Looking for early model X68000

[solidus8]

I'm looking for an early model Sharp x68000. Friend has had one for years and I've got the urge and the cash to buy one. Anyone here willing to sell? Make me an offer I cant refuse~!

[viktorh]

Hi!

What is the meaning of "early model"? The earliest model (before the ACE)?

[solidus8]

Thanks for the reply. Basically at this point I just want to buy a working x68000! Any model is fine, but I would prefer pre-1990 models as in before Expert II. If you have one you would like to sell or know of one-give me a shout! solidusrob@hotmail.com

[NFG]

The only models you should avoid are the Compact ones.  They use 3.5" floppies which no games were released on.  All the rest - and I mean ALL of them - have the same functionality and compatibility.  The only difference is the first model which had ..  um, something something.  I forget.

There's no real functional reason to prefer a specific unit.

[NeWmAn]

All the rest - and I mean ALL of them - have the same functionality and compatibility. 

If I were to buy a machine I would choose one with (at least) 2M of RAM and either a SCSI interface or an internal (working!) HD.

[NFG]

I've never found the HDD to be useful, except for exploring non-game apps.  I think the only games that might benefit are the ones with more than 3 disks - Street Fighter and Dragon Knight, for example. 

And SCSI is much more expensive, since you can only get it on the newer models (XVI and later).

2MB RAM is definitely mandatory though.

[solidus8]

Hmmmm thanks! I recently bought a Expert HD model for 350$. I know these things can be had on yahoo japan for much less, but ebay is relatively safe/secure. It has the internal hard SASI drive (which I'm told can use other SCSI drives with pin swap), two megs of ram and really clean. Not too shabby! Now to get my old IBM pc out with xfloppy... I've wanted one of these things for years!

[NeWmAn]

which I'm told can use other SCSI drives with pin swap

I've looked for info about that and it seems that you cannot use normal SCSI devices with the internal interface.

[solidus8]

you are right,  Very early SCSI drives will work, but vast majority wont. Then again, I have seen some drivers for zip and jaz drives; there are many external choices and even some cheap expansion SCSI cards. Perhaps the most common problems effecting all the old floppy drives were dirt and head mis-alignment. I am confident in keeping my drives working for the most part, so most of this is just "wanting to play with my new toy."

[NeWmAn]

Then again, I have seen some drivers for zip and jaz drives

Those devices work with the SASI interface + drivers?? Please share the info!

[Computolio]

    There's a special driver called "SxSI" that appears to be able to let normal SCSI drives work with the SASI interface.  I have no idea how to install/use it for obvious reasons, but from poking around on Google it appears that it can work with just about any drive up to 1GB that can have it's parity disabled.

    This excludes most removable drives, but there is a workaround for them- a "parity faker" circuit can be built, allowing drives that can't have their parity disabled to work.

     Since the site is down at the moment, I'm attaching both the driver and the diagram for the parity faker circuit.

[solidus8]

Exactly what I have heard, but couldn't find find a valid link. Thanks for the download~!

[Midori]

The only models you should avoid are the Compact ones.  They use 3.5" floppies which no games were released on.

Just curious, could you copy a 5.25 game floppy to a 3.5 floppy and run it on a Compact X68K?