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The Casio ROM
Pack system was a
method
of storing music
information, rather like modern-day MIDI files,
on
small, interchangable “cassettes” which plugged into a Casio keyboard,
a bit
like you might plug in a Flash memory card today.
The format first
appeared in 1983, and is similar in many respects to the Yamaha Playcard system, which appeared at
around the same time. Casio made a number of keyboard
models throughout the 1980s and early 1990s that accepted ROM Packs.
As well as just
listening to the music, ROM Pack keyboards had various training modes
to teach you to play the tunes, most using flashing LEDs above each key
to guide you - the precursor to the modern Key Lighting feature.
As
their name
suggests, they
were read-only – you could buy various ROM packs with various tunes
pre-loaded,
but you could not record your own data to the packs. Casio
did have
a writable equivalent – the “RAM Pack” – but it seems only a handful of
keyboards supported the writable packs, and the packs themselves are
extremely
rare.
What Keyboards
support ROM Packs?
The following
Casio keyboard models
support ROM Packs: PT-40, PT-50, PT-55,
PT-80, PT-82, PT-87, PT-180, PT-280,
PT-380,
PT-480,
MT-18, MT-28,
MT-85, MT-86,
MT-88, MT-800, MT-820, CT-810, CT-840,
SK-8, SK-8A
(This
is not a complete list).
The Casio DH-280
and DH-800
Digital Horns (Wind Synthesizers)
also
take
ROM
Packs.
The technology
was never licensed to any other manufacturer, but some ROM
Pack keyboards were sold under the Realistic
Concertmate brand in Tandy (UK) and Radio Shack (US) shops, but
these were simply rebadged Casio models.
I was recently informed that a company called Liwaco
(chiefly known for making hand-held LCD electronic games) also sold
re-badged Casio keyboards in France, and possibly elsewhere as well. A number of these Liwaco clones were ROM
Pack-compatible, and it appears that the ROM Packs themselves supplied
with them were also rebranded as "Liwaco
ROM," with a very different label design from Casio-branded
ROMs. See this
blog
post about Liwaco's Casio clones.
Other manufacturers may also have cloned ROM Pack keyboards. The
Russian company Electronica
cloned the Casio VL-1, naming it the IM-46, so
it seems likely they would have cloned other models as well, and there
could be many others.
What ROM Packs
were available?
I
have created a List of Known Casio ROM
Packs,
based
on
information
from
a
multitude
of
sources, some reliable, others not.
It's almost certainly not complete, and probably isn't very accurate,
but it gives an idea of the sort of music that was available on ROM
Packs.
The
most
common
ROM
pack
is
the
RO-551,
entitled
"World
Songs."
This contains four songs and seems to
be
the one Casio supplied with most of their ROM pack-compatible
keyboards, so there
are plenty of these around. Other ROM packs are actually quite scarce,
and usually only appear on eBay when bundled with a keyboard.
What does the
music sound like?
Different keyboard
models render the ROM Pack music differently, but there are some audio
examples on the List of Casio ROM Packs.
What's inside a
ROM Pack?
Surprisingly
little.
It's
just
one
IC
(presumably
a
PROM)
on
a
small PCB, with a couple of capacitors and a
contact strip. Most of the Pack is empty space. I think the pack was
probably designed to be this size so that Casio could fit all the stuff
required for the writable RAM Pack into the same package. The writable
packs didn't seem to catch on, so we're left with a ROM Pack that could
be roughly a quarter of the size it is. Of course, the marketing
department probably had a large say in the dimensions as well.
To
the
right
is
a
picture
of
a
dismantled
ROM
Pack so you can see for yourself (click the image for a high-resolution version).
This
particular
pack
(RO-551)
contains a Panasonic MN6404 IC, but other packs may contain
different ICs - I opened an RO-261 and found an OKI M5268. The PCB was
also much thinner, but otherwise identical.
I have not been able to find data
sheets for either of these ICs, and
the only information I can find on the system is in the SK-8 Service
Manual, and is very sketchy and leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Please
let me know if you can help.
Surprisingly
little.
It's
just
one
IC
(presumably
a
PROM)
on
a
small PCB, with a couple of capacitors and a
contact strip. Most of the Pack is empty space. I think the pack was
probably designed to be this size so that Casio could fit all the stuff
required for the writable RAM Pack into the same package. The writable
packs didn't seem to catch on, so we're left with a ROM Pack that could
be roughly a quarter of the size it is. Of course, the marketing
department probably had a large say in the dimensions as well.