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The PC-9800 Series

The PC-9800 series (aka PC-98) were a group of computers created by Nippon Electric, known more commonly as NEC. They started releasing computers from this series in 1982, and discontinued the line in 2003. They went through many technological advancements during its development, starting out as a slightly more advanced version of their PC-8800 Series, to becoming a computer that could run MS-DOS, as well as early version of Windows OS, complete with full sound and colors.

Contrary to popular belief, the PC-98 wasn't made to be a personal gaming computer. The machine was created for business use, specifically for corporate offices. However, as personal computers as a whole became more accessible to the household market, there was more diversity in its software, ranging from education to video games.

Focusing on the video game side of the PC-98, it had a plethora of different genres, from arcade style fighters and vertical shooters, to RPGs and simulators. The biggest market was the adventure game, more commonly known now as the "visual novel" genre. This boom was caused by the machines capability to display more kanji onscreen than it could with older models, as well as having more colors and better resolution for graphics. This meant that games could have more written out narratives, as well as boast spectacular pixel art and smooth animations to go alongside it, something adventure games rely on heavily for their selling point.

ayayosan YUNO1l

Examples of some fantastic art: Hacchake Ayayo-san 4 (left) and YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World (right)


Western interest in the PC-98 has always existed, but the community grew heavily in size around the early 2010s. This was due to the rise in popularity of the Touhou series, which got its start on the PC-98! This led to more of an awareness and interest in the computer, though there is still a barrier of entry for those who can't read Japanese, or are unfamiliar with older hardware. Thankfully, more efforts to make games more accessible to the west, through translations, walkthroughs, video essays, emulation, etc. The community is still growing to this very day!

Game Recommendations

Here is a list of games that you may wish to check out if you are interested in playing any PC-98 games. Most of these are games are considered very influential or otherwise beloved within the community, but there are also a few games I've played and think are worth at least a little bit of your time.

Please Note: most of these games do contain adult content in some capacity. This is mostly sexual content, but some games may have extensive gore in them. Even if a game is marked SFW, it'll likely contain suggestive content or blood. PLAYER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!


Touhou Project 1-5

Touhou 1: Highly Responsive to Prayers

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Touhou 2: Story of Eastern Wonderland

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Touhou 3:Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dream

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Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story

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Touhou 5: Mystic Square

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Content Warnings: None

English Translation: Yes

The first five Touhou games are such an interesting time capsule for the series, seeing how ZUN got his footing and figuring out how he wanted his gameplay, characters, and overall aesthetic to take shape. The first game is not even a bullet hell shooter, but rather a game similar to that of Breakout or DX-Ball.

If you are a Touhou fan, each game is worth playing and are all very fun. However, if I were to pick one it'd have to be the fifth installment. It's arguably the most polished both aesthetically and gameplay-wise. It also has the best soundtrack, and even contains updated versions of his previous OSTs, especially for the first game.


Steam-Heart's

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Content Warnings: Sexual Content

English Translation: Yes

Siblings Blow and Falla are outlaws, on a quest to save their planet from a mind-altering virus. Being the only ones with antibodies to stop the spread, they must apprehend those affected and cure them by any means neccesary.

Another vertical shooter, except this one has porn in it after you complete each stage. This isn't a very complex game for the genre it occupies, but it's still a surprisingly enjoyable one nonetheless. The art is pretty good too, complete with a few fully drawn animations that are pretty uncommon for a PC-98 game. If you're looking for a simple eroge shooter, this is definitely for you.


Chick's Tale

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Content Warnings: Sexual Content

English Translation: No

You are a girl on a high school field trip, when you stumble across a group of girls playing a card game. If you lose a certain amount of rounds, you must either drink or tell your friends about a sexual experience you had. Hilarity ensues!

I'll be honest, if the game itself wasn't so fun, I'd probably not have this game on this list. The game is essentially a simulation of the card game Daifugo (or President in the West). It's a really addicting game, with a fun soundtrack and nice visuals.

However, the biggest drawback is the content of its eroge scenes. I won't get into detail, but they all contain content that is very unethical, in the sort of way that endorses the behavior rather than condemns it. Thankfully, these scenes can be removed by shutting off Graphics Mode in the game's settings. I don't usually recommend it, but in this game I really do think it makes it a much more palatable experience.


