Sharp X6800, Sexyest looking computer from the 80's, any one els think so too?

[fasman]

I dont know what it is about the x6800s' design, but I still think its one of the best looking computer designs ever, even by to days standards.

It has these sleek lines,beautiful curves, soft touch floppy eject buttons,the LEDs are in the right places, it just looks sexy!!!

I wouldn't mind case modding a micro-itx computer into one, and replacing the two floppy disc drives with slot loading dvd drives :)

[HEX1GON]

I'd never tear one of these apart for any reason, unless it had water damage or something.

I do agree with you, they're sexy machines, we'll never see a great looking tower for a long time.

[fasman]

I would never tear down a working unit ,but from what I understand there are a lot of these units that died due to power supply related problems :)

But just keeping a 100% mint original unit on display next to tv would be awesome.

[ASSEMbler]

I'm personal to the front loading cd fujitsu computers, but pre cd, hands down it is between that or the sharp f1? The white sharp.

[Calpis]

Pretty sure defiling a X68K like that assures you a spot in both computer and video game hell.

[fasman]

Then I am going streight to hell, I would much rather repurpose a unrepairable system than throw it away ,guess its just me.

[RetroJunkie]

Then I am going streight to hell, I would much rather repurpose a unrepairable system than throw it away ,guess its just me.

Do it! Satisfy your inner geek! Pull it to pieces! Document it with a million photos and get it working 100%! It's the only way :-)

[Calpis]

Then I am going streight to hell, I would much rather repurpose a unrepairable system than throw it away ,guess its just me.
Apart from a blown ASIC everything is repairable

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

Damn, I really want one. Would it be expensive to ship just the computer to the US from Japan? Can it be connected to a standard RGB monitor (like my PVM)?

I'd be fairly expensive as the machines are heavy. You can connect it to a PVM but many games also run in 31kHz or switch between 15/31 so unless your PVM can do 31 then you're gonna have an issue.

[finkmac]

Eh… Not as "sexy" as the Macintosh II series IMO…

[ave]

Damn, I really want one. Would it be expensive to ship just the computer to the US from Japan?

Yes. :S
And since I suspect that you have a cheap loose unit in mind: Recall that many of those junk units are broken in one way or another and it might require some hard to come by spareparts to refurbish them.

[TheRogue]

I have a complete (box, manuals, even packing) mint X68000 XVI fitted with an XsimmVI memory module and a System Sacom SX-68M MIDI card hooked up to an SC88 synth. I have to say it's one of the most beautiful things in my collection, which is quite vast and varied. Most of the runner-up systems are also rare Japanese models, such as my X1 TurboZ II or my MSX TurboR. One thing I love about having an X68k with expanded memory is being able to load virtually every game from a virtual floppy drive. You can do this even if you don't have extended memory, but when the disk images are running from RAM instead of from a SCSI disk, the load times are non-existent, and you can't argue with that! Also, the MIDI is a must, since many games have beautiful MIDI music, some even taking advantage of General Sound.

EDIT: Also, the vast majority of "broken" X68000 fall into two categories: floppy problems and power supply problems, and there are kits to repair both readily available on Yahoo! Japan. There is absolutely no reason to trash an X68000 unless you are dead sure there is some irreparable problem, such as ESD damage to an ASIC. Furthermore, most people would not even want to bother doing a pc conversion to one of those loose junk systems, they would want to do it to a mint system, because who wants to do all that work and have a machine with scuffs and scratches and case damage to show for your efforts, and the idea of mangling mint vintage hardware to defile it with x86 internals is unthinkable, and if I saw such a thing done I would probably feel like vomiting. Mind you, this is just my opinion, if you feel different, more power to you.

[GodofHardcore]

Dunno why but it always looked like 2 model 1 ps2's humping each other despite predating it by a number of years.

By the way it's not too much of a sin if the first program you install on it is an X68k emulator.

[TheRogue]

I suppose if you have no other choice, like if you do have a damaged ASIC or something similar then that is the next best thing, but you would still be missing the neatest physical features of the X68k, which is the soft eject 5.25" floppy drives.

[XxHennersXx]

I've longed for one of these for over 10 years now.

Such a sleek looking unit. I also recall seeing it in an anime in the mid 90s - I do not remember which. Maybe in Sailor Moon?

[rob black]

These are nice, they rarely pop up on eBay. I want one :(

[DefectX11]

Wow. Now that's an original design.
I like older hardware, and I've grown attached to SGI hardware specifically because it's so... non-standard. I'd kill to get one of those, broken for a project!

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

Does the Sharp X68k use composite sync for video or separate H and V sync? If it switches between 15khz and 31khz, you could probably use a Sony GVM.

[Vosse]

I think it may. Games like Marble Madness if you emulate them give you different video options in the options menu(can't remember specificly). So I would only assume it does

[Segata Sanshiro]

I would never tear down a working unit ,but from what I understand there are a lot of these units that died due to power supply related problems :)

But just keeping a 100% mint original unit on display next to tv would be awesome.

The correct thing to do would be to fix them.

[blixa]

absolutely gorgeous creation.

