website/content/museum/sharp-x68000.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Sharp X68000	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1987	Motorola MC68000	name image company company_name specs tabs emulators links videos comments related oc_id source X68000 /media/museum/photos/sharp_x68000_1.jpg /companies/sharp Sharp label value NAME X68000 label value MANUFACTURER Sharp label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR 1987 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard label value CPU Motorola MC68000 label value SPEED 10 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Unknown label value RAM 1 MB (up to 12 MB) label value VRAM 512 KB graphic + 512 KB text label value ROM 1 MB label value TEXT MODES Unknown label value GRAPHIC MODES 256 x 240 / 256 x 256 / 512 x 240 / 512 x 256 / 512 x 512 / 640 x 480 / 768 x 512 / 1024 x 1024 / 128 sprites (16 x 16 dots) label value COLORS 65535 (16 colors in 1024 x 1024 to 65K in 512 x 512) label value SOUND FM Sound (Yamaha 2151 : 2 channels / 8 octaves stereo) + PCM (OKI MSM6258V : 4 bit mono) label value I/O PORTS Joystick(2), Audio IN / OUT, Stereo scope, TV Control, NTSC Video Image I/O, Expansion (2 slots), External FDD, SASI, RS232 label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 5.25'' disk-drive label value OS Human 68K 1.0 + VS label value PERIPHERALS Built-in power supply unit emulators links videos title url platform text Virtual X68000 Project http://www.vx68k.org/vx68k/ Windows X68000 emulator for linux and windows title url platform text X68000 emulator for Windows http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~yamama/emul/ Windows For Win9x / Me / 2K / NT title url platform text X68000 Emulator PPC http://emulation.net/x68000/ Apple X68000 Emulator PPC is currently the only X68000 emulator available for the Macintosh title url text NNA's X68000 Information Page http://nna.c-get.ne.jp/X68000/index.html Technical information and tips title url text Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_X68000 nice article title url text X68000 Ko-Window's page http://www.yo.rim.or.jp/~m_araki/kowin/index.html "Windows-style" graphical interface for X68000 platform title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com title url text Sharp X68000 japanese commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPO1uTtK3bM Length: 59 s title url text Sharp X68000 japanese commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK3GY3HUrm8 Length: 29 s author date text Taylor S (Canada) Saturday 25th August 2018 I agree the Sharp X68000 was a killer when you see some of those arcade identical games. Despite its technical achievement i really dont believe it would have succeeded as a game machine outside the asian countries. $3000 USD at the time was way beyond what ANY reasonable person would pay for a game machine$ games were great but not that great. Granted the X68K system was capable of more but at that time home computers had to be IBM compatible or you were dead. Lets face it, people were getting their fix from significantly cheaper NES, Sega, and even cheap IBM Compatibles with VGA graphics. author date text Laserdisc (USA) Saturday 7th January 2012 The Sharp X68000 was the top dog in it''s day of 68k based home computers and it better be since it was hella expensive. One could purchase a few Amiga 500s for the price of one entry level X68000. author date text j (ny) Friday 20th May 2005 square screens are cool /museum/sharp-x68000-ace-ace-hd /museum/sharp-x68000-expert /museum/sharp-x68000-expert-ii /museum/sharp-x68000-pro /museum/sharp-x68000-pro-ii /museum/sharp-x68000-super-super-hd /museum/sharp-x68000-xvi /museum/sharp-x68000-xvi-compact /museum/sharp-x68030-68030-compact 298 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230609140735/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=298 2023-06-09

Here is the first of a great family. It is the successor of the Sharp X1 family, shipped with a unique square screen monitor, fist in a grey case, then in black.

Instead of using the Zilog Z80, it uses a powerful Motorola MC 68000. This computer (and all its family) has great features (look at the emulator), it was more powerful than the other 68000 computers at this time (Atari ST or Amiga 500) : more colors or more hardware sprites, hardware scrolling, genlocking, perspective or playfields (up to 16) .

Unfortunately, it was never marketed outside Japan where it was and still is very very popular ! Too bad, I'm sure it would have a great success !! A very great range of games were developed for the X680x0 serie and the best arcade conversions were done on this computer.

It runs under Human 68K, an operating system which looks like CP/M 68 or MSDOS and uses a graphic user interface called VS.

Notice that the development is still active on that computer, several OSes have been ported on the X68000, the most famous are Minix and Unix NetBSD and all the GNU tools and there are some projects under development : XNeptune (a Ethernet card) or Ko-Windows (a 'NextStep-like' graphic environment).

It was followed by the X68000 Ace and Ace HD.