my PC-9821Cx2 "CanBe"
by quirble, last updated feb 3, 2025
🥫🐝 the can of bees
this is definitely a fun all-rounder machine, and it's got a lot of style which i really like. the Cx2 was part of the "98MULTi CanBe" lineup of PC-98 machines which served this doubleduty role as both regular Important Business computers as well as general multimedia use machines for the home - sort of like a competitor to the "FM TownsII Fresh" as well as other multimedia machines like this. because of that, the CanBe machines were sold with built in fax modems and TV tuner cards, built in 86-sound compatibility, and built in CD drives, among a bunch of other software and whatnot. Unfortunately my Cx2 doesn't have the remote that it was sold with when new.
i may be wrong about this but i think the case screw holes were for installing a CRT stand to give it a seamless pseudo-AIO appearance - and my unit is the S15T model which would have come with a 15-inch CRT. other machines in the CanBe lineup were full AIOs with non-removable 14 or 15 inch CRTs, which probably would have saved me some hassle trying to figure out a monitor situation but whatever.
test
i like this computer because it's so middle of the road that basically everything should work with it - it hasn't been optimized for Windows like the valuestar machines, but it isn't just a slow i386 thing. i threw YAHDI (basically the gold standard for PC-98 demonstration disk images) on it using a CF-IDE adapter, so i can demonstrate touhou or whatever, wahoo.
My 9801RA2 ｜ My 9801RA51 ｜ My 9821CX2 ｜ My 9821V166 ｜ other stuff