On The X68000's Obscure Majesty

Thanks to NFG for its newly published in-depth feature on the Japanese X68000 computer/games system. The author explains: "The X68000 is an unheard-of gem from Japan. Released around the same time as the Amiga and Atari ST, it was leagues ahead of them both in terms of design and capability. Originally released in 1987 with a 10MHz 68000 CPU and 1MB RAM, the series finished six years later with a 25MHz 68030, 4MB RAM and a 80MB HD." The piece ends with a gallery of X68000 game screenshots, often near-perfect arcade conversions, as well as referencing the previously mentioned X68000 floppy disc game warnings.

Comments

"leagues ahead" ???

[udif]

Released around the same time as the Amiga and Atari ST, it was leagues ahead of them both in terms of design and capability. Originally released in 1987 with a 10MHz 68000 CPU and 1MB RAM, the series finished six years later with a 25MHz 68030, 4MB RAM and a 80MB HD.

Considering the fact that the Amiga was released in August 1985 with a 8MHz 68000, I find it hard to claim that a 10MHz 68000 machine released in 1987 is "leagues ahead". Also knowing the Amiga custom chips and its OS, I also find it hard to assume the X68000 was "miles ahead". Ofcourse the last Amiga modek had a 68040 chip vs. the claimed 68030 for the X68000.

Re:"leagues ahead" ???

[PD]

The magic of both the Atari and the Amiga wasn't their CPU power. The 68000 at 8 Mhz was roughly as fast as the 80286 chip, which had been used in the IBM AT and clones since before the Atari and Amiga were released.

What made these machines special was the hardware support for accelerated graphics and better sound. I am not an Amiga expert, but I had an Atari ST. The thing had some very decent sound hardware in it. It also had MIDI ports which made it very useful for controlling more advanced instruments. These were built-in to every ST made. The graphics were better than the IBM EGA graphics, and there was a blitter chip which accelerated the process of moving blocks of memory around. Since the screen was relocatable to any address in the system, the chip worked on all the memory. That blitter could be used to move memory that wasn't currently on the display at the time.

The Amiga also had its magical hardware which I'm sure someone else can explain in detail.

This X68000 appears to have had some advanced features too, which in some ways was more advanced than earlier machines. The disk interface was SCSI, capability to run 4 floppy drives, 1024x1024 screen resolution, hardware scrolling, hardware sprites, advanced sound, and a socket for a math coprocessor.