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7Sep/230

PC-98 – 110-Pin CenterCOM ME1500 Ethernet Adapter

This gets a special mention after getting the PCMCIA slot working on this machine. Since my NS/A only has one PCMCIA slot, it's nice to be able to have ethernet on the 110-pin port and SCSI in the PCMCIA. Or vice-versa!

What I can't believe is that Allied Telesis still has a FULL list of drivers for all of their archaic hardware. Thank you Allied Telesis, from the entire retro community! Just in case that site does go down, the drivers for this device are over here for safe-keeping.

Once downloaded, just make it available to the MS LAN Manager setup interface. Clear your current configuration and then choose to add an unlisted driver...

Yet again, set up TCP/IP with DHCP as the default...

And Bob's your uncle! Transmission!

The bloody thing worked perfectly and now I have my single PCMCIA slot free for SCSI. Actually, it'd be nice if they made the rear 110-pin port daisy-chain-able. All of these devices should have the matching rear socket to add more devices... just like the C-Bus slots.

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6Sep/230

Yamashina, Kyoto – May, 2023

Stumbling across this area was nearly an accident. Somehow, back in the day whilst probably browsing Facebook and pinning random locations on Google Maps, I'd left a 'favourite' on this canal. Whilst planning things to do during my final days of this most recent trip to Japan, I chose to visit this area as my rail pass had expired and it was easy to get to from Shin-Osaka. It's also easy to get to from Kyoto or Otsu by taking the Keihan Keishi Line, which is actually the same line that runs down the middle of the street in Otsu city.

Getting up to the Canal

Lake Biwa Canal was used back in the day for freight and water, but nowadays is just used to supply drinking water and power a hydro dam. It's actually located high up on the side of a mountain, so there's a bit of a walk involved. Starting from either JR or Keihan Keishi Line, exit at Yamashina Station and start walking to the west, beside the bicycle parking lot.

Once you cross through the underpass above, you'll climb the local street to get up to the canal.

It's mildly steep, so take it easy. But once on the canal, it's flat land all the way around to the photography spot. On the way, you'll pass the observation deck which faces back to Yamashina Station. It's great for viewing trains, but the view is a little limited.

Continue along the canal...

And keep an eye out to your left, as after around a 10 minute walk you'll stumble across...

This amazing view! Further along the canal you'll find Myooji Bridge and then toilets. And also random boat tours!

But yeah, we're not here for that... we're here for:

And don't forget to look down...

But you'll be distracted again momentarily by either a limited express, freight or passenger. They just don't stop!

The heavens then opened up and it rained quite heavily. If the forecast says ANY percentage of rain (on the day it was 2%), then take an umbrella. Don't even bother to gamble! The maple leaves are beautiful and offer no form of shelter.

And, of course, the rain came when the Fukuyama Rail Express came!

And then the Kangaroo Liner came through!

That was around 2 hours between 9 and 11am in the morning on a Tuesday. I can only recommend to check timetables and determine a sweet spot as to when to see the most trains. At the start, there was one other photographer up there, but he seemed to understand the rain was coming and left before it arrived!

I returned via Yamashina Station and, as always, a freight appeared out of nowhere...

And a final note, make sure to ride in the first car of any train you take in Japan.

There's always something to see on the Tokaido line!

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5Sep/230

Travelling Through Shikoku – May, 2023

The goal was simple: take the Sunrise sleeper train to Takamatsu and drive across Shikoku, returning on a Shiokaze from Matsuyama the next afternoon. Starting from Tokyo, this would have worked... but starting from Osaka it doesn't. From Osaka, the Sunrise's timetable lets you get to Tokyo easily, but doesn't let you go west as it passes through around 4am and they don't actually let anyone get on. Conversly you can easily get west from Tokyo!

So, the plan was changed to an afternoon Shinkansen to Okayama and an easy transfer through to an onsen in Kotohira!

Kotohira

This sleepy river-town is more-or-less due south of Okayama. You get to cross the amazing Seto Bridge to get there and, although the express trains are cool, doing this on a local service will make the experience better. The view is amazing ... and I totally failed to take photos. Anyway, back to Kotohira. It seems to be known as a, uhmmm, brothel (companion) town? It actually really reminded me of Spirited Away's onsen town.

