MPF1 board emulator

The Micro-Professor MPF-1 was introduced by Multitech in 1981 and it was Multitech's first computer product and probably one of the world's longest selling single board computers. Multitech changed its name to Acer in 1987. The MPF-1 was based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor and designed specifically to teach the fundamentals of machine code and assembly language. The MPF-1 doesn't look like a standard microcomputer board, it comes in a plastic book that folds out into two parts, along with two audio cassettes and a training manual. When closed, the MPF-1 can be placed on a bookshelf for easy storage which made it more attractive as it was easy to store. There are still quite a few MPF-1 boards for sale and you see them regularly on auction and marketplace websites. I haven't owned an MPF-1 myself, but I've read a lot about it and secretly hoped I could get one someday. In the end I wrote a full implementation of an MPF-1 emulator including the old keyboard and seven segment displays. Regards, Hein Pragt.

Copyright

I respect copyright and I will not distribute illegal software. But this program includes the MPF1 rom, and the zip file includes some old programs and documents that still might be copyrighted. BUT in my opinion the copyright was from 40 to 45 years ago, these products have not been on the market for a lot of years and I think that no one would not care if someone was using a 40 year old file on their own Windows 10 machines. I do not ask any money for this package and the main goal is to keep the old spirit alive. If anyone can identify him or herself as a legal copyright owner and has problems with the distribution I will remove that content. But I seriously believe there is no one to object to distributing these old artifacts as freeware. My program itself is closed source but freeware.

What is inside this emulator

This emulator emulates a standard MPF1b, but the rom is in the subdirectory and you could replace it if you like. It uses the old display that is also emulated and the on screen keyboard acts like the original keyboard of the MPF1. In this version there is no sound support, I will add this in the future. Its has full memory expansion and emulates all the hardware components.

You can load and save programs in hex or binary format using the top menu. Press the go button to execute the program. When loading and saving the program will prompt for start and end adressed, this will require some knowledge of the memory map of the MPF1 board.

This is a so called portable program, you do not need to install it. Just download the zip file and unpack it on an logical location on your disk. I have all my portable application in a top directory “portapps”. There is a win64 and a win32 version of the emulator, both are digitally signed for your safety. There is also a directory containing the rom and example programs I collected, with sourcecode and hex files.

Download x64 (and x32) version 1.01 of MPF1 emulator (2023)

My retro computing webshop

Heinpragt.nl is a webshop dedicated to retro computer parts, retro electronic components and chips and other items that have a connection with old retro computers. It is a small webshop run by myself and I also try to give some more information about retro computers and electronics. The webshop only ships to countries that have a affordable shipping rate and a payment method available.
Retro computing webshop