Can't find much about this cart on the net.
Anybody got some more info or maybe a manual ?

The kana characters seem to indicate it is some kind of wordpro/printer interface. I think this may be Panasonic's ROM based wordprocessor with built in printer interface(why?) as an add-on for regular MSX2 computers.

I know it's a printer interface with build in word processor (found this on msxfaq's hardwarelist) but thats all.
There's place for two AAA size penlites which I think are used to power the SRAM.
There are also 2 switches. One on the left and one on the right.
One the left side there's also a plug hole.

interestiing piece of hardware...

As far as I can tell the first switch says: <something>sofuto (software) [Off] [On]
I guess this is to turn on/off the build-in wordprocessing software
The text to the right of the socket says Purinta (Printer) <something>
though this seems like quite a weird socket for a printer

The second switch says: Kanji ROM [Off] [On]

just my 2 bits worth

The printer is connected trough a 26 pin connector on top of the cartridge

Thanx Kanima for translating these weird characters, great job !
Like Kanima allready mentioned, the left switch (near the plug-in hole) is used to turn the software in the cartridge on/off.
Switch off -> normal bootup.
Switch on -> boots up with this startupscreen:

Choosing option 1 leads to this screen:

Choosing option 2 leads to this screen:

I can't read anything of the next options, so maybe someone (Kanima ) can translate some ?

The switch on the right is still a bit of a mystery. On a japanese msx I can't see any difference between on/off. When I put the cartridge in my europese 8250, I get blanks in the screen after the startup screen. Looks like this with switch off:


My guess is the switch chooses between the internal characterset of the computer and the characterset in rom of cartridge, but that european characters aren't recognized by the software.
Maybe it's a switch between Japanese and Kanji, but I can't tell the difference.
Anybody got another idea ?

Then there's still that plug-in hole one the left. Anybody got a clue what it's for ?
Here's a picture (taken from the Hardwarelist) with the complete set on it : cartridge, printer, power supply and 26 pin printercable. But no cable for the plug-in.

If you switch off the Kanji ROM, you will get no kanji on a European MSX. Quite simple right? A European MSX doesn't have those symbols in its ROM. Many Japanese MSXes do, so on those you will just see the characters from the kanji ROM from the MSX itself.

So, it's a switch to turn off the cartridges kanji ROM, so that you can use the one from the MSX.

So the switch isn't of much use on most japanese msxes because it won't make any difference if it's turned on or off, wright ?
It's just to make the software work with msx-types that don't have a kanji characterset.

Depends what characters are in your kanji ROM.... You might prefer those to the one in the FS-PW1 ROM.

Our alfabet is made up out of 26 characters, doesn't Kanji work the same way ?
Because if you look at the keyboard of a japanese msx, every key has a corresponding kanji symbol.
Why are there different Kanji roms ?
Is it something like our dialect ?
Or are there so many symbols, that it is impossible to get them all in one rom ?

What you see on a Japanese PC or MSX keyboard are not kanjis, but kanas.

Kanas are a simplified form of writing : each kana is a syllab.

Kanjis come from Chinese language, they exprim an idea.

msxrestarter: you'd better get a book on basic Japanese to get an idea Or read Wikipedia or so on it.

Just took my first Japanese lesson on www.japanese-online.com/

Think I'll be using Altavista's Babel Fish for a little longer though

So, I hope you know the difference between katakana, hiragana and kanji now