Mirai98

Yet another AI slop for PC98 virtualization.

Boot a PC from a USB stick and it becomes a PC-98 hypervisor: create virtual PC-9821s, run them, and drive their screens from a browser on another machine. Nothing is installed on the PC unless you ask for it.

Note:

• The compatible BIOS is becoming better, but not stable for now.
• Please use PC-9821 Xa7C9W ROMs for better Windows virtualization.

How to use

• Write the USB image file to a USB stick.
  • Use rufus.exe or BalenaEtcher
• Insert the USB stick to your PC, then turn on the power.
• Enter the boot menu and select the USB stick.
• Mirai98 will show its IP address and a URL. (e.g. http://192.168.1.10:8098)
• Access the URL via a browser on another PC.

First run

The browser asks three things, once:

• Language: English or Japanese.
• Where the machines live: the free space on the stick is the default and needs no thought. Pick another drive and Mirai98 makes a Mirai98 folder on it; only that choice is kept on the stick, so taking the drive away costs you the machines and nothing else.
• A password: leave it empty on a private network. Set one and it becomes the root password, so the web console, the shell and ssh all ask for it.

A FreeDOS(98) machine is already there to try.

What you get

• Create and edit virtual machines: PC-9821 or PC-9801, memory, disks, sound, network, real or compatible ROMs.
• The guest's screen in the browser, with its sound.
• Disk images: upload, download, convert (raw/qcow2/hdi/fdi), look inside a FAT image, write one to a real drive or read one off it.
• A shell on the host, and the system log.
• Install to an internal disk, or keep everything on the stick.

Requirements

• An x86-64 PC that can boot from USB (BIOS or UEFI).
• 2 GB of RAM or more. The system copies itself into RAM, so the stick can be pulled once it is up.
• Hardware virtualisation (VT-x/AMD-V) if you want the guests to be quick. Without it they still run, only slower.

The data partition grows to fill the stick on the first boot, so a larger stick simply gives you more room for disk images.

Building it yourself

See BUILD.md. One script builds the whole image; QEMU comes from qemu-pc98.