Sharp PA-8500: Part 1

The Sharp PA-8500 was an expandable electronic organiser for the Japanese market. I bought it when I was in Japan on student exchange in December 1989. I found it again when scratching around for something else - thought it might be of some interest. It’s a good little machine - I was still using it ten years later when I was living in Finland in 1998-2000. I bought new batteries for it today and it came straight to life - no issues at all. The screen is a little dark but that’s just because I couldn’t remember how to adjust the contrast, otherwise there appear to be no issues with the LCD at all. And ... it seems to be quite happy with a 2023 date! I have three “IC Cards“ (ROM software) for it: a scientific calculator, a Japanese - English dictionary/phrase book and a Kanji dictionary. The Kanji dictionary was awesome for the time. You could get other types of IC Cards, including games (Tetris!) & BASIC. There was one small issue with the IC Cards. The original Sharp PA-7000 had a “two-line“ (Kanji capable) screen so this is what IC Cards were designed for. My PA-8500 has a four-line screen but the IC Cards that I have (bought with the machine) only support two lines so you unfortunately don’t get the full benefit of the PA-8500’s larger screen with these original IC Cards. No doubt IC Cards did come out later that supported the whole screen, and other form factors - I have found some on Yahoo Japan auctions so will try them out in Part 2 when they arrive. There is an excellent discussion of these machines here: