Policenauts Pc98 Rom

Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:32 am
Posts: 10

It's still more than month until I'll be able to try making Policenauts run on my notebook again. And I guess I won't succeed in the end anyway.
In the meantime I found a relatively inexpensive PC98 desktop and monitor on Yahoo. Desktop has already arrived and the monitor should be there by tomorrow.
I guess it wouldn't be a PC98 if there aren't some difficulties going to occur. So I thought I better start asking beforehand.
At the moment Windows should be installed. Fortunenatly I've already got the PC98 MS-DOS 6.2 Upgrade Set at home. When I format the PC, is there anything I've to take care of? For instance, there's already a 86 sound cart integrated. Do I need to reconfigure it after installing DOS?
This question might be stupid but does formating a PC98 work the same way as formating a standard PC nowadays?
Thank you!

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

You shouldn't have to do anything else. DOS will contain all the drivers you need (sound card, mouse, etc.). Just format and install. My PC98 came formatted with DOS installed, and after I installed a game, it was ready to go (unless the game required I set the monitor's output to 24KHz at the system menu, for example).

After all I've got everything necessary for playing Policenauts but as I mentioned before, Windows 95 is installed instead of DOS.
I tried to install DOS but received a message that I’m not allowed to install a new 'domain' on the HD (固定ディスクでは新規の領域へのインスタールはいけません), though I'm not so sure if 'kotei disk' means HD.
Anyway, what needs to be done before I'm able to install DOS? And is it truely necessary to install DOS? I remember that Windows 95 contained a fully-fledged version of DOS but how do I boot this?

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

Yeah, you can try to use the DOS in Windows 95 (DOS 7.0) first, but I think you'll find the system files it writes to your floppy disk to be too big. But go ahead and try it first anyway. To start DOS, go to the Start menu, then Programs, then MS-DOS Prompt, then follow the game's instruction manual. And 'kotei disuku' means 'hard disk', yeah.

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:57 pm
Posts: 117
Location: USA, OK

I have a question...

I can get the game to boot up under Anex86 and the sound works great... however, I can't seem to get the animations for the lips on either the characters, or the little portraits, to animate. I haven't seen anyone else talk about this, so I am not sure if this is a deficiency in the emulator, or a setting I just don't know about... any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:10 am
Posts: 181

Speaking of the Anex86 emulator, I already downloaded all 5 parts of the PC-98 Policenauts ISO. Now how do I get the game to work on an Anex86 emulator?

Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:07 am
Posts: 1380
Location: Right Behind You

...Ugh, just worth pointing out that I think we need somebody to create a guide for the PC-98! lol
Everybody is having problems it seems...
I can tell it'll be really far down the line until I do get a PC-98 myself, since all the problems this is having, as well as the price, hehehe. Kind of humourous how much of a problem everyone is having, it REALLY makes the PC-98 stand out for all its problems, it certainly hasn't aged gracefully. Dear oh dear...

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

The system itself isn't that bad. Keep in mind this is emulation most people are talking about.
As for helping to resolve those issues, I don't have much experience running Anex86, so maybe someone else could lend a hand with that.

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:57 pm
Posts: 117
Location: USA, OK

LOL... looks like we might need a guide... I am going to play around with the setting a little and see if I can figure something out, if successful I will let you all know how I was able to make it work. Even in its current form, with out the lip flaps, it still works very well and is more than playable.

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

Maybe epitaph or MrSeed could talk about how they got around this problem.

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

I didn't notice it earlier because I didn't play it so far but now you mentioned I see that the lips movement aren't there. With some testing I found out that the problem is the sounddriver. When I use version 3.10 of AVSDRIVER.SYS I get some lip movement but you get horrible stammer sounds but version 1.00 gives nice sound but you lose the lib animation.
I think we need a version of AVSDRIVER.SYS which lies between version 1 and 3, I'm very curious which version epitaph uses.
I could make a nice guide how to play policenauts by Anex86 but I don't know if the version I downloaded is complete or that some data has been corrupted. Especially I think the CD-rom image has some corrupt data because I hear some clipping in the CD-sound when playing the tracks with a CD-player.
Osiris could you post the the listing of your system and user disk of Policenauts perhaps with some filesizes too? I then could verify if I have all the files and the right sizes. That's a start.

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:57 pm
Posts: 117
Location: USA, OK

It appears sir that you are right about the sound driver being the culprit... I noticed that last night when testing it... I can't seem to find the in-between versions however to see if they produce any different effects... I suppose it is always possible thought that the rom images itself that is floating around the net might be at fault as well.

Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:33 am
Posts: 2940
Location: Mexico

Now that you mention that I *recall* that tehre was no lip movement on my PC9821... I will check my version of the driver when I am back home from Norway.

