Pawlicker / is on Nostr

I spent all my money on obscure Japanese computers.

I'm a nerd and anthropomorphic vehicle enthusiast, ex-furry, and take photos from time to time.

I'm going to upload art here and probably start making more PC-98 related posts here.

Last Notes

2024-08-20 00:18:48

The difference between the Linux and Windows developer model:
Windows: You're a wagie, you will do the work.
Linux: *Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike OST plays* "fuck you bitch"
#note1s9m…axkr

2024-08-20 00:13:47

"at least there's Linux"
https://makai.chaotic.ninja/files/165d8cac-e124-4894-aa03-f6404e1e369e

2024-07-29 22:09:08

- reply

you just know these "people" want to fight everyone online like they did other school kids when they put on that tapout shirt thinking it's the WWE.
Today it's art, tomorrow it's something else stupid.

2024-06-16 21:59:00

Obscure #PC98 #Retrocomputing lore: Font ROMs
The PC-98 series of computers had a very unique video system that allowed it to display Japanese characters very fast. This was done via a 282kb font ROM on normal res models. The master GDC would overlay the text onto the slave GDC's graphics output, meaning that nearly every PC-98 game had the distinct font as well.
Emulators also require this ROM file (FONT.ROM) for proper text output, the font extracted into a bitmap file, or a clone of it such as FREECG98.bmp.
However here's an interesting tidbit about the font ROM. While unknown to many except heavy Wikipedia posters and PC-98 enthusiasts, Epson actually cloned the PC-98 line and after a lawsuit over the original models that used a ROM that was too close to NEC's (and likely were never sold), Epson brought to the market a PC-98 compatible called the PC-286 with a clone of the PC-98 ROMs. Epson would then make these machines until 1995, when they decided to only make PC Compatibles from then on.
Due to the inevitable copyright issues with using the same ROM font that NEC did, Epson also created a different font ROM, giving PC-98 software run on Epson machines a different look.
Emulators really don't care what FONT.ROM file you use since a font is a font after all, which means that with NP21w or DOSBOX-X you can plug in any font rom or bmp you want and it will render text with that. Epson's font ROM is lesser known, due to the fact that the APC III and most extracted PC-98 font TTF files are based on the NEC ROM and not the Epson ROM.
How much different is the font ROM? Well there's subtle differences, but the first screenshot is using the NEC ROM and the second is using Epson's ROM.
Some PC-98 enthusiasts prefer Epson's font ROM due to the unique look it has, and many letters are clearly distinct from NEC's implementation.
https://makai.chaotic.ninja/files/a0f61053-36ec-4a0d-93f0-87ecef38b48c
https://makai.chaotic.ninja/files/41f0c977-d0ec-40cf-85f5-642c47e65a15

2024-06-09 01:03:00

looking up info on the ps1 hardware arcade games for a friend and why the FUCK did Taito make a PCB with a PS1 tied with a YM2610, this is like some weird alt reality shit where FM was still relevant.