We stayed at Shikishimakan with the lodgings, food and onsen being perfect! I don't think I've eaten that much in a long time. The next day was a trip to Takamatsu to pick up the rental car and I totally failed to take any photos of Kotohira Dentetsu, the cute little third-sector railway linking Kotohira and Takamatsu. Of course, we could've taken JR back and around, but that would've actually been 20 minutes longer!

Takamatsu

All of 5 minutes was spent in-town, traversing from the Kotoden Station to the Renta-car on-foot. The car was easily picked up and, I must admit, booking one-way rental cars in Japan is super easy and doesn't cost more than a return trip! How dare they understand customer service. I looked at my train timetables and realised a freighter was bound for Niihama, so the first goal was to pick a picturesque area for a photo or two.

Unfortunately, it seems that the freighter had already slipped past. Thanks to the timetable only showing major arrivals and departures, it's hard to know where-else a service will stop. They could halt in stations or loops to let the priority passenger services pass. This means that you can't ever get a 100% fix on a train if you only interpolate the speed over the time to travel between two known points!

Iyo-Mishima

I'd always liked the look of this level crossing between two factories. The whole area is an industrial port-town and, although the freighter was well-and-truly ahead of us, there were still a few limited express trains to see!

It's a bit dicey to get in the right position as the roads are narrow and a continuous procession of trucks are ready to take you out. The guard rails are also covered in powdery old paint, which happily rubs off onto your pants.

Niihama

After a few other Hard-Off stops along the way, we ended up in Niihama just before the departure of the freight we'd initially tried to chase in the morning. It'd spent its time in the yard already and was about to hook and pull back east.

It then sat for a while with it's markers on, as it had no clearance to leave. There was still a Shiokaze to come from the east on it's journey to Matsuyama.

Three seconds later and the freight was outta there!

Matsuyama

The land of red trains! I had always thought this diamond crossing was in Kochi, but I was happily proven wrong. A hotel was chosen near-enough to this infamous crossing and a morning was spent taking wayyyyy too many mikan/tangerine/persimmon/vermillion coloured vehicles. Of course, the goal was a photo with all three modes of transport in one shot. But first, I had to dawdle to the intersection.

There's a beautiful mix of street-cars to view, even at 6am in the morning.

But just around the corner, the intersection came into view...

And my first 2-out-of-three vehicle shot was taken!

And then more random shots...

At around ~7am the buses started to appear, running more-frequently on their schedules. Game on! Time for a three-vehicles-in-one... but working out the best vantage point (with the lens I had on), without getting hit by bicycles, or traffic... or annoying the authorities... was going to be tough. Also, it would be very easy to be stuck on the wrong side of the level-crossing!

There were actually also a lot of dead-head movements, so using Google Maps for the heavy-rail timetable wasn't always the best idea... there'd often be 2-3 deadheads in between real services!

More trams came and went... older heavy-rail consist came and went...

And then it happened!

Three-in-one! But not overly-well framed... still... done! I stayed longer to see how many more times I could do it.

Oof... that one was nicer.

And that isn't bad either! I had spent three hours loitering... I was happy with the shots and that no authorities came to tell me to move on. It was time to be a normal tourist!

Matsuyama Castle

After telling friends we were doing Shikoku, they nearly spat out their food when I said this castle wasn't on the itinerary. It's easy to be spoiled by castles in Japan and after seeing Osaka and Himeji, I hadn't really considered that I'd needed to see another. They all said it was a must-do and I'm glad we listened.

That angle is very Kiyomizudera-esque, just without the religion. This castle is built as a stronghold and, although I'm sure they were praying inside often, it's totally built for war.

The view from any point on the grounds is stunning. Make sure to always be looking through port-holes, gun-holes, cannon-holes, windows, etc...

And, although the usual rule is to look-up, make sure to look down! On all sides of the castle.

And then, when done, take the chair-lift or cable-car back down the hill.

Thank you Shikoku!

