#PicoMZ
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timholyoake.uk
I'm not talented enough to write retrogames, but I'd never use an AI to make one for me. I can, just about, write emulators. I still can't believe that someone used AI to create a Sharp MZ emulator ... I've had lots of fun & learning creating PicoMZ the slow way over the last couple of years!
October 17, 2026 at 3:59 PM
timholyoake.uk
Finally back in Devon after the #RC2014 Assembly 2.0 yesterday. Thank you to Spencer & @tnmoc.bsky.social for hosting & organising, all the speakers & exhibitors, as well as everyone I talked with. I hope you had as much fun as I did and that the #PicoMZ was of interest! #RetroComputing #RetroGaming
My table at the RC2014 Assembly 2.0 at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, Saturday 26th September 2026. On the left is the Pico MZ running the game Painful Man. In the middle is an RC2014 configuration running CP/M. On the right is a real Sharp MZ-700, also running the Painful Man game.
September 27, 2026 at 12:56 PM
timholyoake.uk
#PicoMZ release 3.1.1 is now available. It fixes a couple of keyboard handling problems that were stopping some games from working properly.

z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-rele...

#RetroComputing
z80.timholyoake.uk
September 20, 2026 at 10:17 AM
timholyoake.uk
I see that someone has used #AI to create a Sharp MZ-700/MZ-80A emulator. Sigh. I can guarantee that my #PicoMZ emulator for the MZ-700, MZ-80K and MZ-80A is completely AI free, so all of the bugs are of my own devising 🤪
September 19, 2026 at 12:53 PM
timholyoake.uk
I do like fixing bugs by removing code 🙂 #PicoMZ #RetroComputing
September 18, 2026 at 6:01 PM
timholyoake.uk
Just finished testing my dual #PicoMZ and Sharp MZ-700 setup for the #RC2014 assembly 2.0 next weekend. All bits required are now safely boxed so that I don't forget anything (famous last words). Looking forward to it - I hope to see some of you there?
September 17, 2026 at 7:08 PM
timholyoake.uk
Today I've been beating the #PicoMZ at Reversi and Chess 🥳

#RetroComputing #RetroGaming
A completed Reversi board. I beat the computer 55 to 9. Checkmate. White wins against black in 16 moves after sacrificing a rook.
September 15, 2026 at 6:40 PM
lostinconsoles.bsky.social
The PicoMZ is such a fun little build.

Beating Reversi on it is no joke — that AI sneaks up on you.

What's your chess strategy on there?
September 15, 2026 at 7:03 PM
timholyoake.uk
#PicoMZ 3.1 has escaped! More about the latest release of my Sharp MZ-80K, MZ-80A and MZ-700 emulator for the #RaspberryPi Pico here:

z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-rele...

#RetroComputing
z80.timholyoake.uk
September 2, 2026 at 5:47 PM
timholyoake.uk
Spent a couple of days chasing a bug I'd assumed was in #PicoMZ but seems to be an issue with v2.3.0 of the #RaspberryPi Pico SDK. Reverting to SDK 2.2.0 makes my problem disappear. Something flaky in busy_wait_us() on the rp2040 platform? There's also a chance it could be hiding in TinyUSB. (1/3)
August 25, 2026 at 8:38 PM
thevowel.com
PicoMZ got my attention this morning (even though it’s the MZ-2000 that I love).
August 21, 2026 at 5:38 PM
timholyoake.uk
I've been trying to fix a "small" bug on the #PicoMZ. It meant going down into the rabbit hole of Sharp's amazingly inconsistent data tape handling. Bottom line: the 80K, 80A & 700 are all different, and even differ on the same m/c depending on the programming language! Such fun 🤪 #RetroComputing
August 21, 2026 at 3:52 PM
timholyoake.uk
Making progress with my next version of the #PicoMZ. Japanese graphics ROM implemented as an option for the MZ-700, some annoying keyboard bugs squashed, an upgrade to Pico SDK 2.3.0 being tested. There's more items on the todo list, but I'm aiming to release v3.1 later this month. #RetroComputing
August 17, 2026 at 7:40 PM
timholyoake.uk
New from me: Getting the #PicoMZ ready for the #RC2014 assembly 2.0

