I just goobed to the max!

smokey

massive ding dong
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Posts
2,047
I just bought a Sharp X68000 online. This was the final frontier for me. It was the last system I ever needed or wanted to try out. I was holding off on a purchase for several years because I still wanted to think that there was something out there that I wanted.
But I couldn't resist for 300. Because they ain't getting cheaper.

I'm not going to pick up official games because paying a couple hundred for floppy discs is kinda meh but it seems like there is no decent way yet to get images loaded.
This guy has been working on a floppy emu since 2018:


Does anybody in Europe have a system and is willing to write some disks for me? I would pay a fee for your troubles. I still have some empty floppies lying around.


So please any tips or tricks to get this up and running and what modern goobies to buy ?
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Posts
23,575
I just bought a Sharp X68000 online. This was the final frontier for me. It was the last system I ever needed or wanted to try out. I was holding off on a purchase for several years because I still wanted to think that there was something out there that I wanted.
But I couldn't resist for 300. Because they ain't getting cheaper.

I'm not going to pick up official games because paying a couple hundred for floppy discs is kinda meh but it seems like there is no decent way yet to get images loaded.
This guy has been working on a floppy emu since 2018:


Does anybody in Europe have a system and is willing to write some disks for me? I would pay a fee for your troubles. I still have some empty floppies lying around.


So please any tips or tricks to get this up and running and what modern goobies to buy ?
i sold all my shit back in 2017 and haven't kept up with the whole "scene" (i went through three systems) but...

I'm just going to assume you bought a machine with two 5 1/4" drives

if you really want to use floppies you can use a program on windows called omniflop which lets you read and write x68 disks and disk images (and a ton of other formats) by replacing the standard windows floppy drivers with its own. however you need obviously need an old 5 1/4" drive and even then it isn't guaranteed it will work with your drive and mainboard. i used an old pentium 3 running windows 2000 to read and write them, went through two drives till one worked with it, was some real ghetto setup. USB drives probably won't work. no, I'm not going to write disks for you.

compact flash adapters do exist. I don't recall what the one in my x68k super was called, but it shipped from israel. every 68k released before the "Super" model uses the SASI interface which is supposedly harder to get working with CF adapters. The Super and beyond use the more common SCSI interface. the Superdeadite CF image with games and shit is probably still out there. installing the adapter isn't any harder than installing one in a amiga.

if you don't have a memory expansion you're fucked, most games need more that the onboard 1MB to run. have fun paying out of your ass for an expansion on ebay or via proxy bidder on YAJ. same goes for a MIDI card, been there, done that. i seriously doubt its gotten cheaper since 2017. or maybe someone cooked up a homebrew alternative to original hardware expansions now, i don't know.

if you get a memory expansion then you still need the Human68k OS disk (or the disk image on the CF) to edit a line or two, so the computer realizes its supposed to use the expansion.

you need something that is able to display multisync (15, 24 and 32khz, most games use 32 and only a few use 24). i think something like the OSSC or whatever should be able to do it.

i hope whatever you bought had its PSU and mainboard caps maintained or replaced, because otherwise you will run into problems sooner or later.

overall: yeah you are a goob (not that we needed confirmation) for buying this and your ancestors are weeping.
 

kernow

The Goob Hunter
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2001
Posts
35,675
It should have been your first
Damn gooblet
 

smokey

massive ding dong
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Posts
2,047
so, how long until smokey realizes the x68000 is grossly overhyped as a general gaming machine
Probably a couple of months before I get the thing up and running. but seeing as Ghouls and Ghost is one of my all-time faves and Cho Ren Ka is the first game I play on every new/old PC. So I think I'll be happy for a while. If I don't like it I rip of some other goob in the future
 

smokey

massive ding dong
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Posts
2,047
i sold all my shit back in 2017 and haven't kept up with the whole "scene" (i went through three systems) but...