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4Sep/230

Takachiho Amaterasu Railway – May, 2023

I must admit, visiting this railway was never really on my to-do list. Not only is it quite out-of-the-way, since the bridge that connected the railway to Nobeoka was destroyed, but the train they have operating on the isolated section of the line is really only a toy?

It wasn't until my friend said "we're going!" that I started actually researched the railway. He then also told me he'd booked me on the driving experience... and I may have freaked out. I love trains, but actually driving one? I don't know if I'd have the coordination. I'd considered it back at Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park, but the cost there was well over AU$300 and I would have had issues with translation.

Fortunately, Amaterasu was cheaper and Shuhei-san was going to help!

Getting there

It was a ~2.5 hour drive from Nichinan and, thanks to my international licence, I drove the whole way. It was a mix of highways and local streets and the scenery was stunning! We stopped through at Takachiho Gorge first, wandering around the area. The boats were booked out and the aquarium was slightly hilarous.

After that, a quick stop for lunch and then the main event. Actually, I shouldn't skip on the event that was lunch. The Takachiho area is famous for its beef, so we stopped in at a local restaurant named Takachiho Shokudo. The specialty was beef curry, but they also raved about the chicken namban. So, what to do?...

Have both on one plate! Delicious!

Takachiho Amaterasu Railway

This is the terminus of the railway that once connected Nobeoka to Takachiho. When a bridge collapsed during a typhoon in 2005, the decision was made to not rebuild, leaving this segment of the railway disused. Later on the current group was created and the tourist trains began.

When the 'toy' train isn't in the yard, you're allowed to wander around the station yard and check everything out. Down one the end of the line, in the sheds, are the two TR-series DMUs that one gets to drive in the driving experience. It all started to become real! Before this, we went for a ride on the 'toy' train.

All was pretty standard until the tunnels... hah...

The final stop on the main bridge is just awesome. The driver must pause before even entering the bridge to read the wind monitor to make sure we wouldn't fall off. Once we proceeded on though, we stopped in the middle and were allowed to stand up to get great photos.

The conductor became the driver and we returned back to the yard.

Let's Drive A Train!

This got very hard very quickly. The instructor went and grabbed the DMU and brought it onto the platform.

We then spent 10 minutes lost-in-translation whilst he was trying to teach me the controls. Shuhei, thanks for your help here! I would've sent the train off the cliff if you hadn't have translated the harder words.

The basic things to know were direction switch, accelerate, brake and the deadmans switch. There was also the point that the ATS (or was that ATC?) was still wired-in, but not disabled and so it'd ring REALLY LOUDLY in your left ear if you were in notch one. It's goal was to remind you that you were moving off without correctly enabling ATS and ... well ... that was wrong. But we could ignore it.

He gave me the green light and we were off. Brake released, accelerator nudging through notch one, buzzer screaming in my ear... but the thing was moving. I then proceeded to apply brakes, at the area I thought we should start stopping, and it really felt like the brake handle was doing nothing. There were no physical notches in the brake handle, so you just had to rotate it, hoping that something was being applied. Of course, you could read the gauge, which had two needles, but there wasn't really a tactile connection. About those needles... if they come inline with eachother then the emergency brake is applied... and, of course, I did this on the first stop. Both Shuhei and the Instructor went for a bit of a stumble.

For that issue, my mandatory JR-style re-training occurred and then we were off again. As that it's a single line, we had to swap ends and drive all the way back. The actual experience lets you drive back and forth four times!

Shuhei jumped out and took some pics of me going back and forth... I really started to get the hang of it towards the end.

Oh, and don't forget to don the drivers hat... even if your head is too big.

Jeez, you can see the stress on my face. I was shaking and traumatised afterwards, but it was so worth it!

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1Sep/230

PC-98 – PC-9801NS/A PCMCIA Network

It's done. I did it. I managed to wrangle a set of disks via Yahoo Auctions Japan and succeeded. It seems the winner of the previous auction didn't want these disks as well... which is good for us all!

Look at that floppy disk. Isn't it the most awesome disk you've ever seen in your life? It cost AU$50. Fifty-#$%#$-bucks for a floppy disk. If you add the previously bought floppy (that had been overwritten!), then this total adventure cost over AU$100. Anyway, the outcome is that anyone can now get PCMCIA running on their NS/A, NL/R, NX/C or Ne!