z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-at-t...
A Sharp MZ-700,. On top of it is a Pico MZ on a repurposed RC2014 RP2040 VGA Terminal card. There are also some Pico MZ 'business cards' with a QR code that takes you to the Pico MZ project pages.
August 7, 2026 at 3:26 PM
timholyoake.uk
Today was the first time I've touched my #PicoMZ project since last November! Fixed a bug that stopped SAVE from working that I'd introduced when tidying up the code just before the 3.0.0 release (and then didn't test that bit again, d'oh).
July 20, 2026 at 8:34 PM
timholyoake.uk
Easter is a movable feast. But how is the date of Easter Sunday calculated? #RetroComputing #BASIC #PicoMZ

z80.timholyoake.uk/happy-easter/
Happy Easter! – retrocomputing ephemera
z80.timholyoake.uk
April 4, 2026 at 1:11 PM
timholyoake.uk
It's escaped! The Pico MZ-700 is finally ready.

z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-700-...

#PicoMZ #Sharp #MZ700 #RetroComputing
The Pico MZ-700 vs a real MZ-700
November 30, 2025 at 11:26 AM
timholyoake.uk
Feeling confident!

#PicoMZ #Sharp #MZ700 #RetroComputing
The home page for the Pico MZ, announcing that the new version 3.0.0 which includes MZ-700 emulation will be released in November 2025.
November 29, 2025 at 5:16 PM
timholyoake.uk
8253 emulation rewritten and games that use the MZ-700 joystick now work with the keyboard (I haven't got around to emulating a joystick!!) Almost there - need to re-benchmark due to the nature of the changes I've made to the 8253 and 8255 code.

#RetroComputing #RetroGaming #Sharp #PicoMZ
The intro screen for ZAT SOFTs 1982 MZ-700 game "Painful Man", by Snail, running on the PicoMZ. The previous player scored 2690, the high score is 5000. There's a block graphics blue and yellow snail in the bottom left corner.
November 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
timholyoake.uk
Hmmm. A number of programs don't work correctly. The common denominator is that they can all use a joystick. My 8253 emulation needs extending to deal with this, as on the MZ-700 sound & joysticks share addresses. My good enough 80K/A kludge is no longer good enough!

#RetroComputing #Sharp #PicoMZ
November 25, 2025 at 9:34 PM
timholyoake.uk
Soldering iron now found, Pico 2 headers installed (probably the worst bit of soldering I've done in ages, but it works) and tuning done for the MZ-700 and MZ-80A. Just the MZ-80K to go. (1/2)

#RetroComputing #Sharp #PicoMZ #RaspberryPi
November 23, 2025 at 10:18 AM
timholyoake.uk
I think I may have found the weirdness in the keyboard handling today. Looks like I may need to rewrite my 8255 emulation as it could also be the root cause of my cursor blink speed issues. More investigation needed however. #RetroComputing #Sharp #MZ700 #PicoMZ
November 4, 2025 at 8:20 PM
timholyoake.uk
Running the emulator at 200MHz is a definite improvement - it's only 2 seconds slower than the real thing for the primes up to 10,000.

#RetroComputing #Sharp #MZ700 #PicoMZ
Emulator output on the left - 8m 36s for the primes below 10,000. Real machine output on the right- 8m 34s for the same task.
November 2, 2025 at 5:10 PM
timholyoake.uk
Sunday afternoon benchmarking session. A real MZ-700 vs my emulator. The emulator is currently 20% or so too fast when running on a 220MHz Pi Pico. Should be easy enough to slow down!!

#RetroComputing #PicoMZ #Sharp #MZ700
The screen for the Pico MZ-700 is on the left, above the real MZ-700. The output for the real machine is on the right. They're both running endless prime number calculations using the same BASIC program. The emulator is currently too fast!
November 2, 2025 at 4:32 PM
timholyoake.uk
Here we go again ...

#RetroComputing #Emulation #Sharp #MZ700
A screenshot showing the github picomz-80k repository with a newly created branch called mz-700-emulation - an autumn / winter project!
October 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM