This is probably the most interesting game from a media perspective. It’s Xevious for my Sharp X1 D, which means it’s one of those newfangled 3″disks. I’d never seen one before. It’s kind of interesting. Thicker than a 3.5″ disk, open slot for reading media like a 5.25″ disk. Not exactly sure of its capacity at the moment.
It was bought untested, and since it’s my first disk for this computer, the drive is also untested, and that’s an uncomfortable combination. And to be sure, things did not go great at first. My first attempt yielded the following sequence:
This is complete failure, it didn’t even recognize the boot sector. But for some reason, with vintage computers, if you try the same thing repeatedly, sometimes you get different results. They may still not be good results, but they may be different. Attempt 2:
It’s not really any more beautiful, and the end result was the same, but it did find something and tried to boot the game. That’s definitely a step in the right direction. Attempt 3:
That fourth screen was a little unnerving, and the disk repeatedly went back and forth from beginning to end of disk, but it did eventually load. Basically successful! I tried one more time and it worked about 70% faster, so I figure this is a victory. I think the disk drive or disk just needed to stretch its legs a little bit after so much disuse.
Too bad I’m not very good at this game. Oh well! It was fun watching it come to life.
With the progress you are making loading this game repeatedly, a few more times and it may be able to load so fast you won’t even need to put the disk in.
Xevious is a classic and important historically, but not one of my favorite shmups.
I’m shooting for not even needing the computer plugged in!
I can imagine it’s not your favorite. Slow pace and not so many enemies. I don’t think there are even any ship upgrades. And the reward system is also very simple compared to what is available in newer shmups.
My main purpose in getting this game was to get one of these unusual disks at a (somewhat) reasonable price and see if everything worked. That much I accomplished, and since everything did end up working, I feel it was well worth it! The game I’ve played a few times, it’s kind of fun, not super exciting, but I’m sure I’ll play it again someday!