The Sanyo PHC-25 is a home computer released in Japan in 1982 by the electronics company Sanyo. PHC is an acronym for Personal Home Computer.
It is grouped with the lower-end PHC-10 and PHC-20 models which were announced at the same time, and with which it shares the same dimensions and styling.
The PHC-25 came with Sanyo Basic v1.3, an eighty instruction BASIC dialect. A few emulators exist for this system.
Distribution, marketing and reception
Japan
The PHC-25 was announced in Japan in mid-1982 with a price of ¥69,800.
France
The PHC-25 was announced in the French press alongside the PHC-20 and PHC-8000 in late 1982 for a planned launch in November or December to January at a price of 2200 FF.
There were complaints about the lack of software availability for the PHC-25. (In response to one of these, the magazine Votre Ordinateur estimated that there would have been around fifty software cassettes available in France circa early 1984.)
As of January 1984, Sanyo was still promoting the PHC-25 in France, with "planned extensions" including an 8K RAM expansion and floppy disk drives.
The PHC-28- which launched later that same year- was seen by Votre Ordinateur, as a replacement for the PHC-25, noting that its MSX compatibility would be a "guarantee of security for fans of the brand" who had complained about the PHC-25's lack of software.
The PHC-25 was used for some educational courses in France.
Cancelled launches
United Kingdom
It was announced in late 1982 that the PHC-25 would launch in the UK for £150 in January 1983, alongside the PHC-10 and PHC-20.
However, while all three made it as far as being reviewed in Your Computer magazine in October, the same publication later reported that they had "disappeared again in November", and there was no further sign of them on the UK market.
United States
The PHC-25 was presented in the US at the 1983 CES with a planned price of $199. However, Sanyo later decided against selling the PHC-25 there due to cutthroat price competition in the low-end US computer market at the time.
Technical specifications The PHC-25 had the following technical specifications: CPU: NEC D780C @ 4 MHz (compatible Zilog Z80A) Memory: 22 kB total RAM (16 kB user RAM plus 6 kB VRAM), 24K ROM Keyboard: 65 keys, 4 function keys, 4 arrow keys Graphics: Motorola 6847, 16 x 16 / 32 x 16 text; 64 x 48 (8 colors) / 128 x 192 (4 colors) / 256 x 192 (2 colors) graphics Sound: Optional (PSG-01 extension) I/O Ports: Cassette tape connector (DIN-8) Printer port (IEEE 1284/'Centronics') Video output: DIN-8 RGB video out, composite video out Expansion port
Character set The PCH-25 character generator offered a different character set to the default Motorola 6847 character set: 0123456789ABCDEF1π┴┬┤├┼│─┌┐└┘╳2!"#$%&'()* +, -./30123456789:;<=>?4@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO5PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_6abcdefghijklmno7pqrstuvwxyz{| }~8♠♥♣♦⚪︎⬤
Games
At least twenty games were released commercially for the PHC-25.
Name Year Publisher Alunissage 1983 Sanyo Attack 1983 Sanyo Bioastral 1983 Sanyo Blackjack 1983 Sanyo Cancer 1983 Sanyo Crash 1983 Sanyo Invasion 1983 Sanyo Jeu de l'espace 1983 Sanyo Jeu du pendu 1983 Sanyo Jeux de mots 1983 Sanyo La guerre du feu 1983 Sanyo Labyrinthe 1983 Sanyo Laser 1983 Sanyo Missile 1983 Sanyo Morpion 1983 Sanyo Packman 1983 Sanyo PMU 1983 Sanyo Raid aérien 1983 Sanyo Super Mind 1983 Sanyo Tirs 1983 Sanyo
Footnotes
References
External links
Sanyo PHC-25 at OldComputer.com - includes photographs and disassembly