The Sharp X68000 Pro Review - Japanese Gaming Workstation
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 лип 2024
- ● Support RMC on Patreon: / rmcretro
● Treat me to a Coffee with Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/rmcretro
● MonsterJoysticks: monsterjoysticks.com/RMC
● 1ClickPrint: www.1clickprint.com#RMC
● Cave Links
Twitter: / rmcretro
Instagram: / rmcretro
Discord: / discord
RMC Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/TheRMC
● Description
The Sharp X68000 is an astonishing range of computers. A workstation designed primarily for games and released only in Japan, today we take a look at the "Pro" model from 1989. A home arcade, Capcoms arcade development machine of choice and an all out power house. Lets see what it can do!
● Further Reading
"The God Computer" and the CPS Connection: arcadehacker.blogspot.com/201...
The Sharp x68000: www.giantbomb.com/sharp-x6800...
Historical Computers in Japan: museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/...
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X68000
● Music
Retro Show - Timm Richter
Heaven and Hell - Jeremy Blake
Orange Octopus - Unicorn Heads
Seductress - Francis Preve
Shoulder Closures - Gunnar Olsen
Weirder Stuff - Geographer
Fortress Europe - Dan Bodan
Genocide 2 - X68000 BGM - Наука та технологія
Thank you for watching - This feels like the start of a very special journey learning all about this Japanese monster. The three hour live stream will be on 25th August at 5pm UK time and will stream on UA-cam so take a moment to subscribe to be notified. What are your experiences of this machine? Do you have one and if so what's your favourite title? I'd like to discover more! Neil - RMC
RetroManCave I'll be there!
Awesome thanks Johnny
RetroManCave You should hook up a MIDI synthesizer like the Roland SC-88 and play Castlevania, I played with an emulator + Roland Sound Canvas VA and is amazing the difference and how good it sounds!
X68000 games are not conversions, its the exact same code running as was found on the arcade eproms. CPS2 is a beefed up X68000 spec. i have always wanted one of these for years...
I owned one of these about five years ago an XVI model it was always a holy grail machine I wanted. I loved it but over time played it less and less the problem for me was most of the good games are arcade conversions that you could play on Mame or other consoles anyway. The system doesnt have many exclusive games and these machines are flaky as hell with bad capicators, floppy drives and PSUs. No doubt these machines were awesome back in the day just like having an arcade machine in the home these days I would steer clear due to the cost of the machine/games and the aforementioned issues.
Good _grief_ this thing is lust-worthy.
No kidding. I do appreciate old micros, but this is the only one I find myself really wanting to own. I just want to write code on it.
I mean... slot-loading floppies..? Daaaaaammmnnn, Gina!
As a previous owner of one: YES. The only reason I don't have it anymore is that the power supply died, and the replacement I got blew up and fried itself, my Micomsoft XPC-4, and my TV. :(
The power supplies are their Achilles' heel, if you buy one, assume that it is a ticking time bomb. I found it was a very common issue.
As soon as I saw this vids thumbnail I immediately thought to myself - this computer has to be a wet dream for LGR
I wish there had been a camera on my face when I saw those slot load drives. I would have looked like a caveman seeing someone use a zippo lighter.
Wait a minute... this isn't an IBM compatible! What are you up to, sir? ;D
This machine looks good even compared to today's computers.
@@iiiiajaxiiii oh certainly.
That’s Tru but I even think that about tha Amstrad
It was Japan's answer to the Commodore Amiga, so no surprise there
It looks like its from 1997 or 1998
The X68000 may have been Sharp's last custom computer, but it certainly wasn't the company's last foray into computers. Sharp continued to sell Windows laptops through the 90s and 2000s, and even bought out Toshiba's laptop business in 2018. Perhaps they weren't distributed in the US and UK market, but Sharp laptops were not uncommon in Asia Pacific through the early 2000s. I remember owning a Sharp Actius circa the late 90s that was an ultralight laptop a decade before intel coined the term Ultrabook. It had an execrable 1.5 hr battery life and a screen so dim the light level in a room would actually go down when you turned the computer on, but it weighed under 1.3 kg, which was phenomenal for its time.
I think you should produce an episode that uses the 68000 graphics overlay to generate all the graphics for that episode.
