website/content/museum/sharp-mz-800-mz-1500.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Sharp MZ 800 - MZ 1500	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1984	Zilog Z80 A	name image company company_name specs tabs photos adverts hardware screenshots emulators links comments related oc_id source MZ 800 - MZ 1500 /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz800_1.jpg /companies/sharp Sharp label value NAME MZ 800 - MZ 1500 label value MANUFACTURER Sharp label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR October 1984 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 70 keys with 5 function keys, editing & arrow keys label value CPU Zilog Z80 A label value SPEED 3.5 MHz label value RAM 64 KB label value VRAM 16 KB (up to 32 KB) label value ROM 16 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 x 25 / 80 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 - Hardware vertical scrolling accelerator label value COLORS 4 (320 x 200 and 16 if extended VRAM), 2 (640 x 200 and 4 if extended VRAM) label value SOUND 3 channels, 6 octaves + white noise generator label value SIZE / WEIGHT 44 (W) x 30.5 (D) x 10.9 (H) cm. / 4.3 Kg. label value I/O PORTS Centronics, Joystick (2), Z80 Bus, Tape, RGB label value BUILT IN MEDIA Tape recorder label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU label value PERIPHERALS Quick-Disc unit, external single or dual FDD unit photos adverts hardware software emulators links title subtitle text image MZ 1500 USER MANUAL /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz1500_user.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-800 /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz800_2.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1500 Notice the QDD (Quick Disk Drive) instead of the tape-recorder. /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz1500_1.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1500 IN USE /media/museum/photos/mz1500.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1500 (FRONT) /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz1500_3.jpg title subtitle text image MZ 1500 (TOP) /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz1500_2.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1500 (REAR) /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz1500_rear.jpg title subtitle text image BOX /media/museum/photos/sharp_mz800_box_1.jpg title subtitle text image JAPANESE AD /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz1500_pub1.jpg title subtitle text image JAPANESE AD /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz1500_pub2.jpg title subtitle text image GERMAN LEAFLET #1 "The Personal Computer MZ-811 is a class of itself. Its infinite applications mark it." Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org** /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz800_germanad_1.jpg title subtitle text image GERMAN LEAFLET #2 Preliminary/New product leaflet. For exhibitions only "The new Personal Computer from SHARP - particularly developed for personal use." Note the optional Quick Disc drive. Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org** /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz800_germanad_2.jpg title subtitle text image GERMAN LEAFLET #3 "There music puts in it" Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org** /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz800_germanad_3.jpg title subtitle text image GERMAN LEAFLET #4 Courtesy of **www.sharpmz.org** /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz800_germanad_4.jpg title subtitle text image JAPANESE AD An advertising for the MZ 1500 (with the Quick Disk drive) in a Japanese magazine. /media/museum/pubs/mz-1500.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH PICTURE (APRIL 1987) This picture was used for promoting Educatel, a French private computing school. /media/museum/pubs/sharp_mz800_prm-pic_1.jpg title subtitle text image DOUBLE FLOPPY DISK DRIVE /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_fdd_1.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1U05 BOX /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_1u05.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1U05 EXPANSION BOX - VIEW #1 The MZ-1U05 expansion box fits directly in the rear of the MZ 800 case. It provides 4 card connectors. /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_io1.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1U05 EXPANSION BOX - VIEW #2 /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_io2.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1F11 QDD BOX /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_qdd_box.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-1F11 QUICK DISK DRIVE The Quick Disk Drive uses 2.8" sequential floppy disks (64 Kb, two sides). The whole disk is read in about 9 seconds.\ It was, contrary to the MZ 1500 (the japanese version of the MZ 800), an an optional device.\ The QDD came with an enhanced version of the S-Basic (Sharp basic) to handle sequential files & directory. It can be used as a way to backup the RAM Disk card (a 64 KB RAM used only to store data).\ The QDD can be connected also to a Sharp MZ 700, the interface card on the photo is the MZ 700 interface card. /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz800_fdd.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH FDD UNIT Instead of selling the original Sharp FDD unit, the Sharp French subsidiary (Sharp Burotype Machines) preferred to made their own unit. The case could hold up to 4 drives. The drives were Canon models. /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz80b_frenchfdd_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MZ 80P3 - DOT MATRIX PRINTER /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz80k_printer.