Scope of this project

Until now, the PC-98 version of MS-DOS 5.00 had never received a complete English translation, making installation and system management difficult for users unfamiliar with Japanese.

That changes today.

Introducing the unofficial English translation of MS-DOS 5.00 for the PC-98, designed to make the operating system more accessible and easier to use.

This project fully and specifically translates disks of MS-DOS 5.00 A, disks 0 to 7.

Installation

Due to legal reasons, the original MS-DOS disk images are not included. To use this translation, you must obtain the correct Japanese FDI images and apply the supplied IPS patches to them.

Applying the Translation

Requirements

You will need:

• Python 3

• The eight original Japanese MS-DOS 5.00A-H FDI images

• The files included in this patch package

• Rename the original disk images as follows:

• DISK0.FDI

• DISK1.FDI

• DISK2.FDI

• DISK3.FDI

• DISK4.FDI

• DISK5.FDI

• DISK6.FDI

• DISK7.FDI

The patches apply only to the exact disk-image versions supported by this project. The included patching script verifies the SHA-256 checksum of every image before modifying it.

Windows Extract the patch package. Place the eight original FDI images in a single folder. Open Command Prompt in that folder. Run the following command, replacing the path with the location of the extracted patch package: "path\to\patch-package\apply_patches.bat"

By default, the translated images will be created in a new folder named translated. The original images will not be modified.

You can also specify the input and output folders manually:

apply_patches.bat "C:\path\to\originals" "C:\path\to\translated" Linux and macOS

Run the following command from a terminal:

./apply_patches.sh /path/to/originals /path/to/output

Alternatively, run the Python script directly:

python3 apply_patches.py --input /path/to/originals --output /path/to/output

Using a Generic IPS Patcher

The individual IPS files are located in the patches directory. They can also be applied using any compatible IPS patching utility.

Apply each patch to the disk image with the corresponding number:

DISK0_US_EN.ips → DISK0.FDI DISK1_US_EN.ips → DISK1.FDI DISK2_US_EN.ips → DISK2.FDI DISK3_US_EN.ips → DISK3.FDI DISK4_US_EN.ips → DISK4.FDI DISK5_US_EN.ips → DISK5.FDI DISK6_US_EN.ips → DISK6.FDI DISK7_US_EN.ips → DISK7.FDI

Before using a generic patcher, compare your original disk images against the checksums listed in SHA256SUMS.txt. Applying the patches to a different release or disk-image dump may produce corrupted or unusable files.

Once the translated images have been created, mount them in a PC-98 emulator or write them to suitable physical media and install MS-DOS normally, beginning with DISK0.FDI.