Sharp MZ series
Getting started with game emulation
By Dave
Latest revision: 10.09.2010
Background
Sharp's foray into the home computer market included several machines that were biased towards business or simple home computing. The usual models that files can be found for are the MZ-80K, the MZ-80A, the MZ-700 and the MZ-800. The computers where popular in Japan for a long time.
All of these computers are started clean - i.e. only a simple monitor is present in memory, from which other programs can be loaded. This also includes the BASIC interpreter which came on a tape.
Sites of interest
sharpmz.org is the major Sharp site with some games on (though only a few IF) and other documents.
There's also the Sharp Users Club. This has a large range of PD and commercial software, but you'll need to pay to subscribe to the SUC to download any software.
Emulators
There are several different emulators that can be found, these can be found at sharpmz.org. Due to different levels of support for various features and complications with the BASIC interpreter, this tutorial will use Michael Franzen's Multisystem emulator (MZxEmu).
To start up the system, load the emulator and select the type of machine from the program list (MZ-700 will be used unless otherwise stated).
Games will generally be distributed in an .MZF format, emulating a tape.
Loading Machine Code games
Machine code games can usually be loaded directory from the Monitor program available at boot up. Start up the emulator, then select File->Load MC. Select the .mzf file from the load dialogue and then click on "Run MC" in the main MZxEmu window.
The game should load and run automatically.
Loading BASIC games
First load up the chosen machine. Then go to the MZxEmu main window and click on "BASIC", which'll load the BASIC interpreter into memory.
Now we can type:
LOAD
"PLAY" will be be returned on the screen, go back to the main window and click on the play button, select the file from the file dialogue box and the game should start loading. (Using SHIFT+F4 to switch the emulator into turbo mode may help here).
Once it's loaded you can now start the game:
RUN
If you're running MZ-80K games on an MZ-700 you may see the word "CONVERTING TEXT" followed by a selection of .'s. This is converting the game from MZ-80K to MZ-700 and (usually) works fine. Ironically I've had more success running MZ-80K games through an MZ-700 than an MZ-80K.
If you get the message "Memory Protection", then the file is trying to overwrite the BASIC interpreter. This usually means that the program is machine code.