Machine of the Month: Sharp X68000 (1987)
THE ATARI AND AMIGA may have had their adherents, but when it comes to gaming, the Sharp X68000 is in a league of its own. Dubbed “The God Computer” by the Japanese, the X68000 (or X68k for short) is perhaps the ultimate in 16-bit gaming. While console makers such as Sega and Nintendo often boasted “arcade-like” graphics, the X68k was the first home machine to provide genuine arcade graphics. The X68000 might not be famous in the West (it was only sold in Japan), but those in the know can expect near-perfect arcade ports.
However, X68k ownership is an eye-wateringly expensive proposition, with any half-decent disks costing several hundred dollars, let alone the cost of the hardware itself. For most of us, emulation is the only option. Nevertheless, it can be tricky to know where to start, and that’s not even taking into account the language barrier of the Japanese operating system. So, let us do the hard work for you, as we explore The God Computer, the Sharp X68000.
YOU’LL NEED THIS 32-BIT X86 CPU WITH MMX,
WINDOWS 2000, OR LATER
Or you can use a solid version of
Wine under Linux.
XM6 PRO-68K
Download it from
https://bit.ly/2TjiAF4.
1 HISTORY LESSON
Launched in March 1987, the X68k was an intimidating machine. Although it shares the same Motorola CPU as its American counterparts, spec for spec, the X68k wipes the floor with its Western competitors, and was intended to dethrone NEC’s PC-98 from its top position in Japan. Launching with a full megabyte of RAM (minimum) its CPU was 2MHz faster than the American’s, and its sound chip was top of the line. It even had 1MB of VRAM. However, the price was as intimidating as the performance—around 7,000 dollars in today’s money.
>> Those who could afford the machine enjoyed essentially perfect versions of arcade megaclassics such as Strider,Final
Fight, and the world-dominating StreetFighterII. This was hardly surprising, though, because the underlying hardware was already similar to that of arcade machines—Capcom even used the Sharp as a development machine for its arcade cabinets. The results were often genuinely perfect arcade ports, or at the very least, near-perfect ports with very little compromise.
>> The X68000’s primary OS was Human68k—an MS-DOS-like operating system developed by Hudson Soft. On top of this DOS base were multiple desktop environments—like early versions of Windows on the PC—including Visual Shell, SX-Window, and Ko-Window. However, these interfaces were a kind of mashup between the Mac, Amiga, and NeXTSTEP operating systems.
>> Despite being known as a gaming platform, it was also marketed as a multimedia platform, with various packages for video, image, and sound editing, none of which were particularly famous. Although it was more than capable as a multimedia desktop (like the Amiga and ST), it was a gaming machine first and foremost. It even had a port for stereoscopic 3D goggles.
>> Gaming-wise, there’s a ton of side-scrolling shooters—they actually make up a bulk of the Sharp’s titles. Despite being famed for Japanese arcade titles, X68000 software is a mixture of East and West, with arcade classics and home micro titles from both the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
>> Many will be surprised to find titles such as FutureWars, Lemmings, and Xenon2Megablast. As for Japanese cult gaming,
try R-Type, Cotton, Neural Gear, and the jaw-dropping Geograph
Seal. Especially famous among gamer geeks is a reworked version of Castlevania with a new engine, and upgraded visuals and audio, available only in Japan and only for the X68000.
>> The X68000 would be improved year by year, with the final machine shipping a standard 4MB of RAM, a 25MHz 32-bit 68030 CPU, and an optional 80MB SCSI hard disk. All kinds of upgrades were released, such as video accelerator cards, SCSI hard drives, and newer CPUs, but it was finally discontinued after 1993, when IBM-compatibles eventually dominated local Japanese systems.
2 EMULATING THE X68000
Although options such as MAME and RetroArch exist, we would prefer to use something bespoke. XM6 Pro-68K ( https://bit.ly/2TjiAF4) runs nicely on just about any version of Windows and under Wine on Linux, and is well documented by its fastidious author.
3
INSTALLATION
The installation is slightly complicated due to some distribution issues, but things may be improved by the time this hits print. The website provides three zip files: the chief file is XM6 Pro-68k.zip, and is all that is technically necessary to run X68000 software. You need to extract the zip file and open the application (XM6.exe) manually from the main folder—if you plan on using XM6 Pro-68k a lot, you might want to make a desktop shortcut.
>> The second two files, XM6 Pro-68k DLL Package and XM6 Pro-68k Web Package, aren’t system-critical but do enable updates and correct issues, such as
missing fonts. To install the files, simply extract the packages into the main folder of XM6 Pro-68k.
4 USAGE
On first boot, you’re presented with a screen known to any X68k user: some Japanese writing and a picture of a floppy disk. The machine has no OS at this point, but most games you download (remember, you must have bought your own copy back in the day) include Human68k in their disk images.
>> Most disk images boot themselves, so try your luck by opening the main menu and choosing “Floppy Drive #0 > Open” and selecting your disk image. Floppy Drive #0 is your main drive, so run your disk images from this drive, and if your game is spread across multiple disks, open the first disk on Drive 0 and the second disk on Drive 1.
>> When games don’t load automatically, you’ll probably be stuck at Human68k’s command prompt. Despite being Japanese, the OS uses English commands, and is similar to MSDOS, except it uses a .X file extension instead of .EXE. If you’ve never used DOS before, don’t panic.
>> To browse your disk’s contents, enter the command DIR . The current directory will display, with filenames on the left and extensions on the right. You want to look for batch files with the extension .BAT, or executables with the extension .X—you should try running any batch files before running an executable. If your batch file has something like START on the left and BAT on the right, type START and press Enter. If your executable has something like GAME on the left and X on the right, type GAME and press Enter.
>> If you find yourself stuck at a game’s intro screen, you may need to change the input method. This is found in the main menu under “Tools > Controller Mode.” Some games and graphical environments use the mouse, which can be activated by selecting “Mouse Mode” or middle-clicking inside the main window.
>> Although most games can use the keyboard, they almost all use a different set of keys. To avoid a lot of trial and error, we recommend plugging in a USB joystick, which can be configured under “Tools > Options.”