Playing X68000 games issue

[Broken]

Hi just wondered if anyone could help me out here. When I power on my X68000 it asks for the Human.sys disk. Some of the games I have have numbered disks and a disk with no number on it. I try this disk first and then try the numbered disks. All I get are messages that include <a<, <r>, <i>. Also one message included 'CRC' and another requested Disk 1 which I inserted but the a, r and i message came up. Anything would be cool.

[Computolio]

Hi just wondered if anyone could help me out here. When I power on my X68000 it asks for the Human.sys disk.

It's supposed to do that. Just put in the disk of whatever game you want to play at that prompt.

Some of the games I have have numbered disks and a disk with no number on it. I try this disk first and then try the numbered disks. All I get are messages that include <a<, <r>, <i>. Also one message included 'CRC' and another requested Disk 1 which I inserted but the a, r and i message came up. Anything would be cool.

The disks in question might be corrupt, although this is apparently quite rare with original X68000 game disks. Use xFloppy to create a disk from a known working disk image and try booting that. Also, try tracking down a cleaning disk.

[Broken]

Hi tried that but nothing.

[Broken]

Hi again, I turn on the machine, put the system disk of the particular original game in the first floppy drive and it sometimes loads, stating the name of the game with several other lines. It then comes up with the <a<, <r>, <i>? message. Anyone knows what this means? I tried putting disk 1 of the particular game into floppy drive 2 but nothing happens. I've tried experimenting with the a, r and i keys but can't get the games going. I've also tried swapping disks and pressing the a, r and i keys. Sometimes the system disk of 1 or 2 games starts to load and then you get the screen as if the machine has been turned off and the monitor is still on. Has anyone experienced anything like all the above? If so any help would be sound.

[NFG]

<A>bort, <R>etry, <I>gnore.

You've got a bum floppy drive.  Pretty common problem.

[Broken]

Hi is it possible to replace the floppy drives? If so is this difficult and are the drives hard to get?  

[Computolio]

No and no. At least, nobody's done enough hardware hacking/experimentation. If you've already tried a cleaning disk, there's a page (in Japanese, but Babelfish can give you the gist of it) that describes a much more thorough cleaning procedure that you should try next. What model of X68000 do you have?

[Broken]

Hi thanks for the info guy. I tried blowing into the drives (could be bad and a bit amateur I know) but they're quite deep and slim - it's easier doing this with a 3.5 inch. I checked the Jap page that you just mentioned a few hours ago that I must have seen on one of your posts. Good link but I could look into that when all else fails. I know you've helped quite a bit so far but I guess cleaning disks are quite rare for 3.5 inch let alone 5.25. Do you know where I could get one from apart from perhaps ebay? Maybe Lawrence could get me one (that guy seems to have so much technical knowledge he could probably make one up from scratch from his vast memory alone!). You also seem to have quite a bit of knowledge from some of your posts. I guess when Lawrence's time is up - which I hope isn't for a hell of a long time yet, there will hopefully be a technique to preserve his brain to be able to retrieve all the knowledge and then to have it on display in a retro museum! Oh yeah, I forgot - there's no need for that, it can be put on a few websites! My X68000 to answer your q finally is a XVI black tower.

[Broken]

Oh yeah one more thing, I wasn't trying to brown nose anyone - I only give credit where I think it's due!

[Computolio]

5.25 cleaning disks shouldn't be expensive, even on eBay. Try scouring secondhand stores and computer junkyards for them, although finding one that way could take some time as they are becoming less and less common.

[Broken]

Hi just ordered a 5.25 cleaning disk kit from ebay. Got a Verbatim one so the quality should be ok. Is this cool for the 68k?

[Computolio]

   They're all the same, so yeah.

[Broken]

Hi should be getting the cleaning disk soon but the guy on ebay has made a few mistakes and it's coming from abroad. If this doesn't work, I heard you can get an external 5.25 inch floppy drive and connect it to the 68k that can act as a second drive if the 2nd one in the 68k is knackered. Is this right? If so I could check ebay but could I get any 5.25 inch floppy drive? Also not sure what cable I'd need for this. I think there's a port at the back of the 68k but not sure if it'd be the same at the drive end. Any help would be well appreciated.

