Retro Rekall's 1st Birthday

I'm very proud to announce that Retro Rekall, my first serious attempt at any kind of blog, has turned one today. Special thanks to my wife who puts up with my geeky nerd side and my 3 year old son who makes me want to share the nostalgia of my youth and already enjoys playing retro games.

To celebrate I've decided to upload a few pics which briefly review what's been blogged over the last year. Thanks to everyone who has ever checked out the Retro Rekall blog, Facebook group, Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and Retro Rekall's little sister pictures only blog My CAVE 33. If you haven't here are the links.

My CAVE 33 Picture Blog
Retro Rekall Facebook Group
Retro Rekall Facebook Page
Retro Rekall on Twitter
Retro Rekall on Instagram

Retro Japan Computer Special - Sharp X68000 (Aka. X68) + Games

Back in 1987 the Sharp X68000 was an extremely powerful and stylish 16-bit computer. So powerful that Capcom used it as the arcade development machine for their CPS1 games. It has two vertical case sections styled around the look of New York city's World Trade Center. It's most famous outside of Japan for it's arcade ports but I'm mostly interested in it's exclusive titles and other games which are maybe not as well known as those from the arcades. For me this machine is the excellent eastern equivalent to the also excellent Commodore Amiga. It is my favourite Japanese Computer.

SPECIFICATION - Sharp X68000 (1987)

CPU: M68000 10MHz
Memory: 1M RAM
Resolution: 256 x 240 to 768 x 512 (16 to 65K colors)
Sound: Yamaha 2151 2 channels, OKI MSM6258V 4bit mono

Here are thirty great games, in alphabetical order, that you can play on the Sharp X68000. If you have a PC you can also play these games using the X68 emulator found here.

Akumajo Dracula (Konami 1993)

Another version of the original Castlevania with some new levels and secrets. Some excellent remixed music and a rare healing item in the herb subweapon which is not found in any of the other versions. It has great graphics and the usual fun but highly difficult gameplay.

Aquales (Exact 1991)

An action platformer where you control a Mech which can be equipped with a whole host of weapons such as rockets, chainguns and flamethrowers. Your Mech also comes with a grappling hook which can be used to reach higher platforms. Each stage is fairly large and littered with treasure chests that contain various power ups useful for defeating the boss at the end of the stage.

Retro Japan Computer Special - NEC PC9801 (Aka. PC-98) + Games

Launched in October 1982, NEC's PC-9801 was a true 16-bit computer with dedicated text VRAM for displaying kanji. A special font ROM was also created to store the thousands of kanji commonly used in Japanese writing. It could render Japanese text faster than any other personal computer on the market, making it perfect for business use. It became an overwhelmingly popular business machine.

In the beginning its games library mainly consisted of PC-8801 ports. However, due to several major upgrades over the years, including a jump to 32-bit, the PC-9801 game library would grow to thousands of commercial titles, along with a vast number of doujin (home brew) games too.

It had a lower spec than the Fujitsu FM Towns and Sharp X68000 personal computers which arrived later on the scene, but due to it's huge following and steady flow of games it remained the favored platform for PC game developers in Japan until the IBM PC clones became more popular in the 90's

SPECIFICATION - NEC PC-9801 (1982)

CPU: 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, Celeron, and NEC V30
Memory: 256K ROM, 1-8M RAM, 192K VRAM
Resolution: 640 x 480, 320 x 200
Sound: 8bit on board + speech synthesizer

Here are thirty great games, in alphabetical order, that you can play on the NEC PC-98. If you wish to find out more details about these games I have provided the original Japanese kanji for most of them which you can copy and paste in any search engine to get even more results. You can also play these games on a PC using the PC-98 emulator found here

46 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinka Ron (Almanics 1990)

４６億年物語 －THE進化論－

An unusual RPG that puts the player in control of an evolving creature. The playable character is a fish at the beginning of the game; after completing the "fish stage", it becomes a reptile, and so on, until the highest stages of evolution are reached.

Alshark (Right Stuff 1991)

アルシャーク

A sci-fi RPG where the player controls a party of up to five characters, exploring several solar systems, each with their own planets and space stations. Their space ship, Atlia, can be equipped with various weapons, engines and frames. There are random space battles against enemy ships which will earn scrap that can be converted into money. The battles can be automatic or manually controlled by the player in an arcade shooter style.

Retro Japan Computer Special - Sharp X-1 (Aka. X1) + Games

The X1 was a surprise product released in 1982 which split from the usual Sharp MZ series of computers released by the computer division. It came from Sharp's TV division with several TV integration features and a modern, stylish design that was available in a range of colours. It was especially endeared by shoot'em up fans.

Like most other computers it did not have a BASIC language built into it's ROM. You had to load it into the computer from tape. This did mean that when not using BASIC there was more RAM free to use for other things.

Although it was outsold by NEC's PC-8801 it was regarded as a better machine because when games were released for both computers the X-1 version was usually superior. Later models improved the screen resolution and colours. It also had some cool exclusive titles of it's own as well. It eventually gave way to the Sharps 16-bit X68000 computer.

 SPECIFICATION - Sharp X-1 (1982)

CPU: Z80A @ 4 Mhz
Memory: 6K ROM, 64K RAM, 48K VRAM
Screen Resolution Modes:
320 x 200, 640 x 200, 8 Colours
Sound: Programmable Sound Generator, 3 Channels
OS: CP/M

Here are thirty great games, in alphabetical order, that you can play on the Sharp X-1. If you wish to find out more details about these games I have provided the original Japanese kanji which you can copy and paste in any search engine to get even more results. You can also play these games on a PC using the X-1 emulator found here

American Truck (Telenet 1985)

アメリカントラック

Top down racer. In each stage you have to reach the finish line before you run out of petrol or time. Pick up petrol items whilst avoiding bombs and other vehicles whilst staying on the road.

Aoki Ookami to Shiroki Mejika (Koei 1986)

蒼き狼と白き牝鹿

The first in a series of turn based strategy games set in the Yuan dynasty of China. The first Emporer of which was Genghis Khan. Similar in style to Koei's other strategy series Nobunaga's Ambition. The further three games in the series were released outside of Japan and used the Genghis Khan name in their titles.