Configuring and Running PC-98 Emulators for Touhou

[Agent of the BSoD]

This deserves to be made so you guys can be happier! I'll tell you about how to configure the PC-98 emulators for Touhou. If you have any problems with configuring them, let me know and I'll help you out with them as best as I can. Also please post here about this stuff so I can update this post to make things better!

Before you do anything, be sure to download EditDisk, because it's very helpful for English Patches and stuff inside the .hdi files.
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editdisk/editd165e2.zip


T98-Next English:
This is by far the best emulator for running these games, but it comes with a drawback, it lags like crazy and takes up a lot of RAM space, so make sure you don't have too many things running when you're using this. Luckily, unlike Anex86, this emulator comes with the font built in so you don't have to worry about that!
To work out the lag, there's just a few things to configure. It won't eliminate the lag but it will make it much better since I can't find a way to make it any faster.
Go to this link to download it if you don't have it already (it is the English version): http://www.mediafire.com/?myjyjyett2d
When you open it up, it looks kinda confusing. The top button on the left is the power button for the game, on or off. The second button is some pause thing but doesn't do anything for me. The third restarts the game, the fourth collapses the configuring screen you see, the ? is for help which still doesn't do anything for me, and the last closes Next.
Now to fix it up:
First, go to Mother Board Setting at the top. Under CPU, Type, it should be i486DX. (I'm not sure why it should be that one since they don't do anything different for me but whatever) Set Clock to Auto. Frame Rate should be at 1.00 and Memory Size at the max: 64 MB. All the Rom stuff should be unchecked I guess.
Under Device Manager, choose *GDC.nhw and click Setting. Set Frame Skip to AUTO. At the bottom I also have it display as 32bit and Display at Center. Mess with the Resolution if you want to.

The rest should be fine but there are a few things to can do if you want to, so they're optional:
Choose @Disk.nhw. This can be used to open up EditDisk through Next so under the EDIT Button, click browse and choose the EditDisk.exe application. Now in the Main, Disk, HD Drive where the game is, you can click Edit and open EditDisk that way.

EDIT #2: What you should have running, for what works for me at the moment, in the device manager is everything but *SCSI4CD.NHW and *SCSI4CDN.NHW. Also, open up @RS232C.NHW and where it has checked Port Setting fixed, un-check that. I have Use Port set to COM1 but I don't know what that is but it's working at the moment.
Just disable @RS232C.NHW altogether. It's working way better that way. It only lags when there is a MASSIVE cluster of bullets, and Mima's final attack if you haven't continued, lags a bit. But she's easy anyway so does it matter?

EDIT #1: Enable MPU98.NHW I just figured out that this is the option that lets you change the style of music like in Touhou 2. Yay me! Intelligent Mode should be checked, enable Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth in the MIDI Device thing (or whatever yours may say), Sample Rate at 44KHz and Use DirectMusic to Play should be checked. Don't check Swap to MT32. It takes out the MIDI version.

To load up a game, go back to Main, then DISK if it doesn't put you there automatically. Under HD DRIVE, double click the slot by the red box. Locate the Touhou game .hdi file and open it. Run the game by clicking on the first button on the left, described earlier. And there you go! (Mine says No Information above the game when selected so ignore it)

To full screen the game, start up the game (or have that full screen option check to do it for you) press F12 (which brings up this blue menu-like thing, then press F10. The same can be used to un-full screen it.


Anex86
This emulator is great with performance, usually. It doesn't require much RAM space at all, but the sound is not as good. It also has trouble with graphics often, like Sariel on Touhou 1, her bullets flash a lot.

Here's how to make it better.
Download it here: http://www.zophar.net/pc98/anex86.html
Download both files (there should be two listed on the site, one for the emulator, and the other for a font because anex needs a font pic thing to read text for whatever reason)
When you got both, make sure you put the ANEX86.bmp image somewhere where you can find it, I suggest the same folder anex is in. Open up ANEX86 and you get something more simple looking than T98-Next and legible.

To configure it, click Config. You should get a new window with LOTS of tabs for stuff. I'll start this at Window, so click it. Under Window Fix aspect ratio doesn't need to be checked by default, unless you stretched the emulation window then maybe that would help I would think. NEVER have Use palette animation checked. Under Window (DirectX required) DirectX should be checked. For Mode, Full screen can be checked to full screen the game when you start it up. (un-full screening the game causes this to uncheck for whatever reason). Use 32 bit color should be checked, Use 640 x 400 doesn't need to be checked since the games are already in that size. Re-initalize on switch didn't do anything for me so leave it unchecked.
For Draw, have all of them checked if you can. Older computers may have trouble with the fast parts checked so experiment for the right speed.
For Palette, again NEVER have it checked. Why it's in two places, I don't know.

Go to Video tab. Update strategy should be set to Sync and the number set to 1. (I believe this is the frame rate). For misc., NEVER have GDC clock 5MHz checked. I forget what this does and the palette animation does but just don't use them. Real time palette doesn't need to be checked either.
Display mode (text): Force text mode doesn't need to be checked along with Display mode (graph): Force graph mode. Disable lo-res should be checked but I don't notice anything but it's good to have that checked anyway.

Am I done yapping yet? Nope, not quite. Next is the Font, so go there.
For file name, click the ... and find the anex86.bmp font and choose it. Done. It's that easy. Leave the rest as is.
Important Note: There is a better font for the translated English version of Touhou 2 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ek0otznmwn2

Under Timing, just leave those two unchecked and the GDC should both be at one, but I don't think it's using them so whatever.
Ignore MEM SW and DIP SW.

RTC: I have Refresh checked to keep real time for the emulator.

Fdd/Hdd: I have 1M under FDD interface checked but we're using HDD so you can leave it too.

