Two years in the making, the Panasonic JR-200 computer was officially announced in January of 1983, with additional launch dates provided for the computer and peripherals. The JR-200u received early and strong support from two software publishing companies; Data-Most and Walt Disney Telecommunications.
Having the support of both of these companies, especially Data-Most, was crucial in Panasonic's strategy to successfully market this computer, as well as it's plans to have 30 software titles available by the official launch in the spring of 1983. Additionally, Panasonic planned for an additional 24 titles to become available by mid-summer of 1983 by consulting with other software developers.
From the start, the Panasonic JR-200u was never meant to be a cartridge based machine. Panasonic had other plans for a cartridge based system which never materialized. Initially, software was to be developed first on cassette tapes, and later floppy disks.
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.).
The Service Manual is now available at Vintage Volts. All in all, a lot more has been discovered about the machine. My current guess is that the CPU runs at 1.366 MHz.
Hello, I want to let enthusiasts know that there is currently a mint Panasonic JR-200U listed on eBay by user ID seattlegoodwill. They are very reputable and seem to always have a good stock of "old computers." Save it from the landfill! Lance
Sunday 17th November 2013
Lance Lindell (United States)
I''ve been trying to hack the JR-200UP for some time now and have discovered a thing or two (the technical manual WOULD have been a nice addition...) See the findings here: http://www.kameli.net/marq/?page_id$1270
Friday 16th March 2012
Marq (Helsinki, Finland)
NAME
JR-200U
MANUFACTURER
Panasonic
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
January 1983
END OF PRODUCTION
1984
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
JR Basic 5.0
KEYBOARD
Chicklet keyboard with basic statements printed on the keys, 64 keys
CPU
MN 1800A (6802 compatible)
SPEED
Unknown
CO-PROCESSOR
MN1544
RAM
36kb (32k + 2k for graphic characters + 2k VRAM)
VRAM
2 kb
ROM
16 kb
TEXT MODES
32 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES
64 x 48
COLORS
8
SOUND
3 voices, 5 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT
348 × 208 × 56 mm / 1,7 Kg
I/O PORTS
Composite video out, RF video out, RGB video out, Expansion bus, Tape (600/2400 bauds), RS-232c/printer port, External speaker