The file on the disk happened to be SSDRV.SYS, not SSMECIA.SYS as I'd been expecting. It turns out that SSDRV.SYS comes in two flavours: a ~5kb version for PCMCIA 2.0 and a ~6.34kb sized version for PCMCIA 2.1+. As that I scored the actual PC Card Support Software disk for this specific laptop, it all just installed fine.

Firstly, a copy was made of the disk, with the original being stored away safely.

Of course, this copy is now available to the world! As it should be! Note that this is a 1.2mb Disk Image and that you'll need to format the floppy as 1.2mb prior to imaging or copying the data over. RawWrite for windows worked fine once I re-formatted a floppy disk from 1.44mb to 1.2mb under DOS in the NS/A.

PC Card Support Software

Slap in the disk, type SETUP.EXE and hit enter. You'll be presented with the main menu, as per the middle shot below.

From the menu, the top item is the installation source, secondly the install destination and the highlighted row is "Let's do this!". Go down to that option and smack enter, as the defaults should be correct.

In that second-last shot you can see the CONFIG.SYS listing where the installer has added three lines to the bottom. The first two are legit and the last is the Memory Card (i.e. flash storage) driver... which we don't need.

Network Hardware

I initially tried a RATOC R280, but it seems that it needs PCMCIA 2.1. Instead I reverted to my NEC PC-9801N-J02R, as I'd read somewhere that it was compatible with the NS/A.

As mentioned in the fine-print under the lovely graphic on the card, it's also known as a B4680 "Interface Card T", so remember this when installing the next software product. The drivers for this card are useless without host software to use them, so we need to choose something that can use this card!

MS Lan Manager + Network Drivers

How do I get network sharing going? It turns out that Windows for Workgroups was never released for the PC-98? I could go up to Windows 95 again, or go backwards to MS LAN Manager for PC-98. Lettuce do the latter and get some files transferring!

Not much to discuss yet. First screen is an introduction and the second tells you how to use the menus. Basically that the bottom-left button is OK and the one next to it is Back. Use TAB to switch between and ENTER to confirm selections. The next screen firstly defines the installation source and then the target installation directory. After that, you get the choice between installing the "Enhanced" or "BASIC" version of MS LAN Manager. I chose the defaults (the top option, "Enhanced") and continued.

Per disk, you get cute little countdowns instead of progress bars. It's telling you the amount of files it still needs to copy. Once it gets to zero it'll ask for the next disk:

It also asks where the next disk is, so I assume you can dump all of the files into one folder on A:\ (that's your HDD, stop thinking about C:\) and just do a super-quick install. Instead, I wrote out the six disks and inserted Disk #2.

It asked for disk #3: Drivers... and blew up.

And kept blowing up... and then threw me back to the DOS prompt. Ok, I failed to write #3 correctly! I found a substitute, re-wrote it and kept going. Cool! Driver selection!

Remember how I told you to remember the 'secondary' name of the PCMCIA LAN card? That's what we need to go by here. It's the 5th or 6th option... depending on which version of NDIS you wish to use? I chose v1.0. But now that I look at it, is it actually the version of the PCMCIA card? My card doesn't have a version on it, assumingly it's v1.0 then as they didn't think to put a version on the first if it was only meant to be a single version?! (Spoiler, it still worked...)

Ok ok, that says RATOC R280. Disregard and pretend it sayd B4680. I tried the RATOC card first and it vomited when trying to initialise it. I then switched to the NEC card. Either way, the middle shot lets you select the protocols. Use TCP/IP, unless you have other specific purposes to use other protocols. Make sure the DHCP box is checked and let it install!

Next up, set your Computer Name, Username and Domain/Workgroup name respectively. Then choose if Windows or DOS will be controlling the LAN Manager? Or does it say something else. I went with defaults. It then asks where Windows is... and I gave it the appropriate response.

Finally, there's something about message popups... I left it as default, and then hit "Let's do this" on the "we're gonna make changes now" middle screenshot. Finally it confirms that everything has been done! Let's save, quit and reboot.

