The Sharp MZ 700 series replaced the aging MZ 80 (MZ 80K, MZ 80A and MZ 80B) series. Moreover, the MZ 700 was compatible with the MZ 80K and MZ 80A.
The MZ 700 series is composed of four machines: the first three models were launched in 1983 (November 1982 in Japan) and the last one was launched in late 1985 (in fact, this one is the "ancestor" of the MZ 800):
- the MZ 711 was the "naked" model (without any peripheral),
- the MZ 721, has an integrated tape recorder
- the MZ 731, has built-in plotter and tape recorder).
- the fourth model was the MZ 780 which was actually a MZ 731 with a 80 columns card, a floppy disk drive and a Centronics port. It worked under CP/M.
There was no language in ROM (the ROM size is only 2 KB, it is just used for boot and OS calls), it has to be loaded from tape. So there was a lot of languages adapted for this machine (more than five versions of BASIC, assemblers, Pascal, Lisp, C, Fortran, Comal, Forth, & others).
The games were a bit poor because of the low resolution (which was actually graphical characters), but there were 512 graphic characters in ROM, which can be used to offset it (sort of).
Re: Christopher Davies not wanting to press EXEC - it reminds me of my friend and I, typing in a game from a magazine on his BBC. We got the error $Type Mismatch at line 4000 or something. So we replaced line 4000 with: 4000 Mismatch. Took ages for the $Syntax Error at line 4000 to pop up! But we thought it was progress! LOL!
Sunday 4th July 2010
John Whitworth
This was my first computer that my famely bought when I was 5. So I have spent meny hour playing games on this machine. I still have it, and one game also. wonder if it works!!
Sunday 6th July 2008
Anders (Norway)
This was my first computer. It took ages to boot as basic had to be loaded from tape. I spent ages typing in basic programs which used charictor based graphics. It was given to me for my birthday and when it said press EXEC I would not press it as i thought it ment delete or kill what I had just spent hours typing in.
Saturday 30th September 2006
Christopher Davies (UK)
NAME
MZ 700
MANUFACTURER
Sharp
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
1983
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None - Monitor in ROM
KEYBOARD
Full stroke 69 key with 5 function keys and 4 cursor keys
CPU
Sharp LH-0080 (Zilog Z80 A compatible)
SPEED
4 MHz
RAM
64 KB
VRAM
2 KB
ROM
2 KB
TEXT MODES
40 x 25
GRAPHIC MODES
50 x 80
COLORS
8
SOUND
one channel, 3 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT
44 (W) x 30.5 (D) x 8.5 (H)
I/O PORTS
Parallel, Joystick (2), Z80 Bus, Tape, RGB
BUILT IN MEDIA
Tape recorder
OS
optional CP/M with FDD
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in power supply unit (5V)
PRICE
About 533 (1983) for the MZ 721 £250 (MZ-711) £420 (MZ-731)
This computer was my first computer. A gift from my grand-father for Christmas 1983. I already use it from times to times. I choosed it rather than a C64 because I thought then it was nicer (that is obviously right). Despite its poor features, I was (and still am ;-) convinced it was the best computer ever done !
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(1983) for the MZ 721
