The Strangest Mini Console Ever Made! Zuiki Sharp X68000 Z Review!

[@leonkiriliuk]

You mentioned it's software emulation. Would be nice to see an in depth comparison between this, X68K core on MiSTer and the real system.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

If this video does well maybe :)

[@superviewer]

To my knowledge the X68000 core is incomplete/buggy. Otherwise an exellent idea to have a comparison.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@superviewer yes it’s not finished yet

[@treefroggy]

Finally a detailed English review of this! I was super hyped about this, still am, but can’t spend that much!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They are NOT cheap

[@beingsupersonic7499]

Great video thanks! Remember this mini getting announced but then never really saw much more about it so this was very informative. Looks like they went to town on it like you say, very nice bit of kit. And if I had about a grand knocking about this would absolutely be in my collection🤘🏻

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It got announced, was hyped up and then basically completely faded into obscurity. Which was odd

I love cute things and this is cute af, but the price, language barrier, and how few games I'd actually play on it this is best left as a yt vid for me. Fun to get a look still, very appreciated!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yeah I really wouldn’t recommend it to many people at all. Anyone who would want it probably already has an X68000

[@MFOSOOO]

My heart almost stopped thinking this was a X68000 mister core update :(

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha you aren’t the first to say that. Sorry. No MiSTer Kun in the thumbnail. Plus it’s not color coded for MiSTer. Each kind of vid gets its own colorways for the border

[@SNKev411]

Yes this is so dope man I'm so honored thanks VGE

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to do it

[@BringerOdeath77]

I own both an x68000 xvi and a pro. After recapping and repairing them, it was a bit of fun getting everything running. I own 34 actual x68000 games and I love it, quite anazing hardware for the time it was released.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Back when it was new it was just the best pc around. It’s a bummer it never left Japan

[@BringerOdeath77]

@@VideoGameEsoterica It most definitely was! Although I do have a soft spot for fm towns and the msx, as well

[@wimwiddershins]

Clearly a passion project aimed at hard-core X68k enthusiasts in Japan. Nostalgia is priceless. 👌

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes it’s for a very niche market. But they did a good job with it

[@DoinThatRag]

How awesome it must have been growing up in Japan around the time you would just be getting out of college and the X68000 is coming to market and you have worked to get into the industry and land the job of a lifetime, arcades with great games, getting all games the earliest instead of having to wait like everyone in other regions for console games, systems and peripherals that never left Japan..... It must have been so awesome to grow up during this time there (well, assuming you like gaming 🙂 ). This is a cool unit. Pricey, but the vast majority of the population doesn't even know what the X68000 existed so it's a small audience to begin with. Also like they that didn't dumb it down so you could learn it. Not sure about the including that controller though.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I miss the days of big PC innovation. I was like 12? 13? When 3D accelerator cards started releasing. You watched gaming hardware suddenly EXIST in front of your eyes Now I upgrade my GPU from a 3080Ti to a 4080? Barely any noticeable diff. I guess VR was really this decades “oh hey something new”

[@DoinThatRag]

@VideoGameEsoterica Definitely! Everything felt like such an advance. I had a Voodoo 2 3DFX card. Ha, remember AGP ports? 😁

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha yep I remember agp. I still have some arcade boards that use it

[@chasonlapointe]

I wanted to get one of these mini's as I've lusted after a x68000 since seeing them as a Marine Corps brat living in japan but man the price is crazy for a mini...

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Everything X68000 costs a fortune. Even emulation boxes it seems

[@crossover-Incorporated]

I heard about this PC in the 90's in many French magazines. One of the most interesting is that they make the games close enough to an actual arcade machine. According to some sources in French magazines, this PC almost reached the European market but due to the console marketing hitting strong, they decided to not release afraid of failing.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

He’s the X68000 was near to the Capcom CPS line as it was the development kit hardware that Capcom used to make the games for the boards

[@3amcoder.]

Thanks for this video. I've been on the fence about picking one of these up via eBay. I like the idea of using it to recreate the developer experience of Capcom employees in the mid to late 80s. Is it bundled with any development tools? I would enjoy a follow-up video where you explore this a little bit.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

No real dev tools that I’ve seen

[@Wobble2007]

Always wanted to get a Sharp 68K, wanted one for years, I have an immaculate Tri-Sync CRT monitor that['s perfect for it, if they ever produce a full-fat FPGA based X68K Ultra with full MIDI & ADLIB sound support, either by a RISC SoC & a real Yamaha OPL ASIC, or via an extra FPGA just for audio and SRAM for sound banks et cetera, native VGA is also important with deep-colour 24-Bit+ RGB, plus a proper floppy drive and CD-ROM drive, and last but not least, I'd love some repo games for it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Ship me that tri sync haha. I need one