We're in DOS, I connected the cable, we booted and it looks happy?

IPCONFIG works and it's displaying a correctly-assigned DHCP address! Can we ping?

We can! I .. what .. it works?!

Browsing the Neighbourhood

There's a NET command in MS LAN Manager for DOS that lets you browse the network and map shares. I can't say I had much luck with it, but I tried anyway.

When you first run NET, you'll be presented with a small configuration dialog. It asks for your Username, Password and Domain/Workgroup. I entered the required values and then hit enter, which dismissed the dialog. I then got a few warnings that the domain didn't respond and that things probably wont work properly... or that's what I think they said.

A short while two computers appeared in the main list!

The first is "Local" and the second is my W98 PC. I created a 'free for all' share on Windows 98 and then tried to hit 'enter' on the machine in the list after selecting it. Nothing really happened. Going to the view menu and choosing the first option popped up a dialog with the share I'd created!

Hitting enter on the share didn't work...

Something about a remote name? Oh well... I have a plan!

Speaking the correct version of SMB

So, SMB is the windows network share standard and it's come a long way. We're up to encrypting everything, from being able to have zero-password free access, way back in the day. The issue here is that the old LANMAN client speaks zero encryption and my NAS doesn't want to even consider talking to it. Windows 98 is even scoffing at it!

Errors are "share not found" or "access denied". Pretty much expected... so what to do? I cheated with the BeBox in the past.. and I now realise I never made a post on how I got network shares going. Oh well, now is a better time than ever. I did something really dodgy and loaded up RedHat 7.2 (not RHEL!) to create a kind-of SAMBA proxy. I'm sure that you could get Docker to do this, but setting up a VM was just as fun!

The goal was simple: a VirtualBox VM with RedHat 7.2 installed which could SMB to the NAS and then share that folder forward with all the encryption disabled. Sure, dangerous as hell, but it's all only accessible on the local network.

With the machine set up, it even showed up on the LANMAN net browser!

I got a weird NET2123 (API out of buffer space) error when trying to list the shares, so I just went and mapped it to Z: manually in DOS.

Woah... it worked... Oh, the actual use command scrolled off the screen... it was net use Z: \\redhat-oldie\public

It even shows up with a cute network icon in File Manager!

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30Aug/230

Kyushu, Japan – May 2023

I usually take a much more direct path when visiting Miyazaki, but this time I wanted to see the eastern coast of Kyushu. I also wanted to check out the Hard-Offs in Oita and Miyazaki, so what better way than by rail!? I actually happened to purchase some new-old-stock PC98 and X68000 games!

Oita

I took the 4pm Shinaksen from Shin-Osaka Station to Kokura, transferring to the southbound Sonic. The first layover was the Tabist Hotel Smart Sleeps just north of Oita Station.

There's a great craft-beer standing-bar just outside the entrance of the elevator to the hotel. Anyway, the next day the goal was to chase the southbound freight to Minami-Nobeoka, so I got to Oita Station in time to snoop around.

The southbound was on-time, but early by my expectations.

It turns out it arrives and halts in the station whilst the express trains pass it. I'd booked myself onto one of those express trains to get in front of the freight, to be able to see it again.

These poor-old 787s are now relegated to limited express services on the lesser lines. They used to be the main vehicle when getting to Kagoshima, but the shinkansen has since taken all the glory. Anyway, the train makes light-work of the rails through to Nobeoka and the trip is extremely scenic.

Don't forget to also inspect the train, and the hints to its past life.

Note that this southbound freigther has to stop a LOT. So if you do have time, bounce around on the express trains (or even the locals!) and you'll be able to catch it more than once.

Nobeoka

There's a path in the timetable showing that this train continues to Minami-Nobeoka with loading after shunting here. Unfortunately, after the comedy of errors that was Engaru, I realised that codes starting with 8000 are 'as required' and that this Minami-Noeboka freight path has NOT been used in a long time. Fortunately, this train did come in to Nobeoka Yard...

A cute little yard shunter then did all the hard work.

