Category Archives: MZ-80A

Sharp MX-80A

IMG_20150210_184457251The Sharp MZ-80A is an all-in-one machine that’s of a style that was not unusual in the early 1980’s. Think Commodore PET, Intertec SuperBrain. Televideo TS-802 and 803. Even the humble Amstrad PCW range.

The screen Measures approximately 9″ diagonally and has a clear plastic plate in front of it. This is rather reflective as you can see in the above photo. The keyboard is full sized and the keys have a good degree of travel. There is also a number pad on the right.

A cassette recorder is built into the case along side the monitor and to its right. This records at 1200 baud (approx 120 characters per second).

IMG_20150210_184516815At the rear of the machine there is a figure 8 mains socket and rocker switch for power, the brightness and contrast knobs and a reset button.

Additional ports such as Centronics parallel and RS-232 serial are lacking though I believe they were available as an option. There is certainly space inside the case and the main board has an expansion connector heading off into the empty space at the back.

Rather unusually, it doesn’t have a resident BASIC interpreter. Instead there is a monitor ROM with very few commands and BASIC and other languages were available on cassette tape and loaded in as required.