This absolutely terrific 16bit computer, that I have just discovered via emulation was made by Sharp AND Hudson, who of course also made the PC Engine chipset. This computer
gaming system pre-dates the PC Engine by around a year (1986) And it had the best ports of arcade games I have ever seen for a home machine from that time. Many Genesis, PC Engine and SNES had conversions of arcade games that were not even close to "exact" yet they were often called identical, exact, carbon copy or my most hated phrase,
"arcade perfect"
but this machine, the X68000 is different. many arcade games are so close, you'd have a hard time telling the difference.
Unlike other cart based 16bit consoles. Only the NeoGeo is more exact to its arcade versions because they are one and the same. Games like RType, Ghouls'NGhosts, Strider, GradiusI/II, Alien Syndrome, Super Street Fighter II Turbo and others were like 95% exact or closer. Compare R-Type the
on PC Engine to R-Type on the X68000 to arcade versions and see what I mean. the X68000 version has the parallex scrolling that was missing from the PCE version. Alien Syndrome is particulary impressive since no real attempt was made at a decent conversion.
To say that I am impressed is saying the least.
I have a simple theory. since Hudson probably did all the custom stuff, the graphics hardware in particular, and the X68000 was 16bit, 10 Mhz 68000, a sprite pushing machine, (128 sprites, 65,000 colors, 256 or more onscreen) perhaps the never released 16bit PC Engine 2 was/would-have-been based on it or similar.
? I really wonder.
regardless, I have discovered this awesome machine, the Sharp X68000 is the best 16bit computer for gaming that
I have ever experienced. Alien Syndrome, Ghouls N Ghosts (which obliterates the Genesis/MD and SuperGrafx versions)
Thunder Force II (much better than on Genesis), and other games make the X68000 my favorite retro system. It makes the Amiga look like the Atari ST (the main rivals of the X68000) and destroys the Genesis, PC Engine (sorry guys) SuperGrafx and even SNES when it comes to faithfulness of arcade conversions. So the SuperGrafx GnG was supposedly almost identical to the arcade? ha! The X68000 puts it to shame. You almost cannot tell the difference between it and the arcade. all the backgrounds are there, the color, everything. its as if the CPS1 arcade board is in there. actually it is probably wrong to call X68000 arcade games conversions, they are more like ports.
Anyone else here used the X68000 or an emulator? Its sad that this thing didnt get more recognition than it has. And it was made in part by Hudson, so I decided to post this here.
cheers. Edited by:
AM2forever at: 7/13/02 8:39:41 pm
Topic: Sharp X68000 computer made with Hudson. PC Engine related? (Read 730 times)
