Casio PV-2000

The Casio PV-2000 (also marketed as “RakuGaki”) is a home computer manufactured by Casio, released in October 1983 exclusively in Japan at a price of 29,800 yen. It was Casio's attempt at the home computer market before fully committing to the MSX standard.

The PV-2000 uses a Z80-compatible NEC D780C CPU at 3.579 MHz, a TI TMS9918A video chip (256×192 resolution, 15 colors, 32 sprites), and a TI SN76489AN sound chip with 3 tone channels plus a noise channel. It features a built-in rubber membrane keyboard, two controller ports, a cartridge slot, and a cassette interface with built-in BASIC.

Despite being released alongside the Casio PV-1000, the two systems are completely different internally and their games are not compatible. The PV-1000 is a dedicated game console with a custom CPU, while the PV-2000 is a full home computer. However, PV-1000 joysticks do physically work on the PV-2000.

The PV-2000 is architecturally close to MSX1 machines (same CPU family, same TMS9918A video chip), but it is not MSX compatible — it uses a different sound chip and BIOS. Casio quickly moved on to producing actual MSX-compatible machines (PV-7, MX-10), effectively abandoning the PV-2000. Only 11 games were ever released, making it one of the most obscure gaming platforms from the early 1980s. The keyboard's membrane deteriorates over time, making working units in good condition exceptionally scarce.

This system scrapes metadata for the “pv2000” group(s) and loads the pv2000 set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

BIOS

MD5 checksum Share file path Description
bios/pv2000.zip PV-2000 BIOS ROM set

The pv2000.zip BIOS file must match the version of MAME used in your version of Batocera. You can verify your BIOS files from the Batocera menu: GAME SETTINGS > MISSING BIOS CHECK.

ROMs

Place your Casio PV-2000 ROMs in /userdata/roms/pv2000.

Software was distributed on cartridges (.bin) and cassette tapes (.cas). Only 11 commercial games were released:

  1. Excite Mahjong 2
  2. Exciting Jockey
  3. Front Line — arcade port
  4. Galaga — arcade port
  5. Mr. Packn — Pac-Man clone
  6. Pachinko UFO
  7. Pooyan — arcade port
  8. Rakugaki Special
  9. Roc'n Rope — arcade port
  10. Ski Command
  11. Super Cobra — arcade port

Emulators

MAME

MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is the primary emulator for the PV-2000. The MAME driver (pv2000) provides full emulation of the system.

RetroArch

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

libretro: MAME

The libretro version of MAME can be used to emulate the PV-2000. It uses the same BIOS and ROM sets as the standalone version.

Controls

The PV-2000 features a built-in rubber membrane keyboard and two controller ports. The controller ports are compatible with PV-1000 joysticks.

See also

  • Casio PV-1000 — Casio's dedicated game console, released alongside the PV-2000
  • MSX1 — the standard Casio adopted after abandoning the PV-2000
  • ColecoVision — uses the same TMS9918A video chip

Troubleshooting

Black screen on boot

Make sure the correct BIOS file (pv2000.zip) is in /userdata/bios/ and matches the MAME version used in Batocera. Use GAME SETTINGS > MISSING BIOS CHECK to verify.

Further troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/pv2000.txt
  • Last modified: 5 weeks ago
  • by wizzard