2023-05-28 15:00:00
“X68000 Z”, which collected over 300 million yen in crowdfunding and started shipping the “early access kit” from the end of March 2023. This time, I was able to borrow a rental machine from Mizuki, the manufacturer, so I will deliver a review of the actual machine. In addition to comparing with the original and the behavior of the included software, let’s also explain how to use the files and floppy disks that were used on the actual machine at the time on the “X68000 Z”.
The “X68000 Z” announced by Mizuki on June 8, 2022 (Rokuhachi Day) and first unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in the same year is the personal workstation “X68000” released by Sharp on March 22, 1987. ” in a modern style and revived. Basically, it is a “mini” like the “PC Engine Mini” and “Egret 2 Mini” released so far, but the big difference is that “”X68000 Z” can be used as a personal computer” It’s not that you can only play pre-installed (and later added) games, but you can program on this hardware and enjoy software from the era when the actual machine was active on the “X68000 Z”. You can.
This time, using Mizuki’s “X68000Z LIMITED EDITION EARLY ACCESS KIT (ZKXZ-003-GR)”, not only how the included game works, but also a simple comparison with the actual machine, Let’s also talk regarding how to move the assets of “X68000 Z”.
The first batch of early access kits was shipped from the end of March to the beginning of April, but the second batch is said to have been shipped from the middle of May, so it’s likely to show excitement once more.
The “X68000 Z” unveiled at the 2022 Tokyo Game Show and the X68000 for comparison. From this point on, there was a lot of excitement.
How to bring past assets to the real machine?Introducing an example
I’ve looked at the behavior, but I wonder how to bring the assets of the time to the “X68000 Z”. As a future development, it was announced that it will support HDD-SASI, so if that is realized, it will be possible to handle HDD images, but until then, there is no choice but to make ends meet with FD images.
Since that time, the author has been operating by booting from FD instead of HDD, so first of all, I investigated various ways to use the 5-inch boot disk with “X68000 Z” and tried it. The content described here is only an example, and there are other methods. It doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly as described in this article, so feel free to try your own method. Most of the software whose names are listed below are old, so please use them at your own risk. However, if you are an X68000 user, you have the spirit to do something on your own, so I don’t think you have to worry regarding that.
The “X68000 Z” can handle images in “XDF” format. Therefore, the contents of the 5-inch FD must be somehow converted to XDF format. I mightn’t find software or procedures to do it in one shot, but if you use the software for MS-DOS for PC-98 called “make_hd.exe”, you can convert the contents of the actual FD to “D88” format once, and furthermore I found out that if I use the software “d88toXDF” for the output file, I can finally convert it to XDF format, so I decided to try that method.
Both can be easily found by searching the web. It sounds tedious, but please do so at your own risk.
PC-9821Ap2 + external 5-inch FDD is in active use at the author’s house, so put the startup disk used in the X68000XVI into the external 5-inch FDD, and first run “make_hd.exe” to “HUMAN2.D88” converted to a file called
Next, I would like to move this file to Windows, but unfortunately this PC-9821Ap2 does not even have a USB port, let alone an SD card reader. So I decided to transfer the data to my FM-V notebook, which has a 3.5-inch FDD and a USB port, and continue working there.
The PC-9821 series has a 3-mode 3.5-inch FDD, so format the 3.5-inch FD at 1.44MB in advance and copy “HUMAN2.D88” onto it. Insert this FD into the 3.5 inch FDD of FM-V, execute “d88toXDF.exe” here, convert “HUMAN2.D88” to “HUMAN2.XDF”, then output “HUMAN2.XDF” By copying to an SD card (using an SD card adapter that can be connected to a USB port), I was finally able to move the contents of the actual FD used on the X68000 to the SD card slot used on the “X68000 Z”. .
In that case, first format the SD card used for “X68000 Z” in FAT32 format, create a folder called “X68000Z” in the SD card, and copy the XDF file into it. So I will not forget.
The author used the PC-9821Ap2 + external 5-inch FDD this time, but if you use the PC-9821 series with a USB port like the PC-9821Xc16 + the external 5-inch FDD, the work will proceed a little faster. . When using the PC-9821 with a built-in 5-inch FDD, an external 3.5-inch FDD that supports 3 modes will be required. By the way, I used this PC-SCRW3-K for the SD card adapter that connects to the USB port of FM-V.
After that, display the setup utility screen with “X68000 Z”, insert the SD card and select the X68000 emulator to display the file selector screen. When I selected the “HUMAN2.XDF” created earlier, I was able to successfully run the boot disk that I usually use on the “X68000 Z”.
In addition,X68000 LIBRARY, Sharp’s software, which was released free of charge at the Sharp Products Users Forum in the past, is still available, and the Human68k version 3.0.2 system disk image can be downloaded. I got this and shot a video of how it was launched with the “X68000 Z”, so let’s post that as well.
【X68000 Z「human3.0.2」 – GAME Watch】
I downloaded the XDF file containing version 3.0.2 of Human68k from the web and started it on “X68000 Z”. The movement is a little more lively than the Human68k booted from the included system SD.
In addition, if you want to move the files in the HDD of the actual X68000 to the XDF image used in the “X68000 Z”, it is a little easier. We will use the Human68k version 3.0.2 system disk image mentioned above, so download it first.
First, on the actual X68000, I copied the files in the HDD to a 5-inch FD, and then copied them to a 1.44MB format 3.5-inch FD on the PC-9821. Next, open the downloaded “HUMAN302.XDF” with the Windows software “DiskExplorer” in Vector and throw away all the contents.
Now, the content will be an empty XDF image file, so if you drag and drop the file in the 3.5-inch floppy disk onto the “DiskExplorer” screen, it will automatically be stored in the XDF image. Insert the copied SD card into SD1 and the SD card containing the system image into SD0, and select them from the emulator.
If you put music drivers, images, PANIC, MASL file viewer, etc. in the system image in advance, and save the data you want to play and display on SD1, even though it is an FD operation, the way it was used at that time is reproduced on the “X68000 Z”. can do.
[I tried running the system startup disk on X68000 Z-GAME Watch]
Here, let’s post a video when the system startup disk that I am using is run on the “X68000 Z”. You should be able to see that the installation of device drivers, filers, viewers, editors, etc. are working more smoothly than expected. The reason why an error occurs when installing the device driver is that the file on the HDD is specified on the actual machine.
It is a product that can be expected to be upgraded in the future, so you can enjoy it for a long time.
The “X68000 Z” appeared as a mini-hardware for personal computers, which was different from the mini-hardware for arcades and consoles that the company has worked on so far. Unlike the company’s existing products, it is exciting to expect that the emulator part will be actively upgraded in the future, and that various devices may be supported in addition to HDDs.
At that time, users who purchased the actual X68000 for the purpose of gaming may feel a little unsatisfied with the lack of game titles for the current “X68000 Z”, but the project itself has just begun. With the release of “SHOOTING68K Z-EDITION” for the “X68000 Z” on March 31st, it seems that new software is likely to appear in the future, so let’s keep our eyes peeled for game information.
Finally, regarding the use of commercial software on the “X68000 Z”,Mizuki’s official websiteGuidelines are posted on the website, so please read them carefully.
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