1. Caps lock can be toggled by keeping a key pushed. eg when I hold the K key, the characters are entered like kKkKkKkKk... and if the last character is k the CAPS is on, and K is entered next time I push the K key. Conversely if the last character was K then CAPS is off and k will be entered next.
There are other combinations besides > + / to toggle kana. Actually when I hit the keys randomly all the weird things like F* BASIC commands (color/auto/list...) are entered.
As has been pointed out the keys themselves are the luxurious mechanical keys.
2. Following PSUs worked. c. causes the AN7805 regulator to warm up quite fast.
a. Nominally and actually (voltmeter reading) 9 V Mooer Power Bank S10 2 ampere b. Nominally 7.6 V actually 11.5 V Twin Famicom UADP-0041CEZZ 1.25 ampere c. Nominally 10 V actually 13.5 V Megadrive 2 SA-190A 850 mA d. 9 Volt PP3 battery (it really works!)
3. Things that are not obvious from the photos: Most of the decorations - NIKKO PERSONAL COMPUTER PC-70100 RAM 32K ROM 32 K, NIKKO logo, BASIC SYSTEM & orange and green bars above it - are adhered tapes but the green/orange/green bars between F5 and STOP are the painted concavities. That part gives the impression someone retrofitted a battery compartment lid or something but is really an integral part of the casing.
The lower casing is not a reused FS-A1 either because the where that joystick port 2 is usually there is too flawless to have been closed manually.
4. System roms (will disappear)
Does it boot in screen 1 (like Japanese MSX1) or screen 0 (like European MSX1) ?
SCREEN 1.
So, I guess the border color is slightly different from the usual 7, if I refer to your pictures.
Probably Toshiba T6950 difference - see http://bifi.msxnet.org/paledit/?t=2&d=palette
It looks the border is 7 because when I execute COLOR 15,4,7 the color there does not change... then I realized the strange thing. Color 14, 15, 10 and 11 all look same. Why!? edit: I posted Commando titlethat is too whiter than normal.
Maybe related to the usage aimed for this machine, but as it has remained a prototype, it's difficult to know why the colors have been altered.
Some questions, sorry if some of these have been explained before, I didn't have time to read all 7 pages of the thread...
- does it have a locking GRAPH key and/or KANA key?
- is the keyboard JIS or 50ON?
- does the keyboard have ghosting protection for SHIFT/GRAPH/CTRL?
- do we have any idea whether that slot connector on the back maps to MSX slot 2 or 3?
- only one joystick connector, right?
- is there any release year indication?
@Takamichi, please check this thread for instructions on how to dump more information about this machine, like the color palette, keyboard ghosting, etc.
Works also on my openMSX. Character set is almost same as Japanese MSX. Only one is missing. CHR$(&H7E) return nothing.
- do we have any idea whether that slot connector on the back maps to MSX slot 2 or 3?
- only one joystick connector, right?
See the wiki.
I forgot to say the CAPS LOCK was fixed at the pushed position. I figured that was causing the strange keyboard behaviors so I pulled it back (photo). Now strange entries don’t happen. It means there is NO kana or code on PC-70100 and I discovered the workaround by mishap.
CAPS + < + / combination is same as kana/code on any MSX and happens on emulator too. Mashing keys while holding CAPS cause many strange entries. I remember seeing a list of such irregular MSX key combinations as solutions for broken keys.
PC-70100’s slot opening is distanced unusually high (photo 1 2) from the bottom therefore many cartridges with protrusions get stuck there and cannot be inserted. It must have provoked a recall if PC-70100 was sold.
Some questions, sorry if some of these have been explained before, I didn't have time to read all 7 pages of the thread...
- does it have a locking GRAPH key and/or KANA key?
- is the keyboard JIS or 50ON?
- does the keyboard have ghosting protection for SHIFT/GRAPH/CTRL?
- do we have any idea whether that slot connector on the back maps to MSX slot 2 or 3?
- only one joystick connector, right?
- is there any release year indication?
- GRAPH does not lock, like on any MSX. There's no KANA key but the kana mode activated by workaround keys stays like all other MSX with the KANA key.
- JIS. JIS/50on selection switch is unfindable. The "JP"s here can be the switches though I don’t want to tamper them and am not even sure they are switches.
- Character entered when I push / key while holding these keys;
CTRL+SHIFT: ? SHIFT+GRAPH: Spade symbol (82H) CTRL+GRAPH: / All three: ?
But if I push 8 key:
SHIFT+CTRL: () SHIFT+GRAPH: Space then horizontal bar (graphic character 57H) CTRL+GRAPH: 8 All three: ()=
This is "ghosting" isn’t it?
- What is “that slot connector on the back”? I cannot find anything other than slot 1 nor any unused terminal for additional slot.
- Yes. There isn’t any special joystick like MX-10.
- No. I deduced it to 1988 or later out of Pentarou’s finding one chip was released in 1988. Perhaps “DFKF00397C” on the label here with a defaced character below "C" (might be Custom implying an FS-A1 case specially customized by Panasonic) on the bottom plate expresses a date, though it might not be a serial but the model number like DFWV75C0009 for the Panasonic drive belt or DFWVFSA1WX for the FS-A1GT cover.