Sound: This one is important so don't skip it. Under type, set it to -86 and check real. For the enable part: just check all of them because it makes the music a bit more decent and adds some more instruments.

Wave: Set Rate/Buffer to the max, 55KHz and set buffer to 16. You may have to move that number around (lower for me makes the music almost not play at all, just bits of it, but see what your computer can handle) What this fixes is Anex's terrible sound delay. Also, have Use wave out checked. The scrollers should all be in the middle, which is fine for me.

Under Manager, I don't have anything checked so ignore it.

System: Under Machine, check Ext-RAM and it should be at 1,024. The Processor should be normal and so should be Emulator Priority. I used to have the Speed min checked at 100,000 but I don't need it now (it helps speed it up if the game is running slow) NEVER have Speed max checked under any setting because for some random reason, it drastically makes the game run slow.

Keyboard: I have Use Windows's layout and Use DirectX and convert scan code checked. Everything else is unchecked.

Mouse: Check Use DirectX. The Capture for Full screen and Windowed make the mouse disappear when in that mode. (when windowed, it only disappears when it's over the game) The Speed for me is at the middle since you don't use the mouse for these games to my knowledge.

JoyStick: use if you've got a joystick, obviously. It's self explanatory but if you've got problems with it, try asking here and someone may be able to help you.

That should be it. Now to run the game, click the ... button by HDD1 back on the small screen you started with and choose your .hdi file, then click Start. Also, don't have either of the check boxes here checked. To full screen, hold Alt, then press Enter. Same can be used to un-full screen.


So there ya go! Again, comment about how it works for you here and what problems you have.
There is one more emulator if I recall but I never had any luck with it before so I post it in here later if you're actually using it.

Have fun!

[Wild Dog]

This was pretty much already covered here, even though the thread doesn't have a clear title.  But it's good to have an all-inclusive Howto.

Anyway, the buttons on the right side of T98-Next are Power, Sleep/Resume, Reset, Toggle hardware settings, Help, and Quit.  The Sleep/Resume switch is only used for the PC98 version of Windows, it's probably not going to be supported under DOS games.

The PC98 had support for RS232 (Serial) ports, generally used for serial port mice, and a SCSI controller for adding a CDROM or other SCSI devices.  These are emulated by the RS232C.NHW and SCSI4CD.NHW/SCSI4CDN.NHW drivers, respectively.  The games don't use these at all.

The machines also had MPU401 (MIDI) ports along with it's standard sound synthesis hardware, so you could plug in an external MIDI synthesizer.  T98-Next emulates this by outputting to whatever MIDI synths are set up in Windows (generally it's built-in software synth) or Timidity++ under Linux, via the MIDI port driver (MPU98.NHW).

About the PC98 sound hardware, the -26 and -86 options actually refer to different sound cards available to the PC98.  The first uses a Yamaha YM2203 FM synth chip, which only has 3 FM channels and 3 SSG (square wave PSG) channels.  The second uses a YM2608, which has 6 FM channels, 3 SSG channels, a freely-useable ADPCM channel, and six "RSG" percussion channels with one preset percussion sound each.  IIRC the first two PC98 Touhou games only support the first-generation sound card, so you won't get any changes with -86, but the later games do, and the difference is dramatic.  Also, the Anex86 implementation of the -86 sound card lacks the RSG channels, they only seem to work in T98-Next.

As far as Anex86 goes, it has a lot of problems working under Wine/Linux so I personally don't use it at all.  It also seems to have a lot of odd glitches here and there so I generally don't recommend it for use.

An aside, about Anex86, the RTC option is the Real-time Clock, which I don't think is necessary for any of the Touhou games.  But a lot of these options are generally just mapping existing hardware in your computer so I don't think it's consuming any real "resources", as far as being an emulator goes.

[Agent of the BSoD]

Yes, well... I only put this here because this does have more stuff you can do to the emulator to make it better. It's very detailed for people who are having trouble with theirs. Plus, it mentions a fix for Anex's sound lag which I never found in the other post for it.

Also, I can't fix the lag completely on Next because it wastes too much RAM. I beat SoEW's Hard and Mima on her final wave was terrible. (but I had bombs, so I would've won anyway)

[Raydere]

I'm having issues getting a joystick to work with the PC98 games. The fire and bomb buttons work fine, as does directional input, but it seems that there is no way to have a focus button on a joystick, even if I have at least 6 buttons on it. Am I stuck without a focus button (with no way to have one) if I use a joystick then?

I've tried using Google to solve this issue, but it seems that no one knows about this issue, making Google a complete waste of time.

[SUPREME★ボガス]

I'm having issues getting a joystick to work with the PC98 games. The fire and bomb buttons work fine, as does directional input, but it seems that there is no way to have a focus button on a joystick, even if I have at least 6 buttons on it. Am I stuck without a focus button (with no way to have one) if I use a joystick then?

I've tried using Google to solve this issue, but it seems that no one knows about this issue, making Google a complete waste of time.

The only time I've been able to utilize focus on a stick was to use either Joy2Key or Xpadder.  It's a nifty program that maps button presses to keyboard keys.  I suggest you check it out.

[Agent of the BSoD]

I'm having issues getting a joystick to work with the PC98 games. The fire and bomb buttons work fine, as does directional input, but it seems that there is no way to have a focus button on a joystick, even if I have at least 6 buttons on it. Am I stuck without a focus button (with no way to have one) if I use a joystick then?

I've tried using Google to solve this issue, but it seems that no one knows about this issue, making Google a complete waste of time.

I can't help you with that part since I don't own a joystick at all. But it would be nice to know what happens with SUPREME's suggestions. Let me know so I can update the first post.