Looking for X68000 model to try future updates...

[Dhampird]

Hello, everyone this is my first post in this forum, i´m looking info about which model of X68000 will be the best to try some mods on it, i read some posts in this forum, will be great try install a CF card into X68000 or a hard drive image with complete games like some  people achieved, i think that the best and complete model to get will be X68000 XVI HD because this built with a switch to change between 10Mhz or 16Mhz, i´m wonder if  the clock is in 16Mhz position will make a lot difference with games instead 10mhz, the xvi if  i´m right built with 2Mb of RAM, will be needed more than 2Mb for some games?, another problem  is if i make a VGA cable to use LCD monitor or TV which games will fail to run in LCD? 15Khz games? Which are those?. Also i think that i need to get original system software like Human 68K 2.02 + SX Window 1.10 if i´m right  because ever time this needs to be loaded from drive to run computer, is that correct?

Most important problem is to get a X68000,  if there is another "full compatible" X68000 computer please told me about it, i trying to get one but only i find some models in ebay auctions.yahoo.co, i´m from Spain and i know that there is some webs that allows buy from yahoo auctions, i know this: http://www.japanauctioncenter.com, if you know another please tell me, if anyone knows another way to get a X68000 please tell me.

Thanks a lot for help and reading...
Regards.

[eidis]

 Hi !

Sorry for the late reply. If by mods you mean overclocking then I wouldn't advise it because in most cases overclocking kills hardware or noticeably shortens its life spam. To be completely honest, almost every game runs smoothly on my ACE-HD with 2MB ram. The biggest annoyance is the loading times of some games, but it's not a big deal (Super Hang-On). CF card in these cases does magic. The only two games who could benefit from the added speed, which come to mind, are Mahou Daisakusen and Knight Arms.

If you want to enjoy X68000 games you will need to buy an X68000 with 2MB ram. The only one to my knowledge which needs more, if executed from floppies, is Super Street Fighter II. Next step would be to add a CF with games. You can follow my tutorial:

http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:hard_drive_on_sasi_machine

and get the good stuff

http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:sxsi_disk_image_with_games_and_lots_of_mdx_files

The latest TOSEC is Sharp_x68000_TOSEC_2010-05-02
You can get it from the usual places.

Be warned of one more thing. Those floppy drives are fragile. One of my ACE-HD floppy drives is dying. They are custom made with soft eject and the only way to fix them is to obtain a compatible donor from which to obtain the necessary parts. I am speculating that X68000 pro floppy drives are more robust, but the case is not as sexy as ACE's. Either way those floppy drives will start to give you trouble with time so please seriously consider the CF mod.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think that X68000 looks best on a CRT monitor. Unfortunately most common TV sets can not display 31khz and PC monitors can not display 15khz (which TV's can handle fine). The best solution is to get a monitor which is 15khz - 31khz compatible. As far as the games go, there is approximately 20% which use 15khz mode. Some of them are Final Fight, Daimakaimura, Street Fighter II, Super Hang On, and some flying games which names I have forgot. Luckily the Capcom games have an options screen where display mode can be set to 31khz. So to make a long story short, some games will not work on LCD display and those that do will look pixelated. And that's not sexy.

Every game boots fine by itself and most of them contain system files from Human 68k (human.sys and command.x) which are necessary to boot. P.S. A copy of newest Human OS does come very handy at times. See my tutorial on CF mod.

Check out this site:

http://mdl.livejournal.com/9953.html

It will compare and explain some things which you will need to know before purchasing your X68000 from Japan.

Hope this helps,
Eidis

[Dhampird]

Hello, thanks a lot "eidis" for the fully info and help, and sorry for delay in reply also,  when i get the X68000 i´ll try to post some results and doubts, i´m just now trying to import one from Yahoo Japan, looking some auctions. I´ll hope get one soon...

Thanks a lot again. See you Soon.
Regards.