Soft-spoken british people reviewing old tech makes my day better every single time
we are great, arent we
@1134 definitely not. It's English.
@kevin weinz There isn't a British accent, only accents from Britain.
This is an English accent, I'm not sure Scottish sounds soft-spoken :D
An absolute tragedy that this didn't make it into the European/other markets - Sharp would have had a license to print their own money with this badboy!!
Not at the price they were charging.
@@RonJohn63
Back then...sure theh would, at least in the US. By then we were paying far beyond the cost of the Sharo 68000 for 386's that were not as good. Sharp could have very well become a true PC manufacturer. Further it likely would have pushed Intel harder. We would have at least seen the 486 a few years earlier as a necessity. This is the kind of thing that would have caused Americans to really pay attention to the micros more on that I can guarantee.
At the price they asked it would've had issues competing at all really.
But, it would've killed the Amiga I think.
It was pricey back then tho, still is. My dream retro PC to aquire tho. It's amazing.
@@mspeter97 Quite the contrary I suppose. This expensive workstation might have even become Amigas saviour.
Mind. Blown. This is a beast. Never new it existed lol.
I couldn't be more excited to see you review one of the most powerful gaming machines of its era....that the west never saw.
Oh my God, I can't believe you have one of these bad boys - I tried to get my hands on one a couple of years ago (when I still had money) after reading about this system and what it is capable of, but I couldn't find one at a reasonable price. Once again a great video - I can't wait for more episodes of this particular series!
Great video. A machine I've simply lusted after since first seeing it online. Your a lucky man to be able to have one in front of you. I'm looking forward your next video in this series.
What Casual Retro Gamer says.
This was the PC gaming master race before the IBM PC got beefy.
For real.
Thank you for sharing these great experiences. I’m a 78’er, and there seems to be so many early type “PC’s” and consoles etc. That I just never got to know.... Wow so many great gadgets.
Now that's a beautiful machine...
A great little look inside and at some of the games, definitely looking forward to seeing more videos on these!
What a stunning machine. During my time at various computer magazines in the early 90s we heard about this bit of kit, but never got to see one working. Amazing.
Me either .......even in 2021 I'm blown away with how close to arcade quality those SF2 and FF ports are. Truly amazing piece of machinery right here
Superb video :) was hoping to find a great sharp x68000 UA-cam video...
Nicely done sir
Thanks for sharing this system tour with us nerdy nostalgia geeks! I had never heard of this super system either! Sounds like Sharp decided to re-engineer the Amiga's philosphy and improve considerably on it!
Thanks so much for making a series about it, I doubt I'll ever own one let alone see one so it's fun to watch your chronicle about it.
I cannot believe this computer is from 1989! It's a monster.
As an ST & Amiga owner, I knew nothing of this machine! Fascinating stuff. Another awesome episode, thank you.
Motorola 68000 powered - so it has to be a great machine.
The word "exotic" doesn't begin to describe this incredible machine!
Awesome video as always!!
Excellent work! I've been waiting to see this computer covered! Happy to see it from such a well produced channel! This machine blew me away. I had no idea. I had only really seen a few game clips and heard some music from the machine, but had no idea it was originally released in 1987. I have to wonder what this thing would have done to the PC market had it been released outside of Japan.
Thank you! I'll have 3 hours of live coverage of it next Saturday from 5pm BST so swing by to see more
The X68000 is my holy grail. I'd love to own one someday. Great video and thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more X68000 content.
Excellent introduction, thank you Neil! What a beautiful machine, in every respect. I’ve lived in Japan for 15 years, but have never stumbled upon this handsome beast. I think I will have to keep my eyes peeled when visiting the local junk/recycle shops in future! As an Amiga child, I was always surprised that the home computer of my childhood didn’t really make an impact in Japan, however after watching this video, now I understand why! One request for future videos would be to do a side-by-side comparison of some CPS1 titles vs their X68000 conversions (or maybe they were originally developed using the X68000?). Thanks again Neil, keep up the excellent work!
That's a great idea thank you we should definately do some side by side footage
The PC-98 series, X86000, PC Engine, we missed out an some great stuff in the west.
The lack of an impact of the Amiga in Japan is not unusual. Same was with storage media. In the US there was a wide use of floppies while Europe was more focused on tape.
BY FAR the best overview and teardown of the Sharp X68000. Great work.
