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Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

On The X68000's Obscure Majesty 40

Posted by simoniker 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.
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On The X68000's Obscure Majesty More

On The X68000's Obscure Majesty

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  • Y'all feelin me? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @02:18AM (#8642431)
    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.
  • x68000 [sandi.net]

    It's uploading as i am posting this. So it won't be up for a while. I'm off to sleep.
  • IRC the Original Metal Gear was on this thing then ported to nintendo. yeah its its what im thinking of. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/data/7936.html

    • Re:wasnt MG originaly on that thing? (Score:4, Informative)

      by ag0ny ( 59629 ) <javi@lavand[ ]a.net ['eir' in gap]> on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @03:38AM (#8642704) Homepage
      The original Metal Gear was an MSX2 cartridge [funet.fi] 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 [wikipedia.org], 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.

      • Clarification on original MG (Score:4, Informative)

        by ReyTFox ( 676839 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @04:39AM (#8642936)
        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.
    • Seems like a lot of NES games were also on that system... Lots of shots of Castlevania on the screenshots page, as well as one that's unmistakeably River City Ransom. Also some shots of Image Fight [2y.net]; compare this to the crappy [vgmuseum.com] NES version [vgmuseum.com] that I played as a kid.
    • i own the original metal gear :) (it's for msx2 in fact, not msx)

      it feaured way better graphics than the nes version (16 colours out of a pallette of 512) ;)

      anyway, Konami was realy active on the MSX systems, as were most japanese game developers at that time.
      as mentioned we had Castlevania but also some original RPG material like SD Snatcher.,
      And of course we had the one and only Solid Snake (Metal Gear 2) :)
      for a list of konami's history on msx see:
      http://www.msxnet.org/konami/konami.txt

  • Gallery Page two has 1 NSFW pic (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) * on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @03:09AM (#8642616) Homepage Journal
    Just a quick heads up.

  • "leagues ahead" ??? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by udif ( 32355 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @04:00AM (#8642791)
    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" ??? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by PD ( 9577 ) *
      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.

      • Re:"leagues ahead" ??? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Malor ( 3658 ) *
        I sold Amigas from 1987-1989, and our store sold both kinds... I would often send people over to the ST side of the store, depending on their needs. That said, I didn't like the ST very much; I KNEW the Amiga was a lot better, and it really annoyed me when ST people would insist their obviously inferior machine was the best. :-)

        The ST was actually a very simple machine, in comparison to the Amiga. It was designed and assembled very quickly, and IMO, it showed. That simplicity gave the ST a big advantag
        • It's a conversation very much akin to arguing about the angels on the head of a pin, since I've never used an Amiga and you've never used an X68. Talking to the less fervent of the amiga fans I know, who've used the X68 emulated and the amiga, they say there's definitely some differences between the two machines.

          While it's true the Amiga GUI was amazing (and the screenshots I've seen of customized desktops make me weep) I think it can be agreed for the modern user of these machines the OS and GUI often ta
    • Actually the Amiga CPU ran at 7.2 MHz - it was the Atari ST which ran it's CPU at 8 MHz. Amiga custom hardware helped for a lot of things especially sprite based games. But the atari with only 4 bit planes to handle and a 10% faster cpu typically produced slightly better 3D games.

      At least that's what I'd tell all my amiga owning friends in the days before I purchased a load of Midi driven gear to take advantage of the one real bonus that the ST offered.
      • You are right. It was 7.18MHz to be exact, and was derived from the 3.59MHz NTSC frequency.
        The Amiga had about 20 different DMA channels, and as far as I remember, all of them were coordinated based on the horizontal video beam position, since access to the "chip" memory had to be shared by both the CPU and all the custom chips.

        BTW, the PAL models had a slightly different frequency, but I don't remember if it was faster or slower.
    • FWIW the ST also excelled in WYSIWYG desktop publishing as well, with vector-based fonts and drawing apps that are still unequalled (in my budget-driven experience at least) on the PC. Calamus, Avant Vektor, Didot, DA's Vector, Retouche Pro... Some seriously stellar software, especially when coupled with the Atari laserprinters, or connected to a Linotronic...

  • I know there are some excellent (if rather japanese) emulators around for this machine, but does anyone know where I can download software for it?
  • "Mr. DO! Vs. Unicorns" - I think this one speaks for itself.


    On a slightly more serious note, the game from Konami - is that something from the Castlevania series? None of the screenshots show the trademark whip, but they've certainly got the right atmosphere for it.

    • Yes, it was a Castlevania game. They re-released it on the PSOne, along with a "remixed" version of it
    • Adding to the other reply, the PSX re-release is "Castlevania Chronicles"-- it's a halfstep between Castlevania 1 and Castlevania 4 in that it's yet another reworking of the original story and it has SOME of the CV4 features (graphics quality, audio quality, ability to whip downwards from a jump).

      It's also incredibly difficult in the later stages. It's definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of the series. Oh, and as a purist, I can say it's an accurate representation of the original if you're in Origi
    • Sure is. The title screen (first page, third row, third from left) reads "akumajou dorakyura", or "Demon Castle Dracula." The "Castievania" moniker wasn't used on any of the Japanese games in the series until very recently. (With the more recent GBA releases, IIRC.)

  • How much blacker could the image be? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dr. Smeegee ( 41653 ) * on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @10:30AM (#8644362) Homepage Journal

    And the answer is none: None more black.

    I have scoured the links and can find no actual clear images of this supposedly beautiful hardware.

    Anyone know of a nice shot of one of these devices?

    • Rather than making a snarky post calling you a lazy bastard who should search Google (oops, I guess I did just make a snarky post) I will provide you with what you seek. Here [pobox.ne.jp] are [dion.ne.jp] some [mbn.or.jp] decent [reset.jp] images [reset.jp].

      I've worked with the X68000 and they are/were very cool and quite advanced for their time. Trying to compare different platforms is ultimately pointless so I won't say it was more advanced than the Amiga or Atari ST but it certainly was a peer and shouldn't be overlooked.

  • Running Unix on the X68000 (Score:4, Informative)

    by hubertf ( 124995 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @02:14PM (#8647123) Homepage Journal
    Of course there's a port of NetBSD to the X68000 platform [netbsd.org].

    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.
  • So here I am sitting here wasting time at work, assuming that I can go check out the screen shots of the game without coming across anything that might be considered "inappropriate" at work. So I click the link, wahoo Websense didn't block me for once! Going through the screen shots, reminiscing about old arcade games and I click page two ... next thing I know there is a pixalated naked chick on my screen ... god damn japanese games :P

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