 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Released in 1984, the Sharp MZ‑800 was an advanced Z80-based home computer from Japan. It was primarily sold in Europe, especially in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the UK, as a successor to the MZ‑700 series. Unlike many competitors, the MZ‑800 did not have BASIC in ROM. Instead, it booted into a simple monitor program, and the user would load BASIC or other operating systems (such as CP/M) from cassette, Quick Disk, or floppy disk – depending on the model. This allowed for flexibility but resulted in longer startup times. The MZ‑800 was backward compatible with earlier MZ machines (MZ‑700 and MZ‑80K) and featured several improvements, including 64 KB of RAM, 16 KB of video RAM, color graphics (320×200 in 4 colors or 640×200 in monochrome), a programmable character ROM, and a 3-channel sound chip (PSG). Several model variations existed: MZ‑811: base model MZ‑821: with built-in cassette recorder (the one in my collection) MZ‑831: with cassette and either a built-in plotter or Quick Disk drive | |||||