 00

Games

This configuration should allow to run most of the translated games (like “Touhou” or “Super Dimension Fortress Macross - Skull Leader”). Here’s a brief overview on what works with the np2kai core.

• ✅: Verified to work
• ⚠️: Work with some issues
• ❓: Unknown
• ❌: Broken