Being a Saturday, there was a 787-series scheduled to come through on a tour train. This is the 36+3 Around The Kyushuu (love that name!), timetabled to stop in the platform for half an hour so that the passengers can sample the local specialities!

I actually stayed the night in Nobeoka as there was yet another tour train to catch the next morning. The Seven Stars Kyushu was also scheduled for a stopover, but quite early!

They kicked it over and it was off before-long. I then continued southbound to Miyazaki.

Note that, on the way, you'll pass a concrete viaduct. This is actually the first maglev test-track in Japan. Now being used for solar panels.

Nichinan

Such a beautiful area of Japan. I always love visiting this place, and I do admit that a lodging on the railway line helps!

Nango Station is currently painted for an honorary baseball team. There's no teams in the area, so they support Seibu Saitama Lions.

The next day was spent on a trip up to the Takachiho Railway... but that needs a post by itself.

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27Aug/230

Macintosh Classic

This was an unexpected find at the local tip shop back home. The price wasn't low, but I couldn't resist. It was powered up on the bench next to the register and was just begging to be bought. Even though it had a RAM error displayed on the screen, I went ahead and threw money at the cashier.

Although it was 'working' at the tip shop, upon powering it up I heard no chime and just got a checkerboard pattern. A quick google had me fearing the worst... had the battery exploded inside? Somehow they had it running on the bench? I also noticed that it came with a serial cable and not the ADB cable, so I couldn't hook up the keyboard.

Hilariously, as I was taking a photo of the checkerboard, the machine flicked past that screen and started loading! It just seemed to be stuck there whilst trying to get the system online. With no ADB cable, I plugged in the mouse and tried to open Hypercard... it froze.

What's on the inside?

I cobbled together a torx T15 screwdriver to get the four screws out of the back. Note that the two screws, either side of the top handle, are a nuisance and you'll need a thin screwdriver with around 12cm of length. Once they're out though, the rear case just slides off. No leaking battery! No chime either when powering on, so the speaker and/or caps on the analog board are toast. The caps on the logic don't look too bad, but they can get replaced anyway.

There's great information all over the web on how to re-cap these. You either need to recap the logic board (more info here) or the analog board. Those later links have a list of all the parts you'll need. I had to do a run to jaycar to stock up on some 10v variants of electrolytics that weren't in the box'o'junk.

The above was the result of re-capping the analogue board, but the machine still displayed erratic behaviour. Sometimes a boot with the RAM extension saying RAM was toast, other times just Illegal Operations half-way through using the system. This machine has maxxed out RAM: 1mb onboard, 1mb soldered on the expansion board and 2x1mb SIMMs. Unfortunately, the 'About' dialog never showed the correct amount of RAM!

I then endeavoured to replace the logic board capacitors. Jaycar didn't have surface-mount tantalums in 47uf, so I went with standard through-hole capacitors and just made them look as-presentable-as-possible.

The machine felt better, but it was still not repaired.

Sound Is Loudest At Volume Setting 2?

I also replaced the capacitors around the audio circuitry and this revived the bong startup sound and others... but... when adjusting the volume, it peaked at '2' and then went quieter as you raised to 7? The actual issue was capacitor residue on the amp IC chip. A good clean with alcohol wipes got the sound back to 100%.

Crash And Burn... Then Sad Mac

Ok, the fun was short-lived, I started receiving erratic startup errors. Usually 00000003 0000FFFF. Fortunately, the internet always has a solution.

Seems the LS174 next to the power plug cops a beating from the omega-3 fish oils from the leaking 47uf 16v self-destructing caps.

The above shot is post-cleaning. Prior to wiping it down (as I did to the audio chip), you couldn't even see the legs. This did get the machine back to stable booting, but the extra 2x1mb SIMMs in the expansion board were still not being recognised! I then realised that there was a broken trace on the bottom-left third leg in.

I couldn't find my transformer winding wire, so I used a resistor leg. All the other pins beeped out, so I booted it up and...

No way! What's next? To hook the keyboard up, I just used an S-Video cable.

It turns out that, although you can use S-Video cables for ADB, you can't safely do it the other way around. ADB cables aren't overly-shielded to prevent interference to video signals.