I'm just going to assume you bought a machine with two 5 1/4" drives

if you really want to use floppies you can use a program on windows called omniflop which lets you read and write x68 disks and disk images (and a ton of other formats) by replacing the standard windows floppy drivers with its own. however you need obviously need an old 5 1/4" drive and even then it isn't guaranteed it will work with your drive and mainboard. i used an old pentium 3 running windows 2000 to read and write them, went through two drives till one worked with it, was some real ghetto setup. USB drives probably won't work. no, I'm not going to write disks for you.

compact flash adapters do exist. I don't recall what the one in my x68k super was called, but it shipped from israel. every 68k released before the "Super" model uses the SASI interface which is supposedly harder to get working with CF adapters. The Super and beyond use the more common SCSI interface. the Superdeadite CF image with games and shit is probably still out there. installing the adapter isn't any harder than installing one in a amiga.

if you don't have a memory expansion you're fucked, most games need more that the onboard 1MB to run. have fun paying out of your ass for an expansion on ebay or via proxy bidder on YAJ. same goes for a MIDI card, been there, done that. i seriously doubt its gotten cheaper since 2017. or maybe someone cooked up a homebrew alternative to original hardware expansions now, i don't know.

if you get a memory expansion then you still need the Human68k OS disk (or the disk image on the CF) to edit a line or two, so the computer realizes its supposed to use the expansion.

you need something that is able to display multisync (15, 24 and 32khz, most games use 32 and only a few use 24). i think something like the OSSC or whatever should be able to do it.

i hope whatever you bought had its PSU and mainboard caps maintained or replaced, because otherwise you will run into problems sooner or later.

overall: yeah you are a goob (not that we needed confirmation) for buying this and your ancestors are weeping.
The RAM boards aren't that expensive it seems. Most Yahoo auction sellers seem to split up the hardware to maximize their profits. So I'll be needing a ram board. But that is one thing I knew in advance. Recapping won't be an issue because I got my guy.

A controller is something I can make myself apparently :

About the SASI/SCSI difference. From what I have read it seems if you use an external device it is the same thing. The only issue that I need those friggin Human68k floppy discs.

thanks for your comprehensive help.

My grandfather spent six months in a German POW camp so that I would be free to goob!
 

The Chief

U.N. Apologist,
20 Year Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Posts
3,127
There was a time I wanted an X68k to make a MIDI jukebox out of with a stack of modules, but that time has passed. Cool vintage computer for sure tho.
 

Neo Alec

Warrior of the Innanet
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
12,713
Folks on these forums encouraged me to get SCSI2SD. I have it now, and I'm not a huge fan. The games seem to have performance issues when using it. I tend not to use it because we already have a lot of real disks. I still think it's your best option.

 

smokey

massive ding dong
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Posts
2,047
Folks on these forums encouraged me to get SCSI2SD. I have it now, and I'm not a huge fan. The games seem to have performance issues when using it. I tend not to use it because we already have a lot of real disks. I still think it's your best option.

Good to know. I have a SCSI to IDE adapator from back in my A4000. I kept it around hoping to install it one day in my SE/30 but my SCSI HDD just never dies. Maybe I can give that a whirl. I think the floppy emulator is the best way forward seeing as the games won't need to be changed to HDD. Just run the disc images
 

Burning Fight!!

NIS America fan & Rent Free tenant
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Posts
4,405
Probably a couple of months before I get the thing up and running. but seeing as Ghouls and Ghost is one of my all-time faves and Cho Ren Ka is the first game I play on every new/old PC. So I think I'll be happy for a while. If I don't like it I rip of some other goob in the future
I'm just yanking your chain, hopefully you get some good mileage out of it.
 

LoneSage

A Broken Man
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Posts
45,702
Serious talk though, any decent web site dedicated to the x68k, at least a list of x68k games?
 

kernow

The Goob Hunter
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2001
Posts
35,675
Serious talk though, any decent web site dedicated to the x68k, at least a list of x68k games?
30+yr old man decides to spend his spare time researching some bollocks japanese pc instead of like science or some shit
 
Top