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

I found last night version 2.11 revision 1.20 on the internet of AVSDRV.SYS. I tested it and there is still no lip animation but the stammer sounds are there. So this version is even worse. It looks like that you really need version 3.10 for lip animation. I hope the boys with the real hardware and the game can test this.

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

Second Lieutenant

Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:18 pm
Posts: 351
Location: Germany

I've almost got it to work on Anex86 (Version 2.78 ) and then this happened.
http://s3.directupload.net/images/070829/9E356x2t.jpg
How can I solve this problem?

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

You haven't got enough memory to load the game, I think. Go to the system tab and select the 'Ext-RAM option' and 8,192 in the input field and start the system again.

Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:18 pm
Posts: 351
Location: Germany

It's working!
Thank you so much!
Too bad about the CD sound though, I would've loved to see the opening with the the OLD LA 2040 opening theme.
Edit: I've tried it with T98-Next just now and there's no CD sound at all. Even after I went through every option in the sound configurations.

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

Do you use the same boot files for the T98-next version? Is the CDDriver correctly loaded with the /I0 option? And it's important that Nauts.bat/ or indirectly ITP.exe is called with the /C option.

Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:18 pm
Posts: 351
Location: Germany

You're really confusing me here.
I used Anex86 at first because it was relativly easy to handle, but I have actually no idea what you're talkin about now.
My PC knowledge is just...well, let's just say, very basic.
Say, could you do a small step by step tutorial, just tell me which files I'll need, (And possibly where I can get those.) and how to configure T98-Next, I'd really apreaciate that.

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

I don't think anyone has gotten the sound to work in T98 (an emulator issue, isn't it?), but correct me if I'm wrong. You might be better off sticking with Anex and living with no CD audio.

Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:18 pm
Posts: 351
Location: Germany

As far as I remember the PC98 Policenauts videos on Youtube some time ago ran on T98-Next and you could hear the CD audio. I don't know about the PCM sound, but at least I want to try it.
And it seems the Anex86 emulation is far from perfect as well. There's barely lip movement, at first I thought it was normal but once in a while you can see them moving their lips while speaking for a few seconds. The same goes for the talking heads, most time while they're speaking there are none, then they randomly appear (Without any lip movement again.) and a few seconds later they disappear again although the characters are still talking.
Maybe I'm wrong but I guess that's not how it's supposed to be.

Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:28 pm
Posts: 29
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

What I meant do you use the same diskimage with Anex86 as for T98-next? If this is the case, I think I know why you don't hear any CD-music with T98-next. Because in T98-next you need another CD-driver (NECCD.SYS) for the CDROM and you also need to load it differently as in Anex86.
In your config.sys you see something like:
DEVICE=<path>CDX.SYS /D:CD_101
You need it to change to:
DEVICE=<path>NECCD.SYS /D:CD_101 /I0
Where <path> is the directory path of the driver
My PC knowledge is just...well, let's just say, very basic.
What is basic, do you know something about DOS-commands and thing like autoexec.bat and config.sys and how to edit them?

I'll do that but first I want to know if I have version which is good. One question though, do you have the original of you downloaded it somewhere?

Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am
Posts: 3379

That's the thing, though -- T98 has terrible sound for most of the game (the PCM audio) but has the CD audio, whereas Anex has the PCM but not the CD. I'd go with Anex at the moment if I were playing the game.
The talking heads aren't always meant to be there, by the way. The first talking heads don't appear until right after Jonathan meets Ed in Act 1. Every time a character speaks (whether it's a talking head or just in the game screen), their dialogue is supposed to be lip-synched, though.

Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:18 pm
Posts: 351
Location: Germany

I don't have the NECCD.SYS and about config.sys...well, it's completly empty.
And do I have to put the NECCD.SYS file in a specific folder?

Actually no, to tell the truth I had to do a little research about it, after you mentioned it. I didn't need to do any of this while running Anex86. My PC knowledge basically covers how to start my PC and how to shut it down.

Well, actually, I downloaded it. But since other users on that forum didn't seem to have any problems, I figured the CD image was okay.

Yeah, I'll do that, but as I said, at least I want to give it a try with T98-Next.

That's a little strange though, in Snatcher the talking heads were always there when characters were talking, why not here? Especially when Ed is speaking, you can see his talking head, but when Jonathan is speaking you see nothing of him. The use of talking heads seems very inconsistent.
About the lip sync...I noticed the same while I watched the PC98 videos on Youtube, it ran on T98-Next and there was no lip synch either.
Also, the PCM audio is a little delayed, I noticed this especially during the shooting sequence in the prologue. Maybe that has something to do with the missing lip synch. Any option in Anex86 that will help to solve this problem?