Marble Cooking

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Content Warnings: Sexual Content

English Translation: Yes

After a demon has gone rampant, stealing energy from pretty girls, the young magician Marble must team up with the bunny Sirius to save them and put the demon back in his place.

This is a puzzle game I've honestly never seen before. Marble must clear enemies off the screen by summoning Sirius to destroy them. In order to do so, she must set up portals for him to access, while using magical carrots to show him where to go. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but all the levels give a decent, yet fair challenge.

This game is well known for it's really outrageous eroge scenes, and deservedly so. A lot of them are in such poor taste, they're both hilarious and horrifying at the same time. The whiplash you get is something I don't think I could accurately describe. If that sounds like it'd be up your alley, play this game. If that doesn't, play this game with Graphics Mode off.

Just, play this game.


Policenauts

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Content Warnings: None

English Translation: No, but does exist for PS1 and Sega Saturn

Created by the infamous Hideo Kojima right before his magnun opus Metal Gear Solid, it tells the story of Jonathan Ingram, an ex-Policenaut now detective, who is on the quest to solve the murder of his ex-wife. However, during his investigation, he realizes that this case is a lot bigger and a lot more dangerous than it first appears.

Despite it occupying the point-and-click genre, this game has aged considerably well. It plays a lot like a typical mystery game, where you talk to people to find clues and start connecting the narrative dots. The world is also very detailed and immersive, making you want to learn more about the characters and the setting. If you're a fan of Kojima, Konami, point-and-clicks, shooting segments, or science fiction, this is a must play.

Hacchake Ayayo-san Series

Ayayo-san After Five

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Ikenai Holiday - Ayayo's Love Affair

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Watashi, Icchattan Desu - Ayayo's Life After

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Sexy Olympics - Ayayo's Live Affection

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Pikapika no Shouwakusei - Ayayo's Dive Aframe

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Content Warnings: Sexual Content

English Translation: Yes for 1st game, In Development for 2nd, No for 3rd-5th

In the eroge world, the Ayayo-san series is one of the most influential for its time. It's also considered one of the wackiest, from its characters being apprehended by horny space aliens, to participating in a "Sexy Olympics", to literally dying and interacting with demons and Buddhist deities.

Even if you're like me and can't read Japanese, I still highly recommend playing these games, as it easily has some of the best art on the PC-98. The visuals are not only expertly drawn, but they are full of so much personality. Even some of the eroge scenes are really funny, simply by the way they're illustrated. The series is also interesting from a historical perspective, as it was heavily affected by censorship laws. It greatly inhibited the creativity of its creators, and you can see and feel the difference between the final game and its predecessors.

These games are important to the eroge genre for a reason, and are very much worth your time if any of that interests you.

Oshioki Kirai! 2

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Content Warnings: None

English Translation: No, but not really required

A really short, but challenging game where you play as a character attempting to evade attacks from a large human. It was programmed and "acted out" by Takeshi Kanai and Koichi Kawasawa, with both ending up in the video game industry for a little while. It has really cool visuals, and full of humor. It is a good example of some "homebrew" games for the PC-98, and arguably one of the better ones in that category.


So You Wanna Do Some Emulation?

There are a lot of guides that exist out there for PC-98 emulation. However, a lot of them are very outdated or just don't explain very well how to navigate the emulation space. So, after discovering some things on my own over the years, here is a (hopefully) comprehensive guide on how to emulate for this computer!

I will explain:

  • The different emulators out there
  • The best place to find them already preconfigured
  • How to efficiently find ROMs for what game you're looking for
  • How to patch games with English translations

1: Emulators

9 times out of 10, you'll probably be using Neko Project II. It is the most up-to-date emulator, as well as the most versatile. There are even builds that can run on Android, as well as cracked Wiis and even the 3DS!

Their icon is very cute

This emulator is unique as it run as different versions of the PC-9800 series, depending on how you configure it. This gives it great versatility, as it can run pretty much any game/software regardless of its age (this point will become important later). It also is one of the only emulators that still receives updates, as recent as 2022.

