The X1 is the personal computer range launched by Sharp in Japan in 1982. Unusually, it was not designed by Sharp's computer division — which already made the MZ series — but by its television division, which explains its quirks: a cassette deck built into the case, control of the TV tuner from the computer and, above all, the superimpose function, able to overlay the machine's display on a television picture.
Its strength for gaming lies in its programmable character generator: instead of a fixed font, the X1 lets software redefine the displayed characters freely, which produced smooth, colorful graphics where its competitors struggled. The red case of the first machine remains its signature.
The range continued with the X1turbo (1984), faster and better equipped with graphics modes, then with the curious X1twin (1987), which packed a PC Engine into the same case. Together with the NEC PC-88 and the Fujitsu FM-7, the X1 forms the trio of 1980s Japanese home computers: it received most of the major titles of the era, including Hydlide, the Falcom games and the famous Super Mario Bros. Special, which never appeared on a console. The machine was never sold outside Japan.
It is the only emulator offered for this system, and it is available on every board, from the Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi Zero 2 up to the PC. Netplay and softpatching are not available with this core, and RetroAchievements are not supported. CRT output is handled.
A pad is mandatory on this system and a keyboard is recommended: many games ask for a confirmation key at startup, a mode selection or a typed name. The mouse is not used.
Both boot ROMs are mandatory: without them the machine will not start.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
xmil/IPLROM.X1 |
X1 boot ROM (mandatory) | eeeea1cd29c6e0e8b094790ae969bfa7, 59074727a953fe965109b7dbe3298e30 | X Millennium |
xmil/IPLROM.X1T |
X1turbo boot ROM (mandatory) | 56c28adcf1f3a2f87cf3d57c378013f5 | X Millennium |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/xmil/
├── IPLROM.X1
└── IPLROM.X1T
The folder is named
xmil, after the emulator, notx1. File names are uppercase, extension included:IPLROM.X1, notiplrom.x1. The BIOS checker will tell you if a file is missing or does not match.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/x1/
Accepted extensions: .2d .2hd .88d .cmd .d88 .dup .dx1 .hdm .m3u .tfd .xdf .zip .7z
A few pointers about these formats:
.d88 and .88d are the most common floppy disk images on the X1, as on the other Japanese machines of the era;.2d, .2hd, .hdm, .tfd and .xdf are other floppy image formats, produced by various dumping tools;.zip and .7z archives run without being extracted.For a game spanning several floppy disks, create an
.m3ufile listing the images in order, one per line, and launch that.m3u: disk swapping is then done from the RetroArch Disk menu.