[@Wobble2007]

@@VideoGameEsoterica They are awsome CRTs to have, especially for MiSTer's arcade cores, I'd ship you one of my brand-new Hitachi RGB dual-sync (15/24-27Khz 25") 4:3 monitors if you were in the UK.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@Wobble2007 I need a 24khz monitor at some point

[@Wobble2007]

​@@VideoGameEsoterica Yeah, shocked you don't already have one, considering the arcade boards you already have, PC CRT monitors can do 512x384p72Hz btw, they look incredible with that mode-line, they have super thick scan-lines, it's on par with a BVM at 240p, maybe even nicer looking tbf, try some games like Hi-Fi Rush or Shovel Knight at 384p72Hz on a good PCM for some serous eye candy.

[@sidnamyzo]

Cool system, they really did go all out making it like a real X68000….I would love one but I think I’d end up spending the fortune on it and barely using it so I’ll resist the urge, but it is cool. Appreciate the video review I assume it also works with that massive joystick Zuki released a couple of years ago?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yeah it’s a very niche product that 99/100 people should resist the urge on

[@ccricers]

Never owned one but always loved the X68000 case design. And a minor thing but it's great they went with standard SD card slots over MicroSD.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

MicroSD would be too hard at this size

[@Dr.D00p]

Is it wrong to just want this as a cool display piece more than actually wanting to use it...😂

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I think that was the aim

[@lawrencewilliams933]

Got my mini this week actually. Friends made fun of me because I have a Mister but I don't care. Excited to see what this thing can do!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha weird timing

[@bnr32jason]

This is such a cool setup. I'm tempted to buy one even though I own a complete original X68000. Replicating Human 68K, they keyboard, the mouse, the mini 5.25" floppies, multi disk swapping, etc. There's so much investment and care put into this and it shows. They even replicated the original boxes and the style of the original manuals. I'm curious, does the keyboard light up like the original one when playing supported games, like Cotton?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haven’t tested how the keyboard lights up yet. Project is pending because I try not to get too deep into one thing around the holidays

[@METR0lD]

I really love the look of the Sharp X68000. It's such cool looking hardware!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It was way cooler of a design than any pc back then

[@JacobSprenger]

@@VideoGameEsoterica FM-Towns next? Also a beautiful machine (and the first pc in the world with a cd-rom drive). Saw some at work at Beep in Akihabara last year. Japan's home computing and insular pc market before the adaptation of ibm standards was something else.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@JacobSprenger ooh that would be a fun one

[@TimmiTimmiT]

They should sell those keyboards and mice by themselves. They already paid for the tooling why not make some extra $?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I agree. Keyboard is very nice

[@chryoko]

we could then use the keyboard / mouse with our Mister FPGA core ?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@chryoko it’s usb so should work fine

[@CrowsSalvation]

I'd definitely buy the keyboard. Thing looks awesome.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The keyboard is the legit best part

[@hackerhomestead]

I really dig the dual full size SD cards ... Would love to see this in something like an XT mini 😂

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s a fun setup

[@draketungsten74]

Converting files to obscure formats sounds like fun. Seriously, I have an unusual sense of fun.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha yes you do. I’m not a fan lol

[@cardetailingstudioaustria4121]

I Hope the Mister 68x core Update next 😅

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Me too. Me toooo

[@soundsonline796]

I really wanted one of these but that price I couldn’t justify it. Same as the mini DDR both up my alley but out of my price range.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You need to REALLY be into the X68000 to enjoy it

[@dorfus]

You’re showing your age here- Apple hasn’t packaged things this well in 15 years.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Then explain the tissue wrapped special holiday apple I purchased in Chinatown

[@RetroRockGamer]

Any new x68000 video from vge I'm clicking on immediately😊

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Couple more coming soon!

[@CompletelyAverageGameplay]

For what these cost I'd try my luck finding, importing, and working on an actual x68000. I'd be willing to bet you could at least break even on the original hardware...

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Might be able to

[@joe.tiziano]

Is there a link where this can be purchased?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Japanese only so I’d just go eBay if you really want one

[@kur1su74]

Amazing. I have been eyeing these on ebay but it would cost so much to ship.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They are not cheap

[@phillai]

I nearly bought the Sharp X68000Z Mini Limited Edition and cancelled last minute. I couldn't justify this purchase when there are hardly any games for this, I'll just stick to the Sharp X68000 core on my MiSTer system for now. Plus I never got to hear (no pun intended) if there was any midi sound support either.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I haven’t found any midi support yet

[@blast_processing6577]

The X68000Z doesn't have a built-in MIDI module, if that's what you mean, but you can use the UART cable to connect it to an external MIDI device similar to the original X68000 with a MIDI expansion board installed.