[Computolio]

Nobody has figured out yet how to plug an ordinary 5.25 drive into an X68000. Official external 5.25 units exist (with proper soft-eject and everything), but they are incredibly rare/expensive and intended for use with the Compact models.

[Broken]

Hi got the cleaning kit. The only thing is is that I'm not sure how to use it on my 68k drive. The cleaning kit says to put your cleaning disk in and to start your drive to engage heads and allow the drive to run for 30-60 seconds. Not sure how to do this as most stuff is in Jap. I tried putting it in but it just spins for half a sec and is then spat out. Also the instructions go on about wether your drive is a single or dual head one. I think the 68k drive is single? Any help on this or wether the drive can be engaged for cleaning would be v much appreciated. Also I heard there was a 68k emulator. I know speaking on emulation is a bit dodgy but this is a v. old if not obsolete system and games are very scarce. Any good 68k rom sites?

[NFG]

If your drives don't spin long enough you can either open it up and clean it manually, or just pop the  cleaner in a dozen times.  My guess is you won't see a significant improvement regardless.

The X68 uses double sided drives, otherwise you'd be flipping them over all the time.

There are lots of emulators, but there will be no discussion of downloadable roms on this forum.

[Broken]

Hi ok no prob. Just out of interest Lawrence are you Japanese? If not what are you doing in Japan and why are you there? How long you been there? Sorry about the direct questions, I'm a nosey bastard!

[pro7]

the  A/R/I problem even happens in emulators   ,  if it's corrupted data even the emulator will refuse to run  

[NFG]

I left japan two years ago.  I'm not Japanese.  As for what I was doing, well, that's a secret.  =)

[Computolio]

All high-density drives are double-sided. Since the cleaning disk isn't working, you'll have to take the machine apart and do the deep-cleaning procedure mentioned earlier in the thread.

As for emulators, there's WinX68K and XM6. Haven't tried XM6, but WinX68K has English menus and runs just about anything you can throw at it. Several games are available as freeware/liberated commercial software, and the OS and BIOS are also freely available.

[Broken]

Hi so Lawrence are you in the Uk at the mo? Sorry about the late reply on this. I'd like to visit Japan myself one day. I might just keep out of those dodgy hostess bars and other 'souvenir used undies' shops that are sometimes documented on tv. Honestly I've never been there...?!

Anyway;

My second disk drive is knackered but I guess I can still play single disk games. The only thing I've noticed with one or two is that I get sound but no visual. I think this could be to do with the particular game and the refresh rate my monitor uses? I think the rate with those particular games maybe too high?

Also is it easy to get games on the X68k hard drive? Not sure if you need both floppy drives to do this? It's just that all the instructions are in Jap. This could solve one or two things before I decide wether to try cleaning the faulty floppy. I don't want to totally knacker the X68k if taking apart and cleaning the floppy may not fix it? Again any info or help would be well appreciated.

[NFG]

I've never been to the UK.  One day...

Yes, it does sound like your games are booting into an unsupported resolution.  Most games default to 31kHz (VGA) res, but some load into 15kHz, but can be switched.  A very few cannot be changed from 15kHz.

Most games do not install to the drive.  Those that do usually require you insert floppy #1 anyway (for example Super Street Fighter).  

[Broken]

Ok I guess it's been a bit since I or anyone has posted on this thread. I was going to post a new thread but I seemed to remember that the issue that I was going to talk about I'd already done so in a previous thread, and this was it. I also did a thread search as well, finding this thread.

Anyway as above I have some games that seem to be booting into an unsupported resolution. I think from some games I've played 31kHz (VGA) res does indeed seem to be quite common. Basically I was wondering if there was a way to get these games going visually in anyway? It could depend on the monitor? I haven't an original X68000 monitor. I wonder if those solved these kinds of issues more easily?

Any help, info or advice would be greatfully appreciated.