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PostPosted: September 6th, 2011, 2:22 pm 
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Greetings gentlemen,

I'm currently working on a 2 page article for Retro Gamer regarding the X68K. I did a feature on computers before, but this is a little more focused, for RG's Obscura Machina article.

My intention: ignore the arcade ports which everyone harps on about, and try to cover mention some of the original content available. Whether you import the actual hardware or emulate it, I see no point in playing arcade ports given how easily accessible MAME is today.

I've some images and ground work done, but do have a few questions.


1) What's the Gekikoh Dennou Club? Was is a doujin group who made games? Because some games have the name followed by a number (for example Otoko Dama says "Gekikoh Dennou Club 7" Mitsuky 1999).

2) Why after trawling Sharp's corporate history part of their website, there is barely any mention of the X68000? They don't seem to have much historical love for it, do they?.

3) Was there ever a CD based game released for it? What is this "CD game myth" I've read about?

4) When and why did Sharp release the ROMs and Data for the system, as mentioned here?
http://www.jcec.co.uk/kenjo_int.html

I did a Google search regarding the ROM release but could find no English sources on it apart from JCEC. And they didn't even give a date. Around 2000 is the best I can work out?

5) Is there any way to contact any X68k developers, even doujin ones? Because the system was Japan only, this will probably be near-impossible, but I'd love to get a few quotes from someone who actually worked on it.


Any thoughts?

I'll of course be listing the Tokugawa Forums at the article's end. :)


Last edited by Sketcz on September 15th, 2011, 6:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: September 6th, 2011, 4:45 pm 
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From what I understand, Gekikoh Dennou Club 激光電脳倶楽部 were CD compilations of X68 software published by Mankaiseisakujo 満開製作所. There were 7 volumes in total.

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Not sure if you seen this topic, but worth checking out: http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/forum/vi ... .php?t=268


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PostPosted: September 6th, 2011, 11:03 pm 
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Gekikou Dennou Club was a 7-part supplement to Dennou Club, a disk magazine for the X68000 that ran from May 1988 to August 2000. It's not doujin, although Dennou Club often contained reader-submitted material.

And yes, it is definitely possible to attach an external SCSI CD-ROM drive using a device driver such as this one:
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/x68/hardware/se021968.html
This is pretty hardcore territory though, and Sharp never officially supported it.

There is some CD-ROM software out there, such as the Gekikou Dennou Club, a few other Dennou Club supplements, and the last 8 issues of the main Dennou Club magazine. I know that the doujin group Jitensha Sougyou 自転車創業 also released a few CD-ROM games for the X68000 in the 2000s, but this was way after the X68's prime, and most people probably just used an emulator.

The X68000 OS Human68k, BIOS files, an SDK, and other applications were released on the @nifty Sharp Products Users' Forum (FSHARP) on April 1, 2000 with the consent of Sharp, Hudson, and the other contributing companies. The original forum is no longer on the Internet (it was a pay-access service anyway and never generally accessible). This means that X68000 OS and system emulation is 100% legal (pirating games is still a copyright violation, however).


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PostPosted: September 7th, 2011, 8:57 am 
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Thanks Trickless!

And wow, an amazing reply as always Kobushi. I should have come to you directly after team-up for the HG101 piece. It wouldn't be fair to reword what you've said as my own words, so I'll quote you directly as a "leading expert" from the Tokugawa Community. How do you want to be credited, just Kobushi?

What this makes me realise is, this kind of information is still too scantly recorded, even online.


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PostPosted: September 7th, 2011, 10:53 am 
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You don't have to credit me or anything. I'm no expert, especially when it comes to the X68000.

I'm looking forward to your article. An X68000 article from a non-arcade perspective will be fascinating. :)


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PostPosted: September 8th, 2011, 2:38 am 
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Connecting a CD drive to an X68000 is quite straightforward. As long as you can get hold of SUSIE you should have no problem.

Road Blasters and Thunder Storm were released not too long ago on DVD, but obviously you won't be covering them.


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PostPosted: September 8th, 2011, 9:11 am 
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kobushi wrote:
I'm looking forward to your article. An X68000 article from a non-arcade perspective will be fascinating. :)


Not necessarily! :)

I've only got two pages, and am allowed only 3 small boxouts for standout games. One of which will be Geograph Seal by the Jumping Flash team. Other two will probably be obscure shmups, possibly doujin.

I'm pretty sure a couple of hours drinking beer at a cafe with the Tokugawa regulars would prove more interesting! :D

Seriously, you guys should do a podcast or something. Get everyone together and just talk for a while.


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PostPosted: September 8th, 2011, 11:51 am 
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Sketcz wrote:
Seriously, you guys should do a podcast or something. Get everyone together and just talk for a while.


Hmm.. Interesting. #PC-98 on Efnet (IRC) is where the elder gather.. Although a podcast doesn't sound bad.


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PostPosted: September 8th, 2011, 7:14 pm 
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Sketcz wrote:
5) Is there any way to contact any X68k developers, even doujin ones? Because the system was Japan only, this will probably be near-impossible, but I'd love to get a few quotes from someone who actually worked on it.

I know the doujin group DCS made quite a few X68 games http://dcs.ciao.jp/ . Don't know how often they reply to emails though.


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PostPosted: September 11th, 2011, 12:46 pm 
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Cheers! Email them, hopefully it bears fruit. If not, it doesn't really matter.


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PostPosted: September 12th, 2011, 8:36 am 
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Quote:
I'm pretty sure a couple of hours drinking beer at a cafe with the Tokugawa regulars would prove more interesting! Very Happy


We need to do this, record it, and release it as a podcast. Mayhem :D


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PostPosted: September 12th, 2011, 10:37 am 
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Several of us live in France, so surely that shouldn't be *too* difficult. Though technically I don't think I have anywhere near the knowledge to participate.


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PostPosted: September 12th, 2011, 9:54 pm 
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Me neither but I certainly could have a beer or two with you guys :wink:


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PostPosted: September 14th, 2011, 1:24 pm 
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Ben wrote:
Me neither


You can't say that, you're overlord of the largest and most valuable Japanese computer forum in the English speaking world... :shock:


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PostPosted: September 15th, 2011, 7:10 am 
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A research paper, titled PAC111 and circa 1996, examines the Japanese computer market and has some bizarre facts I'm not sure about.

It contains a table (source: Nomura Research Institute), which states that the PC98 had 60% market share in 1991. Under these fall Fujitsu, IBM, Toshiba and Apple, making up around 28%. Then there's an "other category" at 12.2 %. Not mention of Sharp, but seeing as Apple was on 5.2% does that mean Sharp's X68000 range constituted less than 5.2% and was lumped into the "other" category? They also have a table for the 1995 figures, with "other" shrinking to 10%.

What are other systems were there? I wasn't even aware of Toshiba being that prominent - if I had been asked prior to reading this paper I would have said Sharp was bigger than Toshiba in the PC market.

Did the Nomura Research Institute simply not take Sharp into account? Is there a better source for sales figures circa 1991?

I searched the entire PDF and found only two brief mentions of Sharp.


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