Today we talk about this Philips NMS 8280: a vintage computer that I bought back in 2021, when I went away to buy a huge batch of computers!
The Philips NMS 8280 computer
The Philips NMS8280 is a 1987 computer, with Z80 microprocessor, compliant with the MSX2 standard. In fact, it is strange that in 1987 they could still build computers with the Z80, an 8 -bit processor, when there were processors such as Motorola 68000, which was used for example in the Amiga, and was at 16 bits or 32 bits (dependent on the 68000 processor version). Or, even, the Intel 386, which had already been on the market for a couple of annects.
However, this computer had its own reason to exist, as it was mainly used as a video editor and titler.
In the lot I purchased there is the computer, keyboard, mouse, some manuals and software.
Features of the Philips NMS 8280
The Philips NMS 8280 computer is equipped 256 KB of RAM (of which 128 KB available for the user and 128 KB of video memory) and 64 KB of ROMs.
The graphics have a depth of 512 colors and a resolution of up to 512 x 212 pixels. The model I have in my collection has two built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drives.
Posteriorly, the computer shows up with a number of audio/video doors higher than traditional computers. In fact, there are also audio/video entrances for the digitization of the image and for the superimpression of the titles.
Computer test
In the video, I try to turn on the computer. It works very well, really. I also tried to write a simple program in BASIC.
Despite this, I encountered some difficulties in using the software. A Video Graphics floppy disk is not read from either drive on your computer. Other software works correctly. For example, in the video I try to boot the OperaSoft desk system, which runs under MSX DOS.
Also, with little success, I try to draw with Designer Plus, a drawing software that I absolutely do not know how to use!
What is positively amazed at the Philips NMS8280 is the speed of loading software. Just click on the corresponding icon and the software is loaded in a few moments!
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