NEC PC-88

BIOS

While this core technically supports loading ROMs from the top level of the BIOS folder, this causes a conflict with MSX emulation also requiring a file named “disk.rom” there, so you should create a quasi88 subfolder inside /roms/bios and put them there instead.

Filename MD5
quasi88/disk.rom 793f86784e5608352a5d7f03f03e0858
quasi88/font.rom cd428f9ee8ff9f84c60beb7a8a0ef628
quasi88/n88knj1.rom d81c6d5d7ad1a4bbbd6ae22a01257603
quasi88/n80.rom 5d6854624dd01cd791f58727fc43a525
quasi88/n88_0.rom d675a2ca186c6efcd6277b835de4c7e5
quasi88/n88_1.rom e844534dfe5744b381444dbe61ef1b66
quasi88/n88_2.rom 6548fa45061274dee1ea8ae1e9e93910
quasi88/n88_3.rom fc4b76a402ba501e6ba6de4b3e8b4273
quasi88/n88n.rom 2ff07b8769367321128e03924af668a0
quasi88/n88.rom 4f984e04a99d56c4cfe36115415d6eb8

There is a “pseudo BIOS” if you do not provide these files, but there is a 99% chance that it won’t work.

Controls

The controller defaults to the “Retro Joypad” device, which defaults to the numerical pad + Z & X layout. You can also map the I, space, and enter keys for games that deviate from it slightly.

For the many games that use other control systems, you’ll need to either switch to the “Retro Keyboard” and build your own layout from scratch, or plug in a USB keyboard and use that.

To use the Retro Keyboard layout, enter the RA Quick Menu, select Controls and then Port 1 Controls, and change Device Type to Retro Keyboard. Controls for the PC88 were highly game dependent, so you’ll need to either find a guide to the controls for the game in question or do a lot of experimenting.

There are some adventure games on the system that use text input and require you to type full words. Since there’s no onscreen keyboard for quasi88 at the moment, the only reasonable way to play these games is with a USB keyboard.

Compatibility

If you see a screen saying “how many files?” this is fine, wait for a bit, as the disk should soon autoboot.

Some games (such as Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushuu) may need “BASIC mode” in the core options set to “N88 V1H” otherwise the colours will be all wrong.