This is perhaps the best old computer for gaming out there, the games library is stellar and the performance is jaw-dropping!
Well, unless you like Visual Novels and eroges, it totally pales in comparison...
It does have some pretty darn good vertical shmups though (and I'm not just talking about Touhou)
Thanks for the excellent video Neil. All this humble Amiga user-of-the-day knew about the X68000 was it played incredible games. Now I know why- those were certainly nice specs. I am very much looking forward to that stream.
Great to get a detailed tour of the real hardware. Very informative! Now I REALLY want one..haha.
Another fine production, Neil. Looking forward to the sequels!
Thanks for reviewing this legend. It's even better than i would have expected, hehe ;)
I'm already looking forward to the next installments.
Looks amazing. Looking forward to the upcoming videos
That was great! Thanks for making this. I’ve been looking forward to it ever since Gary told me it was in the works. What an amazingly capable system.
Thanks Pete, more 68k shenanigans here, including the man Gary himself ua-cam.com/video/dVGxQSos9WU/v-deo.html
What a gem, I had never heard of this machine, again thanks for a another entertaining and highly informative video :)
Very interesting video. What a unique machine. Thanks for posting this 👍
Awesome machine and video.
Great vid Neil. What a beautiful beast the X68000 Pro is and v nice to see it in such perfect nick, as well! Can't wait to see/hear more on this machine - and definitely interested in hearing the MIDI Canvas Vs Yamaha sound chip play off too!
Superb video. There are lots of gameplay videos on youtube, but nothing that shows its other capabilities. Sooooo looking forward to your videos on this. Also, I think Kim Justice has bought a beat up x68000 pro, so im looking forward to Kim's videos on restoring it to its former glory.
As a Patron of Kims I'm also really looking forward to that
What an impressive computer. Just loved this video. Thanks Neil. Have a nice weekend from Southampton
Have a great weekend
Excellent video mate. Looking forward to these a lot. Really want a x68000 at some point.
Yes,cool another great system review ,thank man!
Wow. That look great. Thanks for the video 👍
BTW, Congrats on 50K subscribers!
Well deserved.
Thank you Martin it was amazing to hit that number
hey neil.. top video.. I'm staggered by the specs of this beast.. as you say it's amazing to think in the late 80's when we were playing on the Amiga that this system was even available.. my jaw literally dropped when you mentioned the resolution and colour specs, it makes the amiga's 640x256 look like childs play. can't wait to see further videos on the machine.. thanks for sharing :)// just to let you know.. there is a Xenon II x68000 game on ebay at the mo £21 would love to see that! haha
Wolfenstein 3D runs pretty well even on the Sega Megadrive
Yes, interesting why they did not go worldwide with it.
1024x1024 resolution, 256+ sprites on 64k colors and a nice Yamaha FM synth chip is just great for that.
The specs were great because they went bonkers with the memory. Dedicated video memory for graphics was already expensive, but this machine used dedicated memory banks each for the character modes, graphics, and sprites. That's crazy expensive. No wonder this $3,000 machine only did 2D, had no hard drive, and used a mere 68000, while the 68030 had already been out for a couple years and the '040 was just around the corner.
The Amiga had a similar problem of using weak CPUs and relying too much on its custom chips, but then, the A500, A600, and even A1200 were dirt cheap by comparison. The x68000 makes the Amiga look like a practical business machine, and that says something. 8)
@@storerestore the question is how much do the specs on the Sharp X68000 compare to the much later Atari Jaguar and then you'd have your answer. Even if just using the 68000 in the Jag - as opposed to its RISC chips - it's faster than the x68000's. I brought this up because the Jag has a fantastic cartridge-based version of Wolfenstein 3D on it programmed by id. [plus Doom].
Awesome vid, Neil. ;)
So nice to see someone not only looking at the games and other software, but doing a proper overview of the technical goodies.
I've never owned an x68000, but there is now a core for the MiSTer board. (although apparently not quite there with the compatibility yet.)
I still think the original x68000 case is one of the nicest looking machines ever designed.
Thanks Ash hope we'll see you on the live stream next Saturday
Wow! How did I miss this in the day? Very impressive.
Outstanding video, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for watching!
Excellent and informative video. What a machine! Thank you.
