PC-98 – MIDI
During the most recent trip to Japan, I managed to pick up an SC-55 Roland Sound Canvas. Once back in Australia, and once I had the PC-9801NS/A up and running, it was time to get it outputting MIDI signals. The SC-55 has a serial port, and it turns out that many games can support MIDI over RS-232.
Many moons back, during a trip to Japan that I've nearly forgotten about, I actually managed to pick up this unit.
It's the COME ON MUSIC MA01.
I had originally thought it was for PC or Amiga, but, this time around, whilst searching for RS-232 MIDI options, a photo of this unit appeared! I quickly dug through the boxes to find it.
Of course, the serial port on the PC-9801NS/A isn't a standard DB-9...
It's a mini-centronics something-something and it'd need a serial converter cable to get it to connect to the MA01 above. Fortunately, here's one I prepared earlier... hilariously also found at the Hard-Off in Okayama where I got the PCMCIA SCSI card.
Not feeling like finding the right game from the initial list above, I instead searched for a DOS MIDI player that supported RS-232. vector.co.jp had a great list of software to choose from and Fu-Music Player 1.03 mentioned RS-232 compatibility in the description!
A standard DIN-5 MIDI cable was used between the MA01 and SC-55 and.. the rest is history... and CANYON.MID.
July 27th, 2024 - 02:05
I’m having a blast(from the past) with these PC-98 posts!
Did you have to use any drivers for the midi interface/adapter? I’m looking for a similar trinket to use my SC88 with a a 98note . . .
July 27th, 2024 - 12:36
It’s great fun hooking all these old contraptions together!
No drivers were required as the applications had RS-232 output as a configuration option.
August 6th, 2024 - 00:26
Well, I just tested this after sourcing another adapter similar to yours (‘Kuwatec Miditail’) . . . It works! I can finally enjoy tinkering with my SC88 and 98notes. Thanks~