PC98 Vibes

Why did you start this blog?

I used to play a small selection of MD-DOS games as a kid and naturally have a deep nostalgia for games of that era, so I wanted to try out some games on the PC-98. Recently I learned how to patch fan-made English translations into them and I started to dig into them. I really fell in love and wanted to share that appreciation with others.

But there's already a billion PC-98 blogs out there!

I'm a big fan of bots like PC-98 bots too! However, I also love the music, SFX and animations in PC-98 titles and I find that a lot of archival stuff tends to skip over these elements entirely in favour of pretty stills. I wanted to include more music and SFX!

What is a PC-98?

I'm not a history expert so here's what Wikipedia says:

The PC-9800 series (commonly shortened to PC-98 is a lineup) of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000.

The PC-98 had many game titles designed for it, many of which made creative use of the system's limitations (as it was originally designed as a business machine) to great commercial success. Despite having hardware specifications inferior to the FM Towns and the X68000, the massive install base and steady flow of game titles (in particular "doujin" style dating sims and RPGs, kept it as the favored platform for PC game developers in Japan until the rise of the DOS/V clones.

There's already a billion accounts everywhere that post PC-98 stuff! Why start another one?!

I've followed accounts such as PC-98 Bot on other platforms and always thought the art in it was gorgeous, and I used to listen to PC-98 soundtracks when I stream, however I realized that I had never seen the two things combined in many places on social media. The music in these games are so good and often compliments the art so well that I felt the urge to showcase them together, because while the focus is often on the visuals. Honestly I think the music is even better than the visuals half the time.

I also really enjoy the design of some of the games, as a game developer myself there's something that's so remarkably simple and 'indie spirit' about them.

Why don't you play [x game]?

I can only play titles in English because I don't speak Japanese, and playing a game while not understanding what is going on sounds like a good way to get confused, frustrated and bored. This is also why I won't get every scene from every game - I'm doing this for fun not for archival!

That being said if you have recommendations and can link me to a English patch for it I'll happily give it a spin. :)

How do you emulate PC-98 games in English?