Despite this, NPII sometimes isn't the best emulator, depending on what game you're playing. Some versions don't contain a CD-ROM drive (and those that do aren't always reliable), and a few games can suffer pretty bad slowdown (the Touhou games are a prime example of this). Therefore, it's good to be aware of the 2 other decent emulators that exist.

Anex86 is the weakest of the three, but doesn't require a lot of RAM to use and overall has the least slowdown. T98-Next can be heavy on an older system, doesn't have an English UI, and doesn't have much customization, but is super fast, reliable, and has really good sound and graphics.



2: Where To Find Them

Your best friend will be the Neo Kobe Archive, located here on Archive.org. This emulator pack contains all the files and preconfigurations you'll need to run PC-98 games, even with English patches. No watching tutorials, no having to scour the internet for potentially sketchy files, no nothing!

They contain the three emulators I previously mentioned, so you can try running your file on a different emulator if desired. Neo Kobe also includes emulators for earlier NEC computers, as well as other popular computers of the time (ie Sharp X68000, Fujistu FM Towns, etc.) You don't need to download those if you don't want, but it's very cool that they also exist.

THING TO NOTE: Neo Kobe comes with three different configurations of Neko Project, each corresponding to a different prominent build of the PC-98. These builds are:

  • PC-9801VM (1985-1989)
  • PC-9801RS (1989-1993)
  • PC-9821As (1993-2003)

Having an awareness of this will become important for the next part of this guide.

3: ROMs

The Neo Kobe Archive not only has preconfigured emulators, they also have a near complete library of PC-98 games, also here on Archive.org. It's awesome.

Navigating this library and knowing which game will work best with what emulator can be a bit tricky, so allow me to explain the best I can.

First, ALWAYS DOWNLOAD .HDI FILES. These are hard disk versions of your game, which are faster and contain more data than floppy disks, meaning that you don't need to switch out disks mid-game. They also are the primary format compatible for English patches. If its available, download that and save yourself the hassle.

Second, it's important to know the developer and the year it was published. This is so you can find the game you want within the library, than find what configuration will run your game the best. If you don't know, you can find out through a quick Google search.

ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE DEVELOPER AND NOT THE PUBLISHER, AS THIS IS NOT ALWAYS THE SAME THING.

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Example: Meisou Toshi (left) was developed by Tiare, but was published by Jast, whereas San Shimai (right) was both developed and published by Jast.

Determining the year your game was released will typically determine what emulator to use, or how to properly configure it. If you are using Neo Kobe's presets for NPII, you would run your game using the emulator that falls around its respective year. If you are using Anex86 or T98-Next, you may need to configure the CPU clock speed to ensure the game will not run too fast or slow.

4: English Patches

Nowadays, you can find older translations already patched, meaning you don't need to do it yourself. However, I find that it's still a good skill to know, especially as more translations get released everyday.

There are 2 common patchers that exist, and you may need to use one or the other depending on the specific instructions of your patch. These patchers are EditDisk and xDeltaUI. The former is more commonly used for older patches, while the latter is more predominant in newer patches, and is compatible with more file formats (there have been patches for the 3DS that use xDeltaUI, for example).

Due to the nature of how EditDisk works and how each game has wildly different parameteres in terms of patching, I unfortunately won't have a guide to use it (as of right now).

Using xDeltaUI

For this example, I'll be patching "Desire - Haitoku no Rasen".

  1. Download the hard disk (HD) version of the game you wish to patch (make sure it has the .hdi extension).
  2. Download the patch (make sure the patch has the .xdelta extension).
  3. In DeltaUI, place the .xdelta file in the "Patch" column, and place the .hdi file in the "Source File" column.
  4. Type in the name of your patched file in the "Output File" column. Make sure you add the .hdi extension to the name, or it will not patch correctly!
    If everything is done right, your menu should look a bit like this: Screenshot-2023-08-03-161404
  5. Click "Patch" to patch the file. The new file will likely save in the xDeltaUI folder on your PC.
  6. Put your patched game into your emulator, and run it as per usual!
Screenshot-2023-08-07-092122

"Desire" patched using xDeltaUI