Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The beauty of the Sharp X68000

Sharp X68000X68000 keyboardThe Sharp X68000 was released in Japan back in (not-so-distant) 1994 and was not unlike a vastly upgraded Amiga 500 housed in a fantastic twin tower case. It sported a faster version of Motorla's 68000 processor, custom scaling and parallax scrolling chips, high-res, high-colour graphics, ample RAM, impressive sound capabilities and a great selection of arcade-ports like Parodious, Space Harrier and Castlevania Chronicles. Oh, and it provide a loving home for quite a few sexy little offerings too.

Find out more here, try an emulated X68000 by following this link or, better yet, have a look at this boxed Sharp X68000 XVI eBay auction. It's the 16Mhz version, mind, and it does come with a shiny keyboard and one game (Salamander). Seller ships worldwide and X68000 prices usually start at 160$, 85£ or 110 euros.
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14 comments:

  1. CaptainDSeptember 25, 2008 at 3:13 PM

    Wow... a 16-bit computer I've never even heard of! Didn't know there were any! :-D

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  2. gnomeSeptember 25, 2008 at 3:19 PM

    They were huge (well, almost) in Japan you know, but also pretty exclusive to the country, so I wouldn't spank meself over it :)

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  3. UnknownSeptember 26, 2008 at 4:17 AM

    Reminds me of the new computers by BOXX.

    (Spanking myself) :/

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  4. UnknownSeptember 26, 2008 at 4:42 AM

    Hey, your ad and youtube video up top is covering your header.

    Just what you wanted to hear!!

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  5. gnomeSeptember 26, 2008 at 8:11 AM

    (spanks Deitrix a bit)

    Hey, those Boxx computers aren't exactly forgetable, are they?

    Oh, and what browser have you been using Deitrix dear? Everything looks fine on Firefox, but I'm afraid you're right. In IE it does look kinda messed...

    Thanks for noting though...

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  6. UnknownSeptember 26, 2008 at 6:12 PM

    Boxxesesesss are beautiful things.. Wish I had one loaded up.

    Funny thing, I loaded up a new power Mac on the Apple site just to see the cost. $27,800 with kboard & monitors. $20,000 for just the loaded tower. PISS!

    Won't be seeing that in my life time.

    I'm using IE7 browser right now. I used to use FFox and have not installed it on the newer computers yet. Probably should do that one of these days.

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  7. gnomeSeptember 26, 2008 at 6:46 PM

    Meaning I should actually try and fix this little layout problem. IE7 is rather mainstream... And way cheaper than a Mac too.

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  8. UnknownSeptember 28, 2008 at 7:51 AM

    yeah, and that Mac does not come with a car, garage or house!!

    Anyhoo, I just installed FFox and everything is working great. I can even load Funnyman's page with no problems...

    Oh jeez! It's 3am here... Hitten the sack. Cya tomorrow.

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  9. gnomeSeptember 28, 2008 at 8:53 AM

    A wise move oh mighty Deitrix! Nighty, night!

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  10. randomshinichiOctober 26, 2008 at 9:22 PM

    Do you know if the X68000 is usable as a desktop? So far I have seen only videos of the games, not the OS and other productive applications.

    Still, it's crazy how much these things sell for. Even a second hand SGI costs less than this... which is saying something.

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  11. gnomeOctober 27, 2008 at 9:17 AM

    Well, dear shinichi, even though I've never actually used one and only experienced them via emulation, I think I'm pretty correct in believing this was not unlike the Amiga. Thus, a full blown home computer that somehow got to focus more on games.

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  12. x68000March 6, 2010 at 9:23 AM

    Just to let you know that the X68000 came out in 1987 and not 1994. They actually ceased production in '94.

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  13. gnomeMarch 6, 2010 at 12:47 PM

    Thanks for the tip mate. And sorry for that...

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  14. AnonymousAugust 26, 2013 at 1:40 AM

    ?!? The Sharp X68000 was released in 1987, not 1994! In fact, the last machines were made in 1993!

    Later models had 68030 cpus and more ram but the rest of the chipset was essentially unchanged.

    As for being a "vastly upgraded" Amiga, this is not essentially true. Even though the original X68000 was indeed more powerful than the basic Amigas which had been released 2 years prior, in many ways the Amiga 3000 was considerably more powerful than the X68000 when it was released in late 1989.

    For gaming though, the X68000 had more powerful sprite hardware, but a far less flexible graphics subsystem and it can be argued the Amiga had superior sound with its DMA DA Paula. This is more a matter of taste though.

    But, in 1992 the Amiga with AGA was released and was considerably more powerful than the unchanged X68000 chipset, which the exception (again) of the X68000 having a more powerful sprite setup for gaming.

    So, whilst the X68000 definitely had the edge for arcade style gaming, the Amiga (especially the later models) was superior in other departments.

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