Finally, after about six years of collecting, I got a Hitachi Basic Master series computer. It has a massive footprint, designed to have the monitor placed on top of it. It came in its original box, and it was shipped to me in another box (which I am thankful for!), so in order to play with it, I had to prepare to have three Basic Master-sized items out at the same time, which is no easy task in my environment. But there's no denying, it's a gorgeous machine!

The box was in pretty good shape for its age.

And in addition to the box, it came with a full set (I believe) of original accessories, including four manuals, one reference pocketbook, the CMT cable (which is different from most CMT cables of the day), and a system demo/utilities tape. This was all clean and without wrinkles or creases.

The machine booted up without a fuss and I was able to test the keyboard, run the system demo tape, and have a go at creating a mini spreadsheet using the system utilities. As the Mark5 had a built-in PCG, it was a pretty graphically capable system. It displays some dithering, so although it can only display 8 colors, they do a decent job of creating the illusion of a wider palette.

Games for this system are definitely on the rare side, and command quite a high price, even on auctions starting with a low opening bid. I picked up a couple, Marine Scramble and Super-B. They were of the simple-but-fun variety.