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2022-06-14 - Sharp MZ-2500 Dubbed the “Super Computer”, the MZ-2500 commands a fairly high price, so I had to wait for just the right circumstances. I found a junk one at a somewhat reasonable price, and it worked just well enough to give me a flavor of what it has to offer… enough to confirm that I wanted a fully-working one. I grabbed another one that was also junk, and between the two, I was able to get a fully working one, which my friend has since recapped and helped to future-proof. continued ⇒ |
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2022-02-13 - Pasopia7 RF/Composite Converter I’ve picked up a few Pasopia7s recently and two of them included this item. It converts digital RGB to RF or composite video signal. This isn’t the only one; I have one from Hitachi but it’s positively huge and requires a separate power adapter, which I don’t have. I also have one for the PC-6001mkIISR, which I will do a write-up of later, because that serves a special purpose. continued ⇒ |
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2022-01-27 - Pasopia7 Treasures If it seems I’m on a Pasopia7 kick recently, you’re right! It’s one of my recent favorites. I asked one of my friends who has a large collection, including many Pasopia7 games, if he had the manuals, and somewhat surprisingly to me, he didn’t. And then a few days later, this showed up on Mercari: continued ⇒ |
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2022-01-24 - Pasopia7 Color Palette Toshiba’s Pasopia7 displays over digital RGB, as was typical for Japanese machines of that era. Most of them were limited to 8 colors. The PC-6001mkII and its later siblings boasted 15 colors with the right monitor. But the Pasopia7 claimed 27 colors on *any* (digital RGB) monitor. You won’t see all 27 on the screen at the same time, but they’re in there across the array of images below if you care to count them. continued ⇒ |
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2021-12-30 - Toshiba Pasopia7 Toshiba was not one of the top players in the Japanese computer industry in the 80s. They started with the Pasopia, and later they introduced their second-generation 8-bit machine, the Pasopia7, neither gaining widespread adoption. They continued with their 16-bit offering – the J-3100 – but that was tightly connected to the contemporary IBM PC architecture, and while it had its own modest software library, it can, in fact, boot a Windows 98 boot disk and launch DOS software. continued ⇒ |
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2021-11-23 - SMC-777C I had been looking with curiosity at the SMC-777 series from afar, interested in the machine but not interested in the price. And then one day, on Mercari, I happened to find an SMC-777C for 10000 yen! For this machine, that’s a steal. So I bought it. continued ⇒ |
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2021-10-17 - PC-8001 A legend in the history of Japanese computing. This machine is built like a tank with its metal exterior giving it quite a bit of weight. It doesn’t try to be fancy but its simple and clean aesthetic is charming. continued ⇒ |
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2021-10-09 - NEC PC-8801FH I’ve seen this around on Yahoo Auctions occasionally. It commands a much higher price than it’s beige sibling. It certainly looks cool, I think the only PC-8801 model to have a black version (or anything besides beige, for that matter). If you manage to find one as a set of keyboard and system, it’s very expensive, and if you find only the keyboard or the system, there’s no telling how long it might take to get the complementary item, and it could potentially be more expensive anyway. continued ⇒ |
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2021-07-25 - PC-TV151 I’ve got so many computers that either require or look best over digital RGB but only one monitor that supports it. If anything happens to that monitor, I can’t (optimally) use many of these machines. I decided to mitigate the risk by replacing one of my other monitors with this one. Nice and crisp text output, although photos come out slightly blurry due to the front glass cover. continued ⇒ |
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2021-07-12 - MZ-700 Briefcase A company called ACE made a suitcase specifically for the MZ-700. It came in a beautiful burgundy color, fits perfectly around the MZ-700, and has the MZ-series logo on the case. continued ⇒ |
| 八 ビ ッ ト hachibitto |