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First, N88-BASIC runs on all PC-88. It's a japanese Z80 computer, but PC-88VA are 16-bit, like the PC-98 and wonderswan. Instead, PC-98 runs N88-BASIC(86), which is different. I think only the PC-98DO and DO+ are compatible with PC-88 spotting a seperate chip and not PC88-VA. So I'm wondering for a long time, are the x86 compatible PC-88VA, VA2 and VA3 able to run the N88-BASIC(86) PC-98 os and maybe be modded to open it's software/games?

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  • What exactly is the question? Compatibility is a very wide area, so it might be helpful to specify exactly what your concern is.
    – Raffzahn
    Feb 14 at 15:04
  • The PC88VA is not 16-bit, as you say. It uses the NEC V30 CPU that can fully emulate an Intel 8080, and in this mode it's an 8-bit CPU, working on a single segment of its host's memory. So, in theory, the PC88VA could have been made fully compatible with its predecessors (I don't know if it really was, however)
    – tofro
    Feb 14 at 16:09
  • The V50 VA is indeed compatible with PC-88, idk about it's other predecessors. But it's definately a 8086 clone, that's why VA games are incompatible. V20 has an 8-bit address bus (8088).
    – Ciel Ruby
    Feb 15 at 9:04
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    @CielRuby The PV-88VA does not use a V50, but a 9002, which includes a Z80 compatible mode. Thus it's able to run software of prior PC.88 machines.
    – Raffzahn
    Feb 15 at 9:35
  • Sorry, I read the 9002 is V50. But like all v30, it's still 8086 compatible too, right? (Or 8088 in case more like a v20?)
    – Ciel Ruby
    Feb 16 at 10:46

1 Answer 1

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Unlike often mentioned, the PC-98VA machines do not use a NEC V50 (μPD70216), but a derivative μPD9002. The V50 is based on the V30 (μPD70116) core which includes a full 8080 emulation mode (*1). The μPD9002 expands that for full Z80 compatibility, thus next to all Z80 based PC-88 software can run on the VA series.

More details at the Japanese wiki

Unlike the Question implies the BASIC for the PC-88VA is not the same as N88-BASIC(86). In fact, there are three different BASICs

  • The VA series is equipped with N88 BASIC V3 (*2), which is fully upward compatible to the N88 BASIC V1/V2 used at previous PC-8800 models. To my knowledge it is not a 8086 based BASIC, but a continuation of the 8 bit series. Though it contains several additions compatible to N88-BASIC(86), as well as improved support for Japanese character handling and DBCS. This is a disk based BASIC.

  • N88-BASIC(86) is a ROM BASIC for the PC-98 series. While technical related to GW-BASIC, it's quite different offering a high degree of compatibility with N88 BASIC (*3). AFAICT all sources can be read and used with N88 BASIC (ofc. sans extensions).

  • N88-DISK BASIC (86) is essentially the same, loaded from disk, but offers an enhanced character encoding, so conversion may be needed backward compatibility.

And then there is

  • N88-DISK BASIC(86) for MS-DOS. It's for most parts the same as N88-DISK BASIC(86), but uses (again) different character encoding for Japanese text. This time it was changed to be compatible with common character handling under MS-DOS. While source can be read under certain circumstances, all data files must be converted between the versions.

[There was also a version for Windows 2.0, but that's more of a curiosity as it was not continued].

*1 - Plus a whole bunch of peripherals making it a SoC, similar to Intels 80186, just somewhat more PC compatible.

*2 - N88 BASIC in turn is related to N-BASIC of the PC-8001 as both are MS-BASIC. While fully upward compatible, it used a different binary format, so programs had to be exchanged using ASCII format.

*3 - N88 BASIC was far ahead of GW-BASIC, so just anything less would have been a huge step back, not exactly what Customers would have appreciated.

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    That is a good comment, but unfortunately not answering the question.
    – tofro
    Feb 15 at 9:59
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    @tofro because I will not copy half the wiki entry and it's links. The VA series is compatible to the extreme.
    – Raffzahn
    Feb 15 at 10:06
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    Hardware compatibility is one thing. This makes running old programs theoretically run. The other thing is "did they make the 98VA software/BIOS/OS compatible with the old software so it could seamlessly run all old software" - You didn't answer that part, which was actually the question.
    – tofro
    Feb 15 at 10:25
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    @tofro Mind to simply read the linked wiki entry? Doing so you might write an answer you like more...
    – Raffzahn
    Feb 15 at 10:31
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    Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks for adding the software-related part.
    – tofro
    Feb 15 at 11:00

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