So pretty in monochrome. The music sounded great also!

Destroying CRTs

Whilst doing all this, I had accidently applied incorrect lateral pressure to the rear of the CRT's input circuit board. This happened to crack the glass stem of the tube, right at the end!

The tip is missing there... it cracked off and the vacuum failed! Fortunately, I was able to find a donor CRT on Facebook Marketplace. Thanks Danny!

The yoke wasn't included, so there was a fair amount of stuffing around to get the picture looking plumb!

What's next?

I have a BlueSCSI in kit form, so I'll build it an get this thing on my local network. I flogged off all of my previous ethernet to localtalk hardware. If you have the space... then hoard stuff... you'll need it all a year later.

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14Aug/230

Sangi Freight Museum, Mie – May, 2023

The Sangi Railway Freight Railway Museum had an open day on the last day of Golden Week 2023 and Hayato-san offered to chauffer me around the area! Unfortunately, it was raining cats-and-dogs once again. The day started off with a Shinkansen trip from Shin-Osaka to Gifu-Hashima, which happened to be the first time I'd ever alighted at the station. I arrived mildly-early to see the Nozomi services bolt through ... in the rain.

That last shot above is the Shin-Hashima, the terminus of the Meitetsu Hashima Line.

Anyway, we had plans... the drive south-west began.

Nyūgawa Station

The carpark was dirt and the puddles were deep, but wet shoes didn't stop either of us! A northbound service greeted us not long after we arrived.

Nyugawa Station is directly south of the siding where the Freight Museum is located, so we quickly checked that out.

Along the carpark, between the station and the museum is a string of 4-wheel freight cars. Very much the type you'll find from the Tomix range.

There's even a matching DB101 shunter...

Freight Railway Museum

The museum is hosted in an old goods shed. There's a steamer on the old siding with a few other wagons up behind it. Inside, there's a great amount of memorabilia and model railways.

The railway's timetable is proudly displayed... but the freights weren't running due to the public holiday!

After a good gander, we returned to the heater in the car, and then a rice field just south of Nyugawa Station to wait... and hope... that a freight would pass.

Unfortunately, just a few passenger services... and rain. We then realised we hadn't checked out the steamer (and the other stock around the back of the museum), so we returned to do so.

Two services then passed eachother.

As always, be like a cat and don't play in the middle of a level crossing!

Nishi-Fujiwara Station

We then went for a tour up the line, ending up at the terminus. This station building has been decorated to look like a steamer, or two! I realise now that I should've taken a shot with the fog correctly lined up.

The station has a miniature ride-on railway and a line-up of stuffed-and-mounted vehicles.

Since the freight services were on holidays, we ventuerd south to find where all the wagons were stored.

Higashi-Fujiwara Station

The branch to the Taiheiyo Cement plant stems from the yard of Higashi-Fujiwara Station. Unfortunately, it's hardly accessible, so here's a shot of the northern end of the plant.

Further south in the station yard, there was a bit more to see.

The station building is beautiful. Seems to have been rebuilt lately? Seems they've also managed to flog a cement wagon for display.

So yeah, that's where all the wagons were stored. Shots were taken from the passenger window and I can't say they're my best work.

Ageki Station

Since there wasn't much happening, we went and checked out the Narrow Gauge Museum at Ageki Station. This is the terminus of Sangi Railway's Hokusei Line.

There was a neatly liveried EMU ready to depart. The livery is actually the local soccer team Veertien Mie and means "fourteen" in Dutch. How random. I was told there was a well-known hack spot around the corner, so we battled through the weather and made it in time.

Beautiful area... terrible lighting. There was one more hidden secret though. That bridge the yellow consist traversed.

Turns out it's one of the last 'corkscrew' style stone bridges in Japan. Supposedly it was a style of build back in the day that isn't used anymore.

Taiheiyo Cement, Yokkaiichi Port

The other end of the cement line is located in Yokkaiichi Port. For the rail to get there, many bridges are required, with the most famous being Suehiro Bridge (末広橋梁). It's actually registered as a cutural asset, as it's one of the last remaining 'lift bridges' in operation.

Of course, it was doing very little when we visited, so we ventured further to see what was happening at the port yard.

Lots of stabled locos, but also a newly delivered one? Sans-wheelsets!

Oh, and frogs...

Many loud, happy, noisy frogs.

Back to Nagoya

No light, lots of wet... but we still stopped for photos. And recycle shops!

The KIHA85 is now gone, replaced by the HC85.

Lots of Kintetsu... something I don't take enough photos of. Will do so next... time...

Kimble Part II, there's a Part I somewhere else, is a recycle shop full of randomness. Some shop-seconds where they have old stock, looking brand new. Random furniture, etc... but no computers!

Dinner was Italian as the Old Spaghetti Factory.. in a tram.. in a building... the last one remaining after the owner ran out of money and this restaurant was saved! Finally... desert was served on a turntable...

The rain was horizontal... my umbrella kept inverting... and even with a tripod, people walking over the vibrating bridge (plus the vehicles on the road behind) made the shot impossible. Not to even mention my lack of skill! Still, an amazing trip! Thank you Hayato-san~!

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11Aug/230

Sony Electronic Book Player DD-S35

Found this in a Hard-Off in Shikoku, somewhere. Maybe Niihama? The Hard-Off is actually in the basement of a hardware store. It was great to rummage around, as I also found a boxed PC-98 game, or two!

To no surprise, others have toyed with these machines before, so I knew I was in with a chance to get something going on it. Fortunately it spun straight up with 2 AA batteries.

It also came with an original disc...

Turns out these are 8cm Mini-CDs. I had thought they were minidisc, or magneto-optical. As you can see above, I managed to find some on eBay. But testing the original disc anyway:

So yeah, that dictionary is pretty boring... Let's make some other CDs? Finding Mini-CDs wasn't easy...

They sit nicely in tray-loading drives... DON'T try and use them in slot-loaders!

And then we need to find images! Japanese Wikipedia has a great list of formats for ebooks that this sytem should be able to use. Searching for EBXA on web.archive. Turns out there's quite a lot. Do you want Passport's World Travel Translator (Version 2.0)?, English Teacher? or how about Five Star Stories, The - Chronicle 3 (Japan)? We could even possibly make our own.

Burn any of the images (Use PowerISO if you can't open the BIN/CUE with anything else) and pop them in the caddy. You'll need a sharp tool to press in the tab in the 'open' hole on the side. For an old unit, the plastic is still in great condition.

Different boot screen... must be working?

Choose your own adventure! I do note it's pretty clunky. But you can select chapters and read... really just as if it was a physical book.

You can even just browse through the graphics.

Seems that Sega saturn had a reader. Even the Mega Drive! Many have fallen down the rabbit hole. Find more info here in this great video. And more images here in EBG format.

I'm not going to. This unit has already changed hands via eBay!

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31Jul/230

PC-98 – Yahoo Auction Floppy Disks

To the winner of recent Yahoo Auction f1100292216, I salute you! It was a PC Card Support Software Disk for PC-9821Ne, titled in Japanese as NEC PC-9821Ne カードサポートソフト ソフトウェア FD.

Now, I have no idea if it'd work with my NS/A, as its contents were listed as follows:

SSDRV.SYS? We're expecting an SSMECIA.SYS for anything PCMCIA 2.0... as per the information in my other post.

But whatever... I went for it anyway. I prepared a budget for around AUD$80, but I was obviously dreaming.

If you bought this disk, please make it available to the world for preservation! That was my plan.

Update: Actually.. the same seller has just listed a PC-9821Nm PC Card Support Disk and the picture of the disk listing shows PCMCIA LAN Card drivers?... so it's been overwritten. It seems I've dodged a bullet above, as it really didn't have the proper PC-9821Ne drivers!

Update: Actually actually.. This installation document seems to indicate that SSMECIA is part of SystemSoft Cardware and that SSDRV is part of NEC's drivers. Could this be any more confusing? There's another auction up and it has the NS/A PCMCIA Support Drivers in there. The screenshot lists SSDRV.SYS, with a much smaller file-size than what we've seen before... this must be it!?

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