You're welcome, thanks for watching Paul
That is such a sexy and great system. I certainly didn’t know about these until recently. Can’t wait for the live stream!
I remember reading an interview with some Capcom head honcho back in the days where they asked the clueless clod why they did not release ports of classic arcade games. His answer was that they had already done so and it was true, except it was for the x68. Very helpful for western fans (that's sarcasm).
Later they did release arcade collections for the PS1.
Those SCSI2SD (and Floppy Emu) products are the greatest!!!! I love mine!
Fine work, many thanks.
Amazing video. Detailed and well done.
Thanks Luca
Amazing machine, amazing review!
My God, finally the X68K arrived on your channel! Excellent video indeed! I hope you can explain more about and show how good this computer is. I'm a big fan of X68k, I describe it like a Mega Drive with steroids.
I knew of this machine. I did not realize it's max output res was 1024 * 1024... in 1987. We made a big deal out of 720p about a decade ago. Man. This was "PC Gaming Master Race" before it was even a thing.
Zenith was hyping what we call "4K" - and better - today but back in the early 1990s with AT&T until a hostile investor took them over and cancelled and/or sold everything off. Japan had the analog HD system called MUSE - which was American tech originally - in use back then but the US FCC basically blocked adopting it and insisted the ultimate HD transition would be digital based which prevented HD adoption for another decade. And then what we got was lower-res than what had originally been pitched.
You make top quality vids mate! Thanks!
thank you for watching mate!
The R34 Skyline of the computer world.
I like this comparison, something of a well engineered hooligan
More like the R32 given the year.
Why are you an SX instead of a DX? Can't you install that co-processor thingy in yourself?
Beautiful presentation. Thumbs up!
Thank you!
この素晴らしいビデオをありがとう！ I didn't know about this machine, it's awesome. I'll definitely search for a working machine in my next trip to Japan. I'm looking forward for other videos about the X68000 Pro. Thank you!
My fav system ever. Still rockin my X68000 Super which i saved from the bin cause it had severe water damage and a dead PSU. So many iconic titles on the System !! As usual great work, great video !!
....after watching this video, I had to go have words with my ZX Spectrum... :-) Excellent work RMC, always fascinating background on machines I only lusted after and remain a thousand miles away from having.
From what I've heard about these machines, they are the Holy Grail of vintage computer collecting. Loved the video.
Quality.. This video shows you sir are growing in quality! Fantastic presentation!
That's heartening to hear thank you very much
No man, thank you for enriching my mind! Continue the good work!
Great video!
Thanks Karlos
That case would not even look out of place today with a 21" LCD monitor on top of it. Everyone would mistake it for a regular office PC.
What a beautiful machine. Thank you for sharing it with us.
You're welcome, thank you for watching
That was amazingly comprehensive.... thank you!!!
You're welcome, thank you for watching
Excellent video, dude. Always great to see another one from you, and this is a system I am most curious about. I have lots of roms and emulators associated with this system... damned if I'm able to get much sense out of them. Hope all is well with you and yours.
-The Black Messiah
Thanks dude! I've just aeen the Ultima games are on this system I hope there is an English language version!
Also, was that Kim Justice behind Ashens there? She's working on an x68000, if you get lots of spare parts from your job lot I'm sure she'd be very interested in those!
Interesting machine. I'm looking forward to more about that. :)
Cool! I've never even heard of that system before!
I learnt everything on X68k. Users had crazy tech. Last model was 68030, but upgraded to 68040 or 68060 later. Physical PCM chip spec was supported only 1 note, but extended to 8 by software. (Later extended to 16 notes with ADPCM state.) It has YAMAHA FM sound chip YM2151 IIRC, it didn't support PCM, but they played 32kHz PCM with changing parameters by software with upgraded 68040 in realtime. There were so many talented crazy programmers.
The Sharp x68000 was a beast of a computer at the time and very expensive!
Unbelievable that such a powerful computer released in 1987 would still be using 5.25" floppy disks!
Another excellent video
Any kid in 1987 with one outside japan would of been a GOD!.. But I had never heard of this machine till a few years ago when the emulator got released. Total mind blower for the time! I had zx spectrum in 87!!
This would definitely end all those playground arguments. It would have been like owning your own games arcade.
Zx spectrum was awesome)
Superb review... this is, without doubt, an excellent machine. I could not believe the power it had at that time... surely better than an Amiga!
