Another strange MZ family member. At the moment, we have no information about it. It seems to be a "super MZ 80B" (that’s what the badge says, anyway), but we are not sure it was compatible with it.
To our knowledge, the MZ-2000 was never regularly exported outside Japan.
A "16 Bit Bord Kit" was sold in April 1983 to expand the 8-bit computer to a 16-bit system. Price: $327.
Junichi Katagiri from Japan adds:
Interesting about this model was that when it powered up, the user would
have to wait some time for BASIC to load from a cassette tape into RAM. (I
don't recall the version number) Loading was an automated process, which
took 1 to 2 minutes. If there wasn't correct install tape in the cassette
deck when it is powered on, the cassette player would open up asking for
proper install tape.
This was one of MZ-2000's unique features. (Personally
I thought this action was robotic and cool, extremely advanced in technology
at the time in my mind. Just to see the computer "ask" me to put the tape
into the player, I used to keep the tape out on purpose every time I
switched it on. My friends seemed to be impressed at the sight) And the
power switch was in the back of the unit, which I think was typical of
personal computers then.
Of course, computers did not have internal hard disc drives back then, so
whenever power is turned off the computer would lose all its data in memory.
Anything which wasn't recorded into tape is gone at that point.
I used to spend alot of time playing with music command in BASIC. MZ-2000
was capable of playing back maximum of three sound parts simultaneously.
(nothing more than plain old "beep" sound with pitch variations.) There
were, I think, three octaves of chromatic notes, which could be accessed by
codes like "C1D1E2+C2..." Compared to today's sound editors the method was
very clumsy for musicians to make use. I remember it challenged my patience
quite a bit. :)
(Editor's note: This comment also apply to the Sharp MZ-80B)
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
I became aware of these while looking for parts for my Sharp PC-7000. I think these early Sharp PCs are very underrated. They have such a great look to them. They''re quirky, but what PC from this era isn''t? The MZ 2000 looks great. I''d love to have one. It seems the tape drives have a pinch wheel that turns to goo over time, so I don''t know if it''s realistic to repair. Perhaps if someone can source the pinch wheel and doesn''t mind tearing down the entire mechanism. I wonder if these drives can be replaced with either a 5.25 floppy or something like a GoTek? It''d be great to see one of these running!