[AnalogWinter]

Yeah, this PC always had one of the most unique designs in technology. If shipping was not so exorbitant I would have had one of these in my collection.


^_^_^

[Meringues]

Does anyone remember the Packard Bell Spirit? the tower kind of looked like the Sharp but only silver, I cant seem to find any pictures of it though.

[Meringues]

This is the one I was talking about:

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2800/06011118642spirit.jpg

I always liked the look of it and fancied replacing the innards turning it into some sort of media/emulator pc type thing, but I was told Packard Bell where notoriously bad for proprietary components and fitting modern equivalents would be a bit of a problem, not forgetting the fact that I'm useless at things like that :livid:

Anyway, sorry to go off topic :concern:

[strikers1945]

Hi Guys i bought 2 x68000's fron yahoo Japan and have done power supply mods on them and they work well. Ive longed for one of these for years and now have 2 expert x68000's they are beautiful looking but i need help, does any one know what monitors would sync all resolutions other than the official sharp monitors that came with the x68000, the units were wedge to ship from tokyo to the uk, i dont want to buy a monitor from there and hope you guys can help me out. Thanks

[neozeed]

Shipping is not really that expensive if you send by Sea, That's how I got my Sharp monitor.
Only down side is 3 month wait.

[MaxWar]

Hi Guys i bought 2 x68000's fron yahoo Japan and have done power supply mods on them and they work well. Ive longed for one of these for years and now have 2 expert x68000's they are beautiful looking but i need help, does any one know what monitors would sync all resolutions other than the official sharp monitors that came with the x68000, the units were wedge to ship from tokyo to the uk, i dont want to buy a monitor from there and hope you guys can help me out. Thanks

I have 2 X68ks as well as several FM-towns. I have a FM towns monitor but the sharp does not work well one it. Best solution i found so far is a LCD projector. Its actually easier to find a projector that have the proper multisync range that an actual monitor.

[strikers1945]

Thanks for the reply a fm towns computer is next on the agenda, thanks for the tip i have a projector already ill try it out, but wanted a monitor really, i know the shipping is cheaper by sea but the wait kills me i have done it once. ill keep looking for a monitor thanks guys for your help

[Segata Sanshiro]

Hi Guys i bought 2 x68000's fron yahoo Japan and have done power supply mods on them and they work well. Ive longed for one of these for years and now have 2 expert x68000's they are beautiful looking but i need help, does any one know what monitors would sync all resolutions other than the official sharp monitors that came with the x68000, the units were wedge to ship from tokyo to the uk, i dont want to buy a monitor from there and hope you guys can help me out. Thanks

Grab a Philips CM8833 or Commodore 1084S or similar. The kind of monitors you used for your Amiga and whatnot will work with the X68000, although you may need to make your own video cable which shouldn't be difficult.

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

I would imagine most games are 15khz, aren't they? In that case those games ought to work with any standard RGB-compatible monitor/TV. Of course you'd want to be able to play all games if you have one of these things, but I'm just saying; you could at least play some games that way.

[Shou]

I would imagine most games are 15khz, aren't they? In that case those games ought to work with any standard RGB-compatible monitor/TV. Of course you'd want to be able to play all games if you have one of these things, but I'm just saying; you could at least play some games that way.


That unfortunately is not the case. Some games also flip between 15 and 31 during the game. An auto sync monitor would be the best.

[vectrex_rox]

Just received my x68000 expert ;) i love it

Just played some Salamander ... kick asssssss ;)

[caius]

I would recommend a multisync monitor like the Microvitec M1438 (the best would be the M1438S with stereo speakers)

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=871

I have one of these and I can say It's absolutely the best choice for any X68000 owner!

[vectrex_rox]

how sad is that ;(

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sharp-X68000-Liquid-Cooled-Handmade-Custom-Vintage-Gaming-Computer-Quad-Core-i5-/271124959937?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3f204e92c1

[synrgy87]

i'd have no problem with ripping the guts out and sticking modern components in there, however i wouldnt do it to a full working system. and i'd sell / give the parts on to someone who needed them.

they are cool looking machines, something in design has been lost as of late.

[vectrex_rox]

yes you are right about design loss nowadays ... but designs belongs to x68000 and not to nowadays new crap ;(

[synrgy87]

i doubt i'll every have a x68000 to play with, just just looking at some of the designs from the 80s they knew how to do "cool" and "futuristic" back then although that may have been the drugs

[vectrex_rox]

i was looking very long for x68000 ... i reveived my X68000 Expert 3 weeks ago and yesterday my X68000 Compact ... those systems kick ass !

[DefectX11]

how sad is that ;(

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sharp-X68000-Liquid-Cooled-Handmade-Custom-Vintage-Gaming-Computer-Quad-Core-i5-/271124959937?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3f204e92c1

I know! "Gaming" PC with a low profile GTS 250? I mean it'll run games, but nothing new or in any good quality.
It's well done, with the cooling and all, but I can't permit someone to kill one of those machines. Unless he happened to find a completely empty case, but even then...

[Baseley09]

It states in the auction that he got the case empty.