My first home computer was a MZ-80A and I still have it stored away. I think I must have bought it almost as soon as it came on the market because it has a very low serial number, 29 I seem to recall. In fact there is a database, containing extensive wiring information for another obscure piece of equipment in my collection, that I still need to transcribe from one of its tape cassettes some time. As I didn't have a printer to connect to the computer back then it's the only record of all the circuit tracing that I did on that equipment years ago. The BASIC provided with the MZ-80A was pretty slow so I bought a version of FORTH for it that was far faster and more efficient. Also the block based data storage used in FORTH was better suited to a cassette based machine than BASIC. In fact I wrote the database software entirely in FORTH.
A particular design flaw in the MZ-80A was the PLAY key on the cassette recorder. This needed significant pressure to move the mechanism into the play position and, being just plastic, the key would eventually break making the recorder unusable. I fixed this flaw by attaching a steel lever onto the key to operate the mechanism. Some years ago I visited the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park here in the UK. They have machines from all eras from a working replica of the famous WWII code-breaking machine COLOSSUS, originally in use at Bletchley Park during the war, up to early home computers that visitors can play with themselves. I noticed that their MZ-80A couldn't be used because ... yes ... its cassette recorder had a broken PLAY key.
