X68000 seems like awesome hardware. Everything I've played on it has been technically impressive, and I know it got awesome ports.
I started playing Akumajou Dracula for it yesterday, the Original mode in Castlevania Chronicles. It is a great game, so far. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out being the best in the series, actually.
I heard someone say that it visually isn't up to par when compared to Super Castlevania IV. Probably the least correct thing I've ever heard. And that music, man. A little goofy at times, but great.
I have the FM-Towns Marty.
Truxton II on it is OK, but lacks a parallax layer and has some extra slowdown not found on the arcade. I'd guess Raiden on FMT was the best port until the PS version showed up. The Marty console and a boxed copy of Tatsujin-Oh (Truxton II) are now at $900 on eBay.
After Burner III (Strike Fighter) actually turned out better playing than the Sega CD one, but it's missing all ground terrain detail.
The techno music in the opening cinema is good. In-game, CRI used a jazz remix of the arcade Strike Fighter BGM which may be good enough listened to on its own, but isn't frantic enough for the action. Neither version is nearly as good as the arcade.
Last Survivor is a great game- think Xybots and Outfoxies rolled into one. LS exists as a Sega arcade title but that hasn't yet been MAMEd. You need to get 4 keys by killing some of the other characters, but there are also enemies lurking in the levels. You can kill the 2nd player but that's not necessary with 6 other characters in the stage. Unlike After Burner III, the arranged music fits just fine.
Korian is on a mission to get tnl all blue shadows and strawberry milk again.
Would it be fair to say the X68K was the Amiga of the East?
Dragon Spirit, Pac-Mania, Alien Syndrome, and various Capcom games at home- all arcade perfect or damn close. Super Hang-On isn't perfect but definitely blows the Genesis version to hell.
Jump ahead to 11:03 for the x68000 Super Hang-On. The Genesis version is slo-o-ow. FM-Towns probably could have done SHO this well. WRT mainstream systems, it would've taken at least a 32X to catch up (in which case it would've probably turned out like After Burner II Complete, perfect except for a 30 FPS framerate. So many missed opportunities for Sega. Where was a 4P version of Quartet for the multi-tap?).
FM-Towns has the better version of Viewpoint than the X68000, but not the quantity of great games in general. I'd probably hunt down a X68000 before an FM-Towns. A CD-ROM based X68000 game system with a RAM expansion port would've likely killed the Marty.
I've often been tempted to pick up an x68000 whenever Lawrence at gamesx had one, bit then think Nah. The computerness turns me off.
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