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.