Epson MX-80

Oct 1980 · 9-pin head · 80 cps · tractor feed

Enter prints the line and feeds the paper. Pause typing for a moment and the printer prints what you have so far, then carries on from there.

    Printer music: like the hacked printers on YouTube, the firmware pulses the pins and the carriage stepper at each note's pitch, so the printout is nonsense but the machine sings. Notes look like C4/4, F#3/8. (dotted) or R/2 (rest); add tempo=120 or octave=-1. Load a MIDI file to play its melody line. Press Print.

    Supported commands
    \e \xHH \nnotation for ESC, any byte, and a new line (CR LF)
    CR LF FFcarriage return, line feed, form feed to the top of the next 11-inch page
    BS HT BELback one character, tab to the next 8-column stop, beep
    \x0e / \x14SO: double width for the rest of the line / DC4: cancel it
    \eW\x01 / \eW\x00double width on / off
    \x0f / \x12SI: condensed (132 columns) / DC2: cancel
    \eE / \eFemphasized on / off (each dot struck twice, half a dot apart, at half speed)
    \eG / \eHdouble-strike on / off (a second pass 1/216" lower)
    \e4 / \e5italic on / off
    \e-\x01 / \e-\x00underline on / off
    \e0 \e1 \e2line spacing 1/8", 7/72", 1/6"
    \eA n / \e3 nline spacing n/72" / n/216"
    \eK n1 n2 …bit-image graphics, 60 dots per inch, n1 + 256·n2 bytes, top bit = top pin
    \eL n1 n2 …bit-image graphics, 120 dots per inch
    \e@reset all modes

    Printer

    Paper and ribbon

    About this simulation

    The character shapes are original, drawn in the MX-80 style on a 9-pin grid. They are not Epson's character ROM. The printer understands the text, spacing and bit-image commands listed under ESC/P (the MX-80 with its Graftrax 80 upgrade). Anything else prints as a marked ? and is reported, rather than guessed.

    Timing is approximate: about 80 characters per second, printing in both directions, with emphasized text at half speed. The sounds are synthesized live from the same events that place the dots, not recorded. The paper, ink and plastic aging are invented models of the look of old printouts.

    The Music tab is not something a stock MX-80 can do: its pins only fire on the column grid, far too coarse for a melody. It simulates the firmware hacks of printer-music hobbyists, who pulse the pin solenoids and the carriage stepper at each note's frequency. The built-in tunes are public domain.