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-P4 PRINTER /media/museum/hardware/sharp_printer_80b.jpg title subtitle text image MZ-P6 PRINTER /media/museum/hardware/sharp_mz80_gp6.jpg title subtitle text image BASIC INTERPRETER /media/museum/software/sharp_mz1500_basic_ss.jpg title subtitle text image FEIZER II /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_feizerii.jpg title subtitle text image FLAPPY /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_flappy.jpg title subtitle text image KNIGHT /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_knight.jpg title subtitle text image PACMAN /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_pacman.jpg title subtitle text image SPARROW /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_sparrow.jpg title subtitle text image TENNIS /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_tennis.jpg title subtitle text image THUNDER FORCE /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_thunder_force2.jpg title subtitle text image BURNIN RUBBER /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_burnin_rubber.jpg title subtitle text image DEVIL LAND /media/museum/software/sharp_mz800_devil_land.jpg title url platform text EMUZ-2000 http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~object/ Windows SHARP MZ-80B / 2000 / 2200 emulator for Windows title url platform text MZ-800 Emulator page http://mz-800.aktualne.cz/ Windows MZ-800 emulator for Win 9x/Me/2000/NT title url platform text Zdenek Adler's MZ-800 Emulator page http://mz-800.xf.cz/ Windows MZ-800 emulator for Windows title url platform text Sharp MZ 800 Emulator Pages http://www.math.uni-magdeburg.de/~mkoeppe/mz800/mz800.html Other platform title url platform text UMZE Project Site http://umze.nfo.sk Other platform MZ-800's Java emulator title url text MZ 800 Arjan Habin's Hompage http://home.wanadoo.nl/neptunes/ title url text MZ-800 Retro museum http://www.wagemann.li/subpages/mz800/ A new German web site (in English) dedicated to the MZ-800 title url text SHARP download centrum http://sharp.wz.cz/ For downloading MZF files (now Czech only) title url text Sharp Games http://sharpgames.atspace.com Some homebrew games in develoment for the MZ title url text Sharp MZ-800 website http://mz-800.xf.cz Czech sharp mz-800 comunity title url text The Sharp Users Club http://sharpusersclub.org Very useful web site done by the UK Sharp Users Club title url text www.sharpmz.org http://www.sharpmz.org THE website for all MZ fans !! author date text UmSchu (Germany) Wednesday 1st October 2014 @ian forshaw (uk): Correction - this are 2.8" Magnetic-Floppies author date text UmSchu (Germany) Friday 26th September 2014 @ian forshaw (uk): After 10 years my answer - i have 10 pieces 2,8" Disk author date text youkan (Japan) Thursday 30th June 2011 It is misunderstanding that MZ-800 and MZ-1500 are almost identical. MZ-1500 is not just a Japanese version of MZ-800. They are both based on MZ-700 architecture but differently extended. MZ-1500 does not have 640x200/320x200 bitmap screen but has 8-color PCG screen (1024 PCGs consist 320x200 screen). MZ-1500 has two SN76489 while MZ-800 has one. Etc. You would easily understand it if you look at the motherboard of them. author date text Speedy-san (Netherlands) Monday 9th May 2011 This was my very first real computer... what a great machine it was. The graphics were comparable to those on the Spectrum, but a bit more advanced I think. I have fond memories of the MZ-800 Basic, with its simple graphics commands (CIRCLE, BOX, PAINT). There were a few good games out for this machine at the time too, some that spring to mind are Zexas, Advoka, and Head Driver. The machine was quite big and heavy as I remember it, probably because of the extensive metal RF shielding on the inside, and the built-to-last tape drive. Audio wasn''t played through the TV''s speaker, but through an inbuilt speaker and was quite simple, like a PC''s beeper. author date text ian forshaw (uk) Wednesday 26th May 2004 Can anybody tell me where to obtain quick disk 2.8" author date text lord (garvaland) Wednesday 14th January 2004 does anyone have old mz-700/800 game called firefox?! could you please give me a link or send it? i desperately need it! thanks. /museum/sharp-mz-2000 /museum/sharp-mz-2200 /museum/sharp-mz-2500 /museum/sharp-mz-2800 /museum/sharp-mz-3500 /museum/sharp-mz-5500-5600 /museum/sharp-mz-700 /museum/sharp-mz-80a-mz-1200 /museum/sharp-mz-80b /museum/sharp-mz-80c /museum/sharp-mz-80k 208 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230606140754/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=208 2023-06-06

The sharp MZ 800 was the successor of the MZ 780. It was partially compatible with the 700 series and the old MZ 80K series as well.

It was sold under three reference numbers:
• MZ-811 without tape drive,
• MZ-821 with built-in 1200-baud tape drive,
• MZ-831 with tape drive and built-in 4-colour printer-plotter.

The Tape drive could be substituted for a Quick-disk drive unit. The Quick-Disc was a small 2.8-inch disk with sequential access.

Like the MZ 700, there was no language in ROM, it had to be loaded from tape, quick disk or floppy disk. The ROM only contained boot code, OS calls and special code to allow the user to use the 64 KB RAM as a virtual disk.

A single or double 5.25" disk drive could be connected to the MZ 800. It then worked under a special version of CP/M called P-CP/M. Some great products like Wordstar, dBase II and Multiplan were adapted to it. Under CP/M, it was possible to read multiple disk formats from the 360 KB (Sharp format) to the 720 KB (CP/M IBM PC format).

The MZ 800 was sold in Japan under the name SHARP MZ 1500. The MZ 1500 had the same characteristics except its black case, a built-in Quick-Disc drive and a slighty different graphic video management.