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On The X68000's Obscure Majesty

Posted by simoniker on from the catchy-name dept.

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.

5 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Y'all feelin me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Growing up just north of san fran there was always some lucky kid in the neighborhood who had one of these fancy import devices. I'd salivate over its spot-on arcade ports........and he'd never let me play it.

    bastard.

  2. Re:wasnt MG originaly on that thing? by ag0ny · · Score: 4, Informative

    The original Metal Gear was an MSX2 cartridge released in 1987, so the NES and MSX2 versions were released (more or less) at the same time.

    Konami at the time had lots of developers working on MSX, so I guess it would be a safe assumption to say that the MSX version was the main one, which was then ported to the NES. There's even an MSX computer in Metal Gear Solid 2: In the tanker sequence, in the room where Metal Gear is, there's a computer terminal that you must use to upload some photos. This terminal displays "MSX 5.0" or something like that when used (it was long time ago since I played that game, sorry).

    Also, if I recall correctly, the "MSX Metal Gear team" is greeted in the ending titles at the end of the game.

    --
    My site
  3. "leagues ahead" ??? by udif · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.
  4. Clarification on original MG by ReyTFox · · Score: 3, Informative

    The MSX version is in fact totally different from the NES one in level design, though the gameplay is basically identical, right down to the pixel-level. This is evident from the very beginning, where you start with an underwater entrance rather than the paradrop of the NES version.

    I don't know what happened there, but the MSX one is definitely the original, as are Castlevania and Dragon Quest 1.

  5. Running Unix on the X68000 by hubertf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Of course there's a port of NetBSD to the X68000 platform.

    NetBSD/x68k is the port of NetBSD for the Japanese personal computer SHARP X68000/X68030 series. It runs on some models of X680x0 with MMU and FPU. NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable UNIX/Linux-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit AlphaServers and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through The NetBSD Packages Collection.