Its OS was MS-DOS and was also equipped with a spreadsheet program Maruchipuran (Multiplan) and a text editor JS-WORD as well as the game Lode Runner.

The development was operated by NEC Electronic Device Business Group, ASCII (Microsoft dealer in Japan) and Cybernet Kogyo, a subsidiary of Kyocera.

For comparison, the Nintendo Family Computer released in July of the same year was only ¥14,800 and the vaunted Apple Lisa 2 sold for ¥2.2 million.

The Electronic Device Business Group launched the PC-8001 in 1979, making NEC the biggest PC vendor in Japan.

[4] By 1983, the Japanese personal computer industry grew greatly, and its distribution network became complex.