Featuring a 4MHz Z80A-compatible processor and a 640x200-pixel, 8-color display, the PC-8801 was twice as fast as the PC-8001, with eight times as many pixels and up to four times as much RAM. However, the biggest selling point was its backwards compatibility with PC-8001 software, providing a smooth upgrade path for customers who had already bought into the NEC ecosystem. …

The PC-9800 series, commonly shortened to PC-98, is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 through 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and by 1999, more than 18 million PC-98 units had been sold. The first model, the PC-9801, was launched on October 1982, and employed an …