[@Ashura96]

Seems like all of Zuiki's mini console products are around the same level of quality and price. Though they did something hilarious with the recently released DDR Classic Mini. Getting rights to all of the songs in the featured games is a nightmare and not feasible because lol Konami. So for the songs that could not be included, instead of modifying the games to remove them, they simply mute the audio and display a banner over the game that says "Sorry this song cannot be played" in which you can still play the song albeit with no audio.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I didn’t hear that (pun intended)

[@tartellu5010]

I really want one of these but man that price is super steep. Maybe I can get this thing in the future or just learn how to use it on an emulator

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

So far they’ve held their price

[@wads80z]

the OS looks more like an Amiga than Windows 3.1....very cool

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Just always gave me 3.1 vibes

[@Riz2336]

I appreciate how accurate it is to the real machine but boy I don't know if I'd want to learn how to use it, seems sort of complicated

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You basically need to learn its version of the DOS prompt and all the diff commands and characters

[@ConsoleCombat]

Two of them?! I am so jealous.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Twice the power!

[@SNKev411]

@@ConsoleCombat I believe you will get one someday It is an interesting consolized pseudo PC

[@endwigast5212]

@@SNKev411 Don't encourage them to waste money on this pile of rubbish.

[@SNKev411]

@@endwigast5212 maybe to you. but others it’s a collect item

[@endwigast5212]

@@SNKev411 Yep, more junk to add to the rubbish heap.

[@Nakoruru87]

A little off-topic, but do you think you’ll ever cover Nintendo DS R4 cards I know they’ve been covered to death and everybody knows how they work but always fun to see your perspective on things. but then again it’s like you said we can’t touch Nintendo with a 10 foot pole lol

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

No. No nintendo mods like that on the channel. Too risky imo

[@Nakoruru87]

@ good call, these days I’m too afraid to even mention the word Nintendo, unless I’m talking about actual hardware and legitimately purchased games. I have a switch and love buying switch games

[@ObiKKa]

Haha. That flick, 13:01.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I seem to do that a lot

[@RetroRick1990]

Awesome 👏 ❤

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Glad you liked

[@Horos_de_Vega]

A beauty.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s def pretty

[@babixillo]

the strangest, maybe. the coolest?absolutely

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s def a fun if weird device

[@verdigris_and_rust]

God I wish they would make an Atari ST like this

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I am surprised they haven’t yet

[@AngryCalvin]

Well the Atari 400 came out this year. Maybe there is hope.

[@Nakoruru87]

i almost forgot about this thing lol

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I think almost everyone has

[@Nakoruru87]

@ yeah it had like such a strange release it had hype and then it was just kind of forgotten maybe because it wasn’t so readily available to purchase

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It got big hype then faded away

[@Mingodough]

This actually came out? I might just get it so I can put it in my normal pc lmao

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It did come out. Then it kind of faded away

[@retro_reflections]

My personal pinnacle of utterly pointless (not to mention wallet-destroying) wants, given my complete inability to read Japanese. Still want one, though.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I want so many pointless things

[@snethss]

I'll say it again. It's a novelty item that is not at a novelty price.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The “pc” itself feels like a novelty. The mouse and keyboard are insane quality

[@martinh4982]

Cool, but... you'd have to madder than a hatter to splurge $500+ on it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s def NOT cheap

[@Natureza09-c2s]

This game need a port for NeoGeo.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Which one?

[@Natureza09-c2s]

​​​​@@VideoGameEsoterica13:17 68K But maybe have more good stuff too.

[@roasty80]

Dude are you OK? Your gasping for air

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Touch of seasonal allergies that day probably

[@MarquisDeSang]

Would buy on Amazon, otherwise no.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s worth it for the hardcore out there. Bout it though

[@Ragesauce]

Late first, so sleepy.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Only comment so far. You still win

[@DrNoBrazil]

Old news and you really love to collect garbage you can't read...

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ve collected you as a commenter. So that means? 🤣

I could understand this being too niche for some, but what's the point of the hostility? Its just a neat collectible to document.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s just how he is. He can’t be stopped lol

[@Pawnband]

DrNo has become a staple of the VGE comment section. I always look forward to seeing what he has to say.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I do too! I hope he never stops. Honestly he only leaves comments. Never contacts me in my social media DMs. Never emails me. You should see the people that DO THAT. They make DrNo look like a puppy

[@garrickgreathouse]

Oh that's cool!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

A fun oddity

[@CCCP-sr9ou]

Z ))