Becky Sharp.
お疲れ様でした！Thanks for a great video! I can't believe I lived in Japan for 6 years without knowing about this great machine!!! Although I have to admit, I wasn't much into retro stuff at that time.
So the base model of this beast was released in 1987, wow, it makes the amiga look like a zx81
Seems like the ideal system for game *development* at that time. I'd love to see a video about the operating system and any available application software.
that's one gorgeous case and keyboard, i would get one just to make a desktop build out of it., even with a mini atx into it.
hell this belongs in a living room...
But only of the case of a broken one pls.
Awesome video and such an outstanding machine. If you consider the year it was released (and probably the next 5) it was leaps and bounds ahead!
A true monster of a machine. Didn’t know this one, thanks!
You're welcome, thanks for watching Gordon
This may have done 16 bit games better than my 486dx2 with 4MB ram and 4mb videoram. It looks very pretty.
Thanks for the video! I'll try to make the livestream.
Stunning machine
Awesome video.
The Sharp X68000 is such an interesting Japanese computer. Some of my favorite soundtracks from the system include Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou and Sol-Feace.
My god this channel is so much better when I'm drunk. Do more!
That is one beautiful machine, thankfully I never knew what I missed in those days. :DI'd love to own one of those. What an absolute beast.
On the surface before seeing the video I honestly thought that you've helped restore Kim Justic's newly acquired X68000 pro, but nevertheless it was an amazing and very informative video, keep up the good work Buddy 👍💕💕
We may be able to help her (Gary!) when some parts arrive but we're waiting to see what condition they arrive in. I enjoyed Kims recent video on it and really hope she gets the parts needed as the base unit she got hold of was an absolute bargain
RetroManCave I offered her a couple of PC 5.25" floppy drives although they cost a small fortune to ship from Egypt 😁 but I know they are hard to come by these day and I know they could be moded to work with the X68000
Excellent piece of kit. I've definitely wanted to experience one since I learned about it around 15-20 years ago.
You've got a real gem there, and I look forward to watching the next videos.
I'm curious about how the game controllers worked - especially once Street Fighter came along with the 6 attack buttons. The Amiga really fell short with most games only supporting a single button joystick, despite its great hardware capabilities.
I'm also interested in how large the games were, and how many floppy disks they came on. It looks like the hard drive wasn't mandatory, so I'd be really curious as to how some of these large games were handled in terms of disk swapping and/or installations.
Great stuff.
man, i miss when computers were dignified like this.
now it's all vulgar with led lights, grills everywhere, glass windows showing the internals. ugh. this looks so much better.
what i don't miss is the beige color. but that's not an issue here.
[edit] oh god, this is a serious machine. i got into pc gaming in 1994 and quite honestly this wouldn't really look that bad compared to my 486 dx100. look at the games this thing runs! i wouldn't believe a pc from the mid-to-late 80's was capable of all of this. awesome.
SGI is cool and all, but one of these (or especially the dual-tower style ones) is the number 1 on my retro PC acquire before I die list. :) Great vid.
What an incredible machine at the time. And still is! God I'd love to have one. So many perfect(or extremely close) arcade ports. And an exclusive Castlevania game, that is actually one of the very best classic Vanias! (the ps1 port doesn't do it justice! damage scaling is way off!)
Thanks for a great vid bud, you had my unbridled attention there, haha. I think I didn't even blink once... I didn't even know about the "Pro" version of this machine. It's aesthetic remind me of machines from british high-end audio manufacturer NAD.
You're the Bob Ross of retro gaming
Happy little PC's
God damn it man! You have some incredible kit hahaa.
I've still not done anything with my old A500+. I'm a bit worried about what I might find under the lid. I expect battery corrosion all over and will have to jumper traces until it works again 8s
19:27 At least now we know who did that job on the power supply: the third Doctor (Jon Pertwee).
Wow I saw the X68000 colour image unit locally for pretty cheap and had absolutely no idea what it was! Question answered!
Very interesting! Great video! Greetings from Poland :)
I first found out about this beauty when researching what system Thunder Force started on, then being happy I at least had 2,3,and 4 for the Genesis as I had no way of affording a X68000, lol. Still an absolute stunning machine for its time, and its a damn beautiful design.