History of Rockman X

The Rockman X (Megaman X in English) series was the second Rockman franchise released by Capcom. It debuted December 17, 1993 in Japan (February 1994 in North America) on the Super Famicom/Super NES. It is the first continuation in plot of the series, preceded by the classic Rockman series. The first six games in the series are currently available in the anthology collection Rockman X Collection.

Plot description
Rockman X (often referred to as simply "X") was created by Dr. Thomas Light around 30 years after the original series. Unlike the original Rockman, X was a new breed of robot with the ability to make his own decisions instead of simply following programming. After completing the creation of X, Light realized that there was a possibility X might choose to turn against humankind. He also feared that even if X chose a beneficent path in life with regard to human welfare, people would inexorably be unable to accept him, and that X would be viewed as a technological anomaly at best and an abomination at worst. Both would result in X's neutralization not so much as a robot, but as the cogent thinking machine Light originally intended to be. Fearing that his life's work and magnum opus would be destroyed by fear-driven human beings, Light sealed X away in a diagnostic capsule for thirty years of testing to make sure he would not choose an evil path in life. It is unknown what happened to him during these 30 years, but Dr. Light presumably died and left his diagnostic experiments unfinished. X's capsule was eventually uncovered by an archaeologist named Dr. Cain almost 100 years after X's creation. With X's help, Cain and X created a legion of new robots replicated from X's ability of free-will— these robots were called "Reploids". For a time, everything seemed calm and peaceful.
However, a virus began spreading that caused Reploids to turn against humans. This was due to the fact that Dr. Cain couldn't perfectly duplicate X's circuitry since he couldn't completely understand exactly what Dr. Light did. These Reploids were dubbed Mavericks (Irregulars in Japan), and a force called the Maverick Hunters (Irregular Hunters) was formed to combat them. The Maverick Hunters were originally led by Sigma until he too became a Maverick. Because of his betrayal and eventual declaration of war against the humans, X took it upon himself to join the Maverick Hunters and current leader Zero, another powerful robot, on a mission to save Earth from Sigma.
Throughout the series, X and Zero battle against Sigma and his Maverick followers to stop their many diabolical plots to destroy the human race.

Series history
Capcom released Rockman X for the Super NES to give a new image to the Mega Man game series. There are a total of 11 games in the Rockman X series: Rockman X, X2, and X3 on the Super NES (with ports of X and X3 to the PC, and a Japan/Europe only port of X3 to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn), Rockman X4, X5, and X6 on the PlayStation (X4 also being on the Sega Saturn, as well as X4 and X5 being ported to the PC), Rockman X7 and X8 on the PlayStation 2, the RPG Rockman X: Command Mission on the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and Rockman X: CyberMission and Rockman X2: Soul Eraser on the Game Boy Color. The original Rockman X was remade on the PlayStation Portable as Rockman Maverick Hunter X.