Policenauts PC9821

Talk about Kojima's hard sci-fi masterpiece.
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Policenauts PC9821

Post by ratperson665 »

I can't find it anywhere! HELP!
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Post by Modnar »

its gonna be very hard to find...once every blue moon they put it up on ebay.
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Post by ratperson665 »

Is there anywhere else to look? Thanks.
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Post by Marc »

Try http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/. Good luck - in addition to it showing up only once or twice a year, it usually goes for around $150 (which is pretty decent considering its rarity, as it originally sold for around $130 MSRP when it was released back in 1994).
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Post by James_The_Stampede »

Osiris wrote:Try http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/. Good luck - in addition to it showing up only once or twice a year, it usually goes for around $150 (which is pretty decent considering its rarity, as it originally sold for around $130 MSRP when it was released back in 1994).

rinkya.com will place proxy bids for you in case the seller wont ship international. I've used them to get a few of my Japanese PSX games. It's pretty good and legit.
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Post by Marc »

Yahoo Auctions automatically extends the closing time for bids by 5 minutes if there is a snipe bid in the last 5 minutes (those times are based on my observations, they might be in the rules somewhere), so keep that in mind.
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Post by Marc »

ratperson665 wrote:I can't find it anywhere! HELP!
Just out of curiosity, what were you planning on doing with the game?
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Post by ratperson665 »

Osiris wrote:
ratperson665 wrote:I can't find it anywhere! HELP!
Just out of curiosity, what were you planning on doing with the game?
I plan on playing it.
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Post by Marc »

How?
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Post by ratperson665 »

Emulation.
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Post by Marc »

Do you know how PC98 emulation works? And if Policenauts works with it?
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Post by DarkTetsuya »

Osiris wrote:Do you know how PC98 emulation works? And if Policenauts works with it?
IIRC it doesn't... But even if it did work, 99.99999999999999999999% of the game is in Japanese, which I refuse to believe that ratperson is fluent in.

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Post by Jonathan Ingram »

Getting the PC9821 version emulated is a nightmare if I recall correctly. But I love the way that version looks, it's beautiful for some reason, something about that slightly more limited pallette.
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Post by Snake700 »

How come it´s a nightmare?
What?

Say what say what one more time i dare i double dare you mother f##### say what one more god damm time

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Post by Artemio »

It randomly works. And really, it is randomly. I'd say I booted it twice out of hundreds of tries....
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Post by Marc »

ratperson665 wrote:Emulation.
Well, first of all you'll need an ISO of the game and the boot disks. Then even if you have those, the emulator is by no means a piece of cake. You'll need a fast machine with plenty of memory, then there are all the procedures you need to go through setting up the emulator for the game. Then, even if you do get it to run, the game has PCM sound problems the whole way through. So anyone who wants it to run 100% perfect can't rely on emulation at the moment.

If you want to have a go at finding a PC9821, here's a comparison chart of every model ever made and which features they have. You'll need a CD drive, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, Japanese DOS (a version between 5.0 and 6.2) with a few additional drivers I can give you, a sound card, 3.5 MB of RAM, and a serial port mouse (or a converter for another mouse). The earlier the CPU the better, as later models run the game too fast. Also, some models have 5.25-inch floppy drives, so you should try to avoid those. The game comes with a 3.5-inch system disk; at the time, Konami did a mail-in exchange for people with 5.25-inch machines. You could always try and make your own copy if you have access to both drives, but why go for an inferior and less-supported format anyway, if you're spending all that money? Finally, if you want to install the game to a HD to make it run faster, you'll need 17 MB free HD space. This stores all the graphics and programs in the game on your computer. If you just want to install its programs, you need 1 MB of free space.

The question marks in the file are there because it was originally composed on a Japanese computer. You don't have to worry too much about them.
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Post by Artemio »

Nice document =)

A shame that I believe it would be completely ou of the question trying to go to Akihabara and find one of this. I mean, it would be no easy task and it would probably end up in nothing.
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Post by Marc »

Maybe if you went to one of the specialist stores there you could. The best way without going to Japan would have to be Yahoo Auctions.
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Post by Snake700 »

Osiris wrote:
ratperson665 wrote:Emulation.
Well, first of all you'll need an ISO of the game and the boot disks. Then even if you have those, the emulator is by no means a piece of cake. You'll need a fast machine with plenty of memory, then there are all the procedures you need to go through setting up the emulator for the game. Then, even if you do get it to run, the game has PCM sound problems the whole way through. So anyone who wants it to run 100% perfect can't rely on emulation at the moment.

If you want to have a go at finding a PC9821, here's a comparison chart of every model ever made and which features they have. You'll need a CD drive, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, Japanese DOS (a version between 5.0 and 6.2) with a few additional drivers I can give you, a sound card, 3.5 MB of RAM, and a serial port mouse (or a converter for another mouse). The earlier the CPU the better, as later models run the game too fast. Also, some models have 5.25-inch floppy drives, so you should try to avoid those. The game comes with a 3.5-inch system disk; at the time, Konami did a mail-in exchange for people with 5.25-inch machines. You could always try and make your own copy if you have access to both drives, but why go for an inferior and less-supported format anyway, if you're spending all that money? Finally, if you want to install the game to a HD to make it run faster, you'll need 17 MB free HD space. This stores all the graphics and programs in the game on your computer. If you just want to install its programs, you need 1 MB of free space.

The question marks in the file are there because it was originally composed on a Japanese computer. You don't have to worry too much about them.
Nice research!
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Post by Marc »

Got an item I forgot to add to that list: a monitor that can output with a horizontal scanning frequency of 24 KHz (for the game) and 31 KHz (standard PC-98 operating frequency). Most monitors don't seem to go as low as 24KHz, though 30 KHz is often a base level.
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