Manufactured from 1987 to 1993, Sharp’s X68000 computer line was a gaming powerhouse virtually unknown to most of the world prior to the rise of the internet. And before emulation there were many barriers to entry for gamers:
- It was only released in Japan, and required some Japanese knowledge to operate.
- Unlike with Japanese consoles, I don’t recall magazines in the West even mentioning the system back then.
- It was hugely expensive for most people as it launched for around $3000 USD. Factoring in inflation it would be more than double that today.
- Legit copies of the games became collector’s items fairly early. Plus, many are on floppy disks which are more fragile than cartridges.
Still, it’s hard not to be impressed with how powerful was for its time. Given the similarities with Capcom’s CPS boards, it was more capable of accurate arcade ports than other home systems. The closest system in the West in terms of power was the Amiga but that had hardly any Japanese development. Arcade ports on Amiga and Atari ST tended to be heavily altered from the source material anyway.
I think among game systems released outside of Japan, the closest similarity to the X68000 in terms of content was the Genesis/Mega Drive with the TurboGrafx not far behind.
- For a computer stuck in Japan, the X680000 still managed to have a solid library of ports of Western games such as Klax, Prince of Persia, Marble Madness, Dungeon Master, Lemmings, Future Wars, SimCity games, Xenon 2, Ultima games, etc…
I can’t properly judge the adventure and RPG genres on the X68000 as I don’t have much Japanese knowledge but even purely from an action standpoint, it has a lot to offer:
This video covers a bunch of arcade ports:
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For Capcom arcade fans there was Strider, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Final Fight, Street Fighter II series, etc…
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For Sega arcade fans there was Space Harrier, After Burner II, Fantasy Zone, Thunder Blade, Super Hang On, Alien Syndrome, Columns, etc…
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For Konami arcade fans there was Gradius series, Twinbee, Quarth, Ajax, Parodius, etc…
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For Namco arcade fans there was Super Xevious, Return of Ishtar, Bosconian, Dragon Spirit, Pacman franchise, Libble Rabble, etc…
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For Taito arcade fans there was Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid: revenge of Doh, Cloud Master, Camletry, Fairyland Story, New Zealand Story. Syvalion, etc…
Some cool (not-arcade-port) games:
Scorpius
Your ship has a ‘tail’ you can hit enemies with like a scorpion’s stinger.
Akumajou Dracula
Re-released with some additions as Castlevania Chronicles on Playstation, and later as a PSOne Classic on PS3 and PSP.
Star Cruiser
This version isn’t very playable without Japanese knowledge but thankfully there’s now a translated rom of the Mega Drive version. It’s not as nice looking but the game design holds up surprisingly well for an FPS/Adventure of that era.
Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force
Early '90s mech melee goodness.
Genocide 2: Master of the Dark Communion
Naious
Cho Ren Sha 68K
Also on PC.
Etoile Princesse
Star Wars: Attack on the Death Star
An original game by M.N.M. Software although very much inspired by the old Atari coin-op.
Buster
Sol-Feace
Better known as a Sega CD pack in title.
Geograph Seal
First-person action from Exact. This is the direct predecessor of Jumping Flash on Playstation.
Zugya
A free roaming shooter that’s very early '80s in feel. Bosconian fans should check it out. It’s also on PC.
Overtake
Linkages:
https://refuge.tokyo/x68k/x68000.html
https://nfggames.com/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sharp+x68000
