Sharp MZ-700

The Sharp MZ-700 is a home computer manufactured by Sharp, released in November 1982 in Japan and 1983 in Europe. It is the successor to the MZ-80K line and the first Sharp MZ computer without a built-in CRT monitor, adopting a flat keyboard-unit design that connected to an external TV or monitor, making it significantly cheaper and more portable than its predecessors.

The MZ-700 features a Sharp LH0080A (Z80A-compatible) CPU at 3.55 MHz, 64 KB RAM, and a 40×25 character text display with 8 colors — introducing color output to the MZ-80K line for the first time. There is no true bitmap graphics mode; all “graphics” are achieved through block/semigraphic characters in the character generator ROM, giving an effective pseudo-graphics resolution of 80×50 pixels. Sound is a basic 1-bit beeper via an 8253 timer. Storage is via a built-in 1200-baud cassette interface.

Like all MZ series computers, the MZ-700 follows the “clean computer” philosophy — only a minimal monitor program (IPL) in ROM. BASIC and other languages must be loaded from cassette or disk.

Model variants:

• MZ-711 — base unit (keyboard only, no cassette, no plotter)
• MZ-721 — keyboard + built-in cassette deck
• MZ-731 — keyboard + built-in cassette deck + built-in 4-color plotter printer (a tiny pen plotter using four miniature ballpoint pens — a unique feature for a home computer of this era)

The MZ-700 maintains strong backwards compatibility with the MZ-80K series, sharing the same memory map layout and cassette format. In the UK, the MZ-700 was the 10th best-selling home computer in 1983, praised for its build quality and reliable cassette loading.

This system scrapes metadata for the “mz700” group(s) and loads the mz700 set from the currently selected theme, if available.