Sharp MZ-80C

Sharp | 1979 | Z80A @ 4MHz | 48KB RAM | Monochrome CRT


The Sharp MZ-80C is one of my more-loved computers. It's internally simple, a basic Z80-based system with a text-only monochrome output and an integrated cassette recorder for data storage, and externally quite the pretty little box.
I've had almost no issues with my personal unit. I did rebuild my power supply using modern switching boxes as I read some people online say that the old supplies are known to rap out and go up in smoke. A word of warning, be careful when adjusting the monitor controls as the're directly attached to the exposed high-voltage board!

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There's a little homebrew scene for the system, Sharpworks has put out a few games you can buy on tape, and it's quite charming to say the least. Some homebrew hardware has also been made, I would highly recommend checking out the MZ-80K SD project which lets you use common components to get your MZ-80K/C and MZ-700 reading files from SD cards.


I recently got my hands on the "MZ-80MCR", a (to the best I can tell) 1980s Scantron device for JIS-spec bubble forms. The main rubber feeder rollers were exposed to the elements and degraded but everything else seems clean! I think the rollers (tires) are supposed to have 10mm inner diameter with a 17mm outer diameter, maybe only 16.5mm, but I won't know until I try sourcing replacements and seeing if I can feed papers. I hope to pull the i8039 inside and dump its code to somewhere like archive.org quite soon.

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