| Developer | Sharp Corporation |
|---|---|
| Type | Home computer |
| Release date | 1987 |
| Discontinued | 1993 |
| Predecessor | Sharp X1 series |
| Emulated | ✓ |
The magazine's cover disc contains a version of two top X68000 emulators for Windows: WinX68 and EX68. I installed both and, after some quick Googling, found some ROMs to play with and spent several hours this afternoon engaged in some top-shelf gaming on my P3 700 box running Win 98SE that serves as my primary emulation station. Sharp X68000 Information Download X68000 ROMs and play free games on your computer or phone. Get an emulator to be able to load the games from your computer or phone or play the online unblocked versions instead. There are Sharp X68000 games from a variety of different genres and categories, so the entertainment is guaranteed.
The X68000(エックスろくまんはっせんEkkusu Rokuman Hassen) is a home computer created by Sharp, first released in March, 1987, sold only in Japan.
The X68000 to SUPER models had a Hitachi HD68HC000 CPU at 10 MHz. The XVI to Compact models had a Motorola 68000 at 16 MHz. The X68030 has a Motorola MC68EC030 CPU at 25 MHz. They had 1-4MB of RAM and 1MB of VRAM. It had a Sharp-Hudson Custom Chipset as its GPU.
- 1Emulators
Emulators[edit]
| Name | Platform(s) | Latest Version | Libretro Core | Active | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC / x86 | |||||
| XM6 Pro-68k | 2.06 (191124) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| XM6 TypeG | 3.32L30 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| px68k-libretro (Fork of hissorii's branch) | Git (libretro) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| XM6 | 2.06 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| EX68 | 215 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| MAME | 0.227 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | |
| XM6i | 0.55 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| WinX68k | 0.65 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| WinX68k High-Speed | 0.95 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| XEiJ | 0.19.12.15 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
| Mobile / ARM | |||||
| px68k-libretro (Fork of hissorii's branch) | Git (libretro) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| px68k (ptitSeb) | Build 09 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| px68k (hissorii) | 0.15 (iOS) 0.14(Android) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Console | |||||
| px68k-libretro (Fork of hissorii's branch) | Git (libretro) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| px68k (hissorii) | 0.10 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Comparisons[edit]
- XM6 Pro-68k
- Focused on providing necessary debugging features and has decent compatibility. It has since been succeeded by TypeG in most regards.
- XM6 TypeG
- It can run in X68030 mode in high accuracy, good peripheral/expansion support and will run just about any game you throw at it.
- MAME
- Its X68000 core is still in a very early stage of development in terms of playability and should only be used if the debugging features of Pro-68k are lacking. Small work on it was put in several versions between 0.146u5 (2012) & 0.177 (2016), but working software started being added regularly from 0.178 and onwards.
- XM6i
- Built largely around being able to run NetBSD/X68k. While it can run games, it is clear that this is not what XM6i is focused on.
- px68k
- An open-source fork of the c68k emulator. px68k has a libretro core but lacks options like save states present in other emulators. It lacks MIDI emulation.
- px68k-libretro
- It is supported on Windows, Linux and Mac systems; and has portable versions for PSP, Android, and other platforms. Games' performance on this emulator (Both PC & mobile variants) is considerably faster than what MAME's X68 core can achieve.[1][2][3] This libretro branch was forked, starting on May 3, 2017, from hissorii's old build (Last updated on August 2014), backported 'c68k' core from kenyahiro's 'px68k' branch (fork of hissorii's 'px68k' branch using recent c68k yabause core to support X64 build). The Pandora version (An open-source handheld PC) by ptitSeb was forked from hissorii's 'px68k' branch and encapsulates the latest code from px68k-libretro (A spin-off of hissorii's branch). It should now have good performance as of Build 09 (March 2018).
Sharp X68000 Emulator Windows
Playing Games[edit]
Before first using the RetroArch core for px68k, make sure to go under the directory for BIOS files ('system' by default) and create a new folder called 'keropi'. Then inside that folder put cgrom.dat and iplrom.dat from this pack. If you're using standalone Pro-68k, put those two files under the same directory as the emulator executable.
If you're using MAME's core under RetroArch, you'll need to put those X68000 BIOS files under the keropi folder: x68000, x68000 super, x68000 XVI, x68030, x68k_cz6bs1.
You'll need the MS Gothic font installed on your PC as well. Make sure to decompress the games before playing them. The lzh extension means it's a compressed archive format popular in Japan in the nineties, but fortunately, it's handled by any zipping tool worth its salt (like 7-zip).
While in-game, the F12 key (or L2 button) brings up a menu, 'SWITCH for px68k', that's still in Japanese.
- FDD0, FDD1
- Floppy Disk Drive slots 0 and 1. You can choose another ROM from here (preferably from the current drive letter). Simpler games will use just FDD0, some like Nemesis '90 will have two disks to be loaded on FDD0 and FDD1, and multi-disk games will require going to this menu in-game at some point to change the disk image.
- No Wait Mode
- This makes fast-forwarding work in RetroArch if turned on.
On p68k-libretro, After the first boot, a 'config' file will be generated in the 'keropi' folder. You can enter your rom folder into the 'StartDir' line to make it accessible from the px68k-libretro core's in-game menu.
Core options include some other things of interest:
- Amount of RAM used
- CPU Clock Speed: Useful when games run too fast (for example changing from 25MHz to 10MHz to play Arkanoid as intended), or to speed up floppy disk loading times (by changing it to something like 100MHz for example).
- Sound: 44kHz for Audio-CD sound quality is recommended.
References[edit]
- ↑Px68k-libretro. forums.libretro (2017-05-04)
- ↑New Core: PX68k (Android/iOS/Windows/Linux/Mac). libretro (2017-06-10)
- ↑PX68k-libretro X68000 Emu Released. Reddit (2017-06-10)
Sharp X68000 Retroarch
