"Sharp X68000", which is the 35th anniversary of birth, a personal workstation with a twin tower

This corner looks back on the nostalgic microcomputer and computer with photos. This time, we will cover Sharp's "X68000", which celebrated his 35th anniversary on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. It was released in 1987, and at that time it appeared in exceptional specifications, and it is one of the best personal computers that had a great influence on various fields. [See another image about this article] From the late 1970s to the middle of the 1980s, many domestic microcomputers have been released in Japan. However, they gradually converged, and as of mid-1986, the NEC PC-88 series, PC-98 series, Sharp X1 series, MZ-2500 series, Fujitsu's FM77AV series, and MSX series. It will be. In such an era, when the original domestic computer would not appear any further, it was a reference exhibition at an electronics show '86 held at the fairy -city venue in Harumi, Tokyo on Thursday, October 2, 1986. The first time in the form was the Personal Workstation X68000, which Sharp was full and sent out to the world. At this time, the screen in which the late -racing object moved was reflected, and the demonstration of "Gladius" in Konami (at that time), which had not been able to completely transplant it on a personal computer or console machine at the time, was an arcade atmosphere. It has a great response because it was moving in the monitor as it was. About five months after this, on March 22, 1987 (Sunday), the X68000 was released at an exceptional price, considering its ability of 369,000 yen. Speaking of the specifications of a personal computer at this time, the screen size is about 640 x 400 dots, 4,096 colors with many colors, and most of the sounds are three FM sound sources and three PSGs. The X68000, which appeared like a comet in such an era, adopts the CMOS version of the CMOS version of 68000 (clock 10MHz) of 16 -bit microcesses 68000 (clock 10MHz). Equipped with 1MB of main memory as standard, 512KB of text VRAM and graphic VRAM each. The screen resolution has various modes such as 768 x 512 dots x 16 colors and 512 x 512 dots with 65,536 colors, and can display up to 128 sprites on one screen, and as the sound function, 8 Octabu 8. Equipped with a stereo FM sound source and ADPCM, which can output weights simultaneously, debuted as a monster -class machine compared to a computer that appeared in the same era. Indeed, it was a hardware that exceeded the dreams of the advertising catch phrase. The ultimate is the appearance of the twin tower called Manhattan Shape, which is designed to be not seen in domestic computers. The origin is reminiscent of the World Trade Center Building on the Island of Manhattan, New York, USA, and the left tower has a 5 -inch FDD compatible with the auto -road auto -eject function, and the upper right tower. Three LED lamps were lined up. The included keyboard and mouse are not found in conventional PCs. The keyboard has a connector for connecting the mouse to the left and right of the upper part, and the CAPS key, code input key, Roman character key, kana key, INS key, hiragana key, and full -width key are software. I was able to control it. Famous is Cotton, released by Electronic Arts, and may remember how the LED flashes according to the BGM on loading. The mouse is equipped with two buttons, two on the top and one on the left and right sides. The left and left sides are left -clicked, and the right and right sides are right -clicked, but the ball cover can be switched by 0 to 90 degrees by sliding the ball cover. Furthermore, if you turn it upside down, set the switch from M to T, remove the ball cover, it will be a track ball. Not only the X68000 body, but also that "Gradius" was also a hot topic. In the March 1987 issue of the magazine "OH! MZ", "I asked President Konno of SPS (producing Gradius), first of all, it is exactly the same as the original video game. Especially. The programmer in charge of the transplant, "I am hungry if one dots are different! "It seems to be said (abbreviated)", so it was very exciting before the main unit was released. However, in the "Gradius" introduction article for X68000 published in the April issue of the following April, "If there is a completely different point, it is not so. In the last month's issue," if one dots are different, " It seems that there was a programmer who said that I would cut my belly, but apparently it was true that "one dots may be different". (Omitted) "" If you have actually played the arcade version, you may have nod. In addition to what I have mentioned so far, in the X68000 area, "make things that are not", various image formats, music data formats, and of course applications for regenerating them are conventional. I think there is one aspect that brought the wind that was not found in personal computer culture. The X68000, which had a brilliant start, continued to release new models until 1993. It is such a X68000, but it celebrated its 35th anniversary from birth on March 22, 2022 (Tuesday). The popularity is still alive, such as those who are still active in the 21st century, and those who operate and operate the inside into PC/AT compatible machines.

AKIBA PC Hotline!, Jun Sasaki