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PC-9801 M

From NEC Retro

(Redirected from PC-9801 M2)
PC9801M logo.png
PC9801M2.jpg
PC-9801 M
Manufacturer: NEC
Release Date RRP Code
PC-9801 M
JP
¥ ?

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The PC-9801 M

Hardware

The PC-9801 M is thought to have been released in response to Fujitsu's FM-16β computer, which promised high density (2HD) 5¼-inch floppy disk support (formatted to 1MB). At the time, the PC-9801 F and PC-9801 E could only handle double-density (2DD) disks formatted to 640KB, so the main selling point of the M was to include 2HD drives as standard.

However, the M was not as successful in the marketplace as the F, as while the drives could read and write 2HD disks, they were incompatible with 2DD disks, thus breaking compatibility with earlier PC-9801 machines. The FM-16β it was competing with struggled for different reasons, namely including CP/M as its operating system of choice rather than the then-more popular MS-DOS.

In addition, the PC-9801 M has double the amount of RAM (256kB vs. 128kB) of the PC-9801 F. Two models were sold; the launch model F2 with two disk drives, and the later F3 which swapped one drive for a 20MB hard drive.

Different disk formats was enough to split the PC-9801 software market, and in many cases led to both F and M versions of games.

Technical Specifications

List of games

Gallery

Promotional material

References



PC-9800 series hardware
PC-9801 (1982) | PC-9801 F (E) (1983) | M (1984)

V30 Computers: U | VF | VM | UV | CV (1985-1988)
286 Computers: VX | UX | RX | DX | UR | UF | FX (1986-1992)
386 Computers: RA | RS | ES | DA | DS | CS | FS | US (1988-1992)
486+ Computers: FA | BX | BA | BX2 | BS2 | BA2 | BA3 | BX4 (1993-1995)

stuff
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