The Sharp X68000, often referred to as the X68k, is a home computer released only in Japan by the Sharp Corporation. microcomputer is a Computer with a Microprocessor as its Central processing unit. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. () is a Japanese Electronics manufacturer founded in 1912 It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions the Ever-Sharp Mechanical pencil, which The first model was released in 1987, with a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1 MB of RAM and no hard drive; the last model was released in 1993 with a 25 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU, 4 MB of RAM and optional 80 MB SCSI hard drive. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Motorola Inc ( is an American, multinational Fortune 100, Telecommunications company based in Schaumburg Illinois. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) The Motorola 68030 is a 32-bit Microprocessor in Motorola 's 68000 family. RAM in these systems is expandable to 12 MB though most games and applications didn't require more than two.
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Operating system
The X68k ran an operating system developed for Sharp by Hudson Soft, called Human68k, which features commands very similar to those in MS-DOS (typed in English). An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Hudson Soft Company Limited is a Japanese Electronic entertainment publisher Human68k is an Operating system for Sharp Corporation 's personal workstation X68000. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Pre-2. 0 versions of the OS had command line output only for common utilities like 'format' and 'switch' while later versions included forms-based versions of these utilities, greatly improving their usability. At least three major versions of the OS were released, with several updates in between. Other operating systems available include NetBSD for X68030 and OS-9. NetBSD is a freely redistributable Open source version of the Unix -derivative Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD Computer Operating OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, Multi-user, Unix-like Operating systems developed in the 1980s
Early models had a GUI called "VS"; later ones were packaged with SX-WINDOW. SX-Window was a standard window system for Sharp Corporation 's X68000 series in Japan A third GUI called Ko-Windows existed; its interface is similar to Motif. In computing Motif refers to both a Graphical user interface (GUI specification and the Widget toolkit for building applications that follow that specification These GUI shells could be booted from floppy disk or the system's hard drive. Most games also booted and ran from floppy disk; some were hard disk installable and others require hard disk installation.
Since the system's release, Human68k, console, and SX-Window C compiler suites and BIOS ROMs have been released as public domain and are freely available for download. In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs
Case design
The X68000 features two soft-eject 5. 25" floppy drives, or in some of the compact models, two 3. 5" floppy drives, and a very distinct case design of two connected towers, divided by a retractable carrying handle. This system was also one of the first to feature a software-controlled power switch; pressing the switch would signal the system's software to save and shutdown, similar to the ATX design of modern PC's. The ATX (for Advanced Technology Extended) form factor was created by Intel in 1995. The screen would fade to black and sound would fade to silence before the system turned off.
The system's keyboard, although rather poorly designed overall, has a mouse port built into either side. The front of the computer has a headphone jack, volume control, joystick, keyboard and mouse ports. The top has a retractable carrying handle (only on non-Compact models), a reset button, and a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) button. A non-maskable interrupt ( NMI) is a computer processor Interrupt that can not be ignored by standard interrupt masking techniques in the system The rear has a plethora of ports, including stereoscopic output, FDD and HDD expansion ports, and I/O board expansion slots.
Display
The monitor supports 15/24 and 31 kHz with up to 65,535 colors and functions as a cable-ready television (NTSC-J standard) with composite video input. NTSC-J is an analog Television system and video display standard for the region of Japan. It was an excellent monitor for playing JAMMA compatible arcade boards due to its analog RGB input and standard-resolution refresh timing. The Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association ( JAMMA) is a Trade association based in Japan; it also the
Disk I/O
Early machines uses the rare Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI) as their hard disk interface; later versions adopted the industry-standard small computer system interface (SCSI). Per the hardware's capability, formatted SASI drives can be 10, 20 or 30 megabytes in size and can be logically partitoned as well. Floppy disks came in a couple of different formats, none of which are natively readable on other platforms, though software exists that can read and write these disks on a DOS or Windows 98 PC.
Expansion
Many add-on cards were released for the system, including networking (Neptune-X), SCSI, memory upgrades, CPU enhancements (JUPITER-X 68040/060 accelerator), and MIDI I/O boards. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers The system has two joystick ports, both 9-pin male and supporting Atari standard joysticks. MSX controllers work natively and Sega Megadrive controllers can be used in conjunction with the adapter that came with Super Street Fighter 2. MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s The is a 16-bit Video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988 North America in 1989 and the PAL region in 1990
Arcade at home
Hardware-wise, it's very similar to arcade hardware of the time. Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard It supports separate text RAM, graphic RAM and hardware sprites. Sound is produced internally via Yamaha's then top-of-the-line YM2151 FM synthesizer and a single channel OKI MSM6258V for PCM. The Yamaha YM2151, also known as the OP-M (FM Operator Type-M is a Sound chip in the YM2100 family. Due to this and other similarities it played host to many arcade game ports in its day. An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in businesses such as Restaurants Pubs Video arcades and Family Entertainment See also Software portability In Computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created Games made for this system includes Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－, Final Fight, Street Fighter 2, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Akumajo Dracula (Castlevania in other regions, the X68000 version was ported to the Sony PlayStation as Castlevania Chronicles), Cho Ren Sha 68k (which has a Windows port) and many others. is a shoot'em up Arcade game and is the second title in the ''Parodius'' series produced by Konami. is a 1989 beat-'em-up Arcade game released by Capcom. The game was directed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda and originally produced for the is a 1991 competitive fighting game by Capcom. It is widely credited with launching the fighting game genre into the mainstream and extending the life of the worldwide arcade is a 1985 Platform game developed by Capcom for Video arcades Gameplay Ghosts 'n Goblins is a Platform game Castlevania is a Video game series created and developed by Konami. The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or informally as PSX) is a 32-bit fifth generation Video game console is a 2001 PlayStation remake of the 1993 Sharp X68000 version of the original Akumajō Dracula. Many games also supports the Roland SC-55 and MT-32 MIDI modules for sound as well as mixed-mode internal/external output. is a Japanese manufacturer of Electronic musical instruments electronic equipment and Software. The Roland SC-55 (Sound Canvas is a MIDI Synthesizer Sound module released in 1991 by Roland Corporation. The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI Synthesizer module first released in 1987 by Roland Corporation.
See also
- Category:Sharp X68000 games
- X68000's MDX
External links
- Website about the actual hardware
- Japanese Computer Emulation Centre
- Human68k Xperiment
- Japanese site for official public domain software and ROMs
- English site with X